Note to self: Babies and cacti are a combination to be avoided at all costs in the future.
— Gardening Lesson #1 for 2013
Hello Spring!
Today, the little one and I swung by our local garden center. It’s one of our favorite things to do. She’s crazy about plants and so am I.
As we walk through the parking lot, I can feel her little body tense with excitement in my arms. She recognizes the buildings, the colors, the trellises, and the big bags of garden soil.
“Flower! Flower! Flower!” Her hands flail in the air. She is all smiles, but she wants “Down! Down! Down!”
The minute we’re in the greenhouse, I set her down. She runs to the nearest ranunculus and gives it’s big red blooms a big, baby kiss. My heart melts.
Hello spring! We’re all so happy you’re finally here.
We’re taking a moment to update our blog with a new template and a new blog! We hope all of our changes will be ready by the first week in June.
Okay weekend warriors, please finish your retaining wall.
This bank of dirt is a mower's width from my garden.
Hello spring! Hello neighbor! Thanks for fixing your retaining wall! Three weeks ago, I couldn’t be more surprised at the weather and at our neighbors.
Neighbors: Mind if we use your yard to finish our project?
Me: Of course! Thank you for fixing your wall! (It’s been learning backwards 10 degrees and crumbling into our lawn for 10 years.) Let me know what we can do to help!
Today, the wall is still a mound of dirt and mud. I have lost my chipper attitude. In an ideal world, the wall would be completed. We’d share a celebratory beer and I’d plant my beds without fear of heavy machinery killing my cool season herbs and veggies. Win, win, win.
Instead, their project delays are delaying my projects. To add insult to injury, they’ve started planting in their garden. See the black fence in the background?
So, what does one do? Be “Minnesota nice” and silently seethe as the growing season slips away? (They are doing us a favor after all, right?) Or, put on my project manger hat and ask for timelines? (This may offend their Minnesota, no?) With an infant, I don’t have a lot of free time to lend a hand, but I can buy beer to build bridges…
Two frosty evenings
Average last frost date is May 10th.
With an infant, I haven’t had much time to putter in the garden. I’ve given our daughter the grand tour of the front and back yard, but you can’t weed very well while wearing a Baby Bjorn. And yes, there are a ton of weeds — holdovers from last fall when it was harder and harder to bend over my big prego belly.
I also didn’t get a good chance to mulch before winter. Some plants survived. Some died. And some were nibbled to nubs by a very well-fed bunny who now lives under our garage. Ah, if only the big bunny would eat the sprouts of buckthorn propagated by my neighbor’s bushes instead of my Carefree Sunshine rose bush…
Planning, planting, weeding — I’ve got a lot of catch up to do and our two frosty evenings were a nice reminder that I can slow down a bit. Depending upon who you talk to, the average last frost date in Minnesota is somewhere between May 10-20th — and woe be to any gardener who tries to plants heat loving veggies like tomatoes and peppers before Memorial Day Weekend.
This morning, I uncovered my dwarf cherry tree. A few branches of blooms looked a little freezer burned, but I still think I’ll get a nice harvest this year.
How did your plants do? Did you bother covering your early bloomers and tender seedlings?
New feature — Garden curiosities: Mega broadleaf thyme
Broadleaf thyme: Smells like thyme, feels like a succulent
Editor’s note: This year we’re starting a new feature called Garden Curiosities. The wonderful world of plants is an endless source of fascination. As we encounter new and interesting things in our gardening adventures, we want to share what we learn with you and hope you’ll do the same.
On Good Friday, I took a quick run through the Bachman’s for some spring-tastic hostess gifts (Note: When you have a new baby, you get multiple invitations to Easter brunch. I hear that changes once the child is old enough to destroy other people’s houses.). The store was packed with bulbs, seeds, and weekend warriors. As you might expect, the greenhouse was just getting started for the season. There was a small selection of crocuses and daffodils in bloom, a huge selection of pansies, a few flats of strawberries, and a sampling of herbs.
I grabbed of pots of crocuses, then stopped cold by the herbs. Tucked between the rows of parsley and rosemary was row of GIANT THYME (aka: Broadleaf thyme, Cuban oregano, Spanish oregano, or Indian borage). The plant smelled like thyme, but its leaves were larger than a half-dollar, slightly fuzzy and very succulent.
I was both fascinated and alarmed. Was this a naturally occurring herb or a designer plant masquerading as an edible? I just had to know… Time for a Compost Cowgirl nerd report:
- Broadleaf time is a drought tolerant plant that grows best in zone 10-12.
- It is not actually a member of the thyme or oregano family. It is a member of the mint family.
- Some claim that it is native to India. Others say it originated from Africa.
- During the slave trade it was brought to the Caribbean islands and incorporated into the local cuisine.
- The herb is very opportunistic and can be easily cloned through cuttings. It has colonized the rain forest in Asia and the arid regions of Africa and Australia.
- Broadleaf thyme, or “Cuban Oregano” has a prominent place in Cuban cuisine. A little goes a long way. The leaves are often used in to season beans, salsa and meat dishes.
- The leaves also have anti-inflammatory properties. In India, Africa, and the Caribbean, it is often used for medicinal purposes. It can help ease sore throats, stuffy nose, coughs, and infections.
- In Cuba, the herb is believed to stimulate lactation. It is added to a special soup for new mothers and is consumed for up to a month after childbirth.
Pretty fascinating, eh? Later this week, I plan to go back to the nursery and buy one so I can give it a try. I promise to let you know how it turns out.
New spring, new adventures, new parents
We’re parents! Oh, my sweet Lord, we are PARENTS!
Our amazing adventure began in January. Our darling daughter was two weeks overdue and finally arrived after a long day that can only be described as the pu-pu platter of modern labor and delivery methods. Their were skewers. The were unrecognizeable crunchy bits. And yes, their were flames.
We embraced our 9 1/2 pound baby and our first string of all-nighters with elation and dread.
Fellow parents warned us about the pecularities and preferences of the highly unpredictable infant. Intellectually, we understood the highs and hardships. But parenting, like gardening, is an emotional “knowing,” born from physical exertion and exhaustion. You feel the labor in your bones. It reshapes your body, the landscape forever changed.
When a tiny smile lights up a tiny pink face for the first time, your heart immediately swells with joy. It swiftly expands against your lungs — growing bigger and bigger, shinning brighter and brighter — a small super nova threatening to explode through your chest cavity. Gasping for breath, you say a prayer for these little miracles, as beautiful as the first crocus of spring and sweet as the first strawberry of summer, “Yes. Oh, yes. Please, again.”
Time to put the blog and the garden to bed.
It’s been an exciting year at Compost Cowgirls — Two weddings, a trip to Italy, and a new baby on the way — we are surprised and delighted by all that we have accomplished.
As we embrace this wonderful and warm October, each sunny afternoon is a gift — a moment to play before the first hard frost and winter flurries. Instead of digging in the dirt, we are enjoying a bike ride thorough fallen leaves, a day trip to a local apple orchard, or a good book on the patio.
Yes, there is still much to do in the garden, but we thought it was best to put our blog to bed for the season. Soon, we will have to put our gardens to bed, too, but we’ll wait for a cold, cloudy day to say our personal farewell to the growing season.
We hope to see you all again in the spring.
Melons? Me?
Check out these melons!
Sometimes, gardening is more about managing your expectations than managing your yard. During the winter, I get really, really, REALLY enthusiastic about a particular perennial or a veggie. I research. I plan. I baby — and I fail miserably.
“Why didn’t these Blue Himalayan Poppies shrivel and die?”
“What? Rabbits like blueberry bushes?”
“Why do I have lots of vines, but not a single Galeux d’Eysines’ Squash?”
For some reason, I seem to have more success when I plant things on a whim and treat my plants, not with kindness, but with a shocking amount of neglect.
My uncle and I planted melon seeds at the community plot almost as a joke. It was the end of June and we were laughing as we watered.
“This will never work. It’s too late in the season. We should plan better next year.”
A little pink, but very tasty.
Well, now we have more melons than we can possibly eat. Go figure.
Hello Toad!
All summer, we’ve had a Peeping Tom… er … Toad in our window well. Sometimes, he brings along a few friends and has a viewing party to catch all the exciting action in our basement. (We made a special toad ramp to better accomodate our guests.)
Are we Toad TV?
“Look! The cats are sleeping!”
“That man is hanging trim. Good corners, dude.”
“When are these people taking this big box of clothes to Goodwill?”
“Awesome! Another episode of Chopped is on!”
As I plant more and more natives, I notice more frogs and toads in our yard (and in our window wells). They are great garden predators. This particular species of toad, Bufo americanus, is the most common species of toad in North America.
Do you have toads in your yard, too? The Minnesota DNR has a great frog and toad identification guide to help you get to know your garden guests: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/reptiles_amphibians/frogs_toads/index.html.