Life is far too short not to have a little umbrella in your drink. ~ Leigh Standley, Curly Girl Design
Last summer I couldn’t pick up a newspaper or magazine without seeing some reference to cocktail gardens. Growing plants to put in drinks was the rage.
But not this year. Instead, a different trend has surfaced.
Bartenders are no longer satisfied with plain names for plain drinks like margarita, martini and Manhattan. Further, according to Frank Bruni in a story in the June 9, 2010, issue of The New York Times, “The monikers offer no clue: They’re pure literary whimsy, a proudly opaque muddling of the chartreuse with the abstruse.”
Consider these cocktails from various bars around New York City: Penelope Cruiser, Beggarman Thief, Legend of Zarro, From Beirut With Passion, White Star Imperial Daisy and Sexy London.
Johnny Michaels is the best bartender in the Twin Cities. I know because I’ve tasted a few of his concoctions over the years and because I once took a cooking class for the sole reason that he was presenting drink recipes. (Unfortunately, I can’t remember much about either his strong drinks or the food.) He has long been associated with La Belle Vie, the best restaurant in Minnesota, and other enterprises of Tim McKee and Josh Thoma.
Here’s Johnny’s drink list: Night of the Hunter, Black Pearl, French Teen Idol, The All New 2010 TCG 1000, This Boot Was Made For Drinking and my favorite, Gild the Lily.
The Redhead is a restaurant in New York City that was brought to my attention by a small mention in Esquire, perhaps a year or two ago. Esquire raved about The Redhead’s Bacon Peanut Brittles—a simple snack of “maple-roasted peanuts with smokey bacon” and “because everything tastes better with bacon.”
The cocktails listed on the Redhead menu have simple names—especially in comparison—and the bartender thoughtfully added subtitles. For example: Gotham (a dark and complex Manhattan), Vesper (James Bond’s first martini) and Aviation (high flying classic).
Wanting to bring of bit of that vibe to my happy hour, I ordered a package of Bacon Peanut Brittle and filled a crystal party dish. Then I guessed at amounts of rum, ginger syrup and fresh lemon juice in their ingeniously named drink, the Ginger Snap, and toasted the day.
Whether considering evergreen or deciduous trees, white pines are my favorite and have been a key component of the landscape of every home I’ve owned. My first place—a tiny white cottage—was dwarfed by a gorgeous specimen pine that was totally out of scale. But I loved that huge tree with its long, graceful boughs and, whenever the wind blew, I was reminded of a childhood book. Even though Heidi’s trees were firs, her awe was unforgettable.
The thing which attracted her most, however, was the waving and roaring of the three old fir trees on these windy days. She would run away repeatedly from whatever she might be doing, to listen to them, for nothing seemed so strange and wonderful to her as the deep mysterious sound in the tops of the trees. She would stand underneath them and look up, unable to tear herself away, looking and listening while they bowed and swayed and roared as the mighty wind rushed through them. ~ Heidi, by Johanna Spyri
What is a white pine? The white pines native to our part of the country are Eastern white pines (Pinus strobus). The tree has a vast range from the Lake States through southeastern Canada, into the northeastern U.S. and down to the southern Appalachians. The Western white pine (P. monticola) has a small, disjointed range in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia.
White pines have a fascinating lineage. They belong to an ancient group of plants, named gymnosperms, which dominated the landscape between 250 and 100 million years ago. Since that time, gymnosperms have declined and angiosperms, the more evolved and complex plant division, have advanced.
Now only five orders of gymnosperms remain. • Cycadales: tropical and subtropical plants that resemble palms and tree ferns. • Ginkgoales: ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is the only remaining species. • Gnetales: an intermediate order between gymnosperms and angiosperms. • Taxales: yews and torreya. • Pinales: conifers including the Pine and Cypress families.
The Pine Family “is the largest and most important timber-producing family of the gymnosperms,” according to Harlow & Harrar’s Textbook of Dendrology by James W. Hardin, Donald J. Leopold and Fred M. White. Other members of the family include: • larch (Larix) • spruce (Picea) • Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga) • hemlock (Tsuga) • fir (Abies)
White pine facts. • grows to about 80 – 100’ in height with a spread of 20 – 40’. • maturity isn’t reached until 200 years of age; trees have been found with 460 growth rings. • Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan has 49 acres of old-growth pines with one 300-year-old monarch soaring 155’ tall. • produce soft, bluish green needles in fascicles, or bundles, of 5. • needles remain for 2 years then turn brown, die and fall off . • monoecious with male and female flowers on same plant. • fruit is a long (up to 8”), slender cone that remains closed the first year and matures/opens the second year. • produces abundant pollen but isn’t a cause of allergies. • propagated mainly from seeds which need a 60-day stratification. • easily grown on a wide variety of soils; prefers full sun but can tolerate some shade. • pests include white pine blister rust, white pine weevil and deer. • to estimate age in years, count whorls of side branches and add 2 or 3.
What does Dirr think? Michael Dirr is my go-to guy for information about plants. He has a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and is a horticulture professor at the University of Georgia in Atlanta. His Manual of Woody Landscape Plants is the bible for gardeners, landscape architects and other plant geeks. Dirr has incredible breadth of knowledge about plant identification, culture and propagation—all of which leads to excellent pronouncements about landscape design value. His comments are erudite, pithy and, on occasion, hilarious.
“In youth a symmetrical pyramid of soft, pleasant appearance; in middle-age and on old trees the crown is composed of several horizontal and ascending branches; gracefully plume-like in outline and very distinctive when compared to other conifers.”
“…one of our most beautiful native pines; a well-grown, mature White Pine is without equal among the firs, spruces and other pines.”
Finally… Last week my husband, Jerry, and I cleared a space just to the north and west of our home and planted three small but exquisite white pines. They are only seven years old now but with a bit of luck, what a legacy.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Does it seem like once you notice something particular, you see it everywhere?
I've long been a fan of On The Street, a photo essay in The New York Times' Sunday Styles section. Bill Cunningham has the enviable job of tooting all over New York City photographing fashion trends. One week he'll capture images of 40 people wearing huge, drapey scarves and another week he'll find everyone in puffy, white down jackets. Recently Cunningham was on the trail for Lady Gaga look-alikes and shot 36 photographs of teenagers in goofy outfits.
I feel a bit like Cunningham but instead of "Gaga Garb," I'm seeing gingham.
The down-home, classic gingham has gone haute. Gingham dresses, lampshades, plates and pillows were pictured in the Trend Alert department of Elle Decor (July/August 2010). I saw more gingham in a French magazine and gingham ribbon in another. Vogue (July 2010) chimed in with its feature of Marion Cotillard modeling a gingham vintage bikini.
I couldn't get away from gingham! My husband, Jerry, and I took a few days off and stayed in our favorite summer cabin at Burntside Lodge just outside Ely, Minnesota. Lonnie LaMontagne has exquisite taste and the simple but beautifully furnished rooms had gingham curtains—burgundy in the main room and black-and-white checked in the bedroom.
Well, it was high time to add a little gingham to my decor. I tied a fresh bow of blue-and-white checked ribbon around the neck of the Black Dog--my official welcome sign.
Purple coneflower is, in my opinion, a so-so prairie plant.....whether considering our Minnesota native, Echinacea angustifolia, or the species native to the prairies of Iowa, Illinois and Michigan, E. purpurea. I rarely think a flower is unattractive but in the case of the purple coneflower, it's unappealing because the droopy ray flowers are, well, droopy.
In addition, purple coneflower is problematic when designing gardens. I agree with Don Engebretson, who wrote in the July/August 2010 issue of Northern Gardener, about "their gross overuse in the great 'Every Suburban Yard Needs a Prairie Garden.'"
Engebretson is referring to a style of gardening made popular by James van Sweden and Wolfgang Oehme. They are principles in a highly successful, Washington, D.C.-based landscape design firm who brought their novel idea to the nation in 1990 with the publication of Bold Romantic Gardens. Suddenly, broad swaths of purple coneflower, liatris, sedum and grasses were in vogue. The look was suitable in large installations or in prairie settings but seemed positively silly in typical city gardens.
Then, as usual, plant breeders started fiddling with the coneflower genus and now, according to a feature story by Stephanie Cohen in Fine Gardening August 2010, there are 34 cultivars of Echinacea.
But even I'm swayed by the pretty, non-droopy 'Pixie Meadowbright' and, better yet, can recommend it for smaller gardens. Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina, describes it as "a charming 18" tall x 2' wide compact clump, composed of sturdy flowering stems that end in mid-sized, flat-petaled pink flowers that rebloom all summer...a real winner!"
This also appeared in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota. Photo courtesy of Affordable Home and Garden Store.
Christy Hohman and Lissa King Sumption met some time ago at Lissa's art gallery in Longville, Minnesota. They discovered mutual interests and had similar dynamic personalities and, over the years, became good friends.
One of their shared passions was gardening. Serendipitously, after both had retired from successful first careers, these two enterprising women joined forces three years ago and formed a new business venture. They started a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm and named it after their individual gardens, King Gardens and The Neighborhood Gardeners.
My friend, Jan Streiff, has long known Christy as a business colleague and friend. Because Jan had so often teased me with wonderful descriptions of Christy's amazing house and garden, Jan and I recently wrangled an invitation to visit. Christy then invited us to Lissa's, knowing we would appreciate her garden.
The homes and gardens. Christy's home on Squeedunk Lake in east central Cass County might be the earthiest I've even seen. It's difficult to tell where the forest ends and her home begins. The wooden structure blends seamlessly into the surrounding north woods and the extensive glass windows reflects the summer sky. Indeed, it looks as if the home sprung up from the forest floor like a giant mushroom. No wildflower or sapling was destroyed to build this home.
Instead, Christy gardens inside her home. One must duck under branches of a huge fig tree just inside the front door. Visible through a glass wall is a bougainvillea which climbs 20 feet to the ceiling and is recovering from a winter infestation of insects.
Through another door and around a corner is an amazing water feature (remember, inside Christy's home). A stream flows over rocks and tumbles around water lilies and cyperus before spilling down a waterfall into the most romantic, small pool. (Hot tub is too mundane for this exquisite space.) The bottom and sides of the pool are tiled in a mosaic pattern of white, green and blue pieces. A grotto is presided over by water spirits.
Several miles away along rural gravel roads and past scenic lakes is the home and garden of Lissa, and the contrast is astonishing. An immaculate golf course comes to mind. The buildings, garden and tall Norway pines arise from a very green carpet of grass. Vivid flowers of all sizes and colors are everywhere. Overflowing hanging baskets seem to be hung from any conceivable spot and container gardens are lush with bright annuals. Throughout the landscape, perfectly manicured beds contain gorgeous combinations of perennials, grasses, vines and shrubs.
The CSA. While Christy and Lissa have very different homes, gardens and styles, they agree completely about running their CSA. They agree on the heirloom varieties of tomatoes to grow, in addition to types of other vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. They also agree on how to grow their plants and, crucial to their business model, agreed early on to be entirely organic.
Crops are grown at both Christy's and Lissa's...and the tidy rows and healthy plants could be on either property. A large portion is grown under tunnels (a.k.a., hoop houses) where temperature and watering can be controlled. In addition, many beds have been established outside for cut flowers, potatoes and other vegetables.
The CSA has 28 customers which, in turn, means lots of building projects and other heavy-duty chores. To that end, Christy and Lissa are helped by their respective partner and husband, Grant Goltz and John Sumption. Lissa commented, "Between John and Grant, they can figure everything out."
Their attention to detail is clearly evident. At the beginning of the season, each member received a container garden fully planted with a good selection of herbs. (What a cool idea.) From the women's perspective, though, it also saved time and energy. They don't have to tend and to cut herbs all season, and can focus instead on their vegetables and flowers.
Christy and Lissa also offered a flower share. With this option, clients receive a bouquet of fresh flowers in addition to their weekly vegetable delivery. (Sign me up.) Again, it's a win-win-win. The women can indulge their passion to grow flowers, earn extra money and, at the same time, make their clients happy. Christy said, "We planted 13 flats of Bells of Ireland and every seed germinated," so, for awhile at least, the bouquets might be heavy with Bells of Ireland.
A prime motivation for gardeners is a love of plants. But many of us also relish playing our part as curator of our piece of ground and, ultimately, sharing our garden space with others.
This summer, my husband, Jerry, and I are hosting families of Eastern phoebes and barn swallows.
The Eastern phoebe pair arrived first. We weren't thrilled with their nest location choice—just above a casement window rendering the crank-out option useless—but we so admired their industriousness that we gave them carte-blanche.
Over many days, the phoebes made countless flights and painstakingly brought bits of detritus from the surrounding woods and fields. Their finished nest is a masterpiece. It cantilevers out several inches from the house and is covered with beautiful layers of soft moss.
The barn swallows followed shortly thereafter and chose an apt location...above the door of the pole barn. They were equally industrious in building their cantilevered affair but the outcome was vastly different in style and mood (think New York loft compared to the phoebe's thatched cottage). This nest is made with globs of mud.
Both species have been amazing to watch. The barn swallows are excellent fliers—agile and quick and speedy, too, in their zealous quest to capture bugs. The phoebes are darling. When they land on favorite spots like the trellis or the roof, their tails bob up and down. It seems as if they're thoughtfully considering their next move.
Nestlings are now visible in both nests and we feel so proud.
Inspiration can come from different places. Reading, talking with friends, taking a class, a new experience. There are also opportunities like daydreaming and meditation.
Photographs work best for me. When I see something I like in a book, magazine or newspaper, I save it. I've cut photos from myriad publications and made color copies from book pages. I've even asked permission to cut while in waiting rooms—whether doctor, dentist or veterinarian—if there's one particular photo I have to have.
This method has proved successful. Designing and building our house was made far simpler because, for many years, I had been saving photos of my dream kitchen, the ultimate dog/laundry room and even cool light fixtures and cabinet hardware. When our builder and his contractors had a question, I simply whipped out a photo and they knew exactly what I envisioned. The result? Our house is, quite literally, a dream come true.
Dream herb garden. While sorting through file folders last winter, I discovered a photograph I had saved of an herb garden in a rustic cedar window box. It was lush with herbs and colorful with bright annuals. There was even a cute cherry tomato plant. I could do this!
So this spring, I hauled out my big, long window box and placed it on our south-facing deck. I filled it with good soil and planted plenty of herbs—thyme, rosemary, tarragon, basil, dill, sage, Italian parsley, chives and lemon verbena. I also placed two 'Whirlybird' nasturtiums to tumble over the edge of the box (and to eat) and a diminutive Nemesia fruticans with fragrant pink flowers. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit in the cute cherry tomato.
Not much happened for several weeks...and I fretted. This wasn't my vision at all. Just lately, though, temperatures warmed and rains abated and my herb garden burgeoned.
Another dream came true.
Not everything works. Nothing is as refreshing as a gardener admitting, "That's a weed" or "I killed it..." Even the greatest of gardeners screws up from time to time. It's nothing to be ashamed of—it's just gardening. ~ Steve Aitken, Fine Gardening Editor
The backdrop to the herb garden is a large cedar trellis that was built last fall. My dream for this project has been a disaster. Again, I had photographs—lush vines of complementary colors all happily twining together. I'd choose several clematis cultivars and plant a longtime favorite—porcelain berry vine (Ampelopsis brevipendunculata 'Elegans').
A 'Henryii' clematis died soon after planting (a victim of the reviled clematis wilt?). Another clematis cultivar, this one a gorgeous 'Princess Diana' texensis with rose-colored, bell-shaped blossoms, was cut off at the ground (by some critter?). The sapphire blue blossoms of 'Rhapsody' clematis were beautiful but the plant itself is barely hanging in there.
Thankfully, two tough vines, sweet autumn clematis (Clematis paniculata or C. terniflora) and porcelain berry vine, are thriving.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Beginning Sunday, June 20, and continuing for three days, the Star Tribune published an in-depth series, "Losing Our Lakes," by Jim Spencer and Tom Meersman. The articles should be required reading for any Minnesotan—whether you own lakeshore or not.
The legacy of this state, quite simply, is our lakes. Sure, we have loons and lady's slippers, the Vikings and the Twins and 3M, Medtronic and Target, but lakes are special. They are deeply important for recreational, cultural, spiritual and economic reasons.
Highlights from the series:
"Since 2005, land-use boards in Cass and Crow Wing counties allowed hundreds of home builders to break rules aimed at preserving the state's most valuable natural resource, according to a Star Tribune review of thousands of pages of building records. Altogether, those boards approved nearly nine of every 10 requests to deviate from development standards.
"Environmentalists and econominists...fear that uncontrolled development will permanently taint Minnesota's vaunted sky-blue waters.
"State officials have put 1,205 lakes on a list of 'impaired' water bodies, which means pollution levels have reached critical levels.
"Regulators developed new standards at the request of the Legislature because decades-old rules could not keep pace with construction activity on and around the state's lakes.
"Regulators cited a number of problems with the state's lakes: more invasive species, failing sewer treatment systems and shoreline development that creates more pollution. In addition regulators said huge dock platforms turn public waters into private patios.
"Federal law requires public waters to be clean enough for swimming and fishing, and state governments are supposed to figure out how to rehabilitate all lakes and rivers that don't meet federal stands for excessive nutrients, bacteria and other pollutants. But there are no deadlines for improvements, and no penalties for inaction.
"Voters probably expected a lot more from cleanup efforts when they approved a constitutional amendment in 2008 that provides about $75 million a year to restore impaired waters, test water quality, protect drinking water and fund other water-related programs.
"In the 1990s, the EPA proposed new rules to strengthen the program and require 'reasonable assurance' that cleanup efforts would take place once studies were done. National farm groups sued, Congress slapped a moratorium on the effort and the agency withdrew the rules in 2001.
"On Minnesota's most popular vacation lakes, nutrients draining off fertilized lawns pollute the water. The drainage increases erosion and breeds algae that can smother native plants and take away places for fish to eat and spawn. Some people buy lawn mowers called weed rollers for lake bottoms. They chop down both invasive and crucial native weeds, causing more problems. Sand blankets that form man-made beaches cover natural vegetation along the shoreline. Giant, illegal dock platforms turn public waters into private patios.
"Not long ago, Shoutz (state conservation officer, Cary Shoutz) ticketed a contractor who poured several tons of rock into 25 feet of water to create a personal fishing hole for his client. Shoutz said the contractor paid a $150 ticket, knowing the state could not afford to dredge the rocks from the lake.
For other reading about this issue, please see two previous entries: Essays: Of cabins and lakes, January 23, 2010 Smart & Sustainable: Protecting lakeshore, March 13, 2008
Chris Mathan, a friend and owner of The Sportsman's Cabinet, visited us while in Minnesota on business recently. My husband, Jerry, and I have known and worked with Chris for many years. She is a marketing specialist geared toward the outdoors and developed the brand and website for both Dazzle Gardens and Northwoods Bird Dogs, the pointing dog training and breeding business we run.
In addition, Chris is an excellent photographer and has provided us exquisite photographs of flowers, landscapes, dogs and training sessions. She has an extraordinary sense of style and a keen artistic eye. She perfectly captures her subjects and her photos are, literally, breathtaking.
Chris and I also collaborated on a 2010 calendar project, Why We Love Flowers.
We feel fortunate that Chris brought her camera and took time to photograph some of our dogs. Luckily also, the pasture was in full bloom when Chris photographed Blue and Cash, 9-week-old littermates out of Northwoods Blue Ox and Houston's Belle's Choice.
Check out more of Chris' photography—including shots of gardens and Bird Dogs, Field Trials, and Upland Hunting—and her other work at www.sportsmanscabinet.com.
I Love Lucy was a little before my time but who doesn't laugh at Lucy and Ethel when—for one fateful day—they worked at a chocolate factory or when Lucy stomped grapes? Today I feel like Lucy when reprimanded by Ricky.
"You got some 'splainin' to do."
The stack of books on my bedside table has never been higher. Here's my defense.
#1. It's summer. With visions of weekend afternoons and several leisurely days at a cabin on a northern Minnesota lake, I needed some stock.
#2. A new goal of mine is to discover the best murder mystery series that is garden-related. I have my favorite regulars: Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey, Amanda Cross' Kate Fansler and even-though-there-were-only-three, Virginia Rich's Eugenia Potter. No, this search is about murder mysteries involving gardeners, florists, botanists or otherwise plant-loving, amateur sleuths.
#3. Minneapolis is home to a spectacular bookstore, Once Upon A Crime, devoted exclusively to murder mysteries. With help from my sister Barbara, who is a murder mystery aficiando, and the bookstore's co-owner, Pat, I took home a respectable group.
I'll share garden murder mystery reviews anon. In the meantime...
~~~
The Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver, is a work of fiction by this author who also wrote, along with her husband and one of her daughters, a journal of a year eating only local food, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. (Several years later, Friday night at our house is still Pizza Night.) David Koets, who shares similar tastes in books for he is also a fan of Jim Harrison, loaned me his copy. I love the book. There are four compelling heroines—three of whom have fascinating pursuits, personalities and character development. The fourth is a female coyote. They seem at first disparate but Kingsolver slowly and masterfully weaves their stories together.
Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs, by Heather Lende, grabbed my attention while reading The New York Times Book Review. What a great title! Lende lives in Alaska where she is a columnist for two newspapers. She also contributes to other publications and NPR.
My Garden, by Kevin Henkes, is a children's book with big, colorful, stylized artwork. (Am I regressing? First Dr. Seuss; now this?) The young heroine helps in her mother's garden but envisions her own. "In my garden, the rabbits wouldn't eat the lettuce because the rabbits would be chocolate and I would eat them." "If I planted jelly beans, I'd grow a great big jelly bean bush." "The tomatoes would be as big as beach balls, and the carrots would be invisible because I don't like carrots."
A Real American Breakfast, by Cheryl Alters Jamison & Bill Jamison. Everyone knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day but how many of us pay much attention to it? Buy this book and you'll run out of mornings to try all these dishes. There are 275 recipes—not only breakfast regulars but also creative and unusual ideas. Many regional specialties are included. All seem quite doable. Just this morning, I made Quick Maple Toast from page 124. I substituted a savory bread, Oregon Herb from Great Harvest, and sprinkled fresh raspberries before serving. Delicious. My only complaint: not enough photographs.
A full page in the June 2010 issue of Elle Decor was dedicated to lanterns, or, as the editor poetically titled the piece, Evening Stars. Lanterns in green, red, blue, brown, white, silver and gold were pictured and in several styles. Some were rustic; others romantic. Some were angular and modern, another resembled a lighthouse (!?!) and some were just odd.
But I love the notion and agree with the theme that lanterns are great garden furnishings and a keen way to introduce an artsy-fartsy element.
My own lantern is classic in looks, style and size. It's square and made of rusty brown metal. It's also a hurricane lantern with glass panes and one side has a cute hinged door. Including the round handle/hanging ring, the lantern is 14" in height. I think it's a Pottery Barn offering from several years ago.
The lantern is part of my landscape year round. For many months it hangs on an iron stand at the entrance to our driveway. As soon as the weather is conducive, I swap a hanging basket onto the stand and move the lantern to our covered front porch. The flickering candlelight is beautiful at night.
P.S. Restoration Hardware got into gardening goods in a big way this spring and among the various items are lanterns. Many RH products seem over-sized to me and their Grand Duomo Lantern is no exception. It is 46" high. Yikes! Proportion and scale are always crucial in landscape design...but especially so in this case or the lantern would look silly. A castle perhaps? Hmmm. It's summer and Minnesota is the land of 11, 842 lakes. That lantern would be spectacular at the end of a long dock on a big lake.
Most of the peonies, the classic swanlike ones with a scarlet thread through their centers, are open, and most of the double pinks as well (my least favorite). Iris is open everywhere, the huge red poppies, the beauty bush, and a bright pink single rose...Everything is as dry as a bone. I got up at six to water, and to pick flowers for the house. ~ May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude
Who doesn't love to pick flowers? Children, certainly, gather dandelions and present to smiling moms. On summer days at the lake, I recall reaching over the side of a boat to pick water lilies, or lily pads as we called them, from a quiet bay. Even husbands, from time to time, will pick flowers from the field or a sprig from a flowering shrub.
And gardeners, definitely, pick flowers. I've yet to walk into a friend's house in June and not see some of her best flowers on display on the kitchen counter.
A brief history. Cutting flowers from outside, bringing them indoors and arranging them in vases has been going on for a long, long time. Margaret Fairbanks Marcus, in her book Period Flower Arrangement, wrote that the earliest depiction was from a king's tomb in Thebes, Egypt, in the 14th century B.C. The drawings on the walls contain bouquets of lotus flowers.
Katherine S. White commented on flower bouquet history in Onward and Upward in the Garden, "The evidence is there...in the patterns on early Persian carpets and brocades, in Greek sculpture, in Roman and Byzantine mosaics, and in Chinese, Indian, and Japanese art of all kinds..."
She later concluded in her erudite way, "I daresay the earliest cave woman brought flowers into the cave."
You need some vases. Fundamental to picking flowers and bringing them inside is to have a good selection of vases. You never know what you'll be cutting so you need some big, tall ones and some little ones. You need a fancy vase or two and several simple ones.
Suzy Bales, author of Garden Bouquets and Beyond, offered her advice. "Although I have been collecting vases for decades, more often than not I repeatedly use my favorites. These include a simple green pottery jug, a glass celery jar, and an orange pitcher."
Just as containers are vital to a container garden, Bales wrote that vases "...can take an arrangement from so-so to sensational..."
Start picking now. June is a great month to cut flowers. Two of the stalwarts of the garden—roses and peonies—come into full bloom. Baptisias, lady's mantle, iris, alliums, salvias, daisies, lupines, hardy geraniums and poppies are also open.
In addition to flowers, though, consider picking other plants and plant parts. Bales wrote, "I cut indiscriminately from any plant, anywhere—container gardens, flower borders, foundation plantings, vegetable gardens, and the roadside when no one is looking."
Here are a few to try. Shrubs: blueberry, coreopsis, dogwood, honeysuckle, hydrangea, mockorange, ninebark, serviceberry, viburnum. Vines: bittersweet, clematis, grape, honeysuckle, hops, ivy, porcelainberry, sweet pea. Others: false solomon's seal, grasses, herbs, heuchera foliage, hosta foliage.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Flowers from Jeanne's garden on display at the library.
Ads proudly proclaim: The Only Azalea That Blooms Spring, Summer & Fall!
Well, I disapprove.
Azaleas are minor miracles in northern gardens when, after many months of short days and snow-covered landscapes, they come alive with flowers in dazzling shades of rose, coral, pink and pale lavender. Who needs--or wants--that effervescence in summer? Who needs--or wants--blossoms that would seem garish and totally out of place against the background of fall leaf change?
While spending time in northeastern Oklahoma last winter, I attended the Garden Fair at the Tulsa Garden Center and listened to a horticulturist speak about soils. It was a wonderful and passionate presentation, mainly. At one point, he excitedly referred to Encore Azaleas and the audience erupted with cheers and claps.
I wanted to boo.
What are Encore Azaleas?
Encore Azaleas are evergreen azaleas that came about when, as usual, a plant breeder was fiddling around. Robert E. "Buddy" Lee developed azaleas that bloom at the normal time in spring and then set flowers buds on new growth which will open later during the same season. They are a cross involving a Taiwanese summer-blooming azalea, Rhododendron oldhamii. The plants are hardy to Zone 6.
For many years, I quickly leafed through most of the beginning pages of magazines, pages that included the editorial, letters to the editor and the contributing writers and photographers. Boring. I was in a hurry to get to good stuff like features and photos.
Now, though, those are some the liveliest and preferred pages, especially when the editor is an excellent writer with a dry, keen wit.
Let me introduce Steve Aitken.
First of all, Aitken edits Fine Gardening, my favorite gardening magazine. The story mix, concern for accuracy and educational content that are so evident have to be due to Aitken.
Plus, I even like his photograph. He's a middle-aged, average-looking guy. He has kindly eyes and a bemused expression. He's wearing a rumpled oxford shirt under a dorky, argyle sweater vest. (Who wears sweater vests these days?)
Finally, and this is the litmus test, Aitken is the kind of gardener who would be fun to meet over a couple of tall, cold beverages.
In a recent editorial titled "Good gardening excuses," Aitken starts with a white lie about why he doesn't grow lavender: "I just don't have the drainage." He continues: "Though not necessarily true, the answer was good because it left my companion with the impression that I knew something about lavenders and my garden."€
His final paragraph is wonderful. "Nothing is as refreshing as a gardener admitting, 'That's a weed' or 'I killed it'...Even the greatest of gardeners screws up from time to time. It's nothing to be ashamed of--it's just gardening."
Let me try to get this saying right..but I usually get confused when recalling my all-time favorite Bush-ism from a speech he gave in 2006.
Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again. ~ President George W. Bush
Not only did our former president misquote the idiom but he introduced and botched Pete Townsend's lyrics from the song, Won't Get Fooled Again.
Here goes. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
While prowling around a nursery shopping for plants to fill huge, 22-inch hanging baskets for our covered front porch, I stumbled on to some uniquely variegated and beautifully colored impatiens called Fanfare Orange Spreading Impatiens (FOSI). I was smitten and immediately picked out four of the nicest plants.
Several days later after the plants had been properly acclimated to outdoor conditions (i.e., when I finally had time), I gather plants, soil, tools and baskets and begin the consummately pleasurable project of planting the big baskets. I'm carefully arranging the plants where I want them: Swedish ivy and fuchsia hybrids trailing over the edges, 'Rustic Orange' coleus, big 'Riviera White' New Guinea impatiens and FOSI taking up the middle.
Yikes! I carefully read the plant tag and FOSI is a full sun impatiens. What? Who knew? At the nursery, it was benched with other shade-loving impatiens. Rats. So I swapped in some darling 'Xtreme Utopia Mix' regular impatiens and potted up the FOSI in a big terra cotta container and plopped it on my south-facing, full sun deck.
The fool me twice part? Where are the hot orange flowers like on the plant tag? Among all four plants, there is one measly orange blossom and the rest, while attractive, are various colors ranging from soft pink to salmon and coral.
Now I'm completely flummoxed. A little research (better late than never) is in order.
FOSI was developed by Ball Horticultural Company and, according to their website, the plant is actually a cultivar of Impatiens walleriana named Fanfare Orange Trailing (yes, trailing) Impatiens (FOTI). Other Fanfare cultivar/colors include Blush, Bright Coral, Fuchsia, Orchid and Pink Sparkle. The plant will reach 16-20" in height with a spread of 18-24". In addition, Ball brags it up. FOTI is "extremely free-flowering with excellent vigor...rebounds from water stress without shedding buds or blooms...and is naturally well-branched, so no pinching required."
Lesson learned: Read plant tags but don't believe everything on them.
Absolutely no disrespect is meant or felt toward President Bush. He had several other booboos and malaproprisms during his presidency. The best thing to do is to laugh. Everyone makes mistakes and says the wrong thing occasionally. His audience, unfortunately, was the entire world.
The fields around our place are dazzling now...bright with wildflowers of all colors and shapes. I simply can't help myself and must pick flowers to bring inside.
Today my jelly jar is filled with ox-eye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum), common buttercup (Ranunculus acris), red clover (Trifolium pratense), purple vetch (Vicia americana) and blue flag (Iris versicolor).
…I could still smell the meaty perfume of the morels, these fleshy buttons of protein popping out of the dead earth, this seemingly spontaneous combustion of food…Oh, it can be hard work, hunting and gathering, but…this felt like something for nothing, a wondrous and unaccountable gift. ~ Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma
The back story. Dave Kolter is my brother-in-law and my supplier of morels. He lives in a picturesque town on the banks of the Minnesota River, known also as the Land of the Jolly Green Giant. ("Ho, Ho, Ho!")
Glacial action left extremely fertile soil in this valley which in turn proved to be a perfect spot for a canning company. During the heyday of the Green Giant Company, surrounding fields yielded bumper crops and summer days positively hummed as acres of early June peas and Niblets sweet corn were picked and trucked to the huge processing plant in Le Seuer.
Dave has spent his entire life in the area and has always spent time outdoors. As a child he hunted the woods and fields and fished in the river. For many years, he earned extra income by trapping fox, mink, muskrat, raccoon and beaver and selling the fur. Dave became thoroughly and intimately knowledgeable of the valley's hills, dales, fields and streams.
One can imagine, then, that Dave knows precisely where to look each spring for that intriguing combination of soil, plants and fungi that will yield morels. He commented, "Some years are better than others. It mostly depends on moisture."
This was a good year and with much gratitude and ceremony, my husband, Jerry, and I recently received our fix.
What is a morel? Morels are members of a group of organisms known as fungi which, for decades, was considered part of the Plant Kingdom along with Angiosperms (flowering plants) and Gymnosperms (plants forming seeds in exposed positions). Taxonomy is somewhat of an ever-evolving science, however, and now taxonomists have awarded fungi their own kingdom, separate from both plants and animals.
Fungi aren't like plants for key reasons. They don't have chloroplasts to produce chlorophyll and so are unable to carry out the process of photosynthesis and produce their own food. Fungi must rely on other things–soil, plants and other organic materials–for sustenance. In the big scheme, fungi perform a vital role in decomposition and nutrient recycling.
Fungi generally have an extensive network of underground fibers called mycelium (plural is mycelia), some of which live for decades and even centuries. These mycelia remain dormant until beneficial conditions exist for production of fruiting bodies–or mushrooms–at the tips of each mycelium. Mushrooms then produce spores which are spread by the wind. If a spore lands in a favorable spot, mycelia will advance and the cycle is replicated.
Fungi represent two of the foodie world's delicacies: truffles and morels.
In our region, black (Morchella angusticeps) and white (M. esculenta) morels are common. The caps of both are somewhat cone-shaped and stem and head are hollow. The surfaces of the caps appear pitted and gouged. While morels seem to prefer an alkaline soil they also grow in acidic conditions. They can be found in forests, old orchards and disturbed and burned areas. Some foragers are guided by the acronym PETSBASH–pine, elm, tulip tree, sassafras, beech, ash, sycamore, hickory.
Dave Kolter has winnowed his search to dying elm trees: "when the bark first starts peeling off the tree trunk and falls to the ground is the best time."
The morel meals. Jerry and I have been equally savoring and hoarding our stash of morels. Some, of course, we ate immediately. But morels will keep nicely for several weeks when stored in a paper bag in the refrigerator. If they dry out, simply soak in water and within a minute or two they will completely rehydrate.
One evening I prepared a pasta dish adapted from a Melissa Clark recipe, Creamed Morels on Chive Butter Toast, from TheNew York Times. The simple sauce contains morels, butter, shallots, white wine, cream and chives. Similar ingredients were used for a delicious weekend breakfast of softly scrambled eggs, sautéed morels and chives.
For the final morel meal, we gorged on our favorite, down-home preparation which really has no name. Morels are dipped in an egg wash, rolled in crushed Saltine crackers and sautéed in butter until crunchy and golden brown. We paired them with fresh crappy fillets and opened bottles of Schell's Maifest for an ideal spring dinner.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota. Photo above by Dave Kolter.
The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian, by Lawrence Block, is the second book I've read about Bernie Rhodenbarr, an antiquarian bookseller by day, extremely competent burglar by night. Bernie is a dilettante, extremely likable and surrounded by well-drawn characters like Carolyn, his burglary partner and lesbian dog groomer, and Ray, the good-guy, NYC cop who isn't above taking a bribe or looking the other way to solve a crime.
Sonata for Miriam, by Linda Olsson. Her first book, Astrid & Veronika, was haunting and beautifully written in a clear, simple, almost Ernest Hemingway-way. Her writing style is the same but this story is more complex and broad-ranging.
Garden Bouquets and Beyond, by Suzy Bales. I am conflicted about Bales' latest book. The photographs are absolutely beautiful but sometimes her prose is trite: "Daffodils signal that spring has burst out of winter's corset." She often refers to daffodils as "daffs."
Also, some of Bales' ideas are too contrived for my tastes (an iron bunny wearing a floral wreath; rubber boots as a vase for flowering branches) but she also loves common flowers in simple bouquets. She mentions tulips, frittilarias, lily-of-the-valley, bleeding heart, shrubs like forsythia and dogwood and of course, lilacs. "I came to the conclusion years ago that I could never have enough lilacs, so I planted an assortment in different colors, from pink and white to blue and purple. To make a sensational bouquet, all you need to do is cut a few stems from each color and group them together."
But I whole-heartedly endorse this notion: "Bringing bouquets from my garden into my home breaks the barrier between inside and out." She also advocates cutting plant parts other than flowers: "I cut indiscriminately from any part, anywhere: container gardens, flower borders, foundation plantings, vegetable gardens, and the roadside when no one is looking."
Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller, remains on the bedside table from my last report but, geez, it's a very big book! Plus, the 360 pages are filled with outstanding recipes, photos, tips, ideas and menu suggestions.
The bulbs are mostly faded now. I do mean faded in all senses as flowers have either withered or have lost color. Even the long-lasting 'Katie Heath' daffodils have paled from pink to cream.
Sure, several cultivars of clematis were planted under my new trellises and white pines were purchased but what I'm really growing now are lettuces, pansies and violas.
Lettuces. I thinned my lettuce patch for the second time yesterday. Fortunately, there were more than enough baby leaves of Black Seeded Simpson, Buttercrunch, Lolla Rossa, Red Sails (still best name) and Speckles for a tasty and colorful salad.
Oh, it's painful for me to yank those little plants. Threadlike white roots seemed strong and reluctant to leave to their plush soil. I love to grow plants but I also love to eat and, that day, my stomach out-ruled my heart.
Violas and pansies. Sometime during April of each year, I stock up on violas and pansies which, for our part of the country, is prime time for planting these adorable sisters of the Viola genus. I'll never forget the first time I visited my brother, David, who lives just outside Raleigh, North Carolina. It was January (January!) and pansies (pansies!) were blooming all over the city. We still joke about that. Pansies!
Besides their perky flowers, violas and pansies are sturdy. This is a good thing for a Minnesota garden because we received two inches of wet, heavy snow on May 7.
In twin terra cotta containers on the front porch are mixed cultivars of violas: 'Sorbet Yellow Frost,' 'Sorbet Coconut Swirl,' 'Penny Lane Mix.' At the entrance to our back door is a smaller container of 'Imperial Antique Shades' pansies. Compared to their cheerful and relaxed relatives on the front porch, these flowers look like frilly, fussy, overdressed Victorian ladies.
Quick thoughts about my recent solo excursion to Maine while visiting friend and business colleague, Chris Mathan of The Sportman's Cabinet in Gorham.....
Who knew May would be the perfect time to visit? The weather cooperated in that fine spring way with fresh breezes and bright skies. It's pre-season (i.e., not crowded) in an area that crawls with out-of-state tourists during the summer months. Also, lilacs were in full bloom everywhere.
I have never seen so many lilacs. They seem to be planted in the garden of every Maine home and planted with gusto. A lone lilac was rare; usually they were part of a shrub border or hedge. For the most part, the plants were the old-fashioned purple lilac (Syringa vulgaris). Sprinkled in, though, and just enough for contrast, were white lilacs (Syringa vulgaris 'Alba') and occasionally, some darker lavenders and pale pinks.
I felt completely at home for, in many ways, Maine is like Minnesota and full of pines, moose, loons and blueberries. Maine looks like Minnesota but with an ocean instead of 11,842 lakes.
My trip was a series of bests.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best caramel roll, called a Morning Bun at Standard Baking Co., located just off the wharf in Portland. The dough was the perfect consistency–light, almost croissant-like–and swirled with just enough caramel and cinnamon. Plus the size was exactly right. I felt like Goldilocks.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best container and fountain selection at very cool garden shop, Fiachre, in Portland.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best dry-laid rock walls fashioned of granite or field stones outside of the British Isles.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best hand-poured, fragrant (Orange & Sage), beeswax candle at chic boutique, Minka, in Kennebunkport.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best lobster meal at Bob's Seafood in Windham.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best label, Sea Glass, for a bottle of sauvignon blanc.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best walk with a friend on an expansive bit of sandy Popham Beach on the Atlantic Ocean when the tide was receding.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best two-fer: huge slice of real blueberry pie at Sarah's Café in the quintessentially quaint seaside village, Wiscasset.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best crab at the casual family restaurant, Estes Lobster House, at the tip of a picturesque neck of land in South Harpswell.
?Ø‚Äö‚Ñ¢ best Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe (swoon) and Cate Blanchett (ethereal).
On my final evening in Maine, the best garden tour in the enchanting, romantic garden of Mary Emerson in Gorham followed by take-out cartons of Thai food and a jug of pinot grigio.
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. ~ Oscar Wilde
Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while. ~ Kin Hubbard
The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~ Patrick Young
Weather forecast for tonight: dark. ~ George Carlin
Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. ~ Marcelene Cox
There are many ways to think about the weather. All kidding aside, weather is an important consideration in many jobs–construction crews, snow plowers, professional baseball players, farmers, pilots, dog trainers and gardeners.
And since we've had several weeks of confusing, goofy weather, let's review essential information for our area.
Spring frost-free dates. Plants that aren't hardy in our region or hardy plants that haven't been acclimated properly are vulnerable to cold temperatures, not to mention snow. According to the State Climatology Office of the Minnesota DNR, Pine County has four regions for spring frost-free dates.
• May 22 – May 28: narrow band that follows the curved southeast state boundary line. • May 29 – June 4: southern portion of a horizontal line dividing the county in half. • June 5 – June 11: northern portion of a horizontal line dividing the county in half. • June 12 – June 18: extreme northwest corner.
What about my plants? These plants are fine outside now: ~ cold-hardy annuals such as pansies and violas ~ cool season vegetables and herbs ~ bulbs whether in containers or in the ground ~ any plants in the garden from last year including perennials, vines, shrubs and trees ~ hardened-off perennials still in containers ~ perennial fruits and vegetables like rhubarb and asparagus
Wait to put out or plant these plants: ~ warm season vegetables, fruits and herbs ~ most annuals ~ tropical plants ~ greenhouse-grown plants
Forecast. According to several local meteorologists, warm Marches and Aprils are usually followed by cooler Mays and Junes. Rats. But at least we'll have something to talk about.
Finally… If, on a recent visit to a nursery, you couldn't resist the siren song of that lush hanging basket or the temptation of several pots of fresh herbs, don't despair. There are always options.
#1. Cover. If plants from the second list are planted outside and the forecast is grim, cover with sheets or blankets.
#2. Bring inside. If plants from the second list are outside but still in containers and the forecast is grim, ask nicely for help and bring all inside for the evening.
#3. Punt. Even though this current arrangement wasn't part of my plan (see photo), the three annuals look quite cute lined up in my indoor window box. Two bright coleus, 'Golden Bedder' and 'Rustic Orange,' are paired with a New Guinea impatiens, 'Riviera Blue Improved.'
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
True, spring finds me spending lots of time at nurseries which, in turn, results in planting projects in the garden. But in the evenings I like to sit by the fire and read.
A Beautiful Blue Death, by Charles Finch, is the first of this murder mystery series set in Victorian England. The hero, Charles Lenox, is a sort-of combination of Lord Peter Wimsey (my favorite amateur sleuth created by Dorothy L. Sayers) and Professor Henry Higgins (of Pygmalian and My Fair Lady fame who spent much time in his library with Colonel Pickering). Lenox has a Bunter-type butler named Graham and likes "to sit in front of a warm fire, reading the newspaper with a cup of tea in his hand." While a very enjoyable read, Lenox isn't nearly as cool as either Wimsey or Higgins.
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. Somehow I missed much of the Dr. Seuss phenomenon as a child. My favorite bedtime books were Winnie-the-Pooh stories and A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. This book intrigued me, though, after learning it was David de Rothschild's favorite environmental book. de Rothschild is a rich, dashing, handsome member of the English banking family who has become an adventurer/environmental activist. He is now sailing his boat, Plastiki, which is made from 12,000 plastic bottles, on a public awareness expedition around the Pacific Ocean. How could I not love a book "where the Grickle-grass grows," and there are "Truffula Trees" and the Lorax speaks "for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues."?
Mary Engelbreit's Outdoor Campion, by Charlotte Lyons. I'm not normally a big fan of Mary Engelbreit's artwork–a little too juvenile and cutesy for me–but this book includes photographs of some very nice outdoor spaces and I can always find some good ideas to borrow.
Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller with Dave Cruz. Thomas Keller is the chef/proprietor of two very high-brow restaurants, French Laundry in Napa Valley and per se in New York, and a more casual place, Ad Hoc, in Yountville, California. While some of his dishes might require 25 ingredients and take three days to prepare, his simple roast chicken recipe remains our house favorite. I bought the cookbook for the salad section alone–full of easy recipes such as Iceberg Lettuce Slices, Fall Salad and a composed tuna salad. Keller's personal tips are everywhere and can't be missed due to the clever light bulb graphic. It is comprehensive at 359 pages, many of which of are covered with photos of gorgeous food.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
When designing a landscape, there is a general order of tasks: create overall scheme or concept; provide circulation; think about axis and geometry; install hardscapes like patios and paths; develop plant composition. There are also simple tricks of the trade.
Listed below are three. All are easily integrated and might elevate your garden from satisfactory to sublime.
~ Plant in masses. The foremost design strategy is to plant in masses. A driveway lined with dozens of daylilies impresses as does a large shrub border or an arbor smothered in clematis.
~ Consider the vertical plane. Add structures such as a pergola, arbor, trellis, arch or obelisk to provide the essential vertical plane. Then plant an abundance of one type plant (See above.) whether ivies, grapes, bittersweet, honeysuckle, hops or clematis.
~ Furnish the garden. Think not only about tables and chairs but statues, containers (full or empty), water features like basins and bird baths, firepits, whimsical touches or personal artistic endeavors. Try one or more in a pop of bright color.
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are. ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Rarely does a house and landscape blend together seamlessly–one easing into the other so that the whole is harmonious, tasteful and perfectly satisfying. Landscape architects, designers and gardeners continually strive for just that feeling.
Nurmijarvi, the home and garden of Josette and Dave Koets of Finlayson, succeeds. When Josette first saw the sturdy log home surrounded by a sauna, other nice outbuildings and fruit trees, she thought "Everything just feels right."
The home sits on a slight rise and is built of big Norway pine logs that have darkened handsomely with age. An open porch with log railings runs the entire length of the home. Mature trees and woodlands protect the property from the north and west while a row of crabapples border the south edge.
Indeed, it all just feels right.
Josette and Dave bought Nurmijarvi in 2006 from Elaine and Cary Steeg, who were also the original builders and named the property. While reading through the abstract, Cary discovered, "Nurmijarvi was the mailing address of the area before Finlayson was a town." Translated from Finnish, the name means "grassy lake."
Josette and Dave are refugees, of a sort, from busy lives and careers in the Twin Cities. Fate intervened in 2005 when Josette was laid off from her teaching position in the Stillwater Area Public School District. She searched outside the metropolitan area for openings and after considering two other offers, accepted a job at East Central Public Schools as a Family & Consumer Science teacher.
Dave retired from his employment with the State of Minnesota Weights & Measures Division and currently works seasonally as a gypsy moth trapper for the Department of Agriculture.
The back story. In some serendipitous way, Josette and Dave discovered gardening together. They met while attending college at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. "Everything just clicked with both of us," Josette remembered when they established their first garden in 1972.
After graduation, the couple worked their way west and eventually ended up in Minnesota where they "always had gardens," according to Dave. "We broke ground in New Ulm, Little Falls, McGrath and Stillwater." Dave admitted that, at first, the vegetable and fruit plant choices were "pretty basic stuff. But slowly we expanded and every year we tried some new things."
Since the bounty exceeded what they could consume fresh from the garden, the couple quickly honed canning, freezing and storing techniques. Josette remembers one evening meal when their two children were young: "We figured the whole meal cost us 5 cents."
Current practices. Dave considers "care for the soil" a primary goal. They spread layers of well-aged sheep or horse manure and till them in. They mulch with leaves and straw which slowly breaks down and adds more organic matter to the soil. Judging by the healthy look and feel of the soil and the vigor of the plants, the couple has triumphed.
That their plants are thriving is a key reason the gardens at Nurmijarvi are relatively pest-free. Two issues have plagued their plantings in the past but both are now under control. To combat late tomato blight, Dave sprays a fungicide in two timely applications. In addition, he began placing crushed egg shells (a good source of calcium) at the base of tomato plants and blossom end rot has disappeared.
The outbuildings and kitchen at Nurmijarvi are busy places in late summer and fall. Josette and Dave prepare and can tomatoes and salsa. Josette cooks batches of jams, jellies, vinegars and syrup. They freeze beans, beets and tomatoes and potatoes, onion, winter squash and Brussels sprouts are put in winter storage.
The final project of the season is clean-up. Josette said "Everything is picked, tilled and cleaned up. We're ready to be done with it."
Personal touch. Even though the gardens are a joint venture and there exists a division of labor, Josette is the primary tender of ever-expanding flower gardens. She is a true plantswoman–using a variety of means to get the plants she wants to grow. She takes cuttings and divisions and travels to various nurseries. Some plants from her Stillwater home were transplanted to Nurmijarvi.
But what strikes one almost as much as the interplay of colors and the profusion of blossoms are the personal, sometimes whimsical touches Josette inserts.
In addition to ready-made artistic pieces–a stone statue, vivid red glass hummingbird feeder, weathered copper dragonfly and wind chimes–Josette has crafted her own. She created a rustic trellis with long, curving branches of birch. In another part of the landscape sits a birdbath she made and embellished with pretty tiles and stones.
Passing the torch. The passion that Josette and Dave devote to their gardens is being passed on to the next generation in two important ways. Their children, Sara and Steve, who "grew up on real food," Josette said, caught the bug and are establishing gardens at their own homes now.
In addition, each year Josette reaches hundreds of children in her classroom. She said, "I feel strongly that kids should know the origins of their food sources, that there is more than one kind of tomato and what 'fresh' really tastes like. I bring veggies from our garden whenever possible for our foods labs; hopefully the 'gardening bug' clicks with at least a few of my students."
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
It might be difficult for serious gardeners to think that gardening has become trendy. After all, some of us have been digging in the soil for decades with nary a thought about being in vogue. We grew plants because they provided us immeasurable pleasure and satisfaction–along with some sustenance.
As a hobby, gardening has always ranked high in the national charts whether counted by dollars spent or number of households participating. In years past at least, I attributed much of that to lawn care. Almost every home in the country has turf grass and the industry encouraged the purchase and application of many types of herbicides and fertilizers.
Due to many reasons, thankfully, a more sensible approach to lawn care is emerging. More emphasis is given to sustainability with less reliance on using herbicides and fertilizing–which reduces the amount of money spent on those chemicals.
And yet, gardening remains high on the list.
Last year's vast numbers of new gardeners were influenced largely by the floundering economy and the opportunity to have cheap, good food. Nursery and greenhouse owners in our area foresee a continuation of that trend and, further, all predicted and planned for a surge in growing fruits.
Fruits. Yes, fruits!
Lena Schaumburg of Lena's Garden Center in Askov is cognizant of the region's Scandinavian tradition and is proud of her selection of two stalwart fruits. She has "200 lingonberries already blooming and 600 blueberry plants I started last year from microshoots." In addition, Lena stocks organically grown apples, cherries and plums.
The word from Wendy Dockal at Quarry Greenhouse was "berries." She is stocking several berry-producing shrubs including "blackberries, black raspberries, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries." In addition, she is bringing in some tropical plants to try and among them, pineapples.
Although Dianne Carlson of La Rose Nursery & Greenhouse hedged her prediction, she and her husband, Mark, have a bigger supply of fruiting trees and shrubs this year. Among their offerings: "both red and black currants, saskatoons, honeyberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, apples, plums, cherries and pears."
At the Askov Nursery & Greenhouse, Cheri Petersen mentioned "there were more gardeners last year even though it was a tough season for them." Cheri and her husband, Brad, stock rhubarb, blueberries, grapes, black raspberries, red and gold raspberries, pears, cherries, plums, apples and apricots.
This nursery also specializes in tomatoes which are, after all, fruits. By the end of June when they close for the season, Cheri and Brad will have sold all of their 6,000 tomato plants, including 29 heirloom varieties, to "the good gardeners in this area."
This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.
Whether considering evergreen or deciduous trees, white pines are my favorite and have been a key component of the landscape of every home I’ve owned. My first place—a tiny white cottage—was dwarfed by a gorgeous specimen pine that was totally out of scale. But I loved that huge tree with its long, graceful boughs and, whenever the wind blew, I was reminded of a childhood book. Even though Heidi’s trees were firs, her awe was unforgettable. 
Then, as usual, plant breeders started fiddling with the coneflower genus and now, according to a feature story by Stephanie Cohen in Fine Gardening August 2010, there are 34 cultivars of Echinacea. 
A full page in the June 2010 issue of Elle Decor was dedicated to lanterns, or, as the editor poetically titled the piece, Evening Stars. Lanterns in green, red, blue, brown, white, silver and gold were pictured and in several styles. Some were rustic; others romantic. Some were angular and modern, another resembled a lighthouse (!?!) and some were just odd. 
…I could still smell the meaty perfume of the morels, these fleshy buttons of protein popping out of the dead earth, this seemingly spontaneous combustion of food…Oh, it can be hard work, hunting and gathering, but…this felt like something for nothing, a wondrous and unaccountable gift.
