Just recently, my friend Billy was excited to tell me about eating daylilies. You can add baby shoots to stir fry, stuff the flowers and cook them up much like squash flowers, or prepare the roots like a potato! I never knew, and now I will look unto these little gems as more than a [...]
I have to say, nasturtiums are a personal favorite with their circular lily pad leaves. This year’s blooms are almost neon! Best grown by seed, they like full sun and average dry soil; they can clump, trail, or vine dependent on the variety you plant; and they’re edible with a great peppery taste. If you’ve [...]
Yarrow, a perennial zones 3-9, likes poor to average soil and full sun. It comes in white, pink, purple, red, and yellow. Adding yarrow to a container eases your watering schedule, since it benefits from the drying out of soil. A butterfly magnet and a great attractant for beneficial bugs, Yarrow also aids in the [...]
It seems that the color just keeps coming. My containers are beginning to fill out, the summer blooms of coreopsis, rudbeckia, and daylily are starting to open. Enjoy!
New vegetable gardener, Emily, sent me a few pictures with a note of concern about zucchini shading out her onions and beans. This will happen, and it’s time to prune. Pruning allows for air circulation, helping prevent mildew, a common issue with squash. The plant can be cut back 1/3 to it’s main vine. This [...]
I met up with Karen to get a second story view of her garden. Like many homes in Chicago, she and Matt share the yard with their downstairs neighbors, Rick and Lindsey. When the two brothers, Matt and Rick, bought the two flat, it came fully landscaped with map included. It’s more of a holding [...]
Mint can be invasive if not kept in check. I pull out all of my mint after the first frost, and it keeps coming back, just small. I know several folks who have bought homes with crazy amounts of mint growing in the yard. The best thing to do is keep pulling, smoother with cardboard, [...]
Visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. You won’t be disappointed. Part of the University of Minnesota, it is home to wild and landscaped gardens alike. With 12.5 miles of trails, there’s hardly enough time in one visit. My family and I walked through the gardens closest to the main building, and then drove the 3 mile [...]
I love the Lyn-Lake area of Minneapolis. Every block has homes with vegetable gardens and flowers to boot. A great neighborhood with a food co-op, several art galleries, coffee shops, cafes, bike trail, and bowling alley. Why not spend an afternoon?
You never know when, but all the sudden unforeseen nature. This past weekend, my brother and I left the garden for about 10 minutes to come out to half of the kale gone! Then after a little trip to Minnesota for 3 days, I came back to even more missing. This creature, I’m assuming of [...]