While I was checking out the color options, a white-lined sphinx moth flew in and started grabbing nectar from the plants. I didn’t have my camera, so I have no photos of the event. And, anyway, it was one of those moments when you just stop and admire the resourcefulness, the beauty and the diversity of nature. The moth—which is sometimes called a hummingbird moth because it’s that big and looks like a very ugly hummingbird— and I were within a foot of each other for probably two minutes. After a while, a snowberry clear-wing hummingbird moth flew in to enjoy the nectar, too. If you have never seen one of these, it looks like a bumblebee that was in a nuclear accident.

It was a joy to watch both of the moths move from flower to flower, inserting their proboscis into the blooms, then buzzing to the next flower.

After the moths departed for another flat of flowers, I thought about how early this was for me to see them. That may be a function of my plants rather than the moths’ behavior, but usually I do not see them until August and the only blog reference I have to them is from October!

At the same time, the University of Minnesota Master Gardener list serv that I read is full of references to early sightings of insects: sawflies, black aphids, ladybugs, four-lined plant bug, spittlebug, etc., etc.

What insects have you spotted this year? And, is it early for them to be in your garden?

This one is about to ink-out!

I haven’t planted anything in the straw bales yet, but something is growing! I have a big crop of mushrooms in one bale and a smaller crop of grass popping out of some of the other bales. Both of these are expected events, though still a bit surprising. The mushrooms are “inky cap mushrooms,” which are mushrooms that dissolve into a black goo after a day or so — I noticed the goo pretty heavily on one of the bales.

One bale is covered with mushrooms.

Cornell University’s mushroom blog has an interesting post on inky caps and their tendency to destroy themselves. In addition to sprouting mushrooms and grass, the bales are definitely heating up and I expect to be planting them out within a week or so.

Ready to roll back into the house!

I haven’t written much about seed starting this spring, because I’ve cut back on the number of plants I’m starting. After several years of seed-starting efforts, I’ve figured out that I do best starting tomatoes, Yvonne’s giant salvia and maybe a few brassicas (this year, Chinese cabbage and broccoli Romanesco). The brassicas are in the garden already, but the rest of the plants are still on my seed-starting shelf — which is a cheap metal shelf unit from which hang shop lights with fluorescent bulbs.

The seedlings started in the basement, but I was neglecting them, so I moved the shelf up to my office, which is now on our first floor. During the move, an inspiration struck — put the shelf on wheels! A quick trip to the local hardware store got me the wheels I needed, and today I wheeled the seedling cart from the office out to the deck for a couple of hours of fresh air. So easy! So quick! This might make hardening off, which I normally consider a huge pain, fun.

Hardening off means gradually acclimating seedlings to the outdoors. It is best done over a couple of weeks. (Northern Gardener has a good article by Colleen Vanderlinden on how-to harden off in the March/April issue.) I tend to rush the process because it’s such a pain moving all the plants in and out. With the wheeled cart, I can easily bring the plants out or in, depending on the weather and the sun. Hopefully, this will mean stronger plants when the time to put them in the ground comes.

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), if you have never experienced it, is an upright perennial that is covered with tiny, stinging hairs. It is a prairie plant, as are most of my weeds, and for some reason it has found a comfortable home in my raspberry patch. (It’s present in the meadow behind my house, too, but less noticeable there.) The leaves look a tiny bit like the leaves of the raspberry plant, so it is oftwn camouflaged. It’s got a four-sided stem and it can grow over 4 to 5 feet tall before it flowers in late summer.

Because it grows on rhizomes, it is hard to get it all out by hand pulling. I try to avoid using herbicides, and it’s location near a food crop, makes herbicides a non-option. If you think you may have it, check out the U of M’s  description with photos.

As I was eating breakfast and thinking about my tingling hand, I happened upon a story in The Mix about the nutrition and good taste of many plants gardeners consider “weeds.” Brett Laidlow, a naturalist and forager, wrote about the salad uses of spring greens, such as dandelions. Stinging nettle has been used medicinally for generations and is said to be very tasty when cooked.  Please, do not eat it uncooked — you don’t want what is on my hand in your mouth or stomach!!

Euell Gibbons was also a fan of stinging nettle, which shows that one person’s weed is another’s delicacy.

Stop by and pick up a tree or three!

UPDATE: Gardeners in Faribault can pick up trees at Lampert’s and those in Lonsdale can get them at the parking lot of Frandsen Bank.

According to the straw-bale gardening instructions, it should be time to plant. It’s been more than 12 days since I started. However, I’m going to hold off a few more days. I think the bales are still conditioning. It’s also going to be chilly here for several days.  More updates later!

Let me know if you have a weed you would like to have covered.

Note the long, parsnip-like root.

This week’s weed is one that has long been a problem in parts of my yard, but has really gone crazy this spring: Wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa).

Wild parsnip is pretty easy to identify, though it does look a bit like a native called prairie parsley or wild dill. It has fern-like leaves that come up in early spring. If you pull the weed, you can see its taproot, which does indeed look like a parsnip. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, wild parsnip will stay in this plant stage for more than one year, then flower on a tall, grooved stalk. The flowers resemble Queen Anne’s Lace, but have small yellow flowers arranged in an umbel fashion. If you see the flower heads, cut them off! Seed can survive in the soil for up to four years.

Wild parsnip also can cause phytophotodermatitis, which means if you touch the sap and are out in the sun you can get a nasty rash. Always wear gloves (and long sleeves!) when dealing with this plant.

Prevention is the best control method. The DNR says that in established prairies you can leave the wild parsnip alone and it will be out-competed by other prairie plants. In distrubed areas (this is what I have), you can pull plants. If that’s not possible, remove the flowerheads before they go to seed. Wild parsnip is a prohibited noxious weed in Minnesota.

For more information on wild parsnip, check out this page from Minnesota Wildflowers, a volunteer-run site about native  plants here.

I checked yesterday — in the 40-degree cold rain — and found that most of the bales were only about 60 degrees internally. Today, some were even colder. Because we have had a lot of cold rain and weather affects how quickly the bales start decomposing, I decided to put on the recommended plastic sheeting to warm the bales more.

I’m on the seventh day of the 10-day conditioning program, and the bales still need to heat up (they are supposed to go as high as 145 degrees F) and then cool down before I can plant. Hopefully, the slightly warmer weather this weekend and the much warmer temperatures next week will get things cooking.

Have any other straw bale gardeners had similar experiences?

Bales with espalier for climbing vegetables.

Last week, I attended a presentation on straw bale gardening with my friend, Penny. We both left Joel Karsten’s talk very excited to try this new type of container gardening. So over the weekend, I located a farmer near New Trier who had some big, beautiful bales of wheat straw that I used to set up my straw bale gardens.

The concept behind straw bale gardening is fairly simple. You “condition” the bales by flooding them with water and fertilizer (you can go organic or traditional — I’m trying both ways) for 10 days. During the conditioning, the inside of the bales starts to decompose and within a couple of weeks you have a very fertile medium inside the bales. You can plant seedlings directly into the bales or add potting soil or compost to the top of the bale and use seeds. When the season is over, you harvest your crops, take the twine off the bales and knock them over. Viola! Compost!

That’s the simple explanation, but there is a recommended process for doing this, so check out Karsten’s website or take one of his many classes around Minnesota before you get started.

I had a spot in our meadow area that was very prone to ragweed and other nasty business. I’d already cut the weeds down so I covered the area with a couple of large appliance boxes. I’m hoping that the cardboard will smother the weeds while I grow cutting flowers and vegetables in four of the bales, which are sitting on top of the cardboard with some additional wood mulch surrounding them for paths. I had one additional bale that I put on cardboard on top of one of my regular raised vegetable beds. This bed seemed a little depleted last year, so I’m giving the soil a break. I plan to grow potatoes in this bale, then after the potatoes are harvested, I’ll leave the bale/compost on the bed.

I’ve done a bit of research on straw bale gardening and the only concerns I’ve heard about it are that, if you do not get clean straw, your bales end up looking like chia pets with lots of little weeds sprouting out of them. The farmer I bought my bales from assured me they were “very clean.” I’m trusting him on that. The other concern is aesthetic. As the season progresses, not surprisingly, the bales start to sag and sometime look a little scraggly. Given that the alternative in the location I’ve chosen is a huge stand of ragweed, I’m not that concerned about looks.

We’ll be running an article on one person’s take on straw bale gardening in the July/August issue of Northern Gardener. Have you tried this method yet? Did it work for you?

Eastern tent caterpillars have been regular visitors to our yard in the spring. Usually I wait until dusk when all the caterpillars have returned to their nest and then snip the branch with the nest off and dispose of it. Eastern tent caterpillars are a nuisance, although if left unchecked they can defoliate a tree. They are not to be confused with forest tent caterpillars (Malacosoma disstria), which are sometimes called armyworms. Unlike eastern tent caterpillars, forest tent caterpillars do not build a tentlike nest. They also have different food preferences. While eastern tent caterpillars feed on apple, cherry and plum trees, forest tent caterpillars like aspen, birch, basswood and oak.

If you are not sure what kind of creepy crawly you have, check out these government fact sheets on forest tent caterpillars, eastern tent caterpillars and just for fun, gypsy moth caterpillars.

I did not remove the nest from my tree yet, because it’s possible the freezes we have had the past few nights did the caterpillars in for me. If not, I’ll be snipping the tent soon.