Thursday, August 13, 2026

Recent VEGarden Posts

Weeded Rows
12 May 2012
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Weeds & Seeds

One of the questions I get asked a lot about organic gardening is how I control weeds. The short answer… I pull them out. I find it therapeutic sitting in the garden on a warm sunny day, slowly making my way through the rows pulling weeds. Listening to the birds and the frogs singing, the occasional lawn mower or chainsaw in the distance…and of course the house behind us that always has KQRS playing. Our garden isn’t that big, and it only takes 10 minutes or so to get through an entire row. The trick is to keep up on it – if you let things get out of hand, you’re going to end up with a nightmare. Last summer...
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Lettuce in cement blocks
08 May 2012
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Romaine Lettuce

It’s not quite as (ridiculously) prolific as our spinach – but the lettuce is also off to a good start. This is green romaine; I planted red romaine as well, which is coming along nicely. Lettuce and salad greens are some of the most profitable/money-saving vegetables you can grow in your garden (according to a few different sources, and it’s also something I heard in a discussion about selling at market once). Unfortunately, there’s a very short window before it gets too hot to grow lettuce in a typical garden and we’ve successfully grown large amounts of it. I tucked these behind the peas, so hopefully they will provide some shade and cooler temperatures during the day once it starts...
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Baby Spinach
07 May 2012
2

Spinach

Back in March, when we saw a streak of 80ºF days, I pulled out a 1/4 pound of Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach seeds from 2005 (seed source – Jordan Seeds). Figuring it was a long shot that some of them would sprout, I liberally sprinkled them over a 6-foot section of one of my beds, and gently raked them into the soil. I’m fairly certain that every single one of those seeds germinated: I ended up transplanting a few of them down the row a bit, and they are doing very well also: Yesterday we had our first big “harvest” from the garden – a giant bowl full of baby spinach, which I added to a vegan quiche. Looks like...
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Comfrey in the Apple Guild
06 May 2012
3

Comfrey

If you’re looking for an easy and attractive plant to grow, give comfrey a try! In the picture, the comfrey is the large, dark-leaved plant.  The plant in front to the right is yarrow; behind is our Nichols plum tree. Chris bought a few small roots of comfrey a couple years ago, and he has been splitting it and transplanting it ever since.  It is incredibly hardy, one of the first things to come up in the spring – and very fast growing.  It’s about the size now where it can be cut down and used as mulch.  In another month, it will be this size again and ready for a second cutting. We have a few of these planted...
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Puck!
04 May 2012
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Perennial beds that weren’t.

I’m just going to go ahead and blame mankind and global warming for this one. Well, maybe I shouldn’t go quite that far…but I am going to point my finger at winter – or rather, lack there of.  With virtually no rain between mid-August and December and not so much as a dusting of snow nearly all winter, the only thing that survived in my perennial flower/herb beds were the chives. Catnip and Sage – gone. (Who kills off catnip and sage? Sheesh…) 15+ Shasta Daisies planted in the beds and throughout the garden – gone. Thyme – gone. (Though that isn’t too surprising, as it is zone 5…but it overwintered 2010/2011 just fine). Black Eyed Susans, Silver Mound, Butterfly...
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Apple Guild - After
23 Apr 2012
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Apple Guild

Chris has been reading about plants to accompany the fruit trees in our apple guild. Meanwhile, I have been brainstorming ways to make it look a bit more presentable. I have been wanting to edge the guild with large rocks, but figured it would be an expensive project. A couple weeks ago, someone informed us that landscaping with rocks is actually quite affordable – if you’re willing to put in the muscle power to lay the rocks yourself. Acting on impulse (as I most often do), I decided this was a must-do project. I made a couple of phone calls, and found some boulders not too far away – Hassan Sand & Gravel in Rogers, Minnesota is about a 20 minute...
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Picking and eating baby spinach leaves
21 Apr 2012
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Mmmmmmm…I love Spinach!

My niece and nephew spent the afternoon at our house yesterday.  One of their favorite things to do here is root around in the garden.  I showed them the spinach, and which leaves they could pick to try. “Mmmmmm….we love spinach!” I’m sure we’ll have to remind them of this experience when they get a few years older.  
Mallard
10 Apr 2012
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More Daffodils and a Duck

It’s been a chilly week so far – not much time spent outside.  Since the blog is has quite a few sunflower and daisy pictures already, I figured I could use this cold snap to even things out with a few more pictures of daffodils.   Also, we have two mallard pairs and a pair of wood ducks hanging around the pond this spring.  They aren’t afraid of Puck, it seems – but I couldn’t get close enough to get a good picture before they flew off on me.  So here’s a mediocre photo of a male mallard.
Daffodils
03 Apr 2012
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April Flowers

March showers bring…daffodils and a flowering plum tree! Our Nichols Plum Tree exploded this morning with beautiful flowers. I was looking back on previous posts, and when we planted the tree in 2010, it flowered in June.  Last year, we had plum tree flowers on May 19th…and this year April 3rd! At this rate, we’ll be eating plums in February next year. Here’s the full tree, 2 years after planting: It has been unusually warm, and all of the daffodils Chris planted last fall are opening, too.
Apple Guild: Nichols plum tree and Goldrush and Williams Pride apple trees
28 Mar 2012
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It’s coming…

We’ve had an exceptionally warm late winter/early spring – but it looks like we’re finally heading into a new season here. The magnolia trees are in bloom all over the Twin Cities.  I’ve seen a few pictures of Minnesota Daffodils already – ours are just about to open. These were planted as bulbs last fall, so I didn’t expect them to have such an early start this year.  It looks like we’ll have a lot of them.  Next in line after sunflowers and daisies, daffodils are my favorite flower.  They are planted in our “Mini Apple Guild” here: In front, is a Nichols plum tree.  Behind are Goldrush and Williams Pride apple trees. We planted these in the summer of 2010, so they...
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March 24th, Ramsey Minnesota
25 Mar 2012
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A Different Angle

It has been really warm this spring (3+ days at 80ºF in Minnesota…) – and the grass is green.  The wood ticks are out, and I like to imagine this is what they see when they peer through the grass in our yard.
Canada Geese on a Muskrat Den
24 Mar 2012
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Muskrat

We’ve been stalking this guy since last fall through our living room window. I’ve been trying so hard to get a picture of him, but he’s pretty scared of people. I spent about 30 minutes standing out back by the pond with my camera yesterday. Suddenly I heard a squeaking and he appeared!  I got a short video – it isn’t too exciting, but I wanted to share: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXQlXQQvXhI[/youtube]   When we moved in 3 years ago, the previous owner told us that the pond in our back yard (a wetland area) used to have a muskrat who kept the cattails in check. He had disappeared a couple years earlier, and they were sad to see him go. Last fall, I...
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14x Optical Zoom: Squirrel Pic
16 Mar 2012
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Blogging Season Begins

It is March 16th, and apparently in Minnesota this means that tomorrow is planting day. We’ve had an unseasonably warm winter – and unfortunately, unusually dry as well. Little snow mixed with warm weather leads to an 80º day on March 16th (No kidding – it is 79.5ºF right now, at 5:30 p.m.). And this means that we are overdue for planting carrots, peas, and cole crops! I’m sure we’ll see below freezing weather again before May hits, but why not try planting early just in case? We have plenty of seeds; if the plants don’t live we’ll just plant more. The worst thing that could happen is that we’ll be eating peas on April 15th. “Worst” because spring is...
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February Garden
21 Feb 2012
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Finally a bit of Snow

According to the US Drought Monitor we are in a moderate-to-severe drought right now. It’s been an unusually snowless year, and I’m starting to get a bit worried about some of the new perennials we put in our yard this past season. Fortunately today, we got a bit of welcomed snow: Here’s the garden (nothing too interesting, sorry): In other news, an Angus Beef door-to-door sales man rang our doorbell today. I answered the door with a chuckle, informing him that he had just found a house full of vegans! We both had a good laugh – he said “I saw your garden so I wasn’t quite sure if you’d be interested!” I asked how often that happens, and he...
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2012 Garden Mock-up in Excel
16 Feb 2012
2

Let the Garden Planning Begin!

I should be working…but it’s a beautiful sunny day and spring is fast approaching. So, my inner dork is taking over for a few minutes. I know some of you do the same thing (I’ve seen you admit it!), so hopefully this will be appreciated. This is a very rough first draft. I’m planning on planting sweet corn this year, which takes up a lot of space. I’m also planning on cutting *way* back on the number of tomatoes that I put in. I love heirloom tomatoes, but we have had so many problems with blight, that I think this year I am just going to purchase some blight-resistant hybrid varieties at the greenhouse up the road. I’ll probably pick...
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willow
04 Feb 2012
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Beautiful Morning

Jack frost paid us a visit this morning. It’s very difficult to capture that in pictures, but close-up shots are kind of neat. catnip willow maple
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