My Northern Garden

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader

Books/Writing

Food and environmental gurus tell us that the question isn’t always whether a food is organic, but whether it is local. There is comfort in knowing where your food comes from, and maybe even the people who grew it. As anyone who frequents farmers’ markets knows, local food tastes fantastic, too. But growing all of your own food seems a…
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orange marigold in bloom

Six Months of Gardening in Minnesota?

Climate

This past week, I picked basil in my garden and made pesto — a typical garden activity for August or September, but it’s late October in Minnesota and the garden has been growing strong since early April. The petunias on my front porch are in full — glorious, really — bloom, and with the wimpy frosts we’ve had, many annuals…
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Don’t Do This: Tree Strangled with Dog Chain

Plants

Confession is good for the soul, and while I am really embarrassed about this incident, others may benefit from my mistake. Bottom line: My favorite front yard tree was almost strangled with a dog chain. Please don’t do this. Here’s how it happened: We had an old dog, who enjoyed sitting out in the yard, especially if I was out…
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squash curing on bench

How to Cure Squash

How to

With a frost nearly certain tonight and a freeze a possibility, it was time to harvest the butternut squash. This is my first year growing squash, and I’m thrilled with the harvest. Now, how to cure squash, that is the question? Because my vegetable garden is not large, I planted only two plants, and put them in positions where they…
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Sedum is an Autumn Joy

Plants

The longer I garden in the North, the more I love sedum. It starts out as a dainty little cabbage head each spring, grows into  a perfect green (or purple) background to summer flowers, and then it flowers up in early to mid fall, going from greenish to pink to russet to brown, depending on the variety. Sedum come in…
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