Category: battling the Minnesota climate

16 May 2017
May 16, 2017 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, Plant health, The Art of Landscaping

Redbuds and Spring, 2017 in Twin City Land

Nearly no one gardens anymore......whether the vegetable or the flower one.....even in Minnesota. Seventy years ago, even during World War II and its previous Depression years, most city folk did manage to garden for food and flower .....as did our local  farmers who hadn't lost  their land. "Working" the land was still common regardless of 'plot' size.    People knew what  kohlrabi and  bleeding heart were. Redbuds were understory trees, weeding throughout  eastern forest openings incapable...

Read More >>
03 Feb 2017
February 3, 2017 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden maintenance, Plant health, Rodent Control

The Beauty of the Fragrance of Human Manure In the Landscape Garden

Winter is rarely  a kind season for most of our landscape gardens and their gardeners  here in Minnesota.   Winds,  killer  evening temperatures,  crushing snow layers, sunburns on bark, deer, dogs,  and then there are the rabbits. Sixty years of rumor have told me   rabbits are hit with a vicious virus or two about every seven years which wipes out the vast majority of a settled rabbit population...,.I used to believe the rumor....until reviewing...

Read More >>
17 Nov 2016
November 17, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, Plant health, shrubs and trees

2016….The Most Beautiful Autumn of My Conscious Life

About six weeks ago I had planned in mind, but not on paper or computer, what a landscape garden expert...me....should share to you, the vast landscape garden  unaware of the great outdoors around you before snowfall. I had in mind a written lecture NEVER to almost  never, mine the grounds you own by throwing away its leaves, for leaves should be recycled rather than burned or sent to garbage.....I planned to suggest tricks of my...

Read More >>
12 Sep 2016
September 12, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin About Masterpiece, battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscape maintenance, winter landscapes

THE BEGINNING OF THE FALL

We human animals  spend much our life "avoiding"  falls. This is particularly true when the coming "fall"  happens to be your 82nd birthday.  Yet, without it I'd be already dead.  (Oh, the irony of Life!)   And without that fall there'd be no blessed Spring. Fall, that is the autumn one in our Minnesota , is a very short Fall, often barely over a month long  with every day the prospect of  colder, much colder...

Read More >>
31 Aug 2016
August 31, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin About Masterpiece, battling the Minnesota climate, The Art of Landscaping

When Color Conquers the Landscape Garden

BUTCHART GARDENS // VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA   Color in the well developed landscape garden usually conquers all other senses and moods possessed by the human visitor.  It is the most enticing lure collecting visitors.  Spring is usually the season when the   most spectacular  of color shows occur.   The foliage is fresh in color and texture especially in our Minnesota location. It is obvious to us northern landscape gardeners the beautiful colorful display...

Read More >>
29 Aug 2016
August 29, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, The Art of Landscaping

Gardens, Like People, Gain Character with AGE

"Gardens, like people, gain character with age" is a truism which, at least  in the dream of things, is TRUE.   In both cases good fortune is a necessity.   Both people and beautiful landscape gardens can be destroyed, ' killed ' by the same tornado, mud slide, flood, fire, or earthquake.  As a generalization, however,  the adage IS true, at least in the ideal. Both beautiful people and beautiful landscape gardens usually  need  help,...

Read More >>
30 Jul 2016
July 30, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees

Aralia spinosa

One of my favorite woodies in my gardened grounds is Aralia spinosa....(Aralia spinosissima).   About forty years ago it arrived in my possession around mid- August,    I had a large vegetable garden and was beginning  my artistic landscaping of my  property  nearly 90% of which was covered by a mediocre lawn. I was director of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society then.  Our office was located on the St. Paul University of Minnesota Agricultural School...

Read More >>
13 May 2016
May 13, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, The Art of Landscaping

Spring, Minnesota, 2016

No year is ever a carbon copy of another.   No day in the life of an animal, including the human one, is a "carbon" copy of another.   Life is filled with errors and the unexpected , for WITHOUT ERRORS OF NATURE, LIFE, WHETHER PLANT OR ANIMAL WOULD NEVER CHANGE. I am in my 80s..... and began landscape gardening in my neighbor's sandbox about 75 years ago.   I have many memories of my...

Read More >>
28 Apr 2016
April 28, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees

Chamaecyparis pisifera, Vintage Gold

One of the finest conifers introduced to the Twin City landscape garden market is Chamaecyparis pisifera, Vintage Gold.     Its advertised form is global, reaching about three feet in height. A human generation or two ago the only golden foliaged conifers seen on anyone's grounds,  private or public,  were  dying arborvitaes.   Dying junipers usually chose brown before yellow as their passage to death color. Chamaecyparis pisifera, King's Gold is a flimsier, fluffier  foliaged...

Read More >>
17 Apr 2016
April 17, 2016 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, Bulbs, Ground Covers, perennials, The Art of Landscaping

What Does Your Garden Show This April?

We in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area this garden season thus far, are living our usual  early May in middle April this year of our Lord, 2016. We have had a mild and short winter season. Being a landscape gardener,  I have been rooting for a tad of global warming here in our Minnesota for the past sixty years....and  my plea was  almost answered until  a few years ago of rough winter. The best garden...

Read More >>