Fall lawn care


Wed. Sep. 7, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Fall lawn care

Fall lawn care includes several to-do’s

Dethatching, aerating, reseeding and/or fertilizing. As you know, I’m not much on lawns, BUT, I know many folks still are. So this Garden Bite is for you.

Thatch is that brownish looking layer of dead tissue between the green grass and the soil.

 

If left alone, thatch can eventually kill your lawn.

Renting a mechanical dethatcher, also called a power rake, is the best and easiest way to  … [Continue reading]

Jumping worm update 2022


Tue. Sep. 6, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Jumping worm update 2022

I first talked about jumping worms in 2020 after the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources sent out an urgent message. It’s 2022 and they continue to jump their way into our gardens, destroying the soil. A friend of mine in St. Paul said she just doesn’t bother now, the destruction is that bad! YIKES! (photo below is someone else’s garden in St. Paul from a Star Tribune article from 2021)

Jumping worms, first known

 … [Continue reading]

Labor Day 2022


Mon. Sep. 5, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Labor Day 2022

 Happy Labor day 2022.

Today we pay tribute to the contributions American workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

That, according to the Department of Labor. 

As for worker plants, well, let me tell you who to salute and, possibly select, for your own gardens.

As most of you know, topping MY list are native grasses. I have many but the next two are the latest planted! 

Perennial Butterfly  … [Continue reading]

Allium for the win!


Fri. Sep. 2, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Allium for the win!

Allium are members of the onion family and as such, they are not a preferred snack for deer and rabbits!

Their flowers are mostly in the round pom-pom form, but they can be star-shaped, cup-shaped, semi-circular, or pendulous. Their color can be white, yellow, pink, purple or blue. Heights vary as do bloom times. 

Best grown in full sun, they will tolerate some light shade. They are also drought tolerant, something MY area could  … [Continue reading]

Adaptive gardening 2022


Thu. Sep. 1, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Adaptive gardening 2022

I had hip replacement surgery in October of 2021. I highly recommend it! The gardening season last year was quite painful. But I’m back, only in a slightly different way. I use some of the Adaptive gardening methods I point out today.  

Gardeners don’t retire, we adapt!

I’ve talked before on enabling gardens, today is about adapting our way of gardening to match our abilities as we get older, since what we could do  … [Continue reading]

Annuals for Fall


Wed. Aug. 31, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Annuals for Fall

Flowering kale, grass, millet and mums! A perennial for good measure

Fall flowers thrive in cooler temperatures with blooms that sometimes last well after the first frost.

There are two kinds of mums for those of us in cold climates. Annuals and perennials hardy to zone 4. The University of Minnesota came out with the Mammoth mum series. They’re lovely. There is also a zone 5 hardy mum, that series is named Igloo. Be  … [Continue reading]

Planting garlic – time to order


Tue. Aug. 30, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Planting garlic – time to order

If you want to plant garlic, you’d better start ordering your bulbs or finding them at local nursery centers now to get what you want.

For those of us in cold climates, we plant our garlic in October…

and look forward to our harvesting in late July/early August. That does NOT mean we eat it then. The cloves need to be cured. 

I planted garlic for the first time in 2020 and  … [Continue reading]

Fall is for planting trees/shrubs


Mon. Aug. 29, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Fall is for planting trees/shrubs

Fall is a great time to plant trees and shrubs. The air is cooler but the soil is still warm and there’s plenty of time for roots to establish themselves before the bitter cold comes in.

When choosing your trees, don’t focus on planting bigger trees unless you really want that height immediately.

It’s easier on the plants (and your back) to purchase smaller ones. Think about what you want from that tree  … [Continue reading]

Porcelain Berry – August weed of the month


Fri. Aug. 26, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Porcelain Berry – August weed of the month

It’s really quite pretty, as many weeds are.

August Weed of the Month from the MN Dept. of Agriculture. Another vine, this one is named Porcelain Berry. 

A member of the grape family, porcelain berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) is a fast-growing,  deciduous, woody vine growing upwards of 25 feet long. In Minnesota, it is listed as a Restricted Noxious Weed meaning it cannot be sold, propagated, transported, or  … [Continue reading]

Wild Cucumber is back – 2022 style


Thu. Aug. 25, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Wild cucumber is back – 2022 style

Wild Cucumber is back…

although not as abundantly as last year. Which seems to be the case for many of our plants.

This vine is usually covering fields, trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers along nearly every rural road through Minnesota, Wisconsin and parts east, west and south!

Wild cucumber is generally overlooked until it has overtaken the  plants it is growing on.

This vining annual in the cucumber or gourd family (Cucurbitaceae)  … [Continue reading]