COME OUT AND SEE US THIS EARTH DAY WEEKEND

Maya and I will be at the Northfield Earth Day Celebration this Saturday April 27th from 12 noon until 4 pm selling our handmade soaps and knitted washcloths so if you are in town drop by and say hi, we'd love to see you. 

This is going to be a great eco friendly event with educational presentations and workshops.  Come out to make a birdhouse, seed balls, and a pollinator box. Learn about growing your own food, creating bee lawns, composting and much more. 

We hope to see you there!

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SPRING HAS SPRUNG, THE GRASS IS RIZ, I WONDER WHERE THE FLOWERS IS?

The flowers are coming 😊

Spring and Autumn are my favorite times of the year.  Spring is a time of rebirth, a time when everything comes alive again after the long, cold, quiet winter. This time of the year is when I feel the most inspired to move and create. I spent last month making soaps and knitting washcloths and this month I'm focussed on planting. I have several trays of seeds going under the grow light right now and the chamomile was the first to emerge. The excitement of nurturing something to life never gets old. 

A few days ago Ulises and I made a 1.5 hr drive north to purchase a locally handmade potting table. I'd been looking for one the last 3 years because our backs can no longer tolerate the squatting and bending over every planting season; his back has been pretty useless for years and mine is headed there. I was lucky to come across a potting table I could afford on Facebook Marketplace and not only was the price right but the craftsmanship is beautiful. The couple that built it used repurposed wood and I was actually surprised at how solid it is. I really love it and it will be nice to finally stand upright while filling pots with soil and plants. 

So far I've started the following:

Calendula (for my salves)

Banana Pepper (for food)

Celosia (for the dye)

Zinger Hibiscus (for tea)

Beans (for food)

Bunching Onions (for food)

Gomphrena (for soap decorating)

Mongolian Giant Sunflowers (for the birds)

Spinners Ivory (or my spinning wheel)

Broom Corn (to make a broom)

Bergamot (for the pollinators)

Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers (for the dye)

Echinacea (for tea and tincture)

Yarrow (for pollinators and skin issues)

German Chamomile (for tea to stabilize mast cells)

 

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LUFFA, LOOFAH, LUFA, LOFA, LUFA

Is there really a right way to spell luffa? 😂

Several years ago I tried growing luffas so I could use them in my soaps. I'd been buying and using luffas for a while but figured it would be even better if I grew them myself. Well... it didn't work out so well because Minnesota has such a short growing season. This year I saw a luffa at the Farmer's Market and decided to buy it so I could dry it myself and use it with an upcoming batch of soap. Since it was green I knew the skin would be next to impossible to peel off without ruining the luffa so I followed the advice of a YouTuber on drying it in the oven. It worked out well, the skin came right off, but half of the luffa deflated. I'm also not sure it is suppose to be so green after washing it. I washed it as well as I could but it still looks a little funky. I decided this luffa is best saved for the trial run I just put it through. I'll return to the Farmer's market for another one and see if I can make it come out even better. This January I'll start seeds inside so that I give the luffa enough time to grow so I can let it dry on the vine by end of summer. 

Exceptionally long luffa 🤣👀

I cut it up as instructed by YouTuber

 The two luffas on the left are no good. Completely deflated and mushy. The ones on the right look pretty good. I'll update once they are dry. 

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PUMPKINS DO GROW IN POTS

For the last couple years without success I've been trying to grow pumpkins on my deck. I first attempted to grow them in the garden but some wild critter always got to the plants before they'd fruit so I started experimenting with pots and although the plants would flower they'd never fruit until this year. I did some research and found I was using too small of a pot so I went bigger and lo and behold I got two pumpkins. I sadly planted them way too early so now I have to figure out how to make them last until Halloween because the whole point was to grow carving pumpkins. Next year I'll go bigger. I'll use a 10 gallon pot and see if I get bigger or more pumpkins. 

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BIRDS! BIRDS! BIRDS! I LOVE BIRDS

When I first got sick in 2018 one of the things that helped me get through the mental challenge of my illness were the birds. I've always enjoyed birds but there was a point where I couldn't even walk so I would sit out on the deck and just listen and watch them flitter around the yard. I was content in those moments. They got me through some very difficult times. The following are some photos I took of my wild bird neighbors visiting recently. 

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PLANT FOR THE GARDEN - PRICKLY ASH

Once a month I plan on posting about a native medicinal plant for the garden. I'm in Minnesota so my shares will be specifically related to Minnesota so make sure to check if the plants I write about can grow in your area and aren't invasive if you live outside the state. 

To start off I'll talk about Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum americium). The first time I tried prickly ash was quite the experience. My daughter nibbled on a berry first and said her lips tingled, her tongue was a little numb and she couldn't stop drooling. She handed me a berry and I nibbled and nothing happened so I nibbled on a second and again, nothing happened. I told her to give me a third so I nibbled on a third. Suddenly it hit!! I was drooling like a Basset Hound, my whole mouth was tingling, and then my lips and tip of tongue were numb for 30 minutes. 

Prickly Ash is not related to the ash species of trees, it's actually part of the olive family. It's great for wildlife since butterflies are attracted to the flowers and birds use the tree for shelter. Native Americans would use the tree for medicinal purposes. They'd chew on the fruit and bark because it produces a numbing effect so it helped relieve tooth pain. Modern herbalists use prickly ash to treat arthritis and digestive issues. I love it because the crushed leaves and berries smell like a lemon and nibbling on the berries produces a fun sensory experience. I haven't tried it in any recipes yet but I know others have and love it. I may try it with tea sometime. 

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LAWN BE GONE!

 In 2020 we removed a large portion of our front lawn and today we have just about 1/4 left to remove before it's all gone. We filled the empty space in with 90% native plants and have been very pleased with how it turned out. 

We aren't strangers to replacing non natives with natives. When we moved into our home nearly 16 years ago our entire backyard was buckthorn. It was an extension of the forest into Alimagnet park. Our first year we hired a company to remove all the buckthorn then after that we had to deal with flooding all the time so we had the yard regraded. After the regrading we bought a large sack of native wildflower seeds and spread them all over the backside of the house and within a year we started to see native grasses, goldenrod, Joe pie weed, daisies... Today we have so many natives growing back there I've lost count. The amount of wildlife that loves to be in our yard is what makes me the most happy. Frogs, toads, turtles, fox, rabbits, deer, snakes, wasps, hornets, bumblebees, hummingbirds, butterflies... We now see so many insects that we'd never seen before planting natives. We also stopped raking up our leaves in the fall and that has caused a boom in the firefly population around us. It's truly incredible and very special. 

Some people are surprised to learn that the adults of most firefly species are in fact pollinators. 

 

The honeybee isn't a native pollinator but it's a pollinator none the less.

Beautiful Monarch butterfly.

The bumblebee has some pollen on her legs.

When we removed a portion of our lawn in 2020. We did this on both sides of our driveway.

These are the plants we put in to replace the lawn. We have mountain mint, butterfly weed, bergamot, boneset, pearly everlasting... and many more.

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SPRING IS OFFICIALLY HERE!!

When you live in Minnesota there's that moment when you say to yourself that yes, spring is officially here.  Today is that day. 
Here is what's coming up in the backyard today.

Chives

Mint

Lavender

Lemon Balm

Bee Balm

Yarrow

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GARDEN TALK TIME

The garden is doing pretty good this year... in some areas.  Not sure what is up with the shallots and onions, I'm thinking it is poor soil quality, but everything else is doing great.  Since the backyard was regraded we've been spreading wildflower seed and planting a few things here and there and things are starting to really grow.  This is what it looks like right now:

The Joe Pye Weed is taking over and as much as I like JPW I need to get that sucker under control.

The great part about our backyard, with all the beautiful things growing, is that wildlife is loving it. Every day I can go outside and not only see deer like we usually do but daily we have rabbits, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, snakes, frogs, turtles, dragonflies, butterflies, bees, wasps, and a whole host of other things. The rabbits like hiding in the growth so each day we run into about 4 or 5 back there.  

So onto what else I am having success with.

German Chamomile

One of my favorite herbs. In the past I'd always keep a pot of chamomile inside but last year I planted some and forgot about it.  I was delighted to see it return this year so I planted some more. It is a zone 4 herb but our last harsh winter killed off things I thought were meant for this zone so I was pleasantly surprised when the chamomile popped up. 

Dill

Dill is hardier than I thought. Not only does it appear in odd random places around the garden, after planting a whole new bunch this year we let the Black Swallowtail caterpillar devour it all and yet from the nubs that were left it regrew.  Great, because I need it for canning :-)

Tomatoes

Someone please explain to me what is up with the tomatoes?  I purchased two heirloom tomato plants at the Friends Plant Sale this year and they've grown into these monstrous things (5 feet tall) but the fruits are all still green.  I've never had that experience with tomatoes before.  I'm not surprised about the growth as much as the fact they aren't red or turning red yet.  I am worried with the way the weather has been that the frost is going to appear before the tomatoes ripen :( 

Sweet Potato

Omgosh! Last years sweet potatoes didn't grow but this year they are doing great.  I am more of a "learn by trial and error" and not so much by reading so I have no idea when to harvest the potatoes or how long they take to grow but I have learned one thing and that is not to plant them in a garden box again.  They want to spread far and wide and the box is just too small for them.

Asparagus

Now this I don't want to do the trial and error thing with.  I am going to have to watch a few YouTube videos and read up on this delicious plant. I have been trying to grow asparagus for a few years and each time I'd plant the root something would come along and take it or eat it. I was at the Farmer's Market this spring and a vendor was selling itty bitty plants so I put 3 in the ground and they are growing great! Not sure what the next step is but I'll be staying on top of this one since this yummy plant is a perennial  :-)

That's it.  Anyone else have success or failures in the garden this year? Luckily we've not had any pests but the onions and shallots aren't coming along like expected, they are both itty bitty and so I think I need to do some type of crop rotation next year and amend the soil much better than I did this year.  If you have any thoughts on why the shallots are the size of marbles, please let me know.

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STRAWBERRY FAIL

I can't help but be envious of my friends who have a bumper crop of strawberries this year.  I planted strawberries 5 years ago and it seems, once again, that I made an error.
My friend Teresa (domestic goddess, writing genius, homesteader extraordinaire) over at Homestead Notes is my go-to person when I struggle with gardening (and pretty much everything in life) and I've learned from her hubby that my crop of strawberries are just too old to give me the bounty that I really crave *sigh.  So, it seems I may have to start all over.

This year I was so pleased with myself for actually getting my butt to the garden store to pick up some hay.  It took me 5 yrs to learn that hay needs to be spread below the patch of berries (if they are as sparse as mine are) to keep the berries clean and to help avoid rotting.   In years passed we'd get an ok amount of berries but either the birds would eat them or they'd rot immediately.  Well... the hay is in place but I highly doubt we'll get any strawberries since my patch is too old.  Just look at them, 90% of these were planted 5 years ago... they should have multiplied by now.

I did have them in raised garden boxes which I don't think helped very much since the runners had nowhere to go, so I did remove those this year.

If anyone has any advice on how you started up your patch and made them flourish, please let me know.

I've also planted a variety of strawberry plants together and wonder now if that was a mistake :(

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WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN...

That my creative energy would return and I wouldn't even realize it.  Since August I've felt like a new person.  After turning 40 last year I fell into this nasty little funk and had no energy to write, craft, or even spend that much time in nature.  My summer began pretty poorly but before I knew it I was busy making cards, knitting, baking; all of a sudden I feel good again.  All I want to do is spin fiber, knit, poke around the garden - is it some kind of weird rebirth?  Who knows and who cares right?  As long as I am being productive and enjoying myself.
So my blog share is really just about what I've been up to.    Let's start with my garden:

PEAS: didn't turn out due to the insane heat we experienced this summer.

TOMATOES & ASPARAGUS:  stolen by one of natures creatures, likely deer and rabbits.

CUCUMBERS: due to my raspberry bush being grossly overgrown it swallowed up my cucumbers so I couldn't get to them without being attacked by a hoard of wasp (I learned my lesson about how closely I plant things).

STRAWBERRIES: looked healthy but didn't produce a single strawberry because of the early spring and refreeze we had.

APPLE TREES: still not producing apples.  I learned from an organic farmer that it's because I purchased the large apple trees and not the dwarf.  Apparently it may not produce for 3 more years.

PEANUTS: didn't grow - don't know why

BLUEBERRIES: deer ate them all down to little nubs.

LAVENDER: one bush died and the other is doing ok.

So what did turn out perfectly?  Shallots,  beans and raspberries!  This is the first year to plant shallots and beans and I've planted a raspberry bush a year for the past 4 years.  Thanks to my friend Teresa over at Homestead Notes (growing, writing, creating) and her advice on what book to buy I learned when to harvest the shallots and beans so not only did they grow well I was able to harvest them before they rotted.  My raspberries were in a happier mood than last year, producing and producing and producing lots of yummy fruit.  They must love heat!

And speaking of feeling creative, productive and having such an awesome friend, Teresa sent me a wonderful little package of goodies this past weekend.  The package included a recipe for pumpkin pineapple muffins, 3 little cloth bags with gifts inside, a pretty handmade card and this:

Colorful, interesting fiber to spin!  The pinkish fiber is cotton and the silky looking blue fiber is tencel.  I've never spun either so I'm looking forward to seeing how it spins.  

Thank you so much Teresa for the wonderful package and for knowing what I enjoy so well.

Now I'm off to knit :-)

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THE CANNING EXPERIMENT, PLUS!

I haven't found much time to blog lately but I hate just leaving the place to gather dust so I thought I'd post a quick one. I've been pondering the idea of deleting the blog again. The reason being, I think if I have to struggle to organize time so that I can get on here and write something then maybe it just isn't something

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I AM AT A GARDENING CROSSROADS

I'm not sure what to do. I know herbs. I spent years reading about herbs and perennials, planting and experimenting, but veggies and fruits... not so much. My first attempt at gardening a little over 5 years ago turned horrible. My carrots didn't grow, my tomatos were consumed by some unknown creature, and my gourds were planted incorrectly so they turned to mush.

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WILL THE LANDSCAPER FIX THIS? OR DARE I WONDER, IS OUR BEEKEEPING VENTURE DONE?

Hard to imagine that within hours of "fixing" our backyard water issues the yard is once again flooded. After going to bed with this:

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PLEASE HELP: CAN ANYONE IDENTIFY THIS?

This plant/herb is taking over my yard, choking out all the flowers and other weeds (that I actually like) but the upside to it is that my honeybees LOVE it. This is the first time I've seen hundreds of honeybees head straight over to something in my yard. They aren't the only insects in love with this plant either, there are bumble bees, wasps, and other things I can't identify. Can anyone identify this crazy plant/weed?

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HODGEPODGE POST

Some of the flowers I planted. This is butterfly weed. I thought it was so pretty growing around the lake, I decided to plant some in the yard.

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I FEEL PRODUCTIVE

I rarely feel like I get anything done. I keep doing and doing and doing but have nothing to show for it. No, this isn't a whine fest, just seriously feel like I get nothing done. LOL!

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OH HOW I LOVE THEE

Let me count the ways...

I have such a good hubby. It only took him 2 months to get the rain barrel set up but he did it and I love him more for doing so. 

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HELLOOOO BLOGGING WORLD!

Things are somewhat settled and stable on our end so I've decided to return to blogging. Of course, I missed it like crazy and would peek in time to time just to make sure I wasn't missing out on toooooooo much.

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THE BEAUTY OF THE BACK YARD

My kids said I was probably one of the only people cutting down trees on Earth Day. They were traumatized. Planting new ones in their stead wasn't good enough for them, I had robbed the squirrels and birds of potential homes. I guess that was my momentary punishment for raising my kids to be environmentally conscious. LOL!

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