Besides vegetables and fruit, my other huge and equally important passion is our native prairie gardens. It was probably about 10 years ago when first I became infatuated with common milkweed. I searched for it everywhere. I called every landscape center around, and finally tracked it down north of the city. The kids and I drove over 2 hours round trip and paid money to bring it onto our property. Once I brought it onto our city lot -viola!- the monarchs arrived, laying eggs on the tiniest milkweed plants nestled amid a sea of concrete. That was all it took to turn me into a huge native perenn ..read more

I’ve always grown some flowers, namely zinnias and marigolds, in my garden. Come to think of it, I’ve even grown sweet alyssum and nasturtiums for longer than I’ve given myself credit (thank you old photographs for correcting my lapsed memory). But that was mostly it for flowers for many years, aside from our perennial beds. I grew them, frankly, because that’s what my Mom grew, and she grew them because that’s what her mother and grandmother grew. I think a lot of gardeners can relate to the tradition of growing what your ancestors grew because “that’s what you do”. And the beauty is that man ..read more

We shared our personal sowing chart in a late January post. And, admittedly, it's a very aggressive growth chart by general gardening standards. We grow aggressively to maximize our terribly short growing season, and to inspire others to stretch their own predisposed gardening beliefs. My goal here is to break down our approach into bite-sized, actionable pieces for those hoping to try their hand at the deliciously-rewarding art of successional planting, wherever you may reside.  In order to achieve successional harvests, you need to be aware of what foods can be grown successionally.&nbs ..read more

A Word About Lighting You may be wondering what we use for lighting. Presently, we use 4-foot T8 ballasts with half cool white and half bright white (fluorescent) 32W bulbs. This equates to approximately 13,000 lumens. We have six shelves, each shelf has the capacity for 2, 1020 trays and adjustable heights up to 2 feet per shelf. And, we are in the process of expanding our setup to include a third plant stand with three more shelves. We keep lights on 24/7 once seedlings emerge to maximize vegetative growth, and simultaneously unplug the heat mats to cool the soil. Lighting seems expensi ..read more

Who doesn't love when beauty and function harmoniously coexist? So many of our gardening support systems have been hacked together hastily with whatever has been around at the time, many of them customized to accommodate constraints of former spaces. While still functional, our primary 3-tiered plant stand really felt outdated for the past several years. I knew at the end of last year's growing season that even without starting a full flat of asparagus seeds in early February (that would occupy one whole light until early May), we would still need another stand this year; my list of flowers I ..read more

My focus for 2022 is to live as simple a life as possible, both in and out of the garden. Perhaps that sounds ambitious and misplaced given my first book publishes in March and I’ve got other projects in the works, but I do believe that I can mute the noise that tends to distract me and create negative tension in my daily life. I look forward to sharing my journey with you as I strive to live a more balanced life. This yearning has also led me to really try to grow what we know this year. To take inventory this winter of our root cellars and refine our growing space to continue to dial in the ..read more

A new year is finally upon us. I am not one to make massive resolutions, but I deeply appreciate this opportunity to leave behind in 2021 that which didn’t serve our garden and move into 2022 with even more clarity. Last year was tumultuous all around. Globally we continue to live through historic times, and the stress and tension of everyday life are downright exhausting. The garden is more important than ever. It grounds me in every way. While I enjoy these quiet weeks of subzero temperatures by the woodstove, not a day goes by that I don’t dream of hot and sticky summer days lazing around t ..read more

We love clean geometric lines in all aspects of design. So when I decided last Winter I wanted to add garden arbors down our main path, we knew we would want to do it economically yet without compromising form and function. Inspired by the many garden arbors I had come across online, but especially informed from seeing what Niki Jabbour did with her raised garden beds, we took inspiration and pivoted, creating something that literally fitted in our space. Because, it turns out that adding arbors across our main, angular path was not that easy. It was, instead, nearly impossible. In fact, the o ..read more

If I could wave my magic wand, tossing a handful of seeds into every open palm across the globe, I wouldn’t be sharing the still novel cucamelons nor glass gem corn though they are both incredibly magical crops. It would be the leguminous ground nuts, aka, peanuts. Peanuts are in a class all their own in my opinion, a beautiful crop that creates food in the most unique way, something children and adults alike will marvel at in your garden. In other words, a must-grow for your garden bucket list. I was completely unsure of how peanuts would do in Minnesota, but was confident this legume deserve ..read more

Asparagus and its unique texture and flavor evokes strong feelings from people. Do you love it or hate it? We are asparagus lovers, devouring it when in season from early May through mid-June, abstaining when it’s not in season. It does not freeze or can well, so it’s a true feast or famine crop for our family.  The biggest secret about asparagus is how easy and affordable it is to grow from seed, not only saving you money but also producing harvestable food faster than if purchasing crowns. Growing from these one year old dormant plants, called crowns, is the industry standard and what w ..read more