Fellow Vikings and foreigners to our Northland.....This summer is the closest to the tropical in my gardening lifetime. Hot, humid, wet and tons of mosquitoes....not a winning season for us who 'work the soil', but the formula sure works for plants. I expect to see dinosauers any day now coming out of the jungle. At least there are no tsetse flies. Just plenty of Japanese beetles. Throughout the summer of 1988 there was more heat,...
Read More >>We in the Twin Cities landscape gardening world have had a hot and wet several weeks following a very short Spring. It was only one year ago our world was blessed with one of the most beautiful landscape garden seasons I can remember.......An early Spring....warm April, cool May, and a Summer of nothing general to have worried about. Plantings with irrigation systems did exceptionally well making plants exceptionally healthy......and then November 13, 2010 visited and...
Read More >>It is always the case that beautiful gardens must be seen most often at their very best......for the year, anyway. In Minnesota, today's garden quickly disappears into another piece of scenery never again to be seen in the form and beauty just witnessed. The Sun, the light of our landscape garden stage, thank heaven, never stops featuring Earth's exquisite beauty or squalor, for that matter. Gardens, like people, gain character with age. Our 2011 Minnesota...
Read More >>This has been a difficult Spring thus far.....wet, cold, windy, following a long, long, Winter....thawless until midMarch. So what does May 10 have to do with the complaining? May 10 is the average date of the last frost of the cold season in the Twin City, Minnesota area....How is that for good news! Keep in mind that October 10 is the average date of the first frost of the coming cold season each year. Experts...
Read More >>May first is the normal time for Leonard Messel or Dr. Merrill Magnolias to begin blooming in my landscape garden. Normal meaning over the past thirty years. Normal meaning this year....despite the relatively miserable Spring....more accurate ......the absent Spring thus far. Dutch bulbs have done well. At last my Siberian Squill have weeded enough to cover masses of space with the most beautiful blue matching any in the world. For you beginning your landscape garden...
Read More >>Income Tax Day has little to do with landscaping unless your business is Landscape Gardening. However, most home owners interested in beautifying their immediate environment are among the roughly 50% of our population who still pay income tax each April 15. (Nearly 50% of Amerians do not.) I am much relieved that my forms assembled by a reliable, long time trusted accounting firm have been sent in, properly organized with all of the important numbers in order...
Read More >>Would you call this the DEAD of winter? When I was a kid 70 or so years ago when winters were colder, I think mid-February signaled the Dead part. We haven't seen 25 to 30 below zero temperatures here in the Twin Cities for a long time with one exception about 15 years ago. Snow came this year that weekend of November 13. We have not had a major or even a minor snow melt...
Read More >>In the 36 years of living at my grounds all of the damage ever done to my landscape grounds added together does not equal the damage which occurred last Saturday, November 13, 2010. I live just west of Hopkins in the western suburbs. My little piece of heaven received over 20 inches of the very heavy wet stuff over about an 8 hour period. Ten to fifteen trees and shrubs were shredded, stripped of lateral...
Read More >>The Landscape Garden is more than what most people consider to be garden. It is an enclosure to enter, stroll though, walking the paths up to and passed plants which might appear sculpture at one look, and framing after a few paces along the path. Envision a private woodland with windows and openings where beautiful forms or colors can be seen and beautifullly displayed. Benches in the distance entice visitors to find the path to a resting...
Read More >>What are the regular routines for the Landscape Gardener to maintain the home grounds in the best condition going into winter? Watering: There is much debate over what the autumn to late autumn watering schedule should be for the Twin City area landscaped grounds. Some 'professors' profess continued regular watering until the hard frosts; others suggest withholding water gradually to assist the plants hardening off for the cold misery of winter. Plants here usually mean...
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