Saturday, July 31, 2010

Martagons, here I come!


Lilium Martagon

Lilium x dalhansonii

We recently expanded the shade garden and now I'm ready to add some martagons to the mix.  Martagon lilies are shade loving plants.  Their attractive whorled foliage emerges early in the season.  The small waxy flowers have recurved petals and are noted for their tremendous substance plus wide color range.  Martagons are slow to increase, which is nice if you don't want to disturb your plantings, but not so much if you want them to multiply in your gardens.  Here are the varieties I've ordered for this fall.

Lilium Martagon var. Album

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Cucumbers!

I wish I had taken a picture of the cucumber we harvested and ate from the garden today!  Joseph has inspected the cucumber daily since we noticed it growing a few days ago, and today we decided that it was time to pick it.  Mmmmm.... nothing better!  I planted two plants here in my kitchen garden in June and we have several little cucs on the vines.  Then we planted both slicing and pickling cucumbers from seed at Rita's down the road and those just aren't doing as well.  I think they're in a spot that's a little too shady so next year the cucumbers will trade spots with the squash and we'll see if they do better there!

We harvested more potatoes, broccoli, peas, and thinned the carrots resulting in some sweet little baby carrots to eat on July 23rd.  Can't wait until the beans are ready - any day now!

On a flower note, the kids helped me carry rock to the shade garden yesterday to expand it!  They had so much fun - I totally let them design the shape of the shade garden, complete with stepping stones that were repurposed old cement pavers that were hiding in a pile behind the garage.  The bonus is that it cleared it out a little behind there.  I've also decided that our old river rock from around the house will be spread behind the garage since it's so shady there nothing will grow.  But one thing at a time - there's a lot of work to do out there in the shade garden (sod removal, haul in topsoil and composted manure, plant plants... whew!).

Monday, July 26, 2010

Day Lilies in Bloom - July 22

Old Rose
Indian Love Call
Raspberry Pixie
My Melinda (?)
Catherine Woodbury

Carlton County Master Gardeners Tour - July 20, 2010

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the Carlton County Master Gardeners Tour.  We toured three beautiful gardens and got all kinds of inspiration!

July 16 Blooms

From the top left:  white phlox, rose campion in front of some silver artemesia, bee balm (red & burgandy), a pink asiatic lily, and Quick Fire hydrangea.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Baby Red Potatoes

We had our first harvest of baby red potatoes on July 7.  YUM!  I was surprised that we actually had some potatoes the size of oranges!  Now if I could get my weeds controlled I'd really feel like a successful gardener!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Potatoes Fertilized

After much internet research, I came up with a plan to fertilize the potatoes.  I followed the advice of one website and worked 1 Tbsp of 10-10-10 into the soil six inches from the stem of each plant yesterday (7-6-10).  Thankfully it also rained profusely last night so I didn't have to worry about watering to distribute the fertilizer.  The site I found recommended applying the fertilizer 6 weeks after planting, which was just about right (ok, a little late, but it was a busy week last week!).  I went back to the garden to weed today and didn't notice any dead or over-fertilized foliage, so that's a good sign!

Friday, July 2, 2010

My favorite container

This is my favorite container this year - I just love the lime color of the sweet potato vine with the purple foliage and the New Guinea Impatien. 

University of MN Yard & Garden News

The July issue of the University of Minnesota Extension Yard & Garden News is now available to learn about some of the latest horticultural research, tips, and happenings coming from the University of Minnesota.

Access this month's Yard and Garden News directly on the Extension website @ http://blog.lib.umn.edu/efans/ygnews/2010/07/