With the sun out (finally) and the temperatures heating up, many plants have started to bloom and the bees and butterflies are returning to the garden. There were swarms of these large bumblebees working over the Baptisia ‘Twilight Blues’ that I have planted in the front garden. The size of this plant makes it almost like a shrub and the…
Read More
This past weekend, I took a class on wildflower photography at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais. I’ve wanted to take a class at the school for some time, and this course on using macro-lenses to photograph wildflowers on the North Shore seemed a perfect fit. Our instructor was Bryan Hansel, a local photographer who has taken some…
Read More
I was out in my DIY meadow area the other day when some neighbors walked by on the path and asked, “What are those orange flowers you’re putting in?” Those are insurance — a guarantee that I won’t accidentally pull one of the native plants I’m putting in this wild area. The meadow is a somewhat neglected space that over…
Read More
I’m one of those lucky garden writers who gets sent new plant introductions to try out about a year before the plants are introduced to the public. This is fun for me because they’re free (thank you, Proven Winners and Sakata!) and because I get a chance to see what kinds of color trends and plant styles will be on…
Read More
I wrote some time ago about starting native perennials in winter sowing containers, and thought now would be a good time for an update. Given our especially long winter, the plants in the containers are still pretty small. The good news is, germination occurred in almost all of the 28 containers. The two that have not germinated yet — and…
Read More