The Clueless Gardeners - A Garden Blog: How much milkweed can a woodchuck chuck?

The Clueless Gardeners - A Garden Blog: How much milkweed can a woodchuck chuck?

The Older You Get, The Faster It Goes.

The older you get, the faster it goes, especially a Minnesota summer!  We are heading into July, and my goal is to really enjoy the garden.  Everyday I'm reminding myself that it is not about all the weeds, and the variety of bugs eating my plants.  It is about the big picture!  We are providing a haven for bees, butterflies and birds, with a few tasty treats for us.  That was my goal, and it has been achieved.  Working on the visual makeup of the gardens, and the perfect mix of food plants for our friends, and what works best in what area of the garden, will always be a work in progress.  Of course the weeds will continue to be happy about our non chemical yard, and so will all the other creatures!
July's bounty will be savored!
I'm raising Bert and Ernie in the house in a pop up butterfly hutch.  I believe the next stage will be happening soon!  I did find more monarch eggs outside on the milkweed, but when I went back to check, it was all gone.  Glad I found these two to bring inside!  We saw just one other monarch last week, but I haven't found more eggs. 

 

 

Bert-the biggest

Strawberries slowing down now- good crop this year!

Eclectic vines collection: Hyacinth, cucumber and bean

Ernie- trying to catch up!

 

The peas are aplenty!



Seems early for the red lilies, and lots of phlox this summer

 



disco ribbons to repel the birds from the cherries

Back of house filling in with milkweed, grasses, sage, ninebark, wild petunia, Echinacea....

slowly coming together...

decisions...

Hyalophora cecropia.  Largest North American Moth-no mouth!

They're Here!

The first monarch to be seen by me, here in Minnesota, was today in our garden.  Larry spotted it first, and we didn't see it land on any milkweed, but I'll probably start checking the milkweed for eggs and caterpillars.
So, I really cannot believe it is June already, summer has decided to fly by again, but I'm determined not to miss any of it!
The crimson clover I planted last Fall survived the winter, even though it is an annual, and it looked gorgeous, so I scattered more of the seed.  The bees really love it, although most of it is done flowering now, I hope the new seed planted will bloom before a frost and maybe most of it will survive the winter again.  Quite a few plants did not survive the winter, or came back in poor condition.  Even my Pasque flower which is an early prolific bloomer barely survived and no flowers have bloomed, but it seems to be rebounding.  The trumpet vine is leafing out earlier with more shoots from the old wood so I'm hoping for more flowers.  My new grape vine is slow and I'm sure most of that is my fault for not pruning it this winter, but I'm sure it will survive.  The snowsweet apple tree has quite a few apples this year, and the cherry tree is loaded with cherries.  All the tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, brussel sprouts, peas, and beans are planted, and look pretty good.  We've been enjoying lots of salad greens, a few strawberries, a bit of asparagus, chives, and dill so far this season.  I planted more asparagus but if it doesn't improve production within a few years I may pull it all
out.

Woodland Phlox

The projects for this year are to fill in the redbud circle and add a bit more to the quaking aspen area.  I've already divided and moved some perennials and strawberry plants and added some more native plants.  A couple of surprises with woodland phlox and a pretty red daisy.  Time for photos!


crimson clover

surprise!

lots 'n' lots of cherries



A different perspective



poor little Redbud, but better than last year!



native prairie violets

More photos soon!
Greenie

Fred and Ethel Have Arrived!

It is officially Spring now that Fred and Ethel have arrived to test the pond and scope out the yard.  The last several years this couple have come to our yard and tested the digs for what I can only assume is for a possible nesting site.  We fail the test every year, but they do give it a few days of a thorough tryout; swim in the pond, waddle about, eat any scraps of bird seed, sit on the lawn, and on the dock.  Maybe this will be the summer we pass inspection!

Welcome Back!

Over In a Flash

Summer was over in a flash, a flash of beautiful color this Fall and in a flash of brittle cold in early November.  The garden was put to bed with compost and straw and the Juncos arrived with the cold and snow.  We were also visited by the cedar waxwings in our crabapple tree, then the cardinals, woodpeckers and chickadees also thought it was a good place to hang out, lots of little apples for everyone!  We don't have quite the extra produce in our coffers like last year, but plenty of peas.  I'm already planning on growing greens again this winter in the porch, and hoping for a warm up and sun!

harvest moon



Fall has arrived but still trying to ripen tomatoes under the cloth.



grasses and asters

love it!

I had to add a few pictures from our travels to the north shore, it was a beautiful week of weather and adventures.

 

north shore  a calm day

wildflowers on north shore

the Baptism river emptying into Superior

Fall and Falls

our beach front on Superior

The Cedars descend

Cedar Waxwing

cedar waxwing

Too soon

Downy woodpecker



Cardinal


Until Spring,
Greenie

It's not the Heat it's the Humidity!

There is nothing like pulling weeds and moving large rocks around in a nice hot, humid Minnesota day! It is state fair time and the humidity has arrived just in time.  Maybe even soon enough to revive my rutabagas.  I actually pulled a tomato plant out today because it just wasn't producing.  The plant looked healthy but it only had one green tomato left and a couple of blossoms.  It did produce about 5 tomatoes earlier, some good size, but it was a losing battle with the Maple tree roots.  Next year will be a different story with the vegetable garden.  More inter-planting of tomatoes with the perennial garden and maybe a raised bed for the rutabaga or beans, or maybe no rutabaga. I'm excited about the change of combining the two gardens, but dreading the work.  I think the best solution at this time is to continue with the rubber edging and rock combination.  I'm ready to be done with the structural part of the garden so I can focus on the purpose of attracting bees, butterflies and birds. Seriously, I just want to be in the garden, not constantly creating it! 
Ok, so today is 70 degrees and no humidity, and I did take advantage of that and moved some more rocks!  I have some serious digging to do to expand the rain garden area, but I am getting more excited about finishing this part of the garden. Time for photos...

August 17th and still getting peas!  I took the pea plants out several days later and got another bowl full!

Removing the old plastic edging and putting in the brown rubber edging.

Finished with the edging and rock/paver layout by the pond bridge. 

Green beans in foreground doing well, crimson clover just coming up.

Redo of path to shed with large pavers and old rock.  Just need to add some more rock and mulch.

keeping tabs on the blue spruce growth

A series of storm cloud formations to the northwest of us with the setting sun.

This one had lightening inside of it, but I couldn't capture it on film.  Blue sky all around it!

 

These tomato plants are doing well.  I always plant a lot of tomato plants, because stuff happens.



Larry's brussel sprout plant in the foreground.  I like the look of the plant- may use as an ornamental next summer, or maybe in a pot.  Sickly tomatoes behind, soon to be pulled.

Signing off.  Greenie

Summer's Full Swing



true blue! my only pampered plant.

new grape vine!

Sometimes I wish I had a swing, an old fashioned rope swing with a wood seat.  In a couple of years the maple's tree branch may be strong enough!
I'm sitting outside writing this in what is an absolute perfect summer evening, a light breeze, perfect temperature, the ponds are bubbling and the garden is happy.  Our little expansion,( I call it phase 5 of the "plan"), with a small rock wall is ready for plantings.  I planted some green beans on the southern edge, and divided and transplanted all of the prairie smoke to the rock edge.  With the prairie smoke moved we can see the pond from the porch.

The hops have significantly expanded their territory. 
Already growing on the new arbor!

The peas did great and I will probably plant some more, never know, we could have an extended summer.  The beans are good and our small tomatoes are ripening, but the zucchini, rutabaga, and peppers seem to be very slow.  We just haven't had too much heat, but it has been a fabulous summer.  I'm glad for the farmer's market!

 I love how the lilies take turns blooming.  First the magenta, and now the large yellow lilies.

we've seen a lot of monarchs and yellow swallow tails this summer, love that! Gives me hope.

Time to dig.  Don't let that pretty dark earth fool you, underneath are rocks, rocks, and more rocks, oh and a few thousand ants! The only plants for sure going in here are the prairie smoke, a prairie clover and some crimson clover.  The south side will be used for vegetables, like beans.  You can never have too many beans, or peas, or tomatoes, or...

Echinops, I've grown attached to these fun flowers.

The beans were just planted, and they are already up a couple of inches as of today, I'll have to add another picture.

This picture doesn't really do justice to all the lovely flowers in the circle.  It really is a lovely mess.

The red Echinacea is new this year.

So, I will definitely add photos of vegetables in the next post, and hopefully phase 5 will be further along!

Greenie