6 May
The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is having their Auxilary Spring Plant Sale this weekend, which they dub the largest in Minnesota.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Here is their plant catalog.
The sale is held at the Arboretum Picnic Shelter area near the Marion Andrus Learning Center. Some boxes are available, but bring your own containers and carts for easier
carrying. General Arboretum admission applies.
4 May
Starting tomorrow, the UWM Horticultural Club is having a plant sale that will be between Larpenter and Folwell Ave. in the research plots. Become the Hort Club’s friend on Facebook for info on their future plant sales and what-not.
Hours:
Thurs. May 5: 8am-7pm
Fri. May 6: 8am-7pm
Sat. May 7: 9am-5pm
List of plants at the Horticultural Club Plant Sale.
4 May
Pioneer Press daily deals has a coup for a delivered 8-foot maple or oak tree for 99 bucks. I recommend a maple tree, because for a little labor it’s pretty easy to make maple syrup. I’ve been eying up my neighbor’s trees to see if I can start a partnership with someone 
I was going to bring up Groupon’s coup for Jerry’s Home and Garden Place, but they’re sold out. That was fast!
25 Apr
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:
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
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.
14 Apr
newspaper laid down
This is the spot I want to get ready right away. It’s where I’m planning on putting my root veggies like beets, turnips, carrots, radishes, and kohlrabi, which I will be starting this weekend. First I laid down 4-5 layers of newspaper to line the edge of the bed. As you can see in the picture, it was pretty windy yesterday, so I used some gorgeous paperweights to keep things under control.
prepared soil laid down
For the soil I used compost from a Saint Paul Compost Pile, peat, vermiculite, and sand. The guy at Eco-Garden Supply recommended vermiculite over perlite, which he said blows around haphazardly when it’s windy. He also recommended that I apply some lime to the mix, since peat and compost tend to be acidic. I did add some lime, but will be testing the pH before I add any more to make sure it’s a hospitable place for my root veggies.
mulched and gorgeous
Then I laid down wood mulch over the newpaper, so we have a beautifully mulched lawn instead of a beautifully newpapered lawn. I’m trying to imagine the whole front yard like this, and I’m not sure what I think about it yet.
6 Apr
PhenoMNal Twin Cities posted an awesome deal for Ecogarden Supply in Saint Paul. I had a good experience there and am going next week to get amendments for my soil!
