Garden care
May Garden Chores: Keeping Busy!
What to do in the garden in May? The better question is what not to do as May is likely the northern gardener’s busiest month. Cleaning up, feeding the soil, planting, weeding and plant shopping are among the tasks to keep gardeners busy in May. Here’s a short list of garden chores for May: Continue…
Read MoreApril Garden Chores: A Careful Dance
“Oh, the lovely fickleness of an April day,” wrote the naturalist William H. Gibson a long time ago. And, as I write this post, April certainly is fickle. Yesterday, it was windy but pleasant and warm in the 50s. Today, sleety rain and the low will dip into the 20s. The pansy basket has moved…
Read MoreDecember Garden Chores
With folks cleaning up from a blizzard in Duluth and a two-day snowstorm in parts of the rest of the state, it’s hard to imagine there are a lot of December garden chores for northern gardeners. And, while this is one of the two most relaxing months for gardeners, there are still a few things…
Read MoreCaring for Bulbs After Bloom
A few late tulips and daffodils are still blooming, but many spring-blooming bulbs are past their prime now. So how do you care for bulbs after bloom? Here are some tips: Deadhead. Unless you are planning to harvest seed or you want the bulbs to naturalize and spread in an area, start by removing the…
Read MoreFall Northern Gardener Available
You can’t miss the September/October 2017 issue of Northern Gardener, which is on newsstands now with big, beautiful, orange dahlias on the cover. The photo, from regular contributor Tracy Walsh, is of ‘Big Orange’ dahlias from Two Pony Gardens, a garden specializing in heirloom tomatoes and dahlias. Tracy profiles the gardens and their owner, Lisa…
Read MoreGarden Experiments
MSHS has been celebrating its 150th Anniversary this year, and the big anniversary party was held last Saturday at Tangletown Gardens Farm in Plato, MN. As part of the event, Dean Englemann gave a walking tour around the garden, talking about some of the processes that he and business partner Scott Endres are using on…
Read MoreShould You Still Deadhead?
As we get passed the middle of August (arghh!!), it’s time to consider whether to deadhead or not. Deadheading is the practice of removing the spent flowers on plants – usually by snapping off a fading flower with your fingers or snipping off a stem with a bypass pruner. Deadheading has two main purposes. First,…
Read MoreHow to Dig and Divide Dahlia Tubers
Dahlias are native to Mexico, but these stunning tropical plants shine in the northern garden, too. A member of the aster family, dahlias look a bit like zinnias, chrysanthemums and other aster-like plants. They come in a wide range of forms, from small, single blooms to enormous, so-called dinner-plate dahlias, many of which are more…
Read MoreShould You Cut Back Perennials in Fall?
To cut back perennials or not to cut back perennials, that is the question many gardeners ask themselves in fall. We have been fortunate this autumn that the weather has been unusually warm in Minnesota, which is giving many plants a last shot at blooming. (Many of my daylilies re-bloomed in September and October and…
Read MoreHow to Grow Lilacs
This is a first in a regular series of articles on the care and maintenance of some of our favorite plants for northern gardens. With their lush blooms and deeply floral fragrance, lilacs are a harbinger of summer in the northern garden. They generally bloom from early to late May at the same time as…
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