Fall in Minnesota is known for warm days, cool nights, changing leaves that color the landscape with golds, oranges, reds, and greens, trips to local apple orchards, crackling bonfires, comfortable hoodies and jeans, and mugs of hot apple cider. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? It is, but this time period goes by so quickly. Within a few short weeks, the trees will be empty of their leaves, heavy frosts will put the fall garden to bed, and the sun will no longer be strong enough to heat the cold winds blowing from the north. Fall is bittersweet – it is fleeting. Before we know it, we will be thrown into our six months of winter (not the three months that our calendars indicate). As I sit by my computer, staring out the window, I see the gold-colored leaves that are delicately edged with pops of red, rustling in the cool October breeze. They continue to fall, blanketing the perennials beneath the temporary canopy that will be gone within a week. Birds are darting in and out of the tree looking for insects… …and hunting in the gardens for seeds. The fall-blooming perennials are alive with blooms of all shapes and colors as the painted lady suns herself on the New England aster. I enjoy all that fall has to offer, even if it is foreshadowing what is to come. Even if I do so with a little bit of sadness. The Fall Garden A Painted Lady among phlox. Yellow mums, vibrant under the weakening rays of a fall sun, The warm smells of crispy leaves and hydrangea flowers. Fleeting pleasures. The garden is tired, It is struggling through frosty nights, Weary after a season of blooms, perfumes, and exotic shows. Lethargic bumble bees creep slowly up faded flowers Determined to eat their last meal. Frost crystals on leaves sparkle like millions of diamonds Deceiving the observer. Death disguised as beauty. Petals fall. Leaves wilt. Stems break. Only the little faces of the New England aster are alert and knowing. Only the butterfly fluttering among phlox Realizes that she won’t migrate on time. Her time is also fleeting. Then you arrive, And you are lethargic like the bumblebee, And your beauty is fleeting like the flowers. Like the butterfly, You know you can’t make the migration. But your roots run deep. Even though the soft, white snow will cover everything Sending the fall garden into a long winters sleep, Buds on branches promise the return of life. The roses will bloom again, And the Stargazer lilies will drench the air with their perfume, And I will think of you.
Flower
Sweet Clover, Summer Memories, and a Wildflower Bouquet
As the kids and I took a walk down our road to the lake, the intoxicating smell of sweet clover, vanilla mixed with fresh-cut hay, permeated the air. Late June in Minnesota is when the summer wildflowers awaken and adorn the sides of the roads, prairies, and edges of our 10,000+ lakes. On this particular day, my daughter started collecting wildflowers on the side of the road as we walked toward the lake. “Mom, I’m going to make you the most beautiful wildflower bouquet today.” As my daughter waded through the tall grass and wildflowers, she gathered: Black-eyed Susans, Prairie Fleabane, Tufted Vetch, Virginia Waterleaf, Yellow and White Sweet Clover, Ox-eye Daisies, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Red Clover. Once we arrived at the lake, my son picked an exquisite American White Water Lily, also known as the Fragrant Water Lily, to add to the bouquet. Before long we had a beautiful wildflower bouquet of all different colors, textures, and scents waiting to adorn our kitchen table. My family has been picking wildflowers along the roadside on our walks for year. One thing that always comes to mind, when reminiscing of these ventures, is the smell of sweet clover. In fact, my children have learned to identify sweet clover when it emerges from the soil in the early spring. First, there is excitement at finding the plant itself, but then a serious race ensues to see who can pick and smell the first sweet clover leaves of the year. There is nothing like the smell of sweet clover, especially on a warm summer day like today. Years ago, as a teenager, I remember helping my boyfriend (who is now my husband) with his summer lawn mowing jobs. There was this particular spot in a yard that smelled especially sweet every time we would mow. Determined to identify the plant,  I would stop and search high and low for the plant that smelled so sweet. Finally I found a plant that appeared to be a type of clover (three finely-toothed leaflets). After my job, I remember going home and telling my mother about this clover plant that had the most wonderful smell. She said “Oh, sweet clover! That was your great-grandpa’s favorite smell as well.” Little did my mother know, that my great-grandfather had actually written a journal entry about his memories of clover. What I remember was that mother laid me in the shade at the edge of the field and cocked the hay as my father raked it. The smell of the Red Clover drying and the humming of the bees comes back vividly now as I write of this happening. ~Roy Falk My mother’s aunt (who typed up my great-grandfather, Roy Falk’s, journals) noted how incredible my great-grandfather’s memory must have been to remember incidents that happened before he could even sit up on his own. I was also surprised, but I know it’s not unheard of. In fact, I remember one incident that happened when I was a baby in a walker. I was at a family friend’s house, and as I was wheeling around, the dog who lived at that house accidentally pushed me down the stairs in my walker. I was amazingly unharmed, but the memory of tumbling down those stairs and being terrified is still sharp in my mind. The sweet smell of the Red Clover and the buzzing of the bees must have had quite an impact on Great-Grandpa for him to recall this memory so well. After reading Great-Grandpa’s journal entry, I was interested to see if there was a purpose of the clover being in the hay field. According the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), clover was brought over to the United States from Europe in the 1600’s. It was used as a forage crop (to feed livestock) and as a cover crop (where it is used to keep weeds down and enrich the soil). Clover plants have very long tap roots that extend several feet below the top soil. This tap root brings nutrients such as nitrogen up to the top soil, nourishing nearby shallow-rooted plants. I wish I could have been sitting next to the field with Great-Grandpa, listening to the bees and smelling the hay and clover as it dried in the fields. As I’m writing this, my husband and children are imploring me to accompany them on our daily walk. I think I’m ready to go out and smell the sweet clover again after sharing this story. I urge you to make your way outside and embark on a journey to look for some summer wildflowers. You may just come home with a beautiful bouquet, and if you’re lucky, you’ll catch the scent of vanilla and fresh-cut hay drifting the air.
Designing Mixed Flower Pots
Calibrachoa (million bells), angelonia, dahlia, zinnia, geranium, petunia, coleus, and salvia greeted me each morning as I stepped inside the greenhouses I worked in throughout college. The smell as I entered my summer work space was intoxicating. I remember thinking how lucky I was to spend my summer days amongst the flowers with happy people. Yes, I swear that people who garden are some of the happiest people around. Anyway, it was during the summers at the greenhouse that I learned all about flowers, and the art of planting and designing mixed flower pots. Along with learning the names of annuals very quickly (the greenhouse I worked at specializes in annuals), I remember studying the mixed baskets that hung from the rafters, and the mixed pots that adorned each corner. You see, prior to working in the greenhouse, I was accustomed to seeing the traditional geranium pots with a spike plant coming out of the top. My parents had them at one time, my grandparents had them, and so did many other people around the neighborhood I lived in. Now, don’t get me wrong, geranium pots are beautiful! They add a pop of color to any sunny space they are put in, and those geranium flower heads are huge! But, as I studied the mixed pots in the greenhouses, I was captivated. Color combinations, textures, flower shape, and plant-height kept me studying, kept me interested, and ultimately inspired me. Today, one of my favorite jobs as a gardener is designing and planting mixed flower pots. I put together nine simple tips to utilize when designing a mixed flower pot. You can do it! Here they are: Light – Before picking out plants for your pot, make sure you know the amount of light your plants will be getting. This will tell you whether or not you need shade, part-shade/sun, or sun-tolerant plants. The mixed pot below was designed for shade as the flowers received only an hour or so of sunlight per day. Harmony and Contrast – Harmony is the likeness between plants; whereas contrast is the difference between plants. Characteristics include plant shape, height, texture, and color. In planting, harmony and contrast really do complement each other. For example, a harmony in flower color is more interesting if it links to contrasting texture. A deep red geranium flower will bring out the red color in coleus leaves, but the flower and leaf texture are completely different. Or, pairing the dainty Diamond Frost flower with a large, bold dahlia flower brings interest and sweetness to a pot. Balance – Bilateral symmetry in planting is where the arrangement of planting in one area is mirrored in another area creating balance. This does not necessarily mean that the exact plants must be planted on each side of a planter (although this will work), you can also achieve balance by using similar colors, similar textures, or similar heights on each side. Symmetry does not have to be side-to-side, it can also be achieved with height too. For instance, the tall, large dahlia flower will most-likely be the highest flower in the pot, and a balance of color can be achieved by placing red calibrachoa at the foot of the dahlia. This would be a high-low symmetry. Height – Choose plants that will give you interest at different heights. Using plants of all different heights (trailing, medium-sized, and tall) will provide interest at many different levels and give your planting depth. One of my favorite hacks when planting mixed pots is to use tropical plants. I have used jasmine plants in my mixed pots for many years now. I love the height of the jasmine plant, the dainty white flowers, and the beautiful, sweet aroma of the jasmine flower. Jasmine can also be over-wintered in the basement so I use it year after year. Saving money is always nice! Depth and Viewing Angles – Think about where your pot will be placed. If it will be on the porch up against the house, you may want to put the taller plants at the back of the pot. This will give you the entire front of the pot to fill in with medium and low plants providing a lot of depth and interest to the pot. However, if the pot is situated in the middle of a garden and can be seen from all angles, you probably want to put your taller plants in the middle and plant all the way around the taller plants for interest at every angle. Color – Choosing colors for a mixed pot can be the most enjoyable and daunting task all at the same time. Color combinations, house color, pot surroundings, and color preferences should all be considered when designing a pot. For instance, one of my favorite color combinations is coral and purple. However, no matter how nice the combination looked when I put the flowers together at the greenhouse, the coral would be lost against the orange bricks on my house. Also, when deciding on colors, keep the color wheel in mind. Complementary colors work very nice together in pots. Violet or blue flowers look beautiful with yellow flowers, and red flowers look great against green foliage. Arrange Before Planting – Fill the pot 2/3 of the way full with soil. Arrange the plants in their own pots before doing the final planting. This way you can see how the pot will look before planting to make sure the plant mixture looks right (you can also arrange plants on the cart in the greenhouse before buying to make sure you are buying the right flowers). Fill the pot! – One of the best things about container planting is that you can fill up the pot for instant fullness and beauty. Don’t plant a few small plants knowing that they will grow larger over the summer. Fill the pot with interest and color right away. If by chance a plant grows a little too large over the summer, trim it back! Sweet potato vine, for example,
A Flowering Lawn: Bees and Dandelions
A flowering lawn is not something that most people see as being beautiful or positive. When my husband and I had our first child we decided to forgo the fertilizer that treated the pesky dandelions, crab grass and creeping charlie because we didn’t want our little one crawling on chemicals. This was hard for me as I grew up in a family that was proud of our lush lawn that was dark green, weed-free, and manicured. In fact, I remember my father paying me one cent per dandelion to dig up the buttery-yellow flowering plants. Those dandelion tap roots were definitely a chore to dig out. Little did I know that the weeds we were treating, digging out, and eradicating were some of the most important flowers of the spring! If you watch the news, read the newspaper, or follow any type of social media, you have probably been informed of one or more of the problems facing the bee population, not only in the United States, but across the world. You may have read about the declination of bees, Colony Collapse Disorder (a phenomenon where the worker bees abandon a colony and leave all of the honey, the queen bee, and a few nurse bees to care for the young), or pesticide poisoning of bees. The University of Minnesota pinpoints three reasons for the decline in the number of bees and why this matters: Why the decline in bees? Flowerless yards that lack plant diversity. Pesticide use such as the neonicotinoids. Diseases (Israeli Acute Paralysis virus and Nosema) and parasites (varroa mite). Why does this matter? Over 70% of our flowering plants depend on bees and other pollinators to reproduce. Pollinated plants grow more than 30% of our food and beverages. About $29 billion in U.S. farm income is generated by bees and other pollinators. Back to those pesky (or beautiful) dandelions. Dandelions are often the very first meal bees consume after they sleepily awake from their winter hibernation because dandelions are one of the first flowers to bloom profusely in the spring, especially in cool northern climates. Bees need quick nourishment after they emerge, and dandelions provide just that! Dandelions provide both protein (pollen) and carbohydrate (nectar). Did you know that bees can smell dandelions from a mile away? What should you do about all of those dandelions in your yard? I can see you cringing right now. Yes, let those dandelions grow! If you do this, you will be saving yourself money each year and saving plants and critters alike. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Homeowners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops, and they spend more per acre, on average, to maintain their lawns than farmers spend per agricultural acre. Surprising, isn’t it? All of these pesticides are leached into the ground, get washed into creeks, lakes, and/or drains, and can even travel long distances by rain or fog, which is called non-point source pollution. Nearly eight years is the time it took me, after we chose to stop fertilizing our lawn, to accept dandelions (and creeping charlie, and violets, and thistle) growing happily in our lawn. I have to say that my family and I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to those first flowers opening up and greeting us in the spring. Just a few days ago, my son, daughter, and I went out to see which insects were enjoying the feast of dandelions in our front yard. We spent nearly an hour observing many different types of bees, ants, and hoverflies ingesting the nectar (carbohydrate) and pollen (protein) of the dandelions. The cherry blossoms, pear blossoms, and apple blossoms on our fruit trees were also covered with bees, thanks to the dandelions for luring the bees here in the first place. A perfect example of sustainable agriculture. What can we do as homeowners to help boost the bee population? Well, there are multiple things: Do not use insecticides or pesticides and choose to buy plants from nurseries that use bee-friendly ways to eliminate pests. Plant bee-friendly plants. Accept or even enjoy a flowering lawn. Do your part in supporting our bees by embracing a flowering lawn. See the lists below for other dandelion facts and other flowers you can plant in your yard to support the bees all season long. I leave you with a picture of my dog, Brook. She also loves the sea of dandelions in our front yard! Dandelion Facts Dandelions are good for top soil. Dandelions have long tap roots that take nutrients from underneath the top soil, such as calcium, and brings that nutrients to the top soil. Other plants that have shallow roots benefit from the nutrients dandelions bring up. Dandelion tap roots help to aerate the soil and help reduce erosion. The entire dandelion plant is edible. Dandelion leaves taste like arugula, the leaves are best when they are picked before the plant blooms. Use the blossoms to make dandelion wine. Dandelions are very healthy to eat (as long as they haven’t been sprayed or fertilized). The greens contain vitamins C and B6, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, iron, potassium, and manganese, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, and copper. Plants That Bees Love Bloom Time Aruncus dioecus or goatsbeard Mid Agastache or licorice plant Mid-to-late Asclepias or butterfly weed
Mulch or Rock in Landscaping: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Application Tips
Ten yards of mulch, done! I should have bought 15 yards to finish off my gardens nicely, so I will make note of that so I order the right amount next time. One of the first questions many people have when completing a new garden or landscape project is “Should I use mulch or rock?” Well, here are my two cents: Homeowners use mulch or rock to keep weeds down, keep moisture in the ground, and/or provide a certain look to landscaping. Some people love the look of rock, some may prefer the more natural look of mulch, and some go without either. If you have a garden in which you like to move things around, plant annuals, frequently add new plants, or like a more natural look, use mulch. On the contrary, if you have an area that will not be disturbed for years (ex. a walking path, or an area with shrubs), if you want something that lasts a little longer, or you like the look of stone, you may be safe using rock. Here are the pros and cons of using mulch and rock along with application tips for both: Mulch Pros: Keeps soil moist. Insulates well! Helps to keep plant roots and soil cool during warm periods, and helps keep the soil warm during cool periods. Breaks down over time and enriches the soil by adding nutrients from the decaying wood. Prevents weeds from growing. Mulch is easily moved and replaced when a plant needs to be planted. No barrier is needed before laying down mulch Relatively lightweight, so most homeowners can apply mulch on their own. Inexpensive – Costs two to three times less than rock. Has a natural appearance. Mulch Cons: Due to the lightweight-nature of mulch, heavy rains or strong winds can misplace mulch. Due to the natural decomposition of wood, mulch needs to be replaced or refreshed every other year. Mulch Tips: Remove weeds before applying mulch. Use 3-5″ of mulch to keep the weeds down and to keep the water in the soil. Lay down 3-4″ of smaller-sized mulch, and 5″of larger-sized mulch to prevent weed growth and retain water. Plant and transplant before new mulch is added. Remove mulch before planting, and reapply mulch after planting. Apply mulch in the early spring. Mulching while plants are small makes spreading the mulch much easier with very little chance of ruining emerging plants. Rock Pros: Rock comes in many different colors, textures, and shapes. Rock is durable and rarely has to be replaced. Helps to keep moisture in the soil. Rock Cons: Very heavy and can be very difficult and expensive to install. Costs two to three times more than mulch. Needs a barrier, such as landscape fabric, between the soil and rock. Can heat up the ground causing plant or root damage. Debris can build up in-between rocks causing weeds to grow. Rocks with dirt in them need to be lifted and cleaned to prevent weeds to grow. The barrier under the rock does not allow natural decomposition of materials in to the soil. Very hard to remove once installed. Rock Tips: Remove weed from soil before barrier and rock are applied. Add 2-4″ of rock (smaller rock being on the 2″ range and larger rock being up at the 4″ range) on top of barrier. Blow debris off of rock whenever needed so it doesn’t have time to decompose. Have shrubs or trees planted before laying barrier and rock down. Do not plant after rock is down. Use around shrubs and trees only. Rock can heat smaller or fragile plants too much, causing damage to plant and/or roots.
Perennials: Spring Snow
Here in Minnesota, we never know what Mother Nature will bring us throughout the year. We almost hit 70F in February, and now at the end of April, we woke up to a dusting of snow that lightly covered our awakening perennials. I guess the weather is one thing that keeps Minnesotans on their toes. But, drastic change in temperatures can also cause a gardener angst. There is hardly a year that goes by that Minnesotans don’t see a spring snowfall. Just a few years ago we had snow after what was supposed to be our last frost date (early May for central MN). When spring snowfalls happen, I’m always sure to receive a phone call from a client or two asking what they should do to protect their emerging perennials, or if I think their plants will be okay. Good news! Perennials are tough little buggers. They want to survive. And, if perennials are considered hardy in the zone they are planted in, spring bloomers should be a-okay. Should you cover plants if a freeze or a snow is expected in the spring? It depends! The perennials that bloom in the spring, such as daffodils, tulips, magnolias, hyacinths, and the like are cold-tolerant and can handle a light freeze and even snow without being covered. If you have plants that have already leafed out and tend to be a little more touchy to freezing temperatures, such as hosta, you may want to cover them with a light sheet. Now, if you’ve gone to a garden center (where many of the plants they sell are blooming ahead of time due to being grown in a greenhouse) and have just planted a perennial that is blooming ahead of time of it’s usual time, those blooms can be a little more fragile in freezing temperatures, and you will probably want to cover them. This is especially important if your perennial is a fruit or vegetable plant. Blooms on fruit and vegetable plants tend to be touchy to freezing temps, and if the blooms die off, this could ultimately prohibit any kind of fruiting later in the growing season. For the most part, early blooming perennials will be just fine in cold temperatures and snow, as long as they are planted in the correct zone. If you wake up to a late spring snowfall, don’t fret, but head outside and take a moment to discover how beautiful your spring flowers look with a little snow dusting their delicate petals. A definite treat to the eyes!