As I noted a while back, critters have taken up residence in my bee condo. But they do not seem to be orchard mason bees. When an orchard mason bee moves into a condo like this, the signs are a rough mud plug in one of the holes. The bees use the holes to protect their offspring and fill the…
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Many gardeners like to take pictures of their gardens, partly to keep records of how things look and partly out of the parent-like pride people rightly feel about their gardens. Getting good garden shots is not easy–as I have certainly discovered while keeping this blog. Some photos look washed out, some too bright, sometimes the main subject looks great, but…
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Not the bad kind. The good kind–the kind you smell walking on the lakeshore on breezy day, putting your nose close to a baby’s head after a bath, the kind from flowers you love. Lilies are new to my garden this year, and I am awfully glad I picked up these Mona Lisa lilies (Lillium ‘Mona Lisa’) at the Minneapolis…
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Yesterday, I took a side trip on my way home from the Twin Cities to Afton, Minnesota, to visit Squire House Gardens, a garden center specializing in unusual plants and accessories for home and garden. I visited the store last December to talk with co-owner Martin Stern and designer Kathy Oss about creating holiday pots. The garden was lovely then,…
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That’s my garden blogger’s imitation of Stanley Kowalski. Stella is back–Stella d’Oro, that is, probably one of the most planted perennials of the past 30 years, a plant that is both loved and disdained. I’ve heard it called,”the most worthless perennial of all time,” by Northern Gardener’s own Don Engebretson, a.k.a., The Renegade Gardener, and praised as “the most popular…
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