"Wishin', and Hopin', and Thinkin' and Prayin'"

Snow is flying again tonight, not entirely unusual for late April, but unusual in how often this seems to be happening this "spring."  Yes... "spring" in quotation marks.  It's hard not to feel a crippling sense of hopelessness at this point.  Of course spring will come, eventually, right?  Right?

*sigh*

Well, here's a photo from one of my first years gardening at our house.  We're coming into our fifth season at this place, our ever after home, and I'm wishin' and hopin' that the gardens fill out just a little more this year, that I get to grow my gardening space, and that spring truly will decide to show up!

Hooded Mergansers

One thing that I've become more interested in, especially after reading other MN garden/nature blogs, are the birds and waterfowl in our little corner of the universe.  This evening, I spotted a new duck that I hadn't noticed or paid attention to before, the hooded merganser.  Now that I know what they are, I'll have to pay more attention to whether or not they are frequent visitors to our shoreline.  If they are, I'm sure they're thinking what I'm thinking... man, it's cold, what are we doing here?!

Sounds of Spring

"Quack, quack, quack..."

Mallards along the shoreline in front of the house

That sound at 5:30 am really should annoy me, but the past few days, it's been music to my ears!  It means the ice is melting on the lake, that spring will truly arrive one of these days!  The sounds of spring are almost as delightful as the smells and sights.  There's a morning songbird that always reminds me of spring, but not being a birder, I have no idea what it is or how to even describe it's two-toned, high-low, sing-song.  But I know that whenever I hear it, it brings a smile to my face,and I just want to whistle right back!

Herbs & Such

Last night I had the opportunity to rake the leaves out of several gardens here and was surprised at what I discovered in my herb garden.  Last year, I planted some perennial sage and oregano.  Here's how they look after surviving a harsh MN winter:

Oregano

 

 

 

 

 

Sage

 

These were new plantings last year and I didn't expect to see them right away this spring.  I knew something was up when I was raking away and smelled the oregano in the air.  Mmm... what a smell!

I also discovered some onions that overwintered.  I got these for free at a local greenhouse last summer.  They had planted the seeds rather late and the onion plants were just teeny-tiny last year.  So I planted them last year and they barely grew.  I wonder what they'll do this year.

Onions and some renegade strawberry runners from the plants "next door"

And finally, some spring bulbs are just starting to show up.  Last fall I planted scilla, muscari, and snowdrops, and I haven't seen any signs of them, but the daffodils are starting to grow as you can see in the picture. 

I planted some tulips when we first moved in four years ago and they just never did very well, so I haven't bothered planting any more even though tulips are my favorite spring bulb flower.  I'm not sure if I'll try again this fall, I'm feeling more adventurous and maybe if I purchase some good bulbs from a good supplier (John Scheepers?) then I'll have better luck.  I just don't know of a lot of people with luck with tulips in this area.  We'll see - there's a full year of gardening ahead and I'm starting to get excited!

Butterfly Garden

My neighbor, Rita, emailed me today to ask me to help her put in a butterfly garden at her house.  What a fun project!!  She found this link on the U of M extension website and we have plans to do something similar.

Figure 1. A sample butterfly border garden has a large variety of host plants.

		Tawny daylily ‘Marine’ heliotrope Gayfeather Butterfly weed Petunia Mountain bluet Annual aster ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum Rock cress French marigold ‘Happy Returns’ daylily Blanket flower Nasturtium Goldenrod
Purple coneflower Dill Hollyhock Joe-Pye weed Globe centaurea	Peony Turtlehead Swamp milkweed Yarrow Queen Anne’s lace

Rita has been gracious enough to open her garden to us for our use, which is where we grow most of our veggies, in true neighborhood gardening fashion.  She has a great spot to add a butterfly garden as she has a large, sunny lot.  I have some of these plants here that we can divide, but for the most part, we'll have to spend some serious time at the greenhouse or at my favorite plant stop, Glorified Weeds!

I'm not a butterfly expert, and I'm only an amateur plant enthusiast, so I'd love to have some feedback or suggestions for this project.

Snow Free Gardens!

I can't believe it - it's actually 61 degrees here this afternoon!  I came home from work to discover that all of the snow in the gardens has melted.  Wow, do I have my work cut out for me! 

National Frog Month

Leopard Frog

April is National Frog Month.  Frogs are one of my favorite little critters.  They're harmless, stealth little guys, hiding out under the big leaves of the rhubarb, waiting to snatch up some tasty little bugs.  And when you spot one, it usually causes you to do a double take as they blend in so well you're not sure if you actually saw one or not.  As kids growing up in an area full of natural wetlands, we loved spending time catching the little guys, collecting them in a pail, pretending we were going to have a frog farm, only to send them off their merry little way before we had to run in to dinner.  Often one of my brothers would suggest we sell them to fishermen, which probably prompted the rescue release mission. 

Here's hoping I have the pleasure of running into one of these little guys soon!