Cucumelons and Fish peppers


Thu. Sep. 26, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Cucumelons and Fish peppers!

I’m pretty fortunate. I have listeners who will often share their bounty with me! So far this year I have had the sweetest corn on the cob ever, delicious Yukon gold potatoes and fresh edamame!

And then came the cucumelons and fish peppers. First the darling little cucumelons. Turns out Etsy sells a ton of these by various sellers. Click to find some!

Bridgette dropped those off for me saying our local nursery down  … [Continue reading]

Seeds to sow


Wed. Sep. 25, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Seeds to sow

Fall sowing of the seeds of spring germination. It’s a doable deed and you can get a deal to boot! There are some native plant nurseries that have select seeds on sale to sow now and you’ll see results as they spring up next season! What are those natives? 

Prairie Moon Nursery, based out of Minnesota, supplies native plants and seeds to the Upper Midwest. They can hook you up, as well as other  … [Continue reading]

Life abuzz!


Tue. Sep. 24, 2019

I wanted to share with you the buzzing life all over my native asters! The one monarch, I’m sure is a baby from my neighbor, Connie, who I introduced you to a couple of months ago.  Bees, bumblebees, Painted ladies, monarchs.

 

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It’s a nutty year – Black walnut


Tue. Sep. 24, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: It’s a nutty year – Black walnut

This has been one nutty year.  My neighbor has two black walnut trees at the edge of my property. The squirrels have made a mess with them and I’ve spent lots of time trying to pick them up off my yard before mowing! 

So what can you do with all those nuts?  Well, some say, the black walnuts are delicious.  In fact I just talked with the cashier at the local  … [Continue reading]

Happy Autumnal Equinox Day


Mon. Sep. 23, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Happy Autumnal Equinox Day

 Happy Autumnal Equinox.  Did you get my card? I’m truly surprised there aren’t cards for it considering I’ve seen happy nose job cards and various other parts!  HA, I spoke too soon…. 

This is where a LOT of cards were, ps, this isn’t an endorsement but if you like cards, you may like these:  greetingcarduniverse 

 Anyhoo, it’s the first day of Fall. 

I love this time of year.  Leaving the windows cracked open at  … [Continue reading]

Tomato heaven with a 2020 roma or 2 and a Big duck?


Fri. Sep. 20, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Tomato heaven with a 2020 roma or 2 and a Big duck?

As I mentioned last week, I have been roasting tomatoes and dehydrating them.

The best tomatoes for roasting are paste or romas, those with more meat than juice. It just so happens, there’s a 2020 AAS winner that could be a great candidate for roasting!  It’s called ‘Early Resilience F1’.

The AAS Judges noted that this variety was very resistant to Blossom End Rot, resulting  … [Continue reading]

A bright spot with 2020 AAS winners


Thu. Sep. 19, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show:  A bright spot with 2020 AAS winners

With that w-word coming out of my mouth yesterday, winter… I thought I’d bring you something to look forward to in 2020!

As I’ve talked about renovating my gardens, I mentioned my Blackeyed Susans, which are currently monsters! Gorgeous, but large and in charge.

Coming in 2020 is a new Rudbeckia, the latin name for blackeyed susans. It’s called ‘American Gold Rush’. Growing to just 2 ft tall, it’s narrow  … [Continue reading]

Too early to prepare your plants for Winter? Nope


Wed. Sep. 18, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Too early to prepare your plants for Winter? Nope!

I know… we haven’t even had the Autumnal Equinox, so what the heck am I doing asking you THAT question? Well… once again my favorite magazine, Northern Gardener, comes out with a timely reminder.

The best thing you can do to prepare your evergreens, newly planted shrubs and trees and any borderline zone-friendly plants is to water them consistently from now until the ground freezes.

Trees can use  … [Continue reading]

Soil potpourri, organic matters!


Fri. Sep. 13, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Soil potpourri, organic matters!

There’s still harvesting to do, perennial, tree, shrub and bulb planting; but this is also a good time to start preparing a new garden bed.  Maybe you want to expand your vegetable garden or start a new perennial bed, add some shrubs.   Starting a new garden bed requires some prep work.  You need to kill the existing grass and weeds.  Chemicals are an option but for those of us who would rather not use  … [Continue reading]

Fall allergies and monarchs


Thu. Sep. 12, 2019

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Fall allergies and monarchs

Goldenrod sometimes gets a bad rap because it blooms the same time as ragweed and some people thing IT’S the problem…  more likely it’s ragweed that’s causing allergy symptoms.     Ragweed – WI         Ragweed – MN  

I looked up a chenopod and, the clearest explanation would be that it’s a type of weed like amaranth, lambs quarters and pigweed. Pollen counts are a bit higher in Minnesota and Wisconsin right now.

 We’ve got some late  … [Continue reading]