Gardening in the north is rewarding but challenging—summer days are long and warm, but there aren’t always enough of them to accommodate all our gardening aspirations. Maybe you have your eyes on a new variety you’d like to grow, but the maturity time falls into your potential frost dates. Have you considered cold frames? They can not only protect sensitive plants from the first couple of fall frosts, but they can also permit you to get things going earlier in the spring. You can even use cold frames to help potted seedlings acclimate to the outdoors. Sure, you can always purchase cold frames ..read more

Many of us Minnesota gardeners grew up and grew old visiting the annual spring flower show at the downtown Minneapolis Dayton’s (then Marshall Fields and then Macy’s). Since its departure, we are always on the lookout for ways to fill the hole it left in our garden inspiration. A visit to the Bachman’s underwater floral extravaganza “Into the Deep” at the Galleria in Edina, Minn., filled a little of that void for me. The show was a candy store—colorful floral confections everywhere. It was eye-candy and a fizzy drink for my winter weary soul. It was an amusement park of flowers and quite enter ..read more

Plan your next garden project in Canva, the free online design program. I love Canva. It gives the power back to the people. If you are unfamiliar, it is an online design program that is easy to use and allows anyone to create videos, presentations, invitations, event flyers and the list goes on. How can Canva help you as a gardener? It’s a free and easy tool for plant people to visualize our designs on paper… by way of the computer. We gardeners are planners by nature and getting our ideas out of our heads and onto paper helps us to bring our visions to life. I use Canva to plot out my garden ..read more

In this weird, Seattle-like winter, nothing brightens up a home as much as a lemon, lime or orange tree growing indoors. Growing citrus indoors in the North requires the right plants, plenty of light and a bit of care from the gardener. With that, you’ll be enjoying fragrant blooms, lush plants and tart fruit. Best citrus for indoors The citrus trees grown in Florida or California are big, in-ground trees and most of those varieties will not grow well in containers. For best results growing citrus indoors, choose varieties bred for container culture. Examples include Calamondin or Satsuma oran ..read more

Many of the plants in your garden will never need pruning. An entire summer of vegetable gardening can go by without any thought of pruning, save the occasional removal of diseased leaves. But the woody perennials that make up so much of your property’s décor, all of your ornamental shrubs and trees, do need pruning to help shape them into ideal specimens and keep them healthy. Proper pruning helps trees and shrubs grow strong and helps minimize disease by allowing light and air to easily reach the interior. While pruning can a complex subject, here are a few points to consider as you get star ..read more

Seed bombs are a bit of a buzz word right now in the gardening world. Also known as seed balls or flower bombs, the idea is golden. Almost anyone can make these little balls of seeds, dirt and clay and toss them—possibly renegade style—into nooks, crannies and barren areas in need of flowers. Skeptics question how well they work, but many more consider them a fun, time-tested practice. Some say they harken back to the ancient Egyptians, who used them to plant the banks of the Nile. Ancient Japanese gardeners coined them Tsuchi Dango (earth dumpling) and they were reintroduced as a practice in ..read more

I won a copy of Marianne Willburn’s inviting book on tropical plants at a gardening event last fall. The author cheerfully signed it for me, though I warned her that tropical plants were not really my thing. “Maybe this book will change your mind,” she said. It may have, too, judging by the list of tropicals I’m pondering adding to my containers come spring. Tropical Plants and How to Love Them (Cool Springs Press, 2021) is all about understanding your relationship with plants that are very far out of your zone. How you love (or just use) tropical plants depends on your time, energy and garde ..read more

With the winter of 2023-24 on track to be one of the warmest, if not the warmest winter ever recorded in Minnesota, what’s a gardener to do? The short, frustrating answer is: Not much. Big, juicy tree buds are bursting out across Minnesota during this unseasonably warm February. Photo: Mary Lahr Schier Yes, you can add more mulch to plants that seem to be greening up too fast. This will protect them during potential cold snaps in February, March or April. You can also take comfort in the knowledge that soil and air temperatures are not the only factors driving when plants break dormancy in spr ..read more

[ title image: front_yard_mixed_prairie.jpg ] It must be garden planning season, because two different people have asked me variations of this question recently. Let’s dig in! Question: I’d really like to convert part of my yard into a prairie garden. Can I just stop mowing it and let it naturally convert back to prairie? If I want to add plants, which plants do you recommend? Answer: This is a great question, and it requires a multi-part answer. Pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea because this is a long one. First, and critically, I am sorry to say that—unless your lawn is surrounded on all ..read more

I started making wreaths in the early 2000s when Martha Stewart was everywhere (books, television, magazines). She was always making them with all sorts of themes and varying materials. Her wreaths were inspiring; earlier this winter, I made one out of glass Christmas tree ball ornaments based off one she did. After all the holiday hubbub, I was in the mood for something more natural. Wreaths look good anytime of the year and a wreath made to also feed the birds is a lovely way to ring in the new year and also, brighten up the long winter. I began with a basic wreath frame. Metal wreath forms ..read more