Ranter to Speak on ‘Wicked Plants’

Amy Stewart, part of the team at Garden Rant and author of the bestselling Flower Confidential, will be talking about her new book, Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities at the College of St. Catherine, Jeanne d’Arc Auditorium, Thursday, May 7, beginning at 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Minnesota State Horticultural [...]

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Getting Excited about Native Plants

Native plant guru Lynn Steiner spoke to  a packed room at the Friends of the Northfield Library annual meeting last night and I’m pretty sure everyone who attended left the event very excited about planting more natives.  Lynn has a real passion for native plants and she makes a persuasive case for using them: Native [...]

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When the Question is Soil, the Answer is Compost

Last week, a reader commented on the post on Best Bets for Beginning Vegetable Gardeners that she wanted to start a garden but her lot was very sandy. This reader lives in Sherburne County, just north of the Twin Cities, which is known for its sandy soils. I faced a similar dilemma when we first [...]

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Snow Blooms

I went outside to take photos of this morning’s short-lived snow fall and what to my wandering eyes should appear but blooms! The squill (Scilla siberica) in my front yard has started blooming. There are not many blooms yet — and they looked a little chilly this morning, but I’m not complaining. My neighbor’s crocus [...]

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