Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

9 Aug

Community Garden day on Saturday!

Posted by rakhi in Community Gardens, Gardening, Inspiration, Local Events, Local Food, Local Gardening Information. Tagged: , , , , , .

Wanna get to know the Twin Cities? Make time on Saturday! Statewide, participating gardens celebrate Community Garden Day  by opening up their (mostly figurative) gates to their communities to commiserate, socialize, share, and show-off their hard work so far this year!

You might be shy about showing up to some of these unfamiliar gardens with unfamiliar people, but I guarantee these community gardeners are so excited about hosting hoards of guests for the day, and more importantly, getting to know their neighbors. Here is a directory of participating gardens and their planned events.  I love the Community Garden Day Map on the CGD website. You can see the locations of the gardens that are participating, and click on the dots to see what’s going on. Many of the gardens are hosting meals, live music, projects, games, classes, tours, and hundreds of other activities to suit your interests.

The community garden I participate in, Sholom Community Garden in Saint Paul, was pretty late to the show this year, but we’re still planning on a casual potluck lunch, garden tours, and lawn games from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.  Many of my fellow gardeners will be there, and I know at least a few of us are so proud of our garden space. With all of the challenges it has given us (mostly having to do with weed-seeds), we’ve still managed to transform a weedy, empty piece of land into a productive, beautiful space. And we really want you to come see it! So please stop by for lunch!

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Some events I noticed:

MCTC Urban Farm Collective in Downtown Minneapolis

3-7pm – Potluck, art in the garden, live music, kids cooking classes, and educational demonstrations of several types of composting

Midway Green Spirit Community Garden  – Pierce Butler Rd & Hamline Ave

12-3pm – visitors can do our Show and Tell Activity at their own pace, meandering through the garden to read what our gardeners have learned and what makes them proud!
1pm – Community Circle: One of our gardeners will talk about the volunteer effort to grow and donate food to a local food pantry.
1:15pm – Growing Peppers for Seasoning: Another gardener has been growing peppers for 10+ years and has developed his own method for preparing the peppers to make spice blends.
1:30pm – Beehive Demonstration: One of our bee-keepers will talk about caring for the beehives at Green Spirit.

NE United Methodist Church Gardens – Cleveland & Lowry NE

7-9pm – Enjoy a grilled slice of the pizza garden; garden tours; recycled garden art activity.

Eat Street Community Garden – 2416 1st Ave

4-5pm – Opening night of “The Return of King Idomeneo: A Picnic Operetta,” by Mixed Precipitation. 5-course tasting menu of performance inspired delicacies served during the show. Donations accepted; reservations encouraged.

5-6pm – Gathering.

North End Community Garden – 3027 Penn Ave N

11 – 2pm – Fresh, homemade foods, using gardengrown ingredients; steel pan drum duo; tours of the garden.

Cornercopia U of M Student Organic Farm – Dudley Ave & Lindig Ave

4-7pm -  Potluck; live music; tours; season extension & composting workshops; croquet tournament; make a Cornercopia T-shirt; plant fall crop seedlings to take home!

Community Garden Day on Twin Cities Daily Planet

26 Jun

Planning for your Fall Crops – Start now! | High Mowing Organic Seeds’ Blog – The Seed Hopper

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Gardening Timetable, Inspiration, Planning, Starting Seeds, Zone 4 Madness. Tagged: .

 

Planning for your Fall Crops – Start now! | High Mowing Organic Seeds’ Blog – The Seed Hopper.

26 Mar

Hippie Impulsively Laughs in the Face of Nature

Posted by rakhi in Gardening Timetable, Inspiration, Local Gardening Information, Zone 4 Madness. Tagged: , , , , .

Rogue lettuce from last years plantings. If things go according to plan, it will be part of my salad in 2-3 weeks.

I did some things that I probably shouldn’t have done this weekend. Things I can’t take back, and that I hope I can be forgiven for. Like many other gardeners, I just couldn’t help myself. The sun was bright, the temperatures were high, and all the stars seemed to align this weekend. And so, my dear readers, I gardened. I gardened like it was going out of style. I gardened like my life depended on it. Yes, I gardened like a complete buffoon. I laughed in the face of nature while sowing every early vegetable I could think of and re-arranging my perennial edible bed like I owned the place.

I moved my asparagus to the back of the bed. A bad decision last year left me with tall, burly asparagus shading out my teeny strawberries. We can't have that.

I hang my head in shame, asking for forgiveness from Zone 4 and hoping she will be merciful this year. But I know that I sowed this bed and now I have to plant in it.

FYI, the soil temperature in St. Paul this past week (March 19-18; last week’s data is not up yet) averaged 56 degrees. Last year at this time it was a full 24 degrees lower. Yep. I wouldn’t lie to you about something this serious.

27 Jun

Corpse Flower Blooming at Como Zoo *Insert Generic Joke About Bad Smells Here*

Posted by rakhi in Inspiration, Local Gardening Information. Tagged: .

To the left is the screenshot from the corpse flower live web-cam today.  It’s expected to bloom in the next few days.  If you haven’t had a chance to see one of these crazy flowers in action, seriously check it out.

This flower, BOB, measures over six feet tall and is 18 years old. You can find him at the McNeely Conservatory.

While you’re over there, also be sure to check out the incredible edible garden exhibit!

5 May

Focusing on the Positive in the midst of FAIL

Posted by rakhi in a gardening problem, Gardening, Inspiration, Starting Seeds. Tagged: , , , , .

my okra

It’s much to early in the season to have had three fails already, but somehow I managed to do it.  I definitely didn’t expect that my okra and watermelon experiments would make it – these are plants that need to be planted in June when our lovely pain-in-the-ass Zone 4 is most amenable to them – but I am a little surprised that my grape plant did not make it through the last week of very cold weather.  I got it at my local Lowe’s store, and so I guess I’m going to have to get a new one altogether.  I’m fairly sure that the plant was “guaranteed to grow!”  Oops.  Maybe that speaks volumes about my gardening capabilities.  We shall find out come round-2 of grapes.

So-as not to get discouraged, here are some of the successes that I have so far:

Root Veggie Germination Success

1) some of my root vegetables are germinating!  I’m not sure which ones, and I’m really hoping more of them do, but for now it’s awesome that a few of them have germinated despite the awful weather.

Pea plant successes

2) I planted my pea plants around April 15th, and since then we’ve had very few sunny days, and of course cold and snowy ones…the pea plants are doing great!

3) Last year I had all of my vegetables in the raised bed. One of the Chiggogia beets miraculously produced seeds over the summer (which usually takes two years), and many of the seeds fell and overwintered in my raised bed!  Now I have little baby beets growing already that have dealt with the weather fine, and will be ready to harvest by the summer heat.

4) The conversion is going well so far, and as soon as we have good weather on the weekend, I’ll likely be able to git ‘er done:

Conversion Success

Asparagus Success - at least one of the seven plants so far :)

5) My asparagus from last year is coming up again, even though I moved it from the backyard to the raised bed.  The stalks are still pretty small, but it looks healthy.  Yesterday I microwaved a couple of them just for kicks and, and…shocker…they tasted like delicious asparagus!  I did plant 7 other asparagus rhizomes at the beginning of April and haven’t yet seen any signs of life above the soil, but yesterday I dug around one of the rhizomes and found roots starting to take hold below the soil.

5) My kale seeds are germinating as well!  At least I hope it’s kale…and not random seeds that got into my “kale bed.”

Kale Germination Success

26 Apr

May 14: Kick off gardening season at “Blooms Day 2011″

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Inspiration, Local Gardening Information, Planning. Tagged: , , , .

May 14: Kick off gardening season at “Blooms Day 2011″ – Minnesota Master Naturalist.  This looks great:

Blooms Day 2011 offers nearly everything a gardener needs to prepare for spring: free workshops, speakers, exhibits, one-on-one yard and gardening advice and a huge plant sale. Join Metro Blooms:

Saturday, May 14, 2011
8:30 AM to 2:00 PM
Kenny Community School
5720 Emerson Avenue South, Minneapolis

This year, the event will focus on unconventional gardening — what gardeners can do differently to hone their skills. “We’ll look at Feng Shui garden design, composting with worms, drip irrigation, container gardening and more,” said Blooms Day chair Doris Phillips.

Keynote speaker Don Engebretson, The Renegade Gardener, will share advice for embracing our cool climate with plants that are great for Minnesota. His talk–”Really Cool Plants for Northern Gardens”–starts at 9 AM. He’ll stay for an hour afterwards to answer questions.

Other highlights include:

Minneapolis Garden Awards at 9:30 AM Celebrate the 2010 winners for best boulevard, residential, business, apartment/condo, congregation, raingarden, container garden and butterfly garden.
30-minute workshops from 10 AM- 1 PM
The Feng Shui Garden: Planting by Design
Stop Garden Hose Fatigue with Drip Irrigation
Vermiculture: Coming to Terms with Worms
Follow the Permeable Path to Beautiful Landscapes
Metro Blooms’ Favorite Raingarden Plants
Neighborhood of Raingardens

• Plant sale Favorite natives, donated plants, fruits/vegetables, and more! (Donated thinnings from your garden are welcome.)

• Metro Garden Expo Meet with several local garden organizations and learn what new services are being offered

• One-on-one yard, garden and plant advice from Master Gardeners and Metro Bloom Landscape Designers

• Free refreshments donated by Woullet’s Bakery, Bruegger Bagels, French Meadows Bakery, Sodexo and Kowalski’s

This event is planned and run with volunteer support. To volunteer and/or donate plants, contact Metro Blooms at info@metroblooms.org or 651-699-2426.

26 Apr

Minneapolis Food Swap & Sunchokes

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Inspiration, Local Gardening Information. Tagged: , , , , , .

sunchoke tubers

Sunchokes

I had never had sunchokes before a couple months ago.  I had vaguely heard of them before, and so when I saw a large bag up for grabs at the inaugural Minneapolis Food Swap, I gave up a jar of my homemade sauerkraut to give ‘em a go.  They were delicious!  Eaten raw, they were as crisp as a radish, with a much milder flavor, and cooked they reminded me of potatoes, except not as starchy and a lot lighter.  I looked them up on Wikipedia,  and saw them on the Friends School Plant Sale site, and now am contemplating planting a left over rhizome out by the garage, per their suggestion.  An awesome part is that they are 8-10 feet tall flowers, so they’re decorative, too.

Sunchoke Flower

Photo by Paul Fenwick from the Wikimedia Commons

The Minneapolis Food Swappers Blog is here, and the Facebook page is here.  The next food swap is scheduled for May 14th, and I just realized it’s totally booked!  NICE JOB! We might need a Saint Paul version :)

25 Apr

Perennial Edibles & Friends School Plant Sale

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Inspiration, Local Gardening Information. Tagged: , , , , .

I am really excited for the Friends School Plant Sale.  Honestly, until today I had no idea who “Friends School” was and why they sell plants, but I’ve definitely known of this sale is The Event for gardeners in the Twin Cities.  Over 2,300 different kinds of plants are for sale over 3 days at the state fairgrounds.

Photo from the U.S. Botanic Garden via the Wikimedia Commons

With a little research on Teh Googles, I found out that “Friends School” is an actual place and, notably, one that an Inadvertent-Hippie-Such-as-Myself is happy to support.  As such, in public I’ll probably pretend the reason that I’ve signed up to volunteer at the sale is because of my deep, sincere goodness. However, my five blog readers will know the truth: I want to get into the pre-sale and the deeply discounted closing sale. Who knows, maybe the elusive Corpse Flower will be available for $0.50 and bloom before the next century.  Maybe 10 fruit trees will strike my fancy for a 15′ x 15′ urban garden orchard for my back yard (sorry, honey, we’re going to have to move the new grill…and the garage…).  It’s just too early to say.  All I know is that I’ll be there and ready for action.

This year, the plant sale is well aware of people’s interest in perennial edibles and have a lot of them!!  Score. This is what they say:

Here’s a list of the perennial edibles in our catalog. Some are in vegetables, but ­others can be found in herbs, fruit, perennials or native wild flowers.

Before eating any of these plants, we recommend that you do some research to see which parts are tasty and whether cooking is needed.

Some of the plants we would like to get, but did not have a source for this year:

  • Good King Henry, Chenopodium bonus-henricus
  • Jinenjo Yam, Dioscorea japonica
  • Multiplier onion, Allium cepa aggregatum
  • Ramps*, Allium triccocum
  • Water Celery, Oenanthe javanic
  • Water Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera

Also, Angela Graney- who, now that I’ve discovered her, is a hero of mine – is leading a workshop at the sale to Build a Cold Frame for $26.00.  She converted her lawn in NE Minneapolis to an urban farm!

22 Apr

Urban Apple Tree Coming My Way!

Posted by rakhi in Fruit, Gardening, Inspiration, Planning. Tagged: , , , .

This winter I ordered a Red Colonnade Apple Tree from Spring Hill Nursery.  I was, and still am, amazed that an apple tree can take up so little space, and impulse-bought with immediacy.  The width required of normal trees is just not do-able in our .005 acres of yard space.  This tree, however, only needs a TWO FOOT diameter.  That’s smaller than some of the okra and tomato plants I’m growing!

I haven’t decided where to plant it, yet, but I found out this morning that they’re shipping it out today!  I’ve decided I won’t keep it in a container so I don’t have to mess with it in the winter and I won’t have to fertilize it as much.

I noticed Erica over at Northwest Edible Life posted about her backyard orchard, and I have to say I’m really excited about taking some time to read up on this approach to a fruit orchard.  I *might* be able to do one of the “quartets” in my back yard, which would be amazing!

Spring Hill Nursery also shipped my order of Cabot Strawberries, which I will be putting in my raised bed to deter some of the local critters (who, incidentally, ate ALL my strawberries last year), and Heritage Red Raspberries, the location of which I have not decided on.

10 Apr

Let’s Get This Party Started

Posted by rakhi in Gardening, Inspiration, Planning, The Conversion. Tagged: , .

I spent the first half of yesterday digging up one side of the front lawn with my friend (who will likely own my soul after this growing season – Thanks Mandy!).  It was a challenge, especially since we were using a crate as a wheelbarrow (I need to stop being so cheap).  Below is the rough sketch of my garden plan, which developed as we were digging because it was a lot easier for me to see what things looked like for real and change things on the drawing.  The box on the bottom right is my raised garden bed.  I’m still deciding on the left side of the walkway:

This is how the right side of my lawn looks, now!

Gorgeous, right?!?

As I mentioned in this post, I really like and relate to Fritz Haeg’s Baltimore, Maryland edible front yard design.  One aspect of it that I would love to apply to the left side of my plan is the seating area on the right side of his plan.  I don’t think I have quite enough space, though.

You might be able to see my note in the drawing (top middle of the drawing), the front of the house faces the south, which makes the front lawn a better location for a vegetable garden than the back lawn.  In addition to the back lawn being even smaller than the front, the house casts a shadow the back yard for part of the day.  So I haven’t decided exactly what plants are going where, but I’ll be putting the taller plants towards the north side of the front lawn, such as okra and tomatoes.

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