Sunday, September 7, 2014

Celebrating the Garden Harvest - Heirloom Tomatos and More!

Each of the past few years, I have rototilled gardens, this year, some new, like the community garden plot by Hyland Park High School in St Paul.  Rob Senden and I again this year, put up a fence and planted flowers and vegetables in Crystal, about 5 miles north of my apartment in St Louis Park.
I harvested more of this platter of vegies, Friday AM Sept 5th .  Mmm, lots of fresh tomatoes to share.


 Pink (Purple) Prudens, lower left, green striped, then a green pepper and hot jalepeno, yellow bush beans and Kentucky Wonder beans,  brown berry, the red striped, yellow pear, and a yellow and Umberto Italian small paste tomato and a heart shaped heirloom.  So many flavors for snacks, sandwiches and stir fried!
Varieties of heirlooms, lower left, Pruden's pink-purple, red zebra striped, green grape cherry and brown cherry, Matt's wild grouped red cherry, green zebras on the right and lower Umberto small paste.  

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Planting Gardens for Sustainability - Pollinators of Native Plants For Spring Planning and Planting



 Here is a book that I picked up yesterday from Kent Petterson at his independent bookstore in St Paul.   He has a treasure trove of natural history books in a residential area of St Paul near W  7th. 
I visited him yesterday and was amazed by how comprehensive this work is for ecological gardens.

To learn more about the author, who is local to the Twin Cities, check out. http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/heather-holm-and-pollinators-of-native-plants/
With all the concern about Honey Bees, it is important to know of the indigenous bee and other pollinators of our native plants.  
  
And of course the butterflies too.   
An example of how one plant, the Purple Cone Flower, Echinacea, has many pollinators and visitors here.   I invite folks to consider sustainable native species for your gardens.  If you want a site visit by me, I will bring along my copy of this beautiful book    Best regards for a wonder filled spring with garders galore....