Spring in Minnesota

As promised, I ventured out to the greenhouse with my phone today to grab a few pictures of the seedlings. On my way through the snow... yes snowy wintery mix fell all day yesterday here in grand ol' Minnesota, I found this columbine covered in water droplets. I love the colors of new columbine foliage.! As it varies from species to species, quite a few of the varieties I grow have a purple tone like this one here, and also the newest leaves look like a sweet potato color... pretty perfect.

I also admired my own handy work. I made these leaf bird baths from hand last year, and the water looks so gorgeous in them, especially on the table my husband made. Yay! He was about to scrap this huge chunk of metal when I nabbed it for my gazing ball. My son scored the raccoon for free at a yard sale last year.

Okay, so here we are in the greenhouse! It was 38 outside, and 50 inside the greenhouse. I don't have a heater in there, so with temps regularly dipping in the mid thirties I've experimented with bringing several strands of lights that keep warm-  so far it has worked to keep temps about 10 degrees higher. Seedlings here are stock "katz mix", Mexican feather grass, and blue bachelors buttons.  

Here are some of the tomatoes.  

I have two kinds of black eyed susan vines this year, blushing Susie and Spanish eyes. I've just transplanted the to large pots and included a little teepee for them to cling to.  Beside it you will find lettuce and cats grass.

Just a few days ago I planted all of the profusion zinnia seeds. I ordered them offline, and love giving them a little head start. I won't be transplanting them for two more weeks, weather permitting.  

 

I have transplanted some things that germinated in the basement into the greenhouse, including: basil, true lavender, rosemary, peppers, black eyed susan vine, stock, Mexican feather grass, eggplant and tomatoes. For my own record keeping purposes, and perhaps your curiousity, I'll include a list of seeds that germinated in the unheated greenhouse so far (note: I'm seeing new germinations every day, despite the cool temps overnight and the highs in the greenhouse reaching less than 50 for a few days): Mexican feather grass, lettuce, cabbage, kale, radicchio, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cat grass, borage, calendula, Spanish lavender, tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, several varieties of basil, marjoram, true hyssop, hollyhock, zinnia, bachelors buttons, snapdragon, cleome, aster, lobelia, painted daisy, foxglove, and more...

 

 One more outside picture- taken from the back window. I have never seen this kind of bird at my feeders, so I had to get a shot of it for ID purposes. My neighbor and friends tell me its a brown thrasher. I thought it might be, based on my bird book, but I so frequently get the bird IDs wrong!

 

Happy gardening! 

Still waiting on a spring day...

This has been such a cold April. Record setting. The weather stat nerd in me is sort of enjoying it... We should have an average high of almost 60 right now, and we are still buried in snow- and still have more forecasted. We had a handful of days that teetered on 50, and were able to crack the house windows, but mostly, we've been in snow gear and coats and hovering around 40. I am happy each inch that falls puts a dent in the drought records, too. Last year was horrifically dry, and we need this moisture so much. I'm also excited that scientifically, these late cold temps are going to affect the bug population (less spiders and mosquitoes).

I've had to fulfill the need to get my hands in the dirt indoors and in my unheated greenhouse. In the greenhouse, as of yesterday (before last nights record low of 18-20F), I've had great success with lettuce and peas, as well as snapdragons, delphiniums, foxgloves, sweet william, blue fescue, hare's tail grass, hollyhock, carrots, penstemon and even some lily bulbs. In the house I've been potting and repotting houseplants, and finally getting grow lights on a shelf for seedlings (very fun!). I have delphinium, hollyhock, french lavender, carnation, coleus, rudbeckia, and snapdragon seeds, as well as caladium, fern, and dahlia tubers. Our living space is filled to the brim with houseplants & various plants for the garden I am planting at Jux99. I even tried cat grass for the kitties... my boys planted the seeds, and they sprouted under the lights very fast- we moved them into the entry hall on a dresser where the cats could find it, and it was chewed down by the next day. I added more seeds, and they've started sprouting, too.

I have also been making a huge batch or two of hypertufa everyday. I've started having pieces cured completely, just in time for the wholesale orders of hardy succulents to arrive at my door. I will selling the hypertufa (both empty and planted with sedum & sempervivum) in 2 weeks at Juxtaposition 99 here in Buffalo, MN. I was hoping to have this aspect of my contribution to the sale done a month ago, but the weather wasn't very cooperative and I'm limited on space-that huge greenhouse I dream about hasn't fallen out of the sky yet, go figure. I am hoping people can visualize how wonderful these little guys will looks when they begin multiplying. :) We know how hens and chicks do!

 

My kids have wasted no time indoors when they could be outside playing in the heavy wet spring snow. During and after shoveling the foot that feel this week I took a few pictures.

The temps are warm enough that the snow is melting fast, and running down our street in a tiny trickling creek. A nice sight!

See the snow went to the top of my rain boots!

 

My kids and dogs:

 

I heard a friend of a friends's facebook status was, "Go home, winter. You're drunk." Hysterical!

Fabulous "Winter" Storm

Well folks, it's still snowing on us up here in ol' lower Canada.

Kidding of course, I'm in Buffalo, MN. But it is indeed a record setting April for snowfall, as we are slated to pick up 8 more inches with the storm currently overhead. The snow from last weeks storm wasn't gone yet. Snow picture included here us from this morning, and several inches have accumulated since. I'm hoping we have a nice wet year-way too dry last year!

My hardy succulent orders have begun arriving, and I started tucking them into some of the hypertufa that's fully cured. Love how its looking- still a ways to go to fill in, but with the cold spring even the hardy succulents at the nursery were still semi-dormant. I will be selling hypertufa with hardy succulents at the juxtaposition 99 sale here in Buffalo this May 2, 3, and 4th.

 

Also getting ready to have some fresh lettuce soon. Glad those seedlings are going strong!
Lots more germinations in the unheated greenhouse, including delphinium, foxglove, blue fescue, hare's tail grass, sweet William, snapdragons, peas, hollyhock, and more. Will share pics of those hopeful little sprouts soon.

Happy gardening!

Aquilegia from Winter Sowing

Back in the winter of 2010 I tried my first winter sowing in milk jugs in the backyard. I was thrilled to see how well it works, and grew tons of poppies and columbine (and more). I had tried columbine for years with sort of blah results. The waiting for winter stratification took so long, and often the seed would get lost from crutters, etc. But winter sowing? I had a milk jug full of seedlings ready for transplant. Well they don't bloom the first season, so when we moved I made rom for every one year old seedling I could fit, and finally I am able to see the fruits of my labor. Boy, am I excited!!! A long wait, but well worth it!! Look at all the spectacular blooms!

And this isn't even all of them! I have some more just opening up, too. Pretty awesome! The best part? I winter sowed more the next year, and they should be blooming next season!

Foxgloves really do reseed!

Since I began gardening on my own about 10 years ago I have read countless books and magazine articles that say foxgloves reseed. In 2004 when we bought our home I picked up some foxglove seeds and direct sowed them to find not a single germination. False hope came when fuzzy leaves of what turned out to be black eyed susan erupted everywhere... but nary a foxglove.

Year two, I bought a plant from Home Depot and watched it bloom only to vanish by the followsing spring. I got down on my hands and knees looking for seedlings for two years- nothing.

Year three, I thought, my naive logic, perhaps a better quality plant from the nursery would do the trick. I was partly right. I tried two, a small yellow foxglove, and a tall pink Camelot variety. The yellow ones has returned brilliantly for years like a true perennial, and never disappoints, but it's also never re-seeded.

I know it happens... I drove past a garden in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin that showed proof that foxgloves can naturalize- either that, or the owner had cottage style planting down to a science.

Before you start thinking I'm a dummy- I let the flowers go to seed. I leave the seed heads on the plants all through winter- I even grab one or two and sprinkle them into the surrounding dirt. Nada.

About my 4th year in this house I started planting perennial seeds during the growing season in used nursery pots on a sidewalk by the veggie bed. I tended to them throughout spring and summer, and planted them in late July to give them time to root well before the onslaught of winter. I decided to give foxgloves from seed another try that year, and I had a few germinations- and 3 or 4 healthy plants grow to be planted. I must have spent hours loooking at the fuzzy leaves hoping they weren't stray black-eyed susans. I knew they wouldn't flower the first year, but I planted them in the ground in 3-4 very different loactions, and waited.

Spring the following year- they were still there! Growth began early, and blooms came shortly after. I couldn't have been more tickled.

I spent hours laying on the grass watching the bees shove their fat butts up the bells of the foxgloves flowers. Needless to say, I quickly picked up another seed packet and started some more varieties on the sidewalk in the used nursery pots, and did the same thing. Last summer those bloomed, and surprisingly, the ones from the previous year did also, again.

This is what I had been waiting for:

But not until this spring I have ever seen a foxglove reseed. I was out browsing the garden last night, making 2 dozen or so piles of leaves as I removed the winter cover and thatch from the lawns and beds. I knelt down in a particularly messy part of the back bad, where lysimachia, lamb's ear, black eyed susan (the kind with dark leathery leaves, not fuzzy), and iris are all meshing too closely, and found one returning foxglove- right where I left her... but she had a circle of babies. 6 or so. Tiny, all around her at varying distances. Not wanting overcrowding to get the best of the babies I snatched a few of them out of the dirt and potted them up. They will be adventuring to Minnesota with me later this spring.

Foxgloves really do reseed!

Nasturiums

Last spring I posted about my obsession with nasturiums, but I never shared pictures of how all the seeds turned out.
'Papaya Cream' with 'Sweet Dreams' Coreopsis.



'Lipstick' nasturuim skirting the walkway.

'Strawberries and Cream'

'Alaska'

'Empress of India'

'Mahagony'

Happy gardening!