Perennial Petunia
Today’s Plant of the Week is seldom used but always adored when making its ephemeral blooms burst on the scene in June and persist through the summer.
Soaring in the Garden
Birds bring many benefits to a garden or landscape and are a great joy to watch. Many birds eat unwanted insects, such as mosquitoes and aphids, making them wonderful for pest control. They can also help as pollinators for people with edible gardens and landscapes.
A Midsummer’s Pop of Color
Allium sphaerocephalon, commonly called round-headed leek or drumstick allium, provides a unique and timely explosion of color that punctuates the garden come Fourth of July.
Gold Rush Gamble
Dawn redwoods have a spotty record in Minnesota. Some specimens die their first year, others persist until succumbing to our cold winters, and yet others keep reaching skyward year after year
Silver Fox
For those gardeners who love ground covers but want more variety in their color scheme, consider this diminutive cousin of fern leaf tansy, Tanacetum densum ssp. amani.
Growing Cocktails
Tomatoes, cucumbers, rosemary, and basil are staples to a great vegetable and herb garden, providing fresh produce straight to your table. Whether you enjoy canning or cooking with your bounty, gardeners across the land cannot deny the benefits to growing your own food. Now, gardening isn’t a walk in the park. They need a lot of care and attention and I for one am a firm believer in rewarding oneself for hard work. My rewards usually tend to lean towards the adult beverage variety and being a gardener myself I feel like there is no reason why you cannot “spice” up (pun intended) your repertoire by using herbs and vegetables of your own with your favorite cocktails. There are limitless concoctions out there, my personal favorite being The Infused Bloody Mary. To infuse your own vodka for Bloody Marys you simply take fresh garlic, cilantro and jalapenos from your garden, add in your favorite vodka and seal it in a glass container to steep for a few days. Adding this infused vodka to any Bloody Mary mix or V8 or your very own freshly squeezed tomato juice will truly make your experience one of a kind.
Salad Day Revival
Several years ago my wife’s childhood Radio Flyer wagon had been outgrown by our kids, but it still possessed sentimental value. Confronted with what to do with it, I had an idea: why not convert it into a portable salad bar?
Leatherwood
Shady locations with poor soil are a perennial dilemma for Minnesota gardeners and usually result in a sea of hostas. There are precious few shrubs that grow in such conditions that maintain a tidy form.
Beardtongue the Magnificent
Beardtongue may sound like a fearsome pirate, but alas it is merely a charming perennial which can be found in prairie settings throughout Minnesota.
Mom’s Take-Away from Punch Pizza Tree Tragedy
If the recent tragic tree accident at Punch Pizza makes you question the safety of your own landscape, that may be the only silver lining to an otherwise dark day in Wayzata. The large tree snapped and injured an Oregon woman who was dining on the restaurant’s narrow outdoor patio. The old tree on the edge of the scenic 14-acre Big Woods preserve reportedly was weakened by disease. But several factors can make trees susceptible to snapping at any time or toppling over in high winds.
