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Posts from the ‘gardening’ Category

Sep 12

Beefsteak Tomato

Tomato Harvest: Easy Pot to Freezer Sauce

I really want to learn how to Can, but I can’t find the motivation to do it. So I’m learning the art of freezing. Freezing, as it turns out, is a great way to preserve the ripe flavors, is easy enough to pull out during winter and use, and doesn’t require any special tools or steps to avoid contamination (does anyone else get totally freaked out about that part?). I plucked out a nice variety of tomatoes on Saturday and Sunday (Beefsteak, early girl, cherry) and am a little relieved that they can all go into the pot together. Read more

Sep 10

Vegetable Garden: Build a Fence?

I think about my vegetable garden a lot – what will have grown during the day and will be ripe to pick for dinner, how to make it better, if I should make it bigger (there’s a trend every spring of sod coming out and more plants going in), and how to keep the dog, rabbits and squirrels out. I also think about how to balance the way I want the yard to look (for eventual house resale) with how to keep it functional (backyard to table eating for example). When Frank and I do go to sell the house, I don’t want the backyard vegetable patch to be a turn off. At this point, because the fence is just the cheap wire kind you poke into the ground, it would be pretty easy to see that with some sod and a year’s time, you’d never know it was this:

Veggie Garden, Late July 2011

But if I go with what I want to do this fall, it becomes a permanent fixture, which would look more like this:

Or maybe just dig up the whole backyard for this effect:

Okay, that probably would never happen (I don’t have an acre of land, to start with…) but I do love the look of no sod, and all plants. A few examples of inspiration, from The Pantry at Delancey and their kitchen garden in Seattle:

I love this fence

I’m off today to measure and see if my more permanent veggie home is a possibility, and how much I’ll need to do this fall so it’s ready for planting in the spring (I can’t believe summer is coming to a close, and I’m thinking about next spring). Happy weekend!

Jul 8

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Summer Garden: Lettuce

We had a brief spring that was cold, rainy and riddled with tornado warnings that guaranteed strong winds. This pretty much killed my first attempt at growing beans, but thankfully the lettuces came up beautifully and to my shock are still doing well despite our hot July days. Read more

Jun 8

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Beekeeping: Extending the Hive

Cassidy and I went out to my family’s house in Marine-on-St-Croix, about 45 minutes from Minneapolis. The area is surrounded by prairie and forest, and we took our dogs for a long tick-ridden walk on the trails with a stop at the Beehive my mom and her friend started this spring. Photo editorial of Beekeeping and Extending the Hive (putting more frames into the hive, or adding boxes and frames to the hive), with snippets of a wand making shop and nice garden below. Read more

Jun 1

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Growing Hops, Making Beer

I don’t know if my kitchen or patience is ready to handle it, but two Nugget Hops starters are planted in the back perennial bed next to the fence, for a fall harvest and winter brewing experiment. I would consider myself a wine gal generally speaking, but I do love a good beer – specifically a pale ale with a slightly bitter bite. Read more

May 27

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Easy as Pie, A Lesson in Rhubarb

My dad gave me a huge pot (it’s at least 100 pounds of dirt and root) of rhubarb last late spring. At first I thought this was a great thing because I like growing food and collect vegetables and fruits for the garden like one collects porcelain figurines. Read more

Apr 26

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As Things Start To Grow

It’s been rainy, and we’ve even got some snow on the way, but the cool weather plants (lettuce, peas, rhubarb, daffodils, tulips) are beginning to pop up and offer signs of relief from a winter that fails to fade. Read more

Apr 20

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More Snow in Mpls

My previous post exclaiming spring is here was false advertising. April 20th, and we’re getting 3″ of snow today. When will we get nice weather again? Note the un-planted blueberry plants, onion and leeks – it’s been so unpleasant here I haven’t had the chance to plant them. Hope my peas and lettuces (already planted in the garden) survive this cold stretch.

Apr 9

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Spring in Minneapolis Is Here!

This week has been beautiful here in Minneapolis, with temperatures in the fifties and sixties. People have emerged from their homes to rake lawns, plant veggies and flowers, and clean their gutters. They are already wearing shorts and tank tops and humming as they go about their day. It’s always such a surprise that winter stops at some point, and it gets warm! Read more

Apr 1

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Planning the Vegetable Garden

The snow has melted enough to uncover part of the vegetable garden, and we’re only thirty days away from the last Minneapolis frost-free date. I’ve written out my to-do lists to prep the yard, charted out where I will expand planting areas outside the veggie plot and of course, researched. Read more

Mar 3

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Cabin Fever

Last Saturday I plowed through another book on growing food as Frank watched videos of fly fishing. It’s pretty apparent in our house that the time for good weather is desired, so we can be outside tending to our respective passions. Read more

Sep 1

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Veggie Garden Mistakes

September 1st! While I welcome the cooler weather here in Minneapolis, it was unexpectedly crisp this morning, like the Fall button had been pushed overnight. The good news is that we still have two more good months of farmer’s markets and a hefty supply of great fruits and vegetables to take home and devour or can (which I’ll be doing my first of tomorrow night!), plant garlic in the winter bed, and take stock of how the summer vegetable garden turned out. Read more

Jul 7

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Vegetable Garden: First Pepper Harvest

Frank and I had our first pepper harvest of the season. The bananas are coming in fast, jalapenos right behind them and then the slowly growing habanero and green bell peppers. One of the more interesting aspects of the pepper patch is that Frank’s nephew (3 years old) helped plot and plant the peppers, which means all the pepper plants are randomly mixed. This is troubling because we can’t tell the difference between the bell pepper and the habanero (or, at least I thought I knew the difference, but Frank disagrees with my conclusion). We decided to let them sit on the counter and ripen, with hopes the habanero would show its true colors and would not force us to do a taste test. The rest of the garden is coming in nicely with few surprises (yes, we knew there would be a bunny eating the lettuce, but the entire bean patch? Hungry little guy…). The peppers, lettuce and basil are all we’ve been able to take at this point, but the tomatoes are looking great and the cucumbers should be coming in the next few weeks (once they do, you’ll know because I’ll post about making Tzatziki).

The tomatoes coming in:

A month ago, early June:

As of early July:

Jun 8

Backyard Project

Two years in the making, I finally have a visual story of the progress (slow, but steady) in the backyard.

THE BACK, OF THE BACKYARD:

When I first moved in...


While the yard was cleaned up a bit, there was still that wire fence...


So we took out the fence, but it was accompanied by taking out a brick hearth. Messy.


New fence. Much better. Time to tackle the brick and planting some good stuff in the dirt.


Some well distanced planted perennials, that will explode next year (fingers crossed)


A little mulch helps in the back bed, and planted cornflowers and irises along the walkway


Some pretty blooming things


More pretty blooming things

VEGETABLE GARDEN:

The 5'x5' french vegetable garden


Vegetable garden expansion to 6'x20'


First veggie plantings, mid-May. I like the square pavers a lot for some reason.


Early June progress...it's coming in!


The grapevine really coming in, on the fence


Lovely little porch pots


And some potted herbs

May 18

A New Obsession: Gardening

This time last year I was planting Karl Foerster and Little Bluestem around the perimeter of the house, and in the front boulevard. My planting was not lacking imagination – rather, lacking confidence – and I was comfortable staying pretty minimal; I also planted a 5′x5′ vegetable garden that quickly spilled out of it’s wood panel confines. I wanted to stay small for practice, until I knew I could go big. I summoned the courage over the winter months, and come the first peek of sustainable 50 degree weather, I made my plan: tree in the front, trees in the back; large vegetable garden and perennial flower garden by the back fence; new patio furniture and sitting areas in the yard to read. We “broke ground” two weeks ago, and I have neglected nearly everything (including this blog) until today. Yesterday was the last of the big overhaul days, though there is always more to do. As I found today.

Over my lunch break, I went to Home Depot for some metal hoops, a mesh drain thing and some fertilizer. I found myself in the flower seed and bulb section for nearly half an hour, inspired by memories of my mother’s garden. I was fortunate to grow up around her green thumb, and beautiful landscape of crawling morning glories, leafy trees and ornamental bushes, the towering gladiolas and delicate bleeding hearts. I walked away with another bulk of projects to last me through the week, slowly picking away at planting in the evenings. The snapdragons, gladiolas and cala lilies I picked up make me feel like I can finally create a landscape for the front yard that will feel as much like my home as the interior, and a backyard that after work I will putter around in or sit down and admire.

My body is sore, and covered in crazy welt-like bug bites and long scratches from trees, but it’s been a good two weeks to look back at. While there’s always more to do, here’s a good recap:

Vegetable Garden

Planted from starter plants: jalapeno, habanero, banana, green and yellow peppers; sweet onion and garlic; broccoli and cauliflower; basil (lots, and lots of basil); roma, big boy, early girl, beefsteak and sweet 100 tomatoes. From seed: mixed and bibb lettuces, green beans, snow peas, cucumber. Along the fence is an old grape vine that starts to flower in June – it creates an unbelievable barrier between yards.

Perennial Bed

Planted from starter pots: Yellow Lupine, Siberian Iris, Elfin Pink Penstemon, White Gloria Astilbe, Strawberry Candy Daylily, Eveline Salvia, Visions Astilbe. Snapdragons line the edging.

Fire Prarie Tree

Also planted a white blossom Magnolia and Mulberry tree in back (!)

Little Bluestem on the boulevard

I will be planting Calla Lily and tall Snapdragon-like flowers throughout the grasses in the front. Won’t bloom for quite a while, but I’ll update with images. Hoping for some good results, to cut and bring inside.

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