Category Archives: gardening

2023, gardening, Uncategorized

Trust

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Wednesday I was at work sitting at my computer on a Teams meeting (it is like Zoom) when a call came up on my work phone. I could see from the caller ID it was from a 60+ year old friend of ours who lives with her very elderly mother. Her mother has declined in health significantly but expects our friend to maintain a huge yard and vegetable garden without the benefit of ever teaching her how to garden. She has never phoned me at work before, and I was worried something calamitous had happened to her mother.

It was very hot here Wednesday. Our friend had a simple question. Could she water the vegetable garden with the oscillating sprinkler? We had steered her away from sprinklers and encouraged her to get soaker hoses to avoid the fungus and waste of water that comes from aerial sprinklers. This she has done, but her garden is so large she was afraid parts would suffer with the slow pace of soaker hoses. I told her of course, use the sprinkler, but not on the tomatoes or the peas, as they are so prone to fungus and mildew. I get calls from her like this all the time.

Our friend trusts us implicitly regarding her garden, even when our advice is contrary to the somewhat goofy ways her mother has gardened in the past. I guess what we advise makes sense, because the questions keep coming. Sometimes I am amazed how absurd my life is.

What can people trust you to do or help them with? Who do you trust implicitly?

2023, animals, Family, Farming Update, gardening, Nature, pets, Seasons, Uncategorized

On and On It Goes

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The weekend Farm Report comes to us from Ben.

Another week of life being relentless… I’m tired and I can’t keep two coherent thoughts together so this week’s blog will be basic highlights and a bunch of photos.

*I did finish planting corn. Except for about 2 acres that are wet. But I’ll get to them soon.

*Working on planting soybeans. Hoping to finish on Saturday.

*The college show opened on Wednesday and the paint was dry and it’s a good show. The set isn’t my best, but it works.

*We’ve had 4 sandhill cranes hanging around.

*The lilacs are looking – and smelling – so good!

*Every morning, I let Humphry out, and Bailey comes in to get a morning greeting and some attention for a minute. Then she’s happy to go back out.

*For the first time ever, I kinda got tired of music in the tractors. I listened to podcasts: Moth Radio hour, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Radiolab, and my frequent standby: Light Talk. (Imagine the Car Talk guys, doing a show about lighting).

*Kelly and I picked up some very large limestone rocks using an old thing called a ‘Slip Scraper’ or ‘Buck Scraper’. Clyde, you ever use one of these? This has been behind the shed for years. It’s missing some handles, but we made it work carrying rocks.

*The coop applied fertilizer for soybeans.

*Next week is all about lighting the next show in my schedule.

*My last day at the college for this academic year is May 31. I probably won’t have all my work done; I may have to stop in the next week just to finish what I don’t get done this week.

But then, THEN, the pace will slow down and I can start working on my new shed space.

Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day weekend!

Here are photos:

Planting Corn
Tracks in the Dirt
Tractor Buddy
View
View
View
Minnesota Rock
Kelly with Rocks
Buck Scraper
Loaded Buck Scraper
Goofball
Coop Spreader
Loading Seed
Another Tractor Buddy
Seed Camera View

Planting corn, the tracks in the dirt, my tractor buddies one day, my view from the tractor front and back, a rock shaped like Minnesota (that was really heavy!), Kelly and her second load of rocks, the “buck scraper”, A goofball, the coop’s fertilizer spreader, loading soybean seed from the trailer, Another tractor buddy, and the camera’s showing the seed in the drill.

Where and what was the best burger you ever had?

(The first time I had a ‘blue Burger’ ((blue cheese on a burger)) was at a bowling alley and it was FANTASTIC and none have compared to that one.)

2023, gardening, home, Kids, Nature, Seasons

Afire!

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Now that the weather is nicer, YA’s inner-pyromaniac has emerged for the summer. 

Years ago I inherited a backyard fire pit from a friend.  At this point I think the rust is the only thing holding it together but it has provided many years of enjoyable backyard conflagrations.  YA is good at sweeping the yard for twigs and branches that she piles up in the very back of the yard; she is always on the lookout for kindling.  She is the initiator of 98% of our backyard infernos and is generally in charge of any arranging and poking that is needed.

It doesn’t take long after the first couple of the seasons blazes that she asks about graham crackers and chocolates.  We always have marshmallows (Trader Joe’s – vegetarian).  I knew this was coming so I had already stocked up; we were able to have our first s’mores of the season that day!  We even used the s’mores trays that I bought at the state fair a few years ago.  These are clearly unnecessary toys but I love them anyway. 

We have a gas stove; we could easily have s’mores all year long, but we never make them except over the fire in the back yard.  I suspect that the sunshine, the smoke from the fire, the joy of finally being outside after a long winter contribute to why having summer s’mores is just the best way to go.

Do you have any seasonal rituals?

2023, gardening, Health, Kids, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Attack of the Red Clippers

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Normally I’m pretty careful in the yard.  Obviously you’ve heard a few times where I wasn’t as careful as I should have been, but those are actually pretty few and far between.  It’s been two years since I dropped the patio stone on my toe.

I have two pairs of red clippers and they stay closed most of the time, especially if I’m walking around or doing steps.  Kinda that old “don’t’ run with scissors mentality.   The reason I have two pairs is that when one has to go to the hardware store for sharpening, I still have one at home.  Can’t go a week without my red clippers!

But last week something new happened with the clippers.  I was trying to get as far down on the root of a “volunteer”; I probably should have used a bigger tool for this project, but the bigger tool was in the garage and I was in the front yard.  Enough said.  Anyway, it took a bit of force and then suddenly the root gave it up and the clippers slammed shut.  Unfortunately my index finger got pinched between the handles.  I mean seriously pinched.  I said some very colorful things, pretty loudly and had to sit down for a minute as I got a little dizzy. 

The mishap didn’t break the skin, but the blood blister rose up immediately and the whole tip of the finger turned a few ugly shades of purple.  And it hurt like crazy.  Right about then Jenai came home from some errands and brought me a wet paper towel, some antibiotic ointment and a bandaid.  The rest of the gardening that day was done left-handed.

It looks much better now but still hurts if I put any pressure on it at all.  I have to say I’ve been VERY careful about the red clippers since then.

Do you have a favorite gardening tool?

2023, Family, gardening, Nature, Weather

The Lazy Gardener

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This is the first year that I’ve done the major spring clean up without YA.  Even when she was very young, she could come behind and put clippings and yard waste into bags.  These days she particularly likes to spread out mulch; most of the seriously dirty yard work she leaves to me. 

It’s been rough to have her out of town this week – no one to pick up after me and no one else to sling around bags of mulch.  The fact that it is suddenly quite warm has been a shock to my system as well.  In fact, on Tuesday afternoon, after I had been working in the back yard, the idea of carrying the full yard bags down to the boulevard was more than I could stomach thinking about. 

The picture above is real.  I put the bags into the back of my car and drove them down the driveway to the boulevard.  So sad although to my credit, the car was already backed out of the garage and the keys were hanging right there on the fence.

Makes me think that if YA ever moves out, I’m going to have to bribe her big time to come help me with the yard every spring! 

What home projects do you wish someone else would do for you?

animals, Fantasy, gardening, Movies, Mysteries, Nature, TV

Bad to Good?

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The first real day of gardening for me includes attacking my creeping charlie.  While I was working, I remembered the Godzilla comparison I wrote about a couple of years ago.  But since getting rid of creeping Charlie is a good thing in my world, how could I be Godzilla, a horrible, scary, destructive monster.

I was thinking through all the Godzilla movies (yes, I’ve seen them all, even the Matthew Broderick) and it occurred to me that in the Japanese films, Godzilla went through a “nice-ification” over the years.  In a few of the movies, Godzilla actually comes to the rescue by fighting off worse monsters (Mothra, Ghidorah, Gigan, Megalon, etc.)   When Godzilla became a father in Son of Godzilla, he really mellowed.

This is a more common occurrence than you realize.  I can think of a lot of characters who morph from the bad guys to good guys.  M.A.S.H. is the best example; although Frank Burns never redeemed himself, Colonel Blake started off as a lame head of the unit before he sobered up and became beloved of this staff, then Charles started off as a pain-in-the-patoot and gradually became just one of the guys.  Diagnosis Murder had a string of hospital administrators who started out as impediments and eventually became supporters of Dr. Sloan.  Hamilton Berger, the DA on the first Perry Mason series eventually toned down his attitude and even asked Perry to represent a friend of his at one point.  Lots of long-standing series went through this.

I’m glad I can still be Godzilla in my creeping Charlie battles without feeling guilty for destroying Tokyo!

Any bad guys that you actually like? Or morphed into someone you could like?

2023, gardening, home, Mysteries, Nature

Greening of … the Twin Cities

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As of Sunday morning, I am re-retired!  Although I’m doing a few hours a week of finish-up, my programs ran last Friday and Saturday and were a big hit, so I’m done.  Phew.

I knew before I went to bed Saturday night that one of my treats to myself would be a trip to Gertens.  YA and I got most of our plantings already (we’re big Bachmans supporters) but there were just a couple of things we still needed.  I slept in, had a late breakfast and then headed out.  I knew that it would be crowded; it was a gorgeous morning and the first nice weekend day we’ve had to far this “spring”.  And I was correct, it was very crowded; even the overflower parking lot across the street was full, with folks waiting for others to leave in order to snag their parking spot.  It felt as if everybody in the Twin Cities was there shopping.  All 12 outdoor cashier kiosks were open with lines at each one and the place was crawling with customers and employees.  I saw at least four different young men retrieving carts from all over the place.

I only needed plants for 3 baskets, including Dragonwing Begonias (which I adore) and I also wanted to check out raspberry canes.  The winter was not good to our canes and I thought I’d get a pot to fill in a sparse spot.

As you can see from the photo, I came away with much more than I intended.  A pretty yellow peony, a beautiful dark purple iris and two dual-color dianthus jumped onto my cart while I was pushing it around.  And the raspberry canes looked good, so got three pots instead of one.  I texted YA to say I shouldn’t be allowed to go to Gertens by myself!

Any places you are too tempted by to go by yourself?

2023, books, gardening, Mysteries, Nature, Seasons

Mulch Madness

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I’m doing my Menards mulch runs this week.  I like to go early in the morning (think 6:30 a.m.), before it’s too busy; that way I don’t have to fight anybody over a big flatbed cart.  I can only fit 6-8 bags in my little car (depending on how badly I want to see out the back window) but 6-8 bags definitely needs a flatbed cart!

As I was loading up the car on Tuesday, it occurred to me that I don’t come by my love of gardening naturally.  Nonny likes her garden neat and orderly but there were never any carloads of mulch or flats of annuals.  For a few years, we had a small vegetable garden but it was pretty much only tomatoes – although I do remember one year with corn but not sure if we actually got any corn off the stalks. 

Nonny didn’t enlist either my sister or me to help in the garden or even harvest anything.  Cutting the grass on the riding mower was the extent of my yard work growing up; this was only in high school as we never had a big enough yard for a riding mower until then. 

In my first house here in Minneapolis I didn’t do much yardwork – the house has evergreen bushes in front and they didn’t require much.  Wasband cut the postage-stamp sized yard.  I did do a vegetable garden a couple of times but we had slug issues and Irish Setter-stomping-all-over-the-plants issues.  I’m not sure what clicked in my brain when I moved to my current home.  The more flowers/less grass plan was hatched fairly early on and the hanging pots and mulch madness followed pretty quickly after that. 

My straw bale gardening got going about a dozen years back after reading Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook.  I won’t bore you with this again since I know I’ve already talked about it (probably repeatedly), but straw bales have brought my gardening full circle (or so it feels to me).

Not sure how the gardening got into my blood, but this week as I start to prepare my bales and do my mulch runs, I’m feeling happier than I have for a few weeks as winter has dragged on.  Maybe spring really is coming.

Do any or your hobbies or passions surprise you?

2023, Family, Food, gardening, Seasons, Travel, Uncategorized

Garden Preparations

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This weekend Husband and I plan to order our seeds for the garden. Husband has picked out three varieties of zinnia seeds. We will have our usual San Marzano 2 and Brandy Boy tomatoes which we will start in March. I found a source for the Doux D’Espana red sweet peppers. They are unavailable from our usual suppliers, so I hope the new source is reliable. I have no idea why they are in such short supply. We will also grow New Mexico Joe Parker Anaheim peppers.

Husband wants to plant turnips this year instead of kohlrabi. He will have them all to himself, as I don’t like turnips. I don’t like kohlrabi, either. He also wants to grow 12 heads of Alcosa savoy cabbage. We agreed on growing more Hamburg turnip-rooted parsley, as it is so good in soup and stock. We will grow our regular peas, Italian giant winter spinach, chard, Hidatsa pole beans and green beans, Italian parsley, and butternut squash. I am feeling tired already!

What are your summer garden plans? Any travel plans? What flowers do you like to grow? Any opinions about turnips?

gardening, home, Mysteries, Nature, pets, Seasons

Safe From Marauding Trees

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Guinevere is not a guard dog, despite her desire to be one.  When I spend time downstairs, especially if I’m hanging out on the sofa, she feels the needs to watch out the windows and alert me to the existence of dangerous dogs walking by the house, mutant squirrels touching any of our trees or bushes and any other life-threatening happenings out front.

So it wasn’t a surprise when she reacted to some tree work going on across the street.  It was fascinating; they had one of those big cherry pickers that had to anchored on both sides, two other big trucks on the street (which made the snow emergency a little tricky) and six guys that I could count, mostly up in the tree.  For a bit I was thinking they were taking the tree down with all that equipment and all those workers but it wasn’t an elm and otherwise had appeared to be fine.  After a couple of hours it was clear that they were just pruning and trimming.  The project lost a little luster for me at that point. 

But then I looked about a bit later and saw the strangest sight.  They had dragged all the bigger branches away to the chipper and were cleaning up…. using rakes!  Obviously rakes were the correct tool but you just don’t expect to see anyone raking during a snow emergency, the day after 10+ inches to snow.  (I know the picture isn’t great… I wanted to make sure that you could see that it was actually a rake.)

How can you identify a dogwood tree?  (All bad tree jokes and puns welcome!)