Why mulch? About fifty years ago most suburban homeowners asked, "Why landscape my yard? I like lawn." Trees and shrubs seemed in the way keeping neighbor from neighbor. Fences were unfriendly. These were the days of the spreading lawns; the openness of meadow where lots of kids could play with moms nearby. No one talked much about mulch. In many quarters today, moms and children have disappeared. Fences are erected. Garden rooms have replaced the meadow in...
Read More >>No. Neither necessary or adviseable. If you are a devoted landscape gardener, and you live in Minnesota, and I were in charge of your psychological well being, I would advise planting not tulips, but another "Dutch" bulb, the narcissus. "Daffodil" is the "street" name for these bulbs. Are the bulbs in the world of the daffodil more beautiful than tulips? Not in my view. Nor likely in the view of the Dutch according to history. ...
Read More >>Winter! Yes, you guessed it.....or did you? Some people forget that Winter is a landscape season. Most Minnesotans divorce themselves from landscaping the home grounds for Winter. What is there to do but shovel snow? Garden fever begins sometime in February, but it is a low grade fever caused by impatience and garden magazines beginning to be noticed on various store shelves. Then the garden catalogues arrive causing real angst. Most Minnesotans pay no attention to how ugly their home...
Read More >>Here in Minnesota boulders happen. They were carved out from bedrock by glaciers and then dumped willy-nilly as the glaciers receded. For decades farmers gathered the gatherable to get them out of the way of plowed fields. Some still do. Now, they sell them. Some boulders are more beautiful than others. Some are larger, others more square than oblong. Some are granite, others limestone. Things "boulderlike" have become very popular in landscapes. In the old iron...
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