SPRING IS OFFICIALLY HERE!!

When you live in Minnesota there's that moment when you say to yourself that yes, spring is officially here.  Today is that day. 
Here is what's coming up in the backyard today.

Chives

Mint

Lavender

Lemon Balm

Bee Balm

Yarrow

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GARDEN TALK TIME

The garden is doing pretty good this year... in some areas.  Not sure what is up with the shallots and onions, I'm thinking it is poor soil quality, but everything else is doing great.  Since the backyard was regraded we've been spreading wildflower seed and planting a few things here and there and things are starting to really grow.  This is what it looks like right now:

The Joe Pye Weed is taking over and as much as I like JPW I need to get that sucker under control.

The great part about our backyard, with all the beautiful things growing, is that wildlife is loving it. Every day I can go outside and not only see deer like we usually do but daily we have rabbits, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, snakes, frogs, turtles, dragonflies, butterflies, bees, wasps, and a whole host of other things. The rabbits like hiding in the growth so each day we run into about 4 or 5 back there.  

So onto what else I am having success with.

German Chamomile

One of my favorite herbs. In the past I'd always keep a pot of chamomile inside but last year I planted some and forgot about it.  I was delighted to see it return this year so I planted some more. It is a zone 4 herb but our last harsh winter killed off things I thought were meant for this zone so I was pleasantly surprised when the chamomile popped up. 

Dill

Dill is hardier than I thought. Not only does it appear in odd random places around the garden, after planting a whole new bunch this year we let the Black Swallowtail caterpillar devour it all and yet from the nubs that were left it regrew.  Great, because I need it for canning :-)

Tomatoes

Someone please explain to me what is up with the tomatoes?  I purchased two heirloom tomato plants at the Friends Plant Sale this year and they've grown into these monstrous things (5 feet tall) but the fruits are all still green.  I've never had that experience with tomatoes before.  I'm not surprised about the growth as much as the fact they aren't red or turning red yet.  I am worried with the way the weather has been that the frost is going to appear before the tomatoes ripen :( 

Sweet Potato

Omgosh! Last years sweet potatoes didn't grow but this year they are doing great.  I am more of a "learn by trial and error" and not so much by reading so I have no idea when to harvest the potatoes or how long they take to grow but I have learned one thing and that is not to plant them in a garden box again.  They want to spread far and wide and the box is just too small for them.

Asparagus

Now this I don't want to do the trial and error thing with.  I am going to have to watch a few YouTube videos and read up on this delicious plant. I have been trying to grow asparagus for a few years and each time I'd plant the root something would come along and take it or eat it. I was at the Farmer's Market this spring and a vendor was selling itty bitty plants so I put 3 in the ground and they are growing great! Not sure what the next step is but I'll be staying on top of this one since this yummy plant is a perennial  :-)

That's it.  Anyone else have success or failures in the garden this year? Luckily we've not had any pests but the onions and shallots aren't coming along like expected, they are both itty bitty and so I think I need to do some type of crop rotation next year and amend the soil much better than I did this year.  If you have any thoughts on why the shallots are the size of marbles, please let me know.

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STRAWBERRY FAIL

I can't help but be envious of my friends who have a bumper crop of strawberries this year.  I planted strawberries 5 years ago and it seems, once again, that I made an error.
My friend Teresa (domestic goddess, writing genius, homesteader extraordinaire) over at Homestead Notes is my go-to person when I struggle with gardening (and pretty much everything in life) and I've learned from her hubby that my crop of strawberries are just too old to give me the bounty that I really crave *sigh.  So, it seems I may have to start all over.

This year I was so pleased with myself for actually getting my butt to the garden store to pick up some hay.  It took me 5 yrs to learn that hay needs to be spread below the patch of berries (if they are as sparse as mine are) to keep the berries clean and to help avoid rotting.   In years passed we'd get an ok amount of berries but either the birds would eat them or they'd rot immediately.  Well... the hay is in place but I highly doubt we'll get any strawberries since my patch is too old.  Just look at them, 90% of these were planted 5 years ago... they should have multiplied by now.

I did have them in raised garden boxes which I don't think helped very much since the runners had nowhere to go, so I did remove those this year.

If anyone has any advice on how you started up your patch and made them flourish, please let me know.

I've also planted a variety of strawberry plants together and wonder now if that was a mistake :(

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WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN...

That my creative energy would return and I wouldn't even realize it.  Since August I've felt like a new person.  After turning 40 last year I fell into this nasty little funk and had no energy to write, craft, or even spend that much time in nature.  My summer began pretty poorly but before I knew it I was busy making cards, knitting, baking; all of a sudden I feel good again.  All I want to do is spin fiber, knit, poke around the garden - is it some kind of weird rebirth?  Who knows and who cares right?  As long as I am being productive and enjoying myself.
So my blog share is really just about what I've been up to.    Let's start with my garden:

PEAS: didn't turn out due to the insane heat we experienced this summer.

TOMATOES & ASPARAGUS:  stolen by one of natures creatures, likely deer and rabbits.

CUCUMBERS: due to my raspberry bush being grossly overgrown it swallowed up my cucumbers so I couldn't get to them without being attacked by a hoard of wasp (I learned my lesson about how closely I plant things).

STRAWBERRIES: looked healthy but didn't produce a single strawberry because of the early spring and refreeze we had.

APPLE TREES: still not producing apples.  I learned from an organic farmer that it's because I purchased the large apple trees and not the dwarf.  Apparently it may not produce for 3 more years.

PEANUTS: didn't grow - don't know why

BLUEBERRIES: deer ate them all down to little nubs.

LAVENDER: one bush died and the other is doing ok.

So what did turn out perfectly?  Shallots,  beans and raspberries!  This is the first year to plant shallots and beans and I've planted a raspberry bush a year for the past 4 years.  Thanks to my friend Teresa over at Homestead Notes (growing, writing, creating) and her advice on what book to buy I learned when to harvest the shallots and beans so not only did they grow well I was able to harvest them before they rotted.  My raspberries were in a happier mood than last year, producing and producing and producing lots of yummy fruit.  They must love heat!

And speaking of feeling creative, productive and having such an awesome friend, Teresa sent me a wonderful little package of goodies this past weekend.  The package included a recipe for pumpkin pineapple muffins, 3 little cloth bags with gifts inside, a pretty handmade card and this:

Colorful, interesting fiber to spin!  The pinkish fiber is cotton and the silky looking blue fiber is tencel.  I've never spun either so I'm looking forward to seeing how it spins.  

Thank you so much Teresa for the wonderful package and for knowing what I enjoy so well.

Now I'm off to knit :-)

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THE CANNING EXPERIMENT, PLUS!

I haven't found much time to blog lately but I hate just leaving the place to gather dust so I thought I'd post a quick one. I've been pondering the idea of deleting the blog again. The reason being, I think if I have to struggle to organize time so that I can get on here and write something then maybe it just isn't something

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I AM AT A GARDENING CROSSROADS

I'm not sure what to do. I know herbs. I spent years reading about herbs and perennials, planting and experimenting, but veggies and fruits... not so much. My first attempt at gardening a little over 5 years ago turned horrible. My carrots didn't grow, my tomatos were consumed by some unknown creature, and my gourds were planted incorrectly so they turned to mush.

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WILL THE LANDSCAPER FIX THIS? OR DARE I WONDER, IS OUR BEEKEEPING VENTURE DONE?

Hard to imagine that within hours of "fixing" our backyard water issues the yard is once again flooded. After going to bed with this:

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PLEASE HELP: CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THIS?

This plant/herb is taking over my yard, choking out all the flowers and other weeds (that I actually like) but the upside to it is that my honeybees LOVE it. This is the first time I've seen hundreds of honeybees head straight over to something in my yard. They aren't the only insects in love with this plant either, there are bumble bees, wasps, and other things I can't identify. Can anyone identify this crazy plant/weed?

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HODGEPODGE POST

Some of the flowers I planted. This is butterfly weed. I thought it was so pretty growing around the lake, I decided to plant some in the yard.

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