Juxtapositions

I took two photos in this last week and their similarities really threw me.
Take a look for yourself.

A lovely tulip growing in my front garden

Sam's new shoes which he picked out all by himself.

Well, that's all I have for you today. Make it a great one for you and others!

Signs of Spring

A few signs of spring are poking up in our garden. It's so exciting to see new growth after the long winter of bare branches and piles of snow (I do like winter, but it does go on rather long here.) My mother, a gardener by trade and hobby, is so excited to get into the yard and start digging - something - anything!

purple Scillia flowers just about to bloom

This is a bulb garden I received in a pot last spring which I replanted whole and I'm excited to see how it blooms this year

We have a large prairie garden out front and a shade and vegetable gardens in back so it's a lot to care for by myself. But since my mother moved in with us late in 2008 it's been a pleasure to have someone else to work besides in the garden. Dan just doesn't have the time with a job and his own business to run on the side. We usually just ask him to do a big job here and there. For instance this year we need lots and lots of mulch for the whole yard which means many trips to the city public works for free mulch.

Virginia Bluebell leaves just starting to poke through the soil

We have lots of cutting back of old growth to do out front as well as a hedge of hydrangeas. The shade garden just needs to be raked and the vegetable garden soil needs to be turned and prepped for planting. Sam likes working in the vegetable garden the best, digging in the dirt and planting seeds. Last fall he planted lots of wheatgrass that we need to now turn over or dig out.

Tete-a-Tete Miniature daffodils giving off just a hint of color

Today is sunny so I'm hoping to get lots done before we have to go to a family birthday gathering. Sam's hankering for a walk to I'll have to end here. I hope you all have a great day and are thinking of gardening too!

Fire, Lunch and Compost Pit

It was a gray but warmer October day - the perfect day for a fire in our little backyard. Mama was the master fire builder. Looks pretty good huh? Fires always remind me of camping, one of our favorite activities, which we don't do enough.

Lunch was a simple affair of goat cheese on Wasa crackers for the adults, cheddar cheese and crackers for Sam and apples.

Sam, who usually is all over the place during meals, focused on the fire, sat still and ate. Maybe we should have fires everyday?

I imagine Sam is thinking - "Is she taking my picture?"

The fire made a dramatic collapse after about 30 minutes.

Dan's project for the day was to dig a compost pit which we could put our compost bin on top of to increase it's capacity. We seem to always run out of room for our kitchen scraps mid winter, so this effort will hopefully solve the problem. I feel we still need another bin, but space is such an issue in our little backyard. We already have a shade garden, kitchen garden, raspberry patch, sandbox, playhouse, fire pit and tables and chairs. Oh ya, there is a bit of room left to play - thank goodness!

Before the hole was filled and covered, Sam had such fun getting in a out of it! All by himself no less - what a three year old!

Daddy and Sam together in the compost pit. I love this photo as it really captures the fun of the afternoon.

Dinner From the Garden

We have a small garden in our city sized yard, so it's indeed a special night when dinner is from the garden! Tonight's bounty was basil for pesto and raspberries for dessert.

My beautiful berry bowl is from my best friend Emily .

Here's our modest raspberry patch. We live in Hopkins which was known for it's many raspberry fields, but now the only raspberries growing are in our backyards.

Our beautiful basil! The smell is so heavenly.

Sam helping with the washing.

Presto Pesto!

Our cat Zooey (think J.D. Salinger) basking in the warm sun, being no help at all except making me smile!

Dying Flowers Experiment from 5 Orange Potatoes

Queen Anne's Lace Fireworks!

Don't these colored Queen Anne's Lace flowers look like fireworks? They would make a beautiful July 4th decoration and you'll have a chance to teach the kids some botony on the side. ;) I saw Joy, You know how we're an art family, do it with her family, and me being the nature girl I am HAD to try it. I've done this with carnations and celery, but this is by far my favorite flower for this experiment!


What you need:
Freshly cut Queen Anne's Lace flowers
Food coloring (we used Easter egg dye)
Clear bottles
Water


Now, simply color the water (10-20 drops) and add a flower to each bottle. Then wait, keep checking the flowers every 10 minutes. Let them sit overnight too, they get brighter and bolder with time.

We tried this experiment ourselves this weekend with Daisies, but didn't get quite the spectacular results that 5 Orange Potatoes did with her Queen Anne's Lace.

Our best color was blue.

Our next best color was orange, but it looks rather more yellow than orange.

Red was the only other we saw a color change, albeit faint.

All in all it was a fun experiment to do with my son and a very lovely centerpiece for the table. Check out the original entry
http://www.5orangepotatoes.com/2009/07/queen-annes-lace-fireworks.html

My Nature Table and Center Piece

My favorite activity as of late has been arranging flowers from the garden for our table centerpiece and for our nature table (really just a shelf in our bookcase - our house is small.) In Minnesota the winters are long so in the summer I go plant crazy as their time here is short.

Her's our dining room table with a bouquet of Cosmos and Lady's Mantle flowers and leaves. Their color is so golden I used my son's gold silky to match and I'm so happy with the effect. We put Dan's father's day card out as the sailboat makes me think of summer on the lake when I was a kid. To represent fire we have our candle, fire gnome, and fire angel (her colors are yellow, orange and red so my son called her a fire angel when we first got her - ditto with the gnome. I guess you could say he likes fire as he's a Leo with red hair!) Lastly, I put out one of my felted flower puzzles just to have more flowers.

This is our small nature shelf. I found it hard to photograph as it doesn't get a lot of natural light. Currently it has the first 2 purple cone flowers from our yard along with more lady's mantle flowers (they look great with everything!) Gnomes are all over our house as I love to knit them, so here is no exception. I choose pink and yellow as our summer colored gnomes who I imagine are helping bring about the flowers in our garden. We also have a few butterflies, a bluebird on her nest, a couple of mushrooms (not too common in our yard which has pretty sandy soil), rocks and a yellow silky. My mom gave me the picture of the girl blowing a danelion and I just loved the old fashioned feel it emits. She purchased it from a company called Moonlight & Roses (http://moonlightandroses.com/) who carry these large postcards and cards with all sorts of fairy, sprite, and gnome designs. I'm currently trying to pick out a card for Fall, but having a difficult time choosing.

My Garden on a Saturday Morning

We just got back from the Farmer's Market and I took some pictures of what's blooming now. Above is a wild petunia which is a Minnesota native.

My hydrangea bushes are now in full bloom.

I love the delicate pink of my mallow. It differs so much from the rest of the garden and always makes me think of little girls in their pink leotards learning ballet.

The Bees were also busy on this gray morning.

My butterfly weed has had a hard time this summer with Japanese Beetles eating them before they got a chance to grow. I'm curious if this larvae is more beetles or something else. Hmm...must check it out on the internet.

More bees.

Lastly, here's queen of the meadow, another Minnesota native, whose "crown" is really quite fabulous!