Cowgirl Madge and I got tickets for the Hennepin County Master Gardener Learning Tour. We ran out of time to see all 11 gardens, but there was plenty of interesting techniques, plant combinations, and ideas for my yard.
I learned a new way to trellis tomatoes, make a hedge out of raspberries, grow apples via espalier, and found cool new bamboo accents and a storage shed for my yard:
Tray of Misfits
Yes, we’re about half-way through the growing season and I STILL have seedlings that need to get into the ground.
Every morning this hodgepodge of misfits greats me from the back steps, just a few feet from the nearest garden bed, but miles away from actually getting into the ground. Brussels sprouts, black cherry tomatoes, blue fescue, lupines, and a orange impatient (given to me for my birthday ON MAY 9) have lived in this tray for at least two months while I decide their fate.
I feel terribly guilty, but I have good excuses and good intentions. Really. I do.
As of this post, the tomatoes are with a colleague who raises beef with her husband. Every year on their farm, they plant a few acres with veggies and donate the produce to a local food shelf. In a month, they’ll have black cherry tomatoes coming out of their ears.
I am saving the sprouts for Cowgirl Nikie who has extra room in her garden. Will they actually produce sprouts? I’m doubtful, but she is known for growing GIANT veggies. She’ll appreciate the challenge.
The lupines and fescue? They’re natives that I started from seed. I just want them to be a bit bigger before I put them in the ground. Our rabbits are hungry and relentless.
I have no idea what to do with the impatient.
So, are you a procrastinator, too? What garden to-dos have you been neglecting?
Scents of the garden
Confession: I don’t like tomatoes.
And yet, I grow them every year because I can’t get enough of the smell of those tomato plants. Nearly every day I take a moment to bury my head in the plant and just breathe. I always marvel that you don’t see shelves of tomato-scented products in the drugstore.
I figured it has something to do with certain scents just not translating to a packaged form. For example, I love the smell of fresh roses but hate anything rose-scented.
Today I browsed the candle aisle at Target, hoping for something that would bring a little spring scent into our home and came across a “tomato blossom” candle. And then a little online digging turned up this cologne, and a number of other candle options.
Ultimately, I decided to go with the “fresh lilac” candle, as it evoked a feeling that spring might just arrive one of these days. (I hope!)
What do you do to bring spring and summer scents indoors? And, are there scents that just don’t translate to an indoor scent for you and are better left in the garden?