While riding my bike yesterday morning on the way to retrieve a car that has been in storage all winter, I was stopped short by a splash of color on a corner lot.
A friendly fellow named Pete was out tending his tulips. He told me in lightly accented English that he was from the Netherlands, and that gardening is something he does as a gift to share with the community, including lucky passers-by like me.
He was examining the beds. Some late-blooming tulips were mixed in with a few of the earlies, which is not a fatal flaw, but it means with a little bit of shuffling bulbs around, things could work better next year. Pete likes everything to be timed properly, just like the producer of a fireworks show wants to create amazing crescendos.
Also, once the petals fall, it’s tough to remember exactly which color is planted where, so it’s smart to take notes and make adjustments.
He showed me his map of the layout. I admire anyone who is a careful planner.
I felt lucky to have the chance to stop for a look at Pete’s garden – now that I’ve got the car back I’m much less likely to happen down a random street. In this case, a random street with an appropriate name – NE Summer St.
The calendar says we’re deep into Spring. Where have you seen the proof?
Trail Baboon 
Well, you couldn’t tell Spring is here by the temperatures, but the garden is bursting out of the ground. The hops plants are a good 2 feet tall and trying to climb up the deck. The tulips are blooming and the hyacinths are finishing their bloom. There are also lots of newborn calves frolicking in the pastures. My husband says the winter has been so long he doesn’t even remember what Spring looks like. He says at least there is no ice anywhere. On of our elderly neighbors has started his obsessive work on his front lawn, so perhaps he’s the best clue we have that Spring is really here. Goof morning to you all. Off very early this morning to a conference in Bismarck.
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what is the name of your hops variety, Renee, that you can grow them in zone 3?? we so want to grow hops here.
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We grow Cascade and Nugget. I was surprised that they grow here, but we mulched them really well the first winter, and now they seem to be pretty reliable. They are susceptible to spider mites and this year we will spray for them as our hops last year couldn’t be used because of the little pests. My husband gives the hops to his barber, who will brew some beer for us.
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My husband recommends Jungs as a supplier. You might even be able to get some now.
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He also says to plant them in a south facing location.
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thanks! duly noted! and will try to get some yet this spring.
got my Jungs’ order already, unfortunately. but can always order again. 🙂
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Lovely photos, Dale. There is a house about 5 blocks away that the dogs and I pass often (on purpose) who also have a gorgeous spring garden. It’s so beautiful that I often have to just stop for a few minutes every monring just to take it in.
Besides that, the surest sign of spring at our house is that yesterday the hammock came out of storage in the garage and got good use in the late afternoon after several tortuous hours of yardwork and grass cutting. I actually had to cut the grass twice, once on the very highest level and then again at the regular level, to avoid choking the mower and having the rake!
Steve… while I was testing out the hammock, I saw a beautiful yellow bird with dark wings and a spot of black on it’s head on the finch feedder. Could that have been a goldfinch? Now that I have these feeders and am seeing birds, I suppose I’d better get a bird book — any suggestions?
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yup – goldfinch. hammocks are great birdwatching places!
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I’m sure you are right. There are birds with yellow on them, but a nearly solid yellow bird with a dark spot on the head is surely a goldfinch. Aren’t they lovely? I don’t like huge bird books that have so many exotic possibilities that they are heavy and confusing to use. There is a little one by Stan Tekiela that is good for beginners: Birds of Minnesota. Really, the best thing is to find a partner who is good at birds. They’ll teach you how to use songs to located birds.
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I’ve loved this one as a beginner, because all the birds are local, and you don’t have to wade through so much that isn’t. That said, after you get going, a comprehensive one like Peterson’s is nice for distinguishing details and exact identification..
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One of the best bird guide books, and the one I use, is Roger Tory Peterson’s guide to the birds of Eastern and Cental North America.
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I second the Roger Tory Peterson guidebook advice. It’s comprehensive and easy to use, a must have for a birder.
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up here in Blackhoof my rule is that when the Bobolinks arrive, summer is here. two males singing in the old cherry tree last night – one trying to outdo the other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKmgkz7lQhk
beautiful day – beautiful bird
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That was beautiful, BiB… thanks!
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Great description of the bird song, Barb!
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Lovely, Barb. A feast for the eyes and ears. Thanks.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
Yesterday allowed for a little basking-in-the-sun time. I hung out my laundry on the clothes line for the first time this season, then putzed in the yard and garden. Sheets flapping in the wind are a sure sign of Spring. It is also a comfort. As a child I used to hang out laundry with my mother and grandmother. I almost feel Grandma’s presence when I do that.
The front garden looks a bit like Dale’s picture with not so many tulips. We have some orange tulips that bloom with vigor each spring. Last fall I planted a space that had been newly dug up with more tulips. They are not so vigorous this spring because it is the first year, but next year they will be a sight. Little violets, my favorite, are sprinkled everywhere, too.
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Forgot to add that the peepers in the wetland near my house are singing.
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The plum trees in the orchard are in bloom. They’re showing the apples how it’s done.
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i like that phrase, B-A “they show the apples how it’s done.” 🙂
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My Forsythia bushes have been in full bloom for a couple weeks…through the cold and wind…first time they have bloomed in such abundance since I planted them 20 or so years ago. My daffodils and scillia have also outdone themselves this spring. I credit the rains last fall, lots of snow and rain this spring.
The honey bees are bringing in pollen — and have been every chance they got since early April. Where they find pollen so early…hmmm…perhaps the pussy willows? All I know is if it’s out there, they will find it.
Mowed grass yesterday. Sure sign we are really in spring.
Gratulerer med Syttende Mai! Wear something Norwegian today.
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And a happy Syttende Mai to you as well! I will trot out great grandma’s solje and am bringing in lemon cake with lingonberries to work. 🙂
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Anna, Where do you work??? probably not near Duluth…I am so sad!
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No, nowhere near Duluth – in Richfield (at a large retailer’s corporate office…).
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Anna… I’m close by (494 & 100)… maybe I’d better swing by!
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VS – you could also walk over after dinner for dessert. 🙂 (I will have some at home tonight, too).
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Good morning to all:
Most of the trees and are starting to leaf out and some fruit trees are blooming. I have a lot of violets that have volunteered in my lawn and flower beds which are filled with flowers. Yesterday I saw a young bunny run across my drive way into the nieghbor’s wood pile. The nieghbor cut some rhubarb to eat and we have started eating asparagus from the garden. A Morning Dove is sitting on eggs in it’s nest in the grape vines on the garage.
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We and our neighbors (that sounds odd, can that be right?) have been watching two sparrow (?) hawks build a nest in the ravine beyond their place. Now it’s much leafier and we can’t see them as well… which I hope means they can’t see all my favorite little songbirds and eat them. Sited Husband out in the garden yesterday, we planted potatoes and some of his starter sets. Many aforementioned things, the most prolific being the violets. And halleluia, the lilacs just out the back door have FINALLY started to bloom!
Dale, your bicycle has provided us with several wonderful days’ posts. I hope you don’t abandon it totally now that your car is back?
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Don’t abandon the bicycle and be sure to keep bringing the camera! 🙂
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Barbara: the “sparrow hawk” got a public relations upgrade a few decades ago from the official bird-namers of the country. Just as you would not want to be named Barbara Chickeneater, some of the raptors were chuffed to have names based on their predation. Gone now is the lowly sparrow hawk and in its place is the lovely, multi-colored kestrel!
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I personally think it’s a Northern harrier.
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A sign of spring at our house: garden projects that pop up and then leave tools and detritus strewn across the front yard all summer (or rather Husband who leaves same…). Last year it was the summer-long project of removing a dying tree and its stump. This summer it is turning the big muddy pit left by the tree into a rain garden. Mud and random stones: check. Sticks and twine to mark strange things: check. hose draped across the driveway and not rolled up: check. Box of weeds pulled but not put in the mulch or a lawn bag: check. Muddy gardening gloves on the dining room table: check. It might be easier to explain if it were kids’ toys. (But I should wind up with a lovely butterfly-friendly bit of front yard when he’s done.)
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I no longer have to wear four layers of clothing, a stocking cap, wool socks, and winter golf gloves in order to play 18 holes of golf.
This is the longest winter and latest spring I can recollect. I’d probably have to go back to the mini-ice age the country experienced in the mid- to late- 70s to find weather so bad here in MN. Certainly at least back to the Halloween Blizzard year of 1991(?).
Chris
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…oooohhh, and I forgot about the pear trees in full blossom, hoping the apple is on its way. The aroma can almost knock you over in the “way back.”
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Birkenstocks w/ no socks!
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Yes! 🙂
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Sandals only. No enclosed shoes until the snow flies.
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Mornin’ all.
When I saw your photos, Dale, I thought “What was Dale doing in my back yard?” I too, love tulips, and have a glorious display at the moment. Some 150 or so of the early ones are past their prime and will be beheaded in a day or two, but are interspersed with later blooming varieties that will extend the color for another couple of weeks -baring 80º temperatures. The first crocuses, winter aconite, and grape hyacinths signal that winter has lost it grip. Daffodils, tulips, and forsythia declare it with certainty. Sweet woodruff, anemones and lilies of the valley are favorites that trigger childhood memories of springtime frolics in the woods. By woods I mean beech woods. There’s absolutely nothing more beautiful than a beech forest in the spring.
And rhubarb, don’t get me started on rhubarb; mine had already bolted! Onions, chives, garlic and all sorts of culinary herbs are already well established and, to my great joy, arugula has self-seeded in my vegetable plot. This past Saturday, after my early morning jaunt to the St. Paul Farmers’ Market, I harvested stinging nettles from the banks of the Mississippi for a delicious and nourishing soup. Oh yeah, it’s spring in Minnesota.
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Margaret… you’ll have to give me tips. The teenager has expressed an interest in adding tulips to our yard. (She doesn’t think we having enough early spring color.) I’ve never planted tulips in my life – all I know is that it has to happen in the fall. Guess this makes me a tulip-newbie!
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Nothing to it VS. Do get good bulbs though, I recommend Breck’s. And plant them close together, they look pathetic if they are not planted in clumps. A small clump is way more attractive than a long line of single tulips. Pay attention to their height, and plant the shorter ones in front. They are pretty carefree, once you plant them, sit back and wait for spring. Remove the heads once they are done blooming, this allows the bulb to grow big and strong. Start with one or two colors and add some every fall. I’ve already ordered another 60 for this fall. When they are blooming, take pictures so you can remember where you have planted what, or alternatively, do what the fellow Dale talked to does, make a map. I’m not that patient, so I opt for the photos.
Good luck.
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Great… and it sounds like you prefer to order bulbs rather than trek on down to Bachman’s? Is there a site you like best?
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I agree on the planting – the packaging on tulip bulbs always features a photo of tulips planted in a clump, and then the planting instructions tell you not to plant them that way. Don’t know why they do that.
A good wholesale source is Van Bourgondien, and dutchbulbs.com. And don’t neglect the smaller, low-growing species tulips – they don’t lend themselves to cutting for arrangements because the stems are not very long, but they come back reliably year after year.
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Yes, typically I buy them from catalogs that come in the mail at just the time when I’m sick and tired of winter. I’m not sure what you mean by “site.” Do you mean planting site or website? If the former, they’ll grow almost anywhere as they bloom before the trees leaf out.
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Gosh I love you guys. Bird book, lemon ligonberry cake invite and tulip recommendations all in the same day!
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OK, now I’m in big trouble… just went to the Van Bourgondian website. Oh my…. my wallet is shaking w/ fear in my purse!
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I think that in the Fall (late October) we will have to hold a tulip planting party for you VS.
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Jacque… that’s exactly the motivation I need… a party. At this time of year, I am always thinking of what needs doing in the fall, but often after a spring and summer of yardwork, when fall comes around, I’m out of steam.
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We have had good luck with bulbs from John Scheepers.
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Thanks!
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John Scheepers and Van Bourgondien are actually the same company. I get both the catalogs. The Scheepers catalog is retail and has lovely photos of all the blooms. The Van Bourgondien catalog has the same bulbs, but no pictures, and they’re a wholesaler. If you are looking to buy quantities, the Van Bourgondien prices are a little lower.
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I misspoke – the wholesale division of John Scheepers is actually Van Engelen, not Van Bourgondien – vanengelen.com.
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I like “winter has lost it grip”.
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Morning!
Busy day here; carpenters replacing some windows (and they didn’t come out exactly like expected so there’s been some re-designing going on) and I’m headed out to do fieldwork and plant corn.
We had morel mushrooms for supper Sunday so between that, the fieldwork and the barn swallows it must be spring!
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Do you gather your own morels? I’m envious.
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Glad to hear that morels are now in season, Ben. We found a few morels last year and are hoping we will find them again this year. So far no luck. I’d better take a little time today to look again.
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Would you like to share your top secret morel location with all of us. Heh-heh-heh.
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For your reference, morels were going for $59.99 at the market last week. Hope you enjoyed them that much, I know I would, but can’t make myself pay that much.
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I saw the same thing. Every birthday I tell myself I want to live with good morals, but I always decide it is too expensive to live that way.
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I am very lucky to have morels right close and easy. I’m not much of a hiker so if I had to do any work to get them I wouldn’t have them. Hah–
I just fry in butter but thinking the next batch I might roll in flour first. Anyone got favorite recipes??
We absolutely LOVE lilacs! Have a line of them around the house and they’re just budding– haven’t blossomed yet. Last year they froze off about this point so we never got any. Fingers –and nose– crossed for this year!
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My mom always dipped those morels in egg before the flour, otherwise it is best to just leave them to themselves.
Lilac shoot that was rescued 10 years ago from the old apartment is about to bloom. Apple tree is covered in blossoms, hope those bees are out there, haven’t had time to look.
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Lilacs! Inhale deeply. Yesterday you couldn’t smell them yet; today you can, at least in the sunniest part of the front yard.
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…near the top of the tree.
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The Wild Swans at Eagle Lake
Out the Sakatah
With a Bach violin Partita in my ears.
Exquisite, yet strident notes,
Climbing, falling, climbing, falling, reaching, seldom holding.
A pace my old legs cannot match with mere pedals.
Heading east on the Sakatah,
I meditate of human sins.
The sins of others,
Who have wounded those I love.
The common human sins which cover the world.
Which claim power or rule or wealth.
Or nations or any patch of ground of which to be Lord.
And, this morning, worst of all, my sins.
Petty, old, tired, arrogant sins. Unforgiving of sins
Of persons who cross my path.
Unspoken grudges held.
Not so much regrets of words spoken,
But of words not said.
And so the kindnesses not done.
On the Sakatah
I meet Canada Geese who demand
Their few square yards of rough paved trail and sloping ditch.
Not so much in defiance but in defense,
As DNA requires of them,
Of a small group of pullet-sized young,
Oddly steely yellow in uncombed fluff.
The Canada Geese will then yield,
When I drive them far enough,
Finally flapping to the side,
Barking in anger at my mechanical superiority.
Along the Sakatah,
Out of syncronicity with Bach’s over-unrelenting pace,
I come to a bridge of graying tired wood
Across a narrow gathering in Eagle Lake.
But I stop.
For there on my left,
Three birds of massively-pure White.
Riding the small chopping shades of blues and teals.
Three wild Swans, in Triangle
With heads together.
They seem one; yet seem three.
Preening their feathers in delicate grace.
Arching and lowering, arching and lowering
Their long necks in a slow common ballet.
As if their necks are not of the same Earth
As their stolid bodies, barely aware of the drift of the unrhythmic waves.
Then the Partita slows
Allowing the low notes, tight strings and unnamed violinist to rest.
A few seconds of agonizing calm.
Before the driving Earthly Celestial almost unforgiving crescendo seeks its delayed finale.
In that moment Bach matches Swans.
Or the swans are in the Partita.
I sense the slip of my heart on the bridge above
Making me one,
If only for this moment,
One with Bach and Swans.
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Clyde: You have been scarce lately. Welcome back!
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Sigh. Thank you, Clyde.
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What a gift. Thanks.
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bravo clyde!!!
yours?
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OT: We’re going to hear Kevin Kling telling stories this evening, 6:30 at the St. Paul JCC to kick off their used book sale. http://www.stpauljcc.org/ Haven’t heard him in person yet, but we used The Dog Says How to keep us in good spirits on the last road trip.
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Have fun – I just finished The Dog Say How last month. Lots of fun.
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I have seen him onstage a couple of times – he is a fabulous performer and storyteller.
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Great stories should be heard, not read. One of the joys of listening to a storyteller like Kevin performing is that you can plant the memory of his voice in your mind and bring it out again any time you read him.
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I did listen to it on CD… and his voice as well. Very funny and also thoughtful.
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Greetings! The blog today is a feast for the minds’ eye with the descriptions of everyone’s gardens and other goings-on. The gorgeous weather has beckoned me for short walks while on break at work and I feel a twinge of regret that I can’t have a garden on our rental house property. I drove by our old house a couple weeks ago — they had a perfectly manicured lawn and had taken down the trees that needed to come down — but it looks so bare. They’ll fit in just perfectly with the neighbors. I’m trying to figure out if I can set up my Earth Boxes somewhere here, but there’s no deck and putting them on the ground would kill the grass underneath. A conundrum to solve …
I’m staying home from karate tonight because my knee is in worse shape than usual and needs a few nights off to heal I think. Take care everyone!
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I hope you can find a place for your Earth Boxes, Joanne – loved hearing about those last year. 🙂
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I don’t know for sure what it will be a sign of, but when the snow pile in the parking lot of the Saint Paul Sears store is gone it will be newsworthy. I think the stuff has mutated into something else, permafrost maybe.
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There’s one of those by Southdale, too – it may be gone now, but it was there a few days ago. It definitely looks otherworldly now. Snirt from Another Planet.
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The Sears one looks to be good into July at the rate it’s (not) melting!
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