End of Summer

 Wow, boy did I ever forget about this thing. 

Actually, this year has been incredibly busy and the U of M's Master Gardener program took me a long time to fulfill all the requirements. I wasn't exactly in top blogging mode but alas, I'm not sure who blogs anymore when there's Instagram and TikTok. Apparently only the Xennials. HA.

This summer was an odd one. We had a very chilly and rainy start to the season - which meant that it took the pollinators a heck of a lot longer to wake from their slumber or make their way up from Mexico. Their trip from Mexico was thwarted by rains and cooler temps, which means that they weren't active or leaving their Mexico wintering spots (there's three main locations). By August my flowers are filled with caterpillars and butterflies but the Monarchs just started showing up in the past week. There were 10 on one of my liatris yesterday. It's fun to see! I didn't get a good look at their body sizes - usually a bigger body means the last generation before they make the flight to Mexico. Because they are so late this year, their journey may be cut short - and hopefully they'll have the instincts to turn back soon before the winter hits.

The cooler weather also meant that my peppers didn't fully grow and mature - I have only two plants that were able to make it through to the warmer July and August. I harvested maybe 7 jalepenos before a trip to Cuyuna. I saw there's about 7 more. I'll chop and freeze those for chili this winter. This year's peppers were so unlike last year - last year I had peppers coming out of my ears and couldn't use them fast enough. 

This year my high achievers were: cucumbers, finally (after rabbit fencing) 3 lacinato kale plants, the potatoes came back with around 80 total potatoes (so about 8-10 meals), and Sungold tomatoes. My Mr. Stripeys are also doing great after a week of cool night temps, they taste pretty delish and I will grow again. 

I also grew artichokes this year - 3 are blooming. Next year I'm going to move those down to the street for passersby to see. The artichokes are members of the thistle family and I quickly realized that they don't mind if you forget about them. They're bred to grow in the northern climate so I'm hoping they bloom through September. These are also added to the list to grow again. 

We started getting cool temperatures at night a few weeks ago. The cooler temps will ripen tomatoes but also tell your squash plants that it's time to be done. Your peppers will start turning red and orange if you haven't harvested them yet. Basil and maybe your second succession of cilantro is probably bolting. The weather is indicating that it's a season change. 

Happy September!

Spring Hardening Off

 

I've potted up and I think last night was the last frost. I've had a tray of artichokes and snapdragons outside. I truly wanted to get those transplanted this weekend but my husband is racing so we're off to the races. I think...before I leave with the kids I might transplant everything to the beds and to the ground, and water well. We're just gone two days and we have a dog sitter here that can water too so I'm not super worried. I don't have any pots planted either so we're in good shape.

All of these are now 3-4x as large as this photo. I'm starting to bring everything upstairs and outside for several hours. You're supposed to introduce everything slowly over about a week and to be honest... WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT

So I don't. I put everything outside when the temp hits 38 degree or higher and then I set on our steps or in the shade until after dinner. Because that's suddenly when I remember to bring everything in.

I'm also a very terrible seedling caregiver. I'm a person that over waters too much and gives too much love because I'm just so excited to get outside after a winter of nothing. Don't be like me, give your seedlings time to dry out a bit.

Artichokes have survived!

Snapdragons are ready for the garden beds. They're going at the edges this year in my raised beds. 

Spring Seedlings - Artichokes

 

I truly have a love/hate relationship with seed starting. There's lots that I can get to grow... then there's others which I just kill off every single time. I follow directions and I follow recommendations and then what I really want to live... still doesn't. It can be really frustrating.

I'm absolutely awesome at over-watering seedlings. I get too invested in making sure that the soil is damp or moist and then I accidentally water too much and then I need a fan to dry everything out and then my mistakes just rinse and repeat.

So when my artichokes actually germinated... I WAS ECSTATIC. And then I have no idea how to grow them so I've been on a research kick for awhile now. 

Artichokes need a cold vernalization period because they are biennial - to grow from seed you need to put them outside after they have 2-4 leaves in temps that are under 50 degrees for at least 10 days. 

I'm on Day 3.

I first saw flowering artichokes in Colorado last summer, then my favorite gardener was growing artichokes in her garden. I thought it was a sign that I should experiment!

So here we go! I'm going to put 2-3 out front where they can be seen from the street, then I'll put 2-3 in the backyard where I can keep a closer eye on their growing and development. I've never cooked with them before either, so I have a couple recipes in mind. We shall see what happens!

Gophers Win!

A few weeks ago I brought Q to a Gophers game. We had so much fun! It was the second game in a play off series - but during the U's Spring Break so we were able to move around the arena and try out some different seats. It was so much fun! I love hearing the band play, the goading of the players on the other team, the chants and cheers. The U is a really amazing place to see hockey games.

There were 3 players in the penalty box but not enough lines on the board to keep track! I haven't seen that happen in a really long time.

True Minnesotans eat ice cream at hockey games! LOL

 

2024 is the Year of the Garden

 Last fall I toyed with the idea of going back to school and when the deadline for applying for a certificate class came around... I submitted my application and decided that if I was accepted I would see how my brain would do with learning how to re-learn! 

So far.... so good!

I'm doing the certified Volunteer Master Gardener program and it is AMAZING. The amount of information is A LOT and the learning doesn't stop. I've done several webinars to continue learning on topics that I had no idea about - like commercial flower farming, pesticide use on agricultural land, and Integrated Pest Management. It's all fascinating. Last week I had a pollinator webinar and learned how to identify and distinguish bees from beneficial flies (their wings, you look at their wings!).

And now we're onto learning best practices for fruits and vegetable growing.

We've been told we'll get the most questions at the State Fair and the Home & Garden show about tomatoes, apples, and pest management so I'm trying to arm myself best as possible!

I'm also using all this knowledge to push myself to volunteering at more elementary schools to check out other school gardens to see what is possible. At some point, I would like to get together with the middle school science teachers in my school district to see if a single raised bed would be possible and build from there. I have learned with the school garden that I run - you can't jump in fully without testing the waters first, it's not a good thing to be completely overwhelmed running a garden if you don't have the volunteers and support you need. It's like how I would love to work with high schoolers to give them the experience to put on their resumes, but first I need to know how many volunteers I need, build a guide for directions, etc... You can't just garden without a plan. So that's another part of my learning!

I've received so many AWESOME book recommendations and they're reference books so they're HUGE. I really have forgotten what it's like to continuously be looking up information and research questions - in the world of horticulture you can find many experts but I've learned to ask to be introduced to THE EXPERT of an insect, animal, or plant instead of just asking a random Horticulturalist or Entomologist. I KNOW. 

The amount of knowledge is out there and finding best practices for gardening is overwhelming but so much fun. I'm having a blast learning all this information and meeting new people. I can't wait to volunteer at the Home & Garden Show next week and then after that I've been introduced to the Youth Education Committee and I'm looking forward to volunteering in schools with the program. It's so exciting!

For my own garden, I will be doing more planting and caring for my garden a bit more scientifically and seeing the best practices for veggie gardening and using more cultural and biological controls. I'm not one that's quick to use chemical pesticides anyway but now I feel like I'm armed with resources to find what I'm dealing with and I'm really excited to try new things in my garden this year. 

Another Backyard Project

In the winter, this part of our side yard is in the shade, which means that it's icy and tends to get ice & snow buildup. CJ puts a ton of snow over here and every spring I end up digging it out and throwing it into the yard to melt. Getting older, I really want to avoid this. CJ is going to have to start throwing the snow into the yard from the beginning because when that snow melts in the spring time - this area is just one big icy lake.

So, to hopefully help in aiding of water going into the ground and not becoming such a lake, I'm digging out all the extra dirt on top and removing it from our yard (I'm bringing it to school where they actually need it it fill in holes!) and then dropping in the leftover stepping stones from my patio project earlier this year. I'm planning on going as far as I possibly can because there's just so much run off onto the sidewalk when it rains and when the snow melts. The drainage just needs to be better and every year I'm worried that I'll slip and fall and break a leg or an elbow. At the end towards the driveway, I'm going to have to trench it so the water runs out to the driveway and then out into the alley. Bad drainage is just the worst and something needs to be done about it. 

I'm a little sad about how Phil killed all my hostas back here too - yesterday I dug out 3 and just composted them. because they were so stressed and had been smashed so often, they started reverting to plain green leaves. It's really annoying and they weren't as pretty anyway. I have one HUGE hosta left which I'm going to have to move to save it. I'm planning on putting it by our front door, just to the right of the steps when you're looking at the house and a little to the left of Quentin's room.

Soooo... back to my project before it snows.... Happy Wednesday!

 

BIKE BIKE BIKE

I've been spending a huge chunk of weekends at bike races! My oldest is finally at the age where she can join the high school teams and so she did. Her first race 2 weeks ago was filled with nerves and apprehension but this week was the absolute opposite. It was filled with smiles and fun. All the girls worked so hard the practice week and you can tell they knew what they were doing this week and knew how to bike when the course funneled down into the singletrack. What an awesome weekend!

 

September is Here

 And it's already half finished. I've been a terrible blogger. I've really updated my Instagram stories more because that's way more convenient. To be honest... finding time to sit and write is not at the top of my list!

Earlier this week I filled out an application to do the Master Gardener course with the U of M Extension and become a Master Gardener. That was a lot of thinking about future projects! Part of it includes engagement and getting people more involved in gardening or sharing knowledge. Some day maybe I can incorporate high schoolers in the school garden for teaching and learning and also - volunteer credit and a reference for a job!

In the meantime I can't even come up with a coherent thought today... so I'll leave you with some pics of the past few weeks!

Spring is here

 All the garden projects have been started. Now I just need to focus, sit down and finish them!

I'm making a rabbit cage to keep the pests out. I'd like to see my tulips in bloom and my sunflowers tall this year.

The dog loves the sunny steps. 

And we need to get the patio finished so we don't have to eat dinner on our back steps. 

Happy gardening and yard project season!

So Much Garden Work

 It's really nice starting from a clean slate but I also feel like it's a lot of work! I was awarded a Lawns to Legumes grant - it's for $350 and I'm super excited! The area where I'll be putting in natives is right under the two new windows next to the door. This area gets so much water drainage and I need plants to suck up the water and not flood my yard! The stairs onto the new patio area - that area is also basically a pond in the spring, so we need to do something about it, my best idea is to do a permeable patio surface so instead of doing a concrete patio, the patio is going to be mostly pavers however, we'll have 2-4 inches of gravel between each paver to let the water go into the ground instead of sitting on top. Also, towards the lawn corner of the patio, I can dig out a french drain where the water can pool and be released back into the ground. 

So much work but I can't wait for it to be finished so we can finally enjoy our new backyard!