What an Ash Tree Looks Like

One of the commenters on  Locallygrownnorthfield.org, a community Web site where I live, noted that while she has seen lots of pictures of Emerald Ash Borers, she has not seen any of an ash tree. Good point! Ash are commonly used trees in Minnesota, so many people have them in their yards. The photo at [...]

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Summer Salad

My vegetable garden is like a jungle these days, but it’s yielding some wonderful produce, including parts of this delicious two-bean salad I made recently. I had some leftover green beans and a tomato from the Northfield Farmers’ Market and a half a Vidalia onion from Just Food Co-op. From my garden, I picked a [...]

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The Right Kind of Rain

After a long dry spell (less than half an inch of rain in Northfield between June 20 and July 20), we’re getting a nice gentle rain this morning. Not torrential. Not lashed about by wind. Not a dribbly, teaser rain. A steady, plant-quenching, garden-reviving, pond- and river-filling rain. Here’s hoping it lasts all day.
Update: About [...]

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Pie Time!

Earlier this week, the cherries on my ‘Bali’ cherry tree looked like rubies; they were shiny, lush, bright red and definitely ready for picking. So after removing the layers of netting that kept the birds off the tree, I got to work picking. When positively ripe, ‘Bali’ cherries come off easily, and I pitted most [...]

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Bee Magnet

I like to plant flowers that attract wildlife to the yard: bees, birds, butterflies. Seeing butterflies dance on top of a coneflower or watching a bird as it works diligently to remove a seed from a dried sunflower increases my appreciation for nature and — not to sound too sappy — life itself. So, discovering [...]

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No Joke Sunflowers

I planted these cheery sunflowers because my teenage daughter loved the name — The Joker. (She’s an admirer of the late Heath Ledger.) But now that they are blooming, I can see they are more than a fancy name. Helianthus annuus ‘The Joker’ grows up to 7 feet tall (mine are about 5 now), and [...]

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Lessons from the Masters

The Hennepin County Master Gardeners held a garden tour today and, despite my poor navigational skills in South Minneapolis (what can I say? I come from the east side of the Twin Cities), I managed to hit four of the 10 gardens. It was well worth all the missed turns. Each of the gardens had [...]

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Cherry Pie, Here I Come

I’ve gotten a few inquiries from the neighbors lately about what might be wrong with my cherry tree, since it’s covered up with a strange wrapping that looks like a cross between a bonnet and a shroud. Nothing’s wrong — I’m just protecting the tree from the many roving birds in our yard. This is [...]

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Bee Condo, Year 2: Return of the Leafcutters

I had been lamenting that the bee condo I built last year would go unoccupied this year, but I was surprised yesterday to discover that a swarm of leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.) had moved in. Leafcutters are native bees in the western U.S. and important pollinators. They build nests in soft wood, looking for spots [...]

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Mexican Hat and Black-eyed Susan Vine

Because I edit a garden magazine, I’m constantly tempted by new plants — whether they are new on the market or just new to me. This year, I’ve planted two “new to me” plants that have brightened up different spots in the garden.
On the front porch, I put a Black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata) in [...]

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