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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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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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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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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I spent a good part of yesterday editing copy for the November/December issue of Northern Gardener. (It’s going to be a good one!) And, one of the columnists wrote about care of common houseplants, including Hoya carnosa or wax plant. I have a wax plant that came from a cutting from a plant my grandmother kept for many years. She…
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