Northern Gardener - September/October 2019

MINNESOTA’S ONLY HOMEGROWN GARDENING MAGAZINE

Gardener Northern

6 NATIVE ASTERS YOU’LL LOVE

Country Garden Charm

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GROW YOUR OWN GRAPES AND HOPS

TREES TO PLANT NOW

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editor’s note a nonprofit organization

The Minnesota State Horticultural Society (MSHS) is a nonprofit, educational and charitable organization established in 1866. Our mission is to serve northern gardeners through education, encouragement and community.

For information about subscribing to Northern Gardener magazine or becoming an MSHS member, visit northerngardener.org/membership, call 651-643-3601 or email membership@northerngardener.org.

Minnesota State Horticultural Society

1935 County Rd. B2 West, Suite 125, Roseville, MN 55113-1334 Phone: 651-643-3601 Editor: Mary Lahr Schier, 507-581-4145 Horticultural Editor: Debbie Lonnee Copy Editor: Julie Jensen Design: Barbara Pederson

MSHS Staff

Acting Executive Director: Dennis Feit; DFeit@northerngardener.org Development Associate: Diane Duvall; DDuvall@northerngardener.org Community Outreach Manager: Lara Lau-Schommer; LLSchommer@northerngardener.org Communications and Marketing Director: Becky Swee; BSwee@northerngardener.org Garden-in-a-Box Coordinator: Maria Brosofske; MBrosofske@northerngardener.org Minnesota Green Coordinator: Becky Grefthen; mngreen@northerngardener.org

MSHS Board of Directors

Mike Heger, Waconia, Chair Wayne Damerow, Shoreview, Vice Chair Margaret Klis, Minneapolis, Treasurer Joel Karsten, Roseville, Secretary

Mary Lahr Schier

Site and Style

W

hen I was in college, I made a cross-stitched wall hanging that read, “Bloom where you are planted.”

It hung proudly on my dorm wall at the University of Minnesota and moved with me several times after graduation.

Cliché, yes, but the sentiment encouraged my very future-oriented younger self to focus on where I was at the moment and to enjoy and make the most of that place and time. It’s still a relevant idea in life, and in the garden.

Every garden has its limitations and its possibilities. The garden is where it is.

It has the neighbors and topography it has. Its plants may be young or old—too small or too large. It experiences the sounds, the weather, the soil, the weeds and the critters endemic to its location.

Of course, the gardener can change some of those things—water can be rerouted, plants dug up or given time to grow.

But some cannot be changed and site is bound to dictate style to a degree.

The most comfortable gardens are those where the gardener has made the most of the site without trying to make

At large: Tina Dombrowski, St. Paul Jennifer Ebeling, Maple Grove Del Hampton, Minneapolis Debra Kvamme, Blaine Mary Marrow, Minneapolis Susan Rupert, Forest Lake Laura Wagner, Minneapolis JoAnne Wahlstrom, Sunfish Lake

it something it isn’t. This issue of Northern Gardener includes profiles of three gardeners who have embraced their sites, modifying them to make gardens that fit their lives and style as well as their location. On page 20, Meleah Maynard introduces us to two urban gardeners.

Cathy Skalicky and Marta Knutson each have small properties in Minneapolis where they have created refuges with a city style. On page 26, Ariel Emery Butler profiles the country garden of Cathy Hoban, who uses her space and her creativity to draw in people and pollinators.

These are gardeners who know how to bloom where they are planted.

Subscribers and members will get this issue just before the Minnesota State Fair. We have lots of fun planned for the fair with new T-shirts, an exhibit on using herbs, vegetables and fruit in beverages, and a new tote bag for those who join or renew at the fair. Stop at our booth in the Horticulture Building to join in the fun.

—Mary Lahr Schier, editor

mary@maryschier.com

Connect with us

Copyright 2019 by MSHS. Printed in the USA on recycled paper.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reprinted without permission from MSHS. The information published in Northern Gardener reflects the experiences and opinions of the writers and is not necessarily endorsed by MSHS. Northern Gardener is a registered trademark of MSHS.

www.facebook.com/mnhort

(ISSN) 1529-8515. Northern Gardener is published bimonthly (January/February, March/April, May/June, July/ August, September/October, November/December) by the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, 1935 County Rd. B2 W., Suite 125, Roseville, MN 55113. Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, Minn., and additional post offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Northern Gardener, 1935 County Rd. B2 W., Suite 125, Roseville, MN 55113.

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Leif Erikson Rose Garden, Duluth

www.youtube.com/mnhortsociety September/October 2019

1

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contents

September/October 2019 | Volume 147, Number 5

in every issue

features

1

Editor’s Note

20

4

MSHS News: Classes,

12

calendar and more.

26

Northern Natives: Cardinal flower.

Kitchen Garden:

30

By Design: Foliage, always foliage.

33

Garden Solutions: Preventing winter damage.

BY LAURA SCHWARZ

17

Pollinators:

36

The dark side of butterfly gardening.

Plant these native choices for fall beauty and pollinator food.

Booze Bower Grow your own beverage supply with grapes and hops.

Trees to Plant Now Tree choices for the North will change as our climate does.

BY DIANE MCGANN

Plant to Pick:

39

Panicle hydrangea, tree form.

BY DEBBIE LONNEE

19

Aster Abundance

BY JENNIFER RENSENBRINK

BY RHONDA FLEMING HAYES

18

The memory-packed beds of this farm garden welcome pollinators and people.

BY BENJAMIN VOGT

BY DON ENGEBRETSON

16

Country Charm

BY ARIEL EMERY BUTLER

Spotlight on kohlrabi.

BY SAMANTHA JOHNSON

15

You can pack a lot of personality into a small garden.

BY MELEAH MAYNARD

BY LYNN M. STEINER

14

Tiny and Terrific

Pesky Pests A pest that’s bigger than a bug requires special garden strategies.

BY SUSY MORRIS

How-to: Planting spring bulbs.

BY ERIC JOHNSON

42

Gardener’s Market

44

Northern View: Nature’s call.

BY MELEAH MAYNARD

about the cover

Hummingbirds flock to Cathy Hoban’s rural garden.

Photo by Ariel Emery Butler

a nonprofit organization

Northern Gardener is published by the Minnesota State Horticultural Society.

MSHS classes Classes are sponsored by MSHS but held at other locations. Enrollment is limited, and registration is required. Register online at northerngardener.org/mshs-events. Questions?

Contact llschommer@northerngardener.org. Refunds will not be issued for nonattendance except by cancellation at least one week before class.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WALTERS GARDENS INC.

weather cools, then bring it inside.

Instructor: Jenn Hovland is the owner of Fleur de Louise Flower Studio in Stillwater.

Grow Gourmet Mushrooms at Home

Salivating Salvia Tuesday, Sept. 10, 11 a.m. to noon and 6 to 7 p.m. $15 members, $20 nonmembers Location: Scarborough Fair Boutique, 2238 Carter Ave., St. Paul.

Horticulturist Mary Maguire Lerman will discuss the many kinds of salvia we can grow in Minnesota. Each registrant will receive a Salvia ‘Midnight Model’ PP29498 to take home. Then, enjoy hors d’oeuvres as you peruse the delightful clothing, hat and jewelry options at the boutique. Ten percent of sales will be donated to MSHS. Instructor: Horticulturist Mary Maguire Lerman worked for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for 32 years.

Make and Take—Succulent Garden Tuesday, Sept. 17, 7 to 8:15 p.m. $40 members, $45 nonmembers Location: Lakewood Cemetery Mausoleum, 3600 Hennepin Ave. S., Minneapolis.

Extend your growing season with a succulent garden in a rustic wooden box. In this make-and-take class, we’ll embellish the planting with a mix of fall textures and colors using dried foliage, mosses, berries and other woodland treasures.

Keep your project outdoors until the 4

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Saturday, Sept. 21, 9:30 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3:30 p.m. $45 for members and nonmembers, children 16 and under free with paying adult Location: Heidi’s GrowHaus, 7555 County Rd. 116, Corcoran.

Join us at Heidi’s GrowHaus to learn how to grow gourmet mushrooms at home. In the first portion of the class, you’ll learn about methods of mushroom cultivation, tree and media selection, easy-to-grow mushroom types, spawn run, how and when to inoculate and force fruiting your log-based mushrooms. The second part of the class is hands on. Participants will be inoculating their own perennial shiitake mushroom log to take home.

Instructor: Matt Ratliff owns and operates Ready-2-Fruit Mushrooms, LLC.

Healthy Soil, Healthy People Webinar Thursday, Oct. 3, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Free for members, $5 nonmembers Location: Your computer Learn the why, what and how of healthy soil and how you can limit erosion, compaction, chemical applications and runoff—building resilience from the ground up. Great for beginners to expert gardeners.

Instructor: Russ Henry is the president of Minnehaha Falls Landscaping and founder of Giving Tree Gardens, which installs and maintains resilient landscapes organically.

Make and Take—Autumn Wreath Tuesday, Oct. 15, 7 to 8:15 p.m. $40 members, $45 nonmembers Location: Bad Weather Brewery, 414 Seventh St. W., St. Paul.

Using fresh foliage and seasonal flowers that will dry in place, we will make a lush harvest wreath to grace your front door or indoor living space. Finished wreath will be 14 inches across.

Instructor: Jenn Hovland.

2019

Community Events Orchid Society of Minnesota Plant Sale and Repotting Event Saturday, Sept. 7, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Bachman’s Heritage Room, 6010 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis.

Hundreds of orchids of many types and sizes for sale by more than 20 growers.

Society members will be available to answer questions and share tips. Repotting available for a small fee.

Contact: orchidsocietyofminnesota@ gmail.com.

St. Anthony Park Garden Club Species Lilies for Minnesota Gardens Rich Rodich, presenter Tuesday, Sept. 10, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.

St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, 2323 Como Ave., St. Paul.

Contact: sapgardenclub@comcast.net.

Federated Garden Clubs of Minnesota Symposium: Horticulture and Design Judy Newman and Claudia Chopp, National Garden Club master judges and instructors, presenters Friday, Sept. 13, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 14, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, 8630 Xerxes Ave., Bloomington.

Friday programs: World of Basil, The Daunted Dahlia, Botanical Arts Horticulture. Saturday programs: Cascade, Abstract Designs, and Design Tips and Tricks of Design. Opportunity for practice judging.

Cost: $70 one day; $130 both days.

Contact: mkklsnb@aol.com.

Kanabec County Extension and Master Gardeners Growing Apples from A to Z Workshop Annie Klodd, University of Minnesota extension educator, presenter Saturday, Sept. 14, 9 a.m. to noon Sapsucker Farm, 2752-215th Ave., Mora.

Presenter will cover site selection, varieties, rootstocks, planting, spacing, tree maintenance, thinning, pruning, pest management and winter protection. Jim and Debbie Morrison of Sapsucker Farm will show their USDA-certified organic

Submit and view more events online at northerngardener.org/communitycalendar-of-events. Questions? Contact shoehn@northerngardener.org.

orchard and new cider house. Sample apple varieties. Rain or shine.

Cost: Free, but donations appreciated.

Registration required.

Contact: Kanabec County Extension, 320-679-6440 or joh15147@umn.edu.

Garden Club of Ramsey County Pruning Young Trees and Shrubs Leben McCormick, Rainbow Tree Care master arborist, presenter Monday, Sept. 16, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

St. Luke Lutheran Church, 1807 Field Ave., St. Paul.

Contact: ramseygardeners.org.

Goodhue County Horticultural Society Improving Your Soil Tom Steger, district conservationist, presenter Monday, Sept. 16, 7 to 8 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church, 503 W. 6th St., Red Wing.

Learn about building healthy soils with cover crops.

Contact: Cindy, clp55066@yahoo.com.

Rochester Flower and Garden Club The Best Apple for the Job Dane and Hillary Diede, Blossom Hill Orchard and Farm, presenters Thursday, Sept. 19, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Rochester Community and Technical College, 1926 Collegeview Rd. S., Rochester.

This presentation will give you new inspiration for your eating and cooking by helping you pick your apples depending on use. Pick up some apple-growing and culinary tips, too.

Contact: Carol, dcnaatz@yahoo.com.

8th District MSHS Fall Meeting and Apple Festival Jim Luby, University of Minnesota, presenter Saturday, Sept. 21, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

United Methodist Church of Grand Rapids, 1701 S.E. Fifth Ave., Grand Rapids.

Learn about the U of M program for developing fruit, especially apples, for consumers and growers in our area.

Cost: $25, includes lunch, Country Store, raffles, door prizes. Register by Sept. 11.

Contact: grandgardenclub@gmail.com.

MSHS Office Hours Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday, by appointment The office will be closed during the Minnesota State Fair, Aug. 21 to Sept. 3.

Daffodil Society of Minnesota Fall Bulb Sale Saturday, Sept. 21, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, 3675 Arboretum Dr., Chaska.

Come early for best bulb selection; many varieties sell out quickly. All are Minnesota hardy and hard-to-find varieties.

Only $5 per bag or five bags for $20.

Proceeds support society educational programs.

Cost: Arboretum admission (free to arboretum members).

Contact: www.daffodilmn.org/eventcal. htm or daffodilmn1@gmail.com.

North Star African Violet Council Fall African Violet Show and Plant Sale Saturday, Sept. 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 22, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Bachman’s Heritage Room, 6010 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis.

See winning African violets in categories of standard, semi-miniature and miniature violets as well as violets in decorative and natural designs. The plant sale will run through the entire show.

Contact: mkealyfalk@aol.com.

St. Anthony Park Garden Club Flies and Beetles and Scales—Oh My! Anh Tran, U of M entomology department, presenter Tuesday, Oct. 1, 7:15 to 8:30 p.m.

St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church, 2323 Como Ave., St. Paul.

Contact: sapgardenclub@comcast.net.

Fresh Art Tour, Lake Pepin Area Friday, Oct. 4, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 5, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Purple Turtle Artisan Collective, N2020 Spring St., Stockholm, WI. Self-guided studio tour in the Lake Pepin and Wisconsin’s Chippewa River valleys.

Contact: freshart.org.

Hennepin County Horticultural Society Gardening in Small Spaces Martin Stern, Squire House Gardens, presenter Monday, Oct. 14, 6:45 to 8:30 p.m.

Faith Lilac Way Church, 5530 42nd Ave. N., Robbinsdale.

Learn how to make the most out of your “small” gardening spaces. For over 32 years, Martin Stern has designed gardens big and small throughout the Upper Midwest and Northeast. He’ll discuss how to employ architectural interest and multi-seasonal planting schemes in a small space.

Contact: Diana, diana.straate@gmail.com.

Rochester Flower and Garden Club Birds for Color and Interest in Your Garden Joel Dunnette, master naturalist, presenter Thursday, Oct. 17, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Rochester Community and Technical College, 1926 Collegeview Rd. S., Rochester.

Learn ways to attract, appreciate and help birds thrive in your yard at all times of year.

Contact: Carol, dcnaatz@yahoo.com.

Orchid Society of Minnesota Angraecoids: Keeping Conservation in Nature Alive Brenda Oviatt, Botanica Ltd., presenter Saturday, Oct. 19, 1 to 3 p.m.

Bachman’s Heritage Room, 6010 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis.

Brenda will talk about critical conservation and show wonderful images of species not readily available in cultivation that are critically endangered in nature.

She will follow with cultural advice for successful growing of angraecoids.

Contact: orchidsocietyofminnesota@ gmail.com.

Goodhue County Horticultural Society Herbal Teas Nancy Berlin, master gardener, presenter Monday, Oct. 21, 7 to 8 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church, 503 Sixth St. W., Red Wing.

Learn about growing and harvesting herbs for tea and cooking.

Contact: Cindy, clp55066@yahoo.com.

September/October 2019

5

mshs news

For more information on MSHS events and activities, visit our website at northerngardener.org.

LETTUCE TURNIP THE BEET

6

www.northerngardener.org

Melon Mocktail 1 cup sugar 1 cup water 3 limes, zest and juice Ginger root, a piece the size of your thumb Small handful of mint or other herb, if desired 1 or more Minnesota Midget melons (or other cantaloupe) Ice, sparkling water for serving Mix the sugar and water in a pot over medium heat and bring it to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Zest the three limes, peel and slice the ginger, and remove herb leaves from stems. When the water boils, remove from heat and add ginger, lime zest and herbs to infuse the syrup.

Let cool.

When the syrup is room temperature, strain the syrup to remove ginger and herb pieces. Juice the lime, and seed and remove the flesh from the melon. Blend the sugar syrup, lime juice and melon flesh in a blender until it’s smooth. Strain the mixture through a sieve, if desired.

To serve, pour about 1/3 cup of the melon mixture in a tall glass with ice and top it off with sparkling water. Enjoy in the garden. This is a flexible recipe. Use watermelon, if you prefer, substitute different herbs or add lemon instead of lime. To make it a cocktail, add your favorite liquor—maybe rum?

PHOTO COURTESY OF TDBARTHOLOMEW

Most members and subscribers will get this issue of Northern Gardener just as the Minnesota State Fair is about to start. Our booth in the Dirt Wing of the Horticulture Building will be more fun than ever before. Here are five must-dos at the fair: 1. Learn about growing your own ingredients for cocktails, mocktails, smoothies and teas in our garden-toglass educational display, and bring delicious botanical drink recipes home with you. (We have one on this page.)

2. Jump into Seed Savers Exchange’s photo booth, grab some goofy gardening props and have your picture printed on a packet of seeds.

3. Snag one of the new T-shirts and socks designed by MSHS staff and local artist Tanya Orstad, such as our Lettuce Turnip the Beet shirt.

4. Catch one of the many gardening experts presenting on the Dirt Stage throughout the fair.

5. Join or renew your MSHS membership and receive a complimentary canvas tote bag.

Members enjoy a full year of free gardening webinars, a subscription to Northern Gardener magazine, discounts at garden centers and wineries across the Upper Midwest, and more.

Your membership helps MSHS create and deliver valuable community programs that bring plants and gardening education to our underserved neighbors throughout Minnesota. Thank you!

“Garden to Glass” is the theme of the MSHS Minnesota State Fair educational display.

We offer tips and recipes on incorporating herbs, fruits and vegetables into cocktails, mocktails and other drinks. Here’s one you can try at home.

Share Your Garden Photos with #mnhort What’s better than wandering through a lush public garden or watching your own yard burst into bloom? While not the same, scrolling through a social media feed full of beautiful gardens, unusual plants and creative gardening ideas can come close. Join our growing social media community by following MSHS at @mnhort. Connect with and learn from other gardeners around the world and see your support in action across Minnesota—watch Garden-ina-Box groups harvest veggies and grow to love gardening, see Minnesota Green participants bring armfuls of annuals to community gardens and enjoy glimpses of stunning private gardens. Tag your photos #mnhort for a chance to be featured, like these favorites!

PHOTO COURTEYS OF TAYUKITSU

State Fair Top 5

A Garden Beverage to Enjoy

MARY LAHR SCHIER

Membership Matters

Fundraising Garden Gathering

PHOTOS: MARY LAHR SCHIER

MSHS supporters joined staff and board at the annual Garden Gathering, held this year at Barbara Burgum’s beautiful Minnetonka garden. Thanks to Barbara for sharing her exceptional home and gardens that have joined a handful of sites included in the Garden Club of America archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. An article about Barbara’s historic garden appeared in the January/ February 2019 issue of Northern Gardener magazine.

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September/October 2019

7

SLP SEEDS

Discount Partners

SLP Seeds founder Julie Rappaport began planting the seeds for educational urban farming and community food equity in St. Louis Park more than seven years ago.

As part of its mission, SLP Seeds manages seven community gardening sites including gardens at Oak Park Village apartments, Lenox Community Center, local fire stations and community parks.

The focus of the gardens varies—some are playground gardens where SLP Seeds interns work with neighborhood youth, others grow food for local food shelves and the SLP Seeds cooking programs.

Seeds and plants from MSHS Garden-ina-Box and Minnesota Green programs are used in all of the gardens, which are tended by SLP Seeds adult volunteers and youth interns under the leadership

8

MARIA BROSOFSKE

MINNESOTA GREEN/GARDEN-IN-A-BOX

of Ariel Steinman, director of operations.

SLP Seeds also offers internships, cooking classes, volunteer opportunities and community meals. One community

program is a weekly Lunch and Learn held at the Oak Park Village apartments for youth and their families. The weekly meetings with lessons on cooking and nutrition have “changed the dynamics in our community greatly,” says Laura Nygren, a volunteer and resident of Oak Park Village.

These creative and committed advocates of food justice hope to have more impact in their community in the future with an all-seasons greenhouse.

They are living up to what the letters in the second part of their name stand for: Safe, Edible, Earth, Diverse and Service.

—Maria Brosofske For more information or to get involved, visit slpseeds.org.

MSHS Members SAVE with these Discount Partners!

Learn more online at northerngardener.org/discount-partners 101 Market Abrahamson Nurseries Alexis Bailly Vineyard Anoka-Ramsey Farm & Garden NEW! Arden Hills Nursery Axdahl’s Garden Farm & Greenhouse Bachman’s Beier’s Greenhouse Beisswenger’s NEW! Buffalo Rock Winery NEW! Cal’s Market & Garden Center NEW! Carlos Creek Winery NEW! Como Park Zoo & Conservatory Costa Farm & Greenhouse Countryside Lawn & Landscape Dan & Jerry’s Greenhouse Davey Tree Expert Company NEW! Dolan’s Landscape Center Dundee Nursery & Landscape Eco Gardens EggPlant Urban Farm Supply Extended Seasons Indoor Gardening NEW! Fair’s Nursery Farmington Greenhouse Flower Power Garden Center & Fred Holasek & Son Greenhouse Forest & Floral Garden Center NEW! Friends School Plant Sale

www.northerngardener.org

Garden Divas Garden Stories NEW! Green Earth Growers Green Lake Nursery Hafner’s Greenhouse NEW! Hartman Garden Center & Landscaping Hedberg Supply Heidi’s GrowHaus Hill’s Country Greenhouse NEW! Home Sown Gardens Hugo Feed Mill & Hardware Indian Island Winery NEW! Jean’s The Right Plant Place Kelley & Kelley Nursery Kelly’s Cottage Garden NEW! Kern Landscape Resources Knecht’s Nurseries & Landscaping Landscape Alternatives Lilydale Garden Center Living Sculpture Trees Lynde Greenhouse & Nursery Merschman Sales & Service NEW! Mickman Brothers Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Morgan Creek Vineyards NEW! Mother Earth Gardens My Sister’s Garden Nagel Sod & Nursery

Natural Landscape Minnesota

Nature’s Garden World Nelson Nursery Next Chapter Winery NEW! Otten Bros Garden Center & Landscaping Pahl’s Market Patio Town Pleasant View Gardens NEW! Pond King Water Gardens NEW! Prairie Restorations, Inc. Sailer’s Greenhouse NEW! Sargent’s Gardens Sargent’s Nursery Schulte’s Greenhouse & Nursery NEW! Seed Savers Exchange Seven Sisters Greenhouse South Cedar Garden Center Squire House Gardens Superior Outdoor Expressions Terra Garden Center Terrace Horticultural Books The Garden By the Woods The Winery at Sovereign Estate NEW! Travers Des Sioux Garden Center NEW! Wagner Greenhouses Walker Art Center Winter Greenhouse

Make & Take Series Sponsored by Koehler & Dramm

September 17th Succulents October 15th Wreaths November 12th Centerpieces

For more info and to sign up for a class in this series go to northerngardener.org

Sign up for all three and receive 20% off

Sprinklers

Available at your local Independent Garden Center or Online Retailer

Professional Watering Tools used by Growers Worldwide

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September/October 2019

9

Koehler and Dramm Institute of Floristry

MSHS and Koehler and Dramm’s Institute of Floristry value their shared history of inspiring beautiful creations with plants. So when MSHS was looking for a sponsor for its popular Make-andTake class series in 2019, Koehler and Dramm was the perfect fit.

“We at the institute feel strongly about the arts and flowers and the joy they bring to our community,” says Cheryl Stanius-Deiman of Koehler. “MSHS is a gem in our cities and we want to support educational opportunities for its members to express their creative side with flowers—really, it’s a beautiful arrangement!”

Founded in 1989 by floral designer Ardith Beveridge and Rich Dramm, Koehler and Dramm’s Institute of Floristry teaches the art and science of

floral design to industry professionals.

Now retired, Beveridge taught inspiring wreath-making classes at the MSHS classroom in Roseville for many years, as well as special classes for members at the Koehler and Dramm facility in Minneapolis.

Recently MSHS expanded its Makeand-Take classes, tailoring them to the changing seasons and current trends in design. The classes are held at a variety of neighborhood venues in order to connect with local businesses and to introduce members to fun spots in the Twin Cities. “Sponsor support from Koehler and Dramm is helping to make these additional class offerings possible and more colorful,” says Lara Lau-Schommer, MSHS community outreach manager.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

SPOTLIGHT

It’s been a perfect partnership!

—Diane Duvall For more information about classes at Koehler and Dramm, visit dkfloralinstitute.com. To see current MSHS class offerings, see listings on page 4 or visit northerngardener.org.

Pineridge Garden Club

When 12 gardeners from the Pineridge development in the village of Cottage Grove formed a garden club in 1969, they were careful about the name, says Linda Johnston, club president. The area was growing and they wanted to welcome gardeners from Newport, St. Paul Park and other nearby suburbs. So, they called themselves the Pineridge Garden Club, and 50 years later they are still welcoming anyone who loves plants and gardening. The club now numbers 37, including three of the original members.

From the beginning, the club focused on beautifying the community, encouraging gardeners and educating members. Its first community project was a garden at the Park-Grove Library, which later became the Cottage Grove village

10

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hall. Club members installed and maintained the garden, including watering it by hand for many years. When Cottage Grove built a new city hall in 2012, club members created an entrance garden— this time with irrigation! They also plant and maintain a smaller garden at Hyde Avenue and East Point Douglas Road, known as the triangle garden, and gardens they’ve recently adopted at Dingle and Heritage parks in St. Paul Park.

The club began giving Outstanding Garden Awards to individuals with exceptional landscapes in 1979. Club members scout out potential winners and present the awards each July.

“People really appreciate being noticed,” says Linda. “One woman displayed her garden award plaque at her 50th wedding anniversary celebration.” Members

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUSAN MAYER

GROWING TOGETHER

The Cottage Grove City Hall garden features many summer plants, including the Pineridge Garden Club’s club flower, the surprise lily (Lycoris squamigera).

tour the winning gardens, and each summer they have a “Gaze and Graze,” where they tour members’ gardens and socialize. This mix of service and fun is one reason the club has lasted so long.

—Mary Lahr Schier For information, visit pineridgegardenclub.org.

Our roots run deep

“MSHS is the #1 resource

connecting PEOPLE & PLANTS

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11

Lynn M. Steiner

Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis

PHOTOS: LYNN M. STEINER

northern natives C

ardinal flower gets its name from the brilliant red flowers that grow in an elongated cluster atop the stems, midsummer through early fall. The tubular flowers are two-lipped, with the three lobes of the lower lip appearing more prominent than the two lobes of the upper lip. White- and rose-colored forms can be found. The finely toothed, dark green to purple, lance-shaped leaves get about 4 inches long. It is a somewhat short-lived, clump-forming perennial.

Cardinal flower depends on hummingbirds, which feed on the nectar, for pollination. Bees may also visit. Butterflies, especially swallowtails, like it, but not cardinals.

Cardinal flower is one of the few native plants with true red flowers and they are a welcome addition to late-summer landscapes. Plant it in groups of five to seven in a moist area of perennial borders or semi-shaded areas of the landscape. It thrives in rain gardens, at the edges of water gardens, and in bogs.

Cardinal flower will naturalize when conditions are right. It definitely takes a bit of coddling, but the cardinal red color in late summer and the hummingbirds it attracts make it worth a little extra effort.

Good companions are autumn sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), goldenrods (Solidago spp.) and white turtlehead (Chelone glabra). A backdrop of ferns will help set off the red flowers.

This native is short-lived, so add seedlings every couple of years or plan to nurse along the offsets that appear in fall. Winter mulch is helpful in cold areas. It will self-seed prolifically in optimum growing conditions. It has no serious insect or disease issues, and deer and rabbits usually avoid it. ng Lynn Steiner’s most recent book is Grow Native (Cool Springs Press, 2016).

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With some extra care, cardinal flower rewards you with bright red blooms and hummingbird visits.

At a Glance: Lobelia cardinalis Hardiness: USDA Zones 3 to 9.

Native Range: Throughout a good portion of the United States and eastern Canada.

Size: 2 to 4 feet tall.

Site: Requires moist to wet, average soil in partial sun. It will tolerate full sun as long as the soil is always at least slightly damp. Plants have shallow root systems and will not survive drought. Amend the soil with lots of organic matter before planting and mulch plants.

Sources: Morning Sky Greenery, www.morningskygreenery.com; Out Back Nursery, www. outbacknursery.com; Prairie Moon Nursery, www.prairiemoon.com; Prairie Restorations, www.prairieresto.com; Shooting Star Native Seeds, www.shootingstarnativeseed.com.

Beyond the Species: Great blue lobelia (L. siphilitica) has electric blue flowers arising from the upper leaf axils in mid- to late summer. The leafy stalks typically grow 2 to 3 feet tall. It is easily grown in humus-rich, medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade.

It will self-seed prolifically in optimum growing conditions forming large colonies, so it is best used in naturalized areas or garden areas with drier soil. The shallow-rooted seedlings are easy to pull out. Zones 3 to 9.

—L.S.

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13

kitchen garden

Samantha Johnson

Spotlight on Kohlrabi

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

Roast kohlrabi and stuff it as you would a pepper for an attractive side dish or main course.

W

hy don’t more people grow kohlrabi? I mean, what’s not to like? It’s easy to grow, it’s tasty in a multitude of recipes, it comes in beautiful colors, and it’s one of the most unusual-looking vegetables you’ll ever find. And kohlrabi isn’t in your garden because … ?

Here’s the deal on kohlrabi. As a member of the Brassica family (Brassica oleracea, to be exact), kohlrabi is a cousin of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale, so if you’re familiar with growing those popular veggies, you’ll have no trouble getting started with kohlrabi.

Kohlrabi is found in shades of white, green and purple, and several interesting cultivars are available. ‘Korridor’ is an eye-catching white variety, ‘Winner’ is an excellent green specimen, and ‘Purple Vienna’ is an exquisite purple.

For best results, plant kohlrabi in full sun, with seeds ¼- to ½-inch deep, spaced 3 to 6 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart. You can start seeds indoors, but kohlrabi is a hardy plant and you can direct-sow outdoors in spring before your last frost date. Choose a location with well-drained soil and keep your plants regularly watered.

Kohlrabi handles cool temperatures, but it doesn’t do well with cold or freezing temperatures. A light frost will sometimes improve the flavor of kohlra14

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bi, but the plants tend to bolt if exposed to freezing temps. You can plant kohlrabi successively throughout the summer to extend your harvest.

Harvest kohlrabi once the bulbs reach about 2 inches in diameter—usually in 45 to 60 days. You can leave them to grow larger (up to 4 or 5 inches) but the texture tends to be better when they’re harvested at a smaller size. The exception? Giant varieties, like ‘Kossak,’ can reach 8 inches in diameter while still maintaining good flavor and texture.

Kohlrabi in the Kitchen Once you’ve harvested your kohlrabi, get ready for a treat! Many people compare its flavor to a sweet cabbage or turnips, but some think it tastes more like broccoli or radishes. The greens and bulbs are edible and can be eaten raw or cooked.

For fresh use in salads, you’ll want to harvest young, tender kohlrabi greens, but if you’re harvesting greens later in the season when they’re not as tender, you’ll probably prefer them cooked. You can prepare kohlrabi greens in the same manner as mustard greens or collard greens—sautéed, steamed or stir-fried.

Kohlrabi bulbs are versatile and taste great raw or cooked. Many people opt to peel the kohlrabi bulbs, then thinly slice them and serve them in salads or alongside a flavorful dip. Raw kohlrabi is also a

popular choice in slaws, perhaps because its flavor is reminiscent of cabbage.

I think roasting improves pretty much any vegetable, and kohlrabi is no exception, especially when you roast it along with root vegetables like potatoes, onions and carrots. Or just roast the kohlrabi by itself—it doesn’t necessarily need a sidekick.

You can sauté, steam or stir-fry the kohlrabi bulbs and then incorporate them into an array of dishes, especially those paired with cheese—and particularly goat cheese, yum! Kohlrabi makes an out-ofthe-ordinary pizza topping, too.

Then there’s soup. Kohlrabi soup has a creamy texture that is quite appetizing.

It holds a special place in Hungarian cuisine—in fact, Hungarian kohlrabi soup is known as karalábéleves and it’s a flavorsome combination of onions, carrots, chicken stock, parsley and sometimes bacon.

With so many ways to use it, you’ll want to plant some kohlrabi next spring and fill your kitchen with this underestimated vegetable. ng Northern Wisconsin-based Samantha Johnson is the author of several books, including The Beginner’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening, (Voyageur Press, 2013). Visit her online portfolio at http://samanthajohnson. contently.com.

by design

Don Engebretson

Foliage, Always Foliage

I

DON ENGEBRETSON

enjoy Instagram, a quick carousel of multifarious photos from folks I’ve chosen to follow around the globe. Gratefully disdainful of politics, my “friends” are a crazy collection of landscapers—I follow three in Russia, and they’re pretty good—far-flung gardeners, travelers and any lover of the outdoors who can shoot a decent photo.

I’m sure to halt the carousel any time the photo is of a flower garden. From this I’ve realized one thing: A lot of gardeners still don’t get it.

Quite often the photo of the gardener’s prized creation features a flurry of flower blooms. Aha, shoot it today, when it’s colorful, versus spring, when it kinda wasn’t, or a month from now, when these five perennials have packed it in for the season. Any void in the mostly colorful quilt gracing my cellphone screen is always some green-leaved perennial that either has yet to bloom or wrapped up that nonsense a month ago.

Repeat after me: The essential secret to creating a glorious flower garden that makes for fabulous photos spring through fall is to place your plants based on contrast between the size, shape and

(most important) color of the foliage.

Bloom color is a secondary concern.

I’ve hammered this theme before on these pages but it’s been awhile. So here’s a new test: Were you to wade into your perennial garden at its most “colorful” (let’s say mid-July), prune off every flower in sight, then step back, what would you see? An arduous, boring, symphony of green?

You can plant a perennial garden that, if expunged entirely of bloom, would stand before you as a tantalizing tapestry of form and color in spring, summer and fall. How many colors? Oh, a couple dozen, if you count the myriad shades of green, yellow, gold, red, blue, bronze, silver, orange and purple found in the foliage of perennial varieties available to northern gardeners. Even white, if you include variegated plants.

Have you made the leap in your mind to what this means in terms of ephemeral flower blooms coming and going across the entire gardening season?

So Many Hues At the nurseries next spring, dive into the hues of blue found in varieties of

Hosta, Dianthus, Baptisia, Allium, Sedoro, Festuca, Dicentra, Nepeta, Panicum and stonecrop Sedum. Savor the silvers of Artemisia, Brunnera, Athyrium, Eryngium, Perovskia, Pulmonaria, Stachys, Heuchera and Lamium. Yield to the yellows of Aralia, Tradescantia, Carex, Hakonechloa, Hosta and Heuchera.

Race to the reds and you’ll find varieties of Penstemon, xMukgenia, Heuchera, xHeucherella, Euphorbia and Sedum (both tall and stonecrop). Expand your view to include perennials with purple-to-bronze leaves: Actaea, Sedum, Ligularia, Heuchera, Hibiscus and Lobelia varieties will call to you. White and light cream are prominent in variegated varieties of Iris, Hosta, Yucca, Polygonatum and Polemonium.

Green foliage? Plenty of marvelous perennials have green leaves. Just go easy on it. If it’s tall, stick it in the back.

Then plant your perennial garden the way any crotchety old garden designer who is sick of drawing circles on paper plants one: Paint it on site. Place your plants in their pots based on contrast in foliage form and color as the eye moves across the desired area. A single here, a triple there, a curving swath of five, great, just keep the foliage colors playing off each other as you create your colorful quilt. When the tapestry pleases you, start planting.

By all means, have a bloom palette in mind. You want blue, yellow, white, red, pink and purple flowers? Terrific.

Buy perennials with blue, yellow, silver, red, purple, bronze, peach, light green, medium green, dark green and variegated foliage that happen to bloom in those colors. Just know what color the thing blooms in so you don’t plant a light green-leaved perennial next to a reddish-leaved perennial that both bloom at the same time in the same color. ng Don Engebretson can be reached at his website, renegadegardener.com.

A mix of foliage colors and shapes makes a pleasing garden without blooms.

September/October 2019

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garden solutions

Laura Schwarz

Preventing Winter Damage soil holds more heat than dry soil does, which means that damaging frosts can’t reach as deeply into the ground when the soil is wet. Roots need extra protection from winter injury because they are less cold-hardy than stems, branches and buds are. Most of our Minnesota-hardy woody plants have roots that will die at temperatures around zero degrees.

Luckily, the ground doesn’t usually get colder than that in Minnesota; our soil temperatures are regularly higher than our air temperatures. Snow can also help insulate the ground, keeping it warmer than the surrounding air. But when we don’t get adequate snowfall before the temperature drops, the ground isn’t protected from sub-zero temps. It’s even riskier for tree and shrub roots when we’ve had a dry autumn.

Fall watering is especially important for evergreens, which continue to lose moisture through their needles during the winter months, and for plants that aren’t quite zone-hardy here, such as Japanese maples.

Even when the autumn days are cool and you don’t notice any visible signs of wilting, you should check around the

Evergreens, newly planted trees and borderline zone-hardy shrubs need extra water in fall to prepare for winter.

MARY LAHR SCHIER

S

ometimes it seems like I’ve just finished getting ready for summer when it’s already time to start preparing for winter. I know it’ll only be September when you’re reading this, but early fall is the perfect time to start protecting trees and shrubs from the bitter cold. I’m not talking about any sort of physical cover or anti-desiccant spray. Rather, the best way to prepare your woody plants for winter is to water them consistently (and help conserve soil moisture) until the ground is completely frozen.

I hope that you watered your trees and shrubs all summer—especially if they were new this year or within the last few years. Trees can use 10 to 20 gallons of water a week when they’re first getting established! While it can be difficult to commit to a regular watering schedule for the entire growing season, consistent (weekly is best) watering during the last few months of the season can help prevent winter damage to your woody plants.

Depending on which trees and shrubs you have, watering can make or break their winter survival chances. Moist

base of your plants to see how dry the soil is. If the first few inches of soil are dry, it’s time to water. Place a trickling hose at the base of each plant for approximately 30 minutes, allowing the water to soak into the entire root ball.

Although it may seem silly or counterintuitive to water when it’s almost winter, you’ll notice a drastic difference the following season. Your evergreens will have less (or no) winter burn, while your other woody plants will experience less root injury and overall stress, allowing them to begin growing right away in the spring.

In addition to watering, you can protect your trees and shrubs with a thick layer of organic mulch over their root zones. Cover the ground directly below each plant’s dripline with an organic mulch. Straw, leaves and shredded wood chips are all good options for winter mulching. The University of Minnesota Extension recommends using a 4- to 8-inch layer of mulch, depending on the age, planting time, previous watering schedule and cold-hardiness of each tree or shrub.

Mulching around your plants will decrease water evaporation from the soil, helping conserve the soil moisture that moderates the ground temperature.

Instead of raking the fallen leaves out of your garden beds, try leaving them in place, allowing them to cover and protect the roots of your woody plants. In the spring, this organic material will then begin to decompose, providing nutrients for the next season’s growth.

In late fall, when plants are going dormant for the winter, you can use tree wrap or burlap to prevent winter burn and sunscald on vulnerable plants. I don’t recommend using anti-desiccant sprays on trees or shrubs. There isn’t any peer-reviewed research that shows they protect plants from winter damage. ng Horticulturist and writer Laura Schwarz lives in Minneapolis, where she works in garden design, installation and maintenance.

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The Dark Side of Butterfly Gardening

Y

ou go to your garden as an escape from the evening news and polarizing politics, right?

So, I hate to introduce controversy, but ….

You may already know the basics of the great butterfly bush debate, yet many gardeners are still confounded and confused as to how a plant named for the very creature it attracts can be considered so bad.

First, let’s do away with the mix-up with common names. Butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii) is the subject of this column. It is a deciduous shrub native to China with gray-green leaves and colorful flower spikes; its numerous named cultivars bloom in shades of purple, pink, blue and white. It’s not to be mistaken for butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), the orange- or yellow-flowered native species of milkweed.

No argument—butterfly bush attracts butterflies in droves. They flock to this plant to siphon nectar from tiny tubular florets that make up the showy flowers.

However, the plant is considered invasive in various places around the country (not in Minnesota) and in Europe, where it actually grows like a weed. Those beautiful flowers throw off thousands of seeds, potentially displacing native species. For instance, in Oregon and Washington butterfly bush threatens populations of poplar and willow, two trees that are larval hosts for hundreds of Lepidoptera.

And therein lies the problem. As a nonnative, butterfly bush is not a larval host to any native insect, including the very butterflies that love it. Insect larvae (caterpillars), besides maturing into adult insects, provide sustenance for birds and other animals up the food chain. Ecologists maintain that the nectar value of butterfly bush doesn’t offset that deficit. Although there have been isolated incidences of butterflies adapting to use butterfly bush as a larval host, evolution works on a plodding schedule.

You may think you know all the

Rhonda Fleming Hayes RHONDA FLEMING HAYES

pollinators

butterfly bush varieties but there are over 100 species of butterfly bush throughout the world and more than 300 named cultivars! A few are native to North America, yet they look nothing like the glitzy one we are familiar with; one is short, gray, fuzzy, and popular in Arizona.

Sterile Varieties Plant breeders addressed the invasiveness issue, developing sterile and nearly seedless versions of this beloved plant, such as those in the Lo and Behold® and ‘Miss’ series. You can enjoy those with less guilt.

Here in Minnesota, butterfly bush is marginally hardy, preferring USDA Zone 5 and warmer. If it survives, it is slow to emerge in spring and often thought to be dead, but those prolific seeds remain in the soil, perhaps waiting for a warmer future to wreak havoc.

I grow two sterile butterfly bush plants—in pots at the entryway of my pollinator-friendly garden—as expensive annuals. From there, I can watch the parade of pollinators cover the blooms all day long. I’m astounded by the diversity of butterfly species that visit, sometimes several at a time. Eastern swallowtail, black swallowtail, monarch, painted lady, American admiral, red-spotted purple, buckeye, hairstreak, hackberry emperor, fritillary and so on.

I’m really curious about what drives the butterflies (bees and hummingbirds, too) to these flowers more than anything else in my yard. What’s in that juice? Seriously, has anyone studied the composition of its nectar? I wonder if the sugar concentration is higher than most, making it the insect equivalent of junk food. Or maybe there is some kind of other crucial nutrient within those blossoms. Perhaps something like a drug? I’d like to know.

A tiger swallowtail on butterfly bush

While I understand the ecological principle behind the butterfly bush ban, I also understand human nature. Nonnative plants are like tacos. They weren’t always in Minnesota, but now they are and Minnesotans love them. They don’t want them for dinner every day, but now and then they’re great.

We should learn about the dangers of invasive plants and avoid them. We should strive to plant more natives. Our yards simply need more plants, more flowers, more trees. We should create plant-rich landscapes at our homes, parks, commercial areas and schools.

We should fervently support saving the natural landscapes we have and restoring any and all we can.

Try some plants from the list of butterfly bush alternatives with this column.

Meanwhile, I won’t begrudge you a couple of sterile butterfly bushes. ng Rhonda Fleming Hayes is the author of Pollinator Friendly Gardening (Voyageur Press, 2016) and a Minneapolis-based master gardener.

10 Alternatives to Butterfly Bush American boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) Blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) Ironweed (Vernonia fasciculate) Leadplant (Amorpha canescens) Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia) Sweetspire (Itea virginica) Wild senna (Cassia hebecarpa) —R.F.H. September/October 2019

17

plant to pick

Debbie Lonnee

Hydrangea paniculata

Panicle Hydrangea Tree Form

N

DEBBIE LONNEE

othing adds color to the late summer landscape more than Hydrangea paniculata, also known as panicle hydrangea.

It is one of the hardiest species of hydrangea we can grow in Minnesota.

Rather than highlight one of the many new cultivars on the market today, I’d like to showcase how it can be grown into a different shape or form.

When you think of a shrub, you probably envision a multistemmed plant that is round and bushy. When you think of a tree, you likely envision a single trunk with a branched First Editions® Vanilla Strawberry™ top. How about combining tree form the two and grow what my colleagues and I jokingly call a shrub on a stick! berry™ and Quick Fire®. These are all This is now commonly done varieties that mature in the 6- to 8-foot with Hydrangea paniculata, and a wellheight range and are best for trees. The shaped tree form is a welcome addition newer dwarf cultivars do not lend themto small-space gardens. selves to tree forms. The conical flowers It takes the nursery grower more than start to form in July and bloom through five years to bring a good-sized panicle August and into September. hydrangea tree to market. Without getting into too many technical details, the growers take a young rooted cutting, cut out all but the strongest, straightest stem to create a trunk, and later prune the trunk at a certain height (usually about 4 feet) to create a shrubby round head. Those bareroot trees are harvested and shipped to other growers or planted in larger containers, typically 7- or 10-gallon containers that will eventually be shipped to the garden centers after another year of rooting and growth. These plants have the look of a young ornamental tree with a very visible trunk.

Typically, the taller panicle types are used for tree production. Think about great cultivars such as ‘Limelight’ PP12,874, First Editions® Vanilla Straw18

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Growing Tips So, how do you grow and maintain a tree-form hydrangea? They have the same cultural requirements that the shrubs do: full sun and well-drained, average soil. Most cultivars are hardy in USDA Zone 4, with many hardy to zone 3. Pruning is the main difference.

Panicle hydrangeas bloom on new wood, so they can be pruned as dormant plants in March, April or early May. You will need to be diligent, especially with a newly planted tree, in the first years to maintain that round shape. You can cut the stems back 25 to 50 percent (don’t be shy!), and stand back as you prune to watch that you are maintaining a round shape. If any shoots appear on the trunk,

they can be easily pruned to maintain the trunk look.

A light fertilization in spring is helpful. In the landscape, these smaller shrubs on a stick offer a plant that looks like a tree but that fits into a very small space.

Small city lots and townhouse gardens will all benefit from the verticality of a small tree. I see many designers using them in large display pots, but they will have to be stored indoors during our cold Minnesota winters.

Just a few thoughts about the three cultivars I have suggested above: ‘Limelight’ PP12,874 From the Proven Winners® Color Choice program, this is an excellent variety as a tree. The flowers open in midsummer, first lime green, then a nice white. As the flowers mature, they will take on some light shades of pink, burgundy and green.

First Editions® Vanilla Strawberry™ Bred in France, this is one of the first panicle hydrangeas to display incredible shades of pink, then strawberry, as the panicle matures. It starts out white, and then the color begins at the bottom of the panicle. This color is best expressed when we get cool nighttime temperatures in late July into August.

The last two seasons we have had spectacular color on this variety. The red stems are a bonus.

Quick Fire® (‘Bulk’ PP16,812) Also part of the Proven Winners® Color Choice program, this is one of the earliest panicle types to bloom in summer, sometimes a month earlier than other varieties. The flowers are more open than other types but are beautiful in their own way. Quick Fire will take on some pink colors in August as the flowers mature. ng Debbie Lonnee works in the horticulture industry and gardens in South St. Paul.

how-to

Eric Johnson

Planting Spring Bulbs

Selecting Bulbs As with most garden shopping, stick with reliable sources for your bulbs. I try not to judge sources by name, but rather by how generally good their plants look.

No matter where you get your bulbs, they should be firm and their papery shell should be intact. Send mushy bulbs to the compost pile. Take advantage of sales but aim to have your bulbs in the ground by mid-October so they have time to establish roots. Except for tulips.

If you can still dig, you can plant tulips.

Store your purchases in the refrigerator until you can plant them. A cool and dry space is your friend.

Site Prep and Planting Spring bulbs need a sunny location throughout the summer in order to

ERIC JOHNSON

P

hotos of tulips and daffodils seem out of place in the fall, but think of them as motivation. Now is the time to spend a few hours digging and planting so you can enjoy days of splendor next spring.

Even if you’re worn out from the gardening season, your enthusiasm will return, and you’ll be so glad you did it.

Daffodils, crocuses, tulips and hyacinths, among others, create a march of color in the spring. Blooming bulbs are floral magic and so easy to incorporate into your landscape. No design is needed—just plant in groups and the pops of color will be glorious. The toughest part is keeping the squirrels and chipmunks from digging up your freshly planted bulbs. You can try creating a little tent with chicken wire over your bulbs and either remove it in the spring or just leave it for the bulbs to sprout through. But sadly, either the squirrels or chipmunks also eat my tulip flowers, making them even more fleeting than they already are.

Sometimes, the creatures just win out.

If critters are an issue, go with daffodils.

Deer avoid them, plus daffodils are the most reliable, coming back year after year.

Got critters? Plant daffodils.

Hyacinth bulbs bring fragrance to the garden,

endure and rebloom. If you are planting your bulbs as annuals, you can do it in more shade. Skip the specialized bulb planters. They tend to clump up with soil and don’t account for bulbs of varying sizes. Dig a planting hole wide and deep enough to accommodate your bevy of bulbs. Bulbs look most natural and have more visual appeal when planted in groups.

Generally, bulbs are planted at a depth of two to three times the width of the bulb. Go 1 to 2 inches deeper in sandy soil and 1 to 2 inches shallower in clay.

Good drainage is important. Dig the hole 6 or so inches deeper than the bulb needs to go, incorporate some compost and work in granular fertilizer, preferably organic, according to the directions.

Be sure to scatter an inch or so of the soil you dug up over the amended layer to keep the bulbs from touching the fertilizer. Fertilizing at planting isn’t absolutely necessary as the flower is already forming in the bulb, so it will do just fine without any. Nestle in your bulbs with

the flat root sides down and pointy sides up, at the proper depth, and a couple of inches apart. Fill the hole halfway with the removed soil, soak the planting hole, and fill it to the top. Then, pat down the soil and mulch with leaves or straw to help maintain a constant temperature.

Promote Repeat Performances When your bulbs are blooming, all you need to do is enjoy the show and perhaps cut a few to bring in the house. When flowers have faded, deadheading flowers and not removing the leaves will help the bulbs build energy for the coming years.

Fertilize after blooming with a 10-10-10 fertilizer. With luck, you will get many years out of your bulbs. Daffodils are great for this. To get more seasons out of your tulip-planting efforts, consider species tulips. They are less showy than the fancy hybrids but will return more reliably. ng Minneapolis-based garden writer Eric Johnson blogs at gardendrama.wordpress.com.

September/October 2019

19

Cathy’s front yard is sunny and colorful with annuals, hydrangeas and prairie plants, such as black-eyed Susans.

TINY

&

TERRIFIC You can pack a lot of personality into a small garden.

Story by Meleah Maynard Photos by Tracy Walsh

Gardens inherently offer clues about the people who tend them. And those clues are even more evident in small urban spaces where gardeners need to make a lot of choices because they don’t have room to have it all. This is the story of two such gardens, both in Minneapolis and both good examples of all that can be made of a small city lot.

A Well-Designed Oasis There’s something about Cathy Skalicky’s garden that’s hard to put your finger on at first. And then you realize it’s the design. Simple and clean with a fair number of plants but not too many, the gardens in the front and back yards feel lush, yet peaceful, like it wouldn’t eat up your whole life to keep them looking great. Cathy attributes that feeling of things being just right partly to chance and luck, but she does have a degree in landscape architecture, and what she learned shows in her execution as well as her end result.

Cathy and her husband, Chris Etz, 20

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bought their home in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood 18 years ago when the yard was a grassy blank slate with the standard concrete path to the garage and driveway out back. Starting with the hardscape, she drew up a plan that included stone retaining walls, steps, and paver walkways and patios. Next, they installed all of that hardscape themselves with help from Cathy’s brother, David.

Because the houses behind them are situated above their yard, she planted small trees, shrubs and perennials along the fence to give the backyard more privacy. Beds are filled with low-maintenance hostas, wild gingers, bleeding hearts, lilyturfs, lady’s mantles, meadow rue, Solomon’s seals, baneberries, astilbes and fleeceflower—an underused herbaceous shrub with showy white flowers.

There’s also a small goldfish pond.

“I like that the garden just kind of does its own thing,” Cathy says, explaining that she intentionally designed it so she wouldn’t have to spend a lot of time deadheading or moving things around.

With shade and greenery, Cathy’s backyard is cool and refreshing.

Above: Trees and shrubs along the fence provide privacy. Patios and walkways were added first to give structure to the yard.

Left: A fairy garden in a container is a whimsical centerpiece in a sitting area.

Right: Cathy’s garden is a low-maintenance oasis her family can enjoy all summer long.

Her family feels like they have their own secluded oasis. “On really hot summer days, you come home and park and as soon as you come in the back gate, it’s at least 10 degrees cooler and you hear the water in the goldfish pond,” she says.

“We’re very close to the highway, so it’s such a nice contrast.”

Though you can’t tell it now, this is Cathy’s first garden, so she’s been learning as she goes. For example, she thought she’d enjoy growing colorful annuals in pots, but all of that watering and deadheading quickly lost its appeal. She now prefers growing succulents, sedum, hostas, ornamental grasses and other perennials in pots instead. What she doesn’t bring in for the winter, she puts in the ground and repots come spring. Growing edibles in what little sun is left out back as the trees get bigger has become more and more challenging. But Cathy still manages to grow several vegetables in raised beds, as well as tomatoes on a new arbor she and her husband built last spring out of hog panels. “I’m amazed by how many September/October 2019

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Tiny and Terrific

Cathy Skalicky’s garden leaves time and space for relaxation.

vegetables we’re still getting even though there isn’t a lot of sun,” she says. “I think the tomatoes do really well on the new arbor because there is better air circulation to keep the plants healthy, and it is so much easier to pick them now that they’re so visible and accessible.”

In front, where there’s much more sun, Cathy has planted a variety of perennials that bloom throughout the season, including salvias, balloon flowers, rudbeckias, liatris, dianthus, amsonias and lilies.

There are also several Annabelle hydrangeas, an ‘Autumn Brilliance’ serviceberry and a couple of thornless hawthorn trees. Though there is a lot more color out front, the same low-maintenance sensibility is evident in the seamless ways the plants coexist with each other.

“Sometimes I think it would be so nice to have a big yard,” she says. “But then I think about all of the extra work it would take to maintain something larger. I’ve got plenty of space to garden now. Just enough, really.”

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Above: Water features add sound to mask nearby highway noise.

Upper right: Sun is scarce, but an arbor allows Cathy to grow tomatoes vertically.

Lower right: Raised beds house greens and other vegetables.

TINY

&

TERRIFIC A seating area, stove and easy-care plants make Marta’s yard a place to socialize and relax.

An Eclectic Sanctuary

With a limited plant palette and structure, Marta’s garden evokes calm.

Marta Knutson lives on a busy corner near Powderhorn Park, but you’d never know it because her backyard, with its waterfall and pond and cozy sitting areas, feels like a private sanctuary. It didn’t start out that way. Marta had never gardened, but shortly after moving into her home 16 years ago, a friend took her to the Minneapolis Farmers’ Market where she saw a ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis.

“I remember being instantly obsessed,” she recalls, “and I started buying perennial books and reading up.”

The first thing she did was tackle the overgrown backyard, which included some nice plants that had gotten out of control under a previous owner. “Neighbors thought I had put in a new sidewalk, but I hadn’t—it was just buried under the yard,” she says, laughing. Eventually, Marta uncovered an entire path leading through a side gate to the garage.

She put in the circular patio herself as well as the pond. Though she loves the feel of cottage gardens, she also September/October 2019

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Tiny and Terrific Marta Knutson

“For some people, gardening seems like work, but for me it’s a break from work. It is a way for a person like me, who’s always in motion, to relax while being constructive at the same time.” likes tropical plants, so over the years she’s created her own eclectic mix of mostly annuals and perennials, as well as Annabelle hydrangeas and morning glories and white cypress vines. Like Cathy, Marta doesn’t want to have to spend a ton of time fussing with a garden full of plants with vastly different needs.

Instead, she’s picky about what she grows, and she tends to plant things in large clumps. “I like the cohesive look of clumps of plants rather than one or two plants here and there,” she explains. “I also think it’s more appealing to repeat those large groups in different areas around the garden.”

Garden beds include pollinator favorites like catmint, blazing star, Helianthus, joe-pye weed, sea holly, meadow rue, prairie smoke and love-in-a-mist.

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Marta’s garden is full but not crowded or messy.

URBAN GARDEN TIPS Contain it. Unless your neighbor’s property offers a lovely borrowed view, add a tall fence or hedge plantings for privacy and a backdrop for your garden beds.

Patios and paths first. Decide where you will add hard features, such as patios, paths and walls, before adding plants.

Choose right-sized trees and shrubs. With a small space, not everything will fit.

Consider using dwarf varieties of favorite plants, smaller understory trees such as serviceberry or pagoda dogwood, or limit the garden to just one or two statement trees.

Go up! Vertical elements, such as trellises, pergolas and arbors, offer more places to plant and additional decorative elements.

Resources The Less is More Garden: Big Ideas for Planting a Small Space (Timber Press, 2018)

by Susan Morrison New Small Garden: Contemporary Principles, Planting and Practice (Frances Lincoln, 2016) by Maayke de Ridder and Noel Kingsbury —Eds.

A few favorite plants (clockwise from upper left) hot peppers, dahlias and meadow rue.

But what really makes this garden special are all the personal touches: the main sitting area on the patio under an apple tree, an open section of fence that offers a view of Powderhorn Lake, a secluded spot behind a curtain where a hot tub once was and may one day be again, and the little dog door in the backyard fence that leads to the neighbor’s yard. If it’s time for a dual-yard party, that entire fence panel can be lifted right off so guests can stroll between the two yards.

Like a lot of gardeners, Marta likes to entertain, but it’s hard to keep from jumping up to do things like pull a weed or deadhead a few things. “For some people, gardening seems like work, but for me it’s a break from work,” she says. “It is a way for a person like me, who’s always in motion, to relax while being constructive at the same time.” ng Meleah Maynard is a Minneapolis-based writer and editor.

A dog door allows canine travel to and from the house next door. The panel can be lifted for parties.

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MARY LAHR SCHIER

The memory-packed beds of this farm garden welcome pollinators and people.

Country Charm Cathy Hoban’s old pickup filled with patriotic flowers greets visitors to Rock Garden Farms.

Story and photos by Ariel Emery Butler

Humans come to explore the themed flowerbeds on Cathy Hoban and Pat Spence’s 9 acres east of Faribault, but they are outnumbered by the pollinators—hummingbirds in particular—that make their home in this country garden from spring to fall.

Cathy Hoban and Pat Spence

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By late summer, the couple goes through a gallon of nectar every other day keeping 15 feeders full for the charms—the technical term for a group of hummingbirds—that stay from mid-May to mid-September. Naturally, hummingbird watching is a regular activity for Cathy, Pat and their guests. And, hummingbirds manage to make their way into conversation as they dart past every few minutes.

“Oh, did you hear him?” asks Cathy.

“Kind of a buzz.

They do make noise.

They chirp at each other when they’re mad.”

From Rocks to Blooms Rock Garden Farm bloomed gradually over the 40 years Cathy has lived on the property.

“It was a hayfield when we started,” she says, referring to her first husband, the late Bill Hoban. “There were two trees on it, and one we had to take down because it fell. The other one is still back here, and it’s the umbrella tree that all of the hummingbirds, and all of the birds, go to.”

Early on, Cathy, Bill and their two young children were pinching pennies just to finish the house they built on the property. She didn’t have a vision of themed flowerbeds and winged visitors—just hopes that some dug-up, transplanted spruce trees would eventually grow into a windbreak.

As a young parent with a backyard

of 9 acres, Cathy first planted a vegetable garden.

“We had very tight finances, so I planted a vegetable garden the size of our riding ring,” Cathy says. “I planted vegetables my family liked and that I could can or freeze. My son and his best friend used to take the surplus to the farmers’ market to sell.”

Objects Add Interest

Rocks turned up every time they went to dig a hole, hence the name Rock Garden Farms, which Cathy had painted on a 1929 truck door that sits at the entrance to the property.

The need for the vegetable garden decreased as the years went by, and small flowerbeds started popping up around the yard.

“Patrick would always laugh that the existing gardens seemed to grow a couple of more feet each year,” Cathy says.

The garden beds are accented with a variety of eclectic objects. Garden clubs and other groups that visit the garden notice first its largest piece of garden art: a vintage truck brimming with patriotic petunias.

“It’s a 1939 Ford pickup, and we are the second owners,” says Cathy. “It doesn’t run, but [Pat] has a replacement engine in the man cave, so one of these years he’s going to get it running. In the meantime, he built me a box to go in the back of it, and we planted it in red, white and blue, because he’s a veteran, and we really support our veterans.”

In another corner of the garden is Cathy’s farmyard vignette: Six resin pig figurines hide among a bed of gerbera daisies, lantana, Thunbergia and Lemon Coral® sedum. Cathy is not particularly

Decorative pigs peek out from the flowers.

September/October 2019

MARY LAHR SCHIER

Left: An old truck door is a sign for the farm. Above: A large bed of hostas fronts a shrub border.

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Country Charm

Chartreuse sedum, impatiens, begonias, hostas and other mostly green plants fill a memory bed in Cathy’s garden.

fond of swine but the pigs peeking out of the plants make her and others giggle. “I love putting the unexpected somewhere in my gardens to surprise people and put a smile on their face,” she says.

And then sometimes her garden objects are a matter of refuse she couldn’t refuse.

“My husband hates it, because we go to the dump, and I come back with stuff,” she says with a laugh. “If we love the look, design, structure, patina [of an object] or envision it as a planter, we decide to get it. Sometimes I feel sad for a lonely item tossed out by someone, when it could have a new, happy life at our farm.”

Items with new, happy lives include old mangers and other objects that can be converted to waist-high planters. Shiny things are also hard to resist. Several of the farm’s most iconic objects are auction bargains: a horse-drawn wagon, large metal urns and a 10-foot-tall cupola.

But visitors might overlook Cathy’s 28

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most meaningful objects.

“This is my St. Francis of Assisi garden,” she says, pointing to a bed along the east side of the house. A statue of St. Francis stands amid pots of impatiens, coleus and begonias. “I say my rosary in that window every day, so it’s really calming. Everything’s kind of got the pink tones going with it.”

Nearby, a pair of dirty sneakers rests at the foot of a tree. Cathy planted that tree in memory of her first husband more than two decades ago. She hung a pair of Bill’s sneakers in the tree by their laces.

The laces have since given out, but the shoes and their memories remain.

Theme Gardens Memories are rooted in several of Cathy’s flowerbeds, each of which has a theme.

Her Memory Garden bed, in honor of her late husband and Pat’s late wife, features an angel statue and calming whites and lime greens. Another flowerbed,

called the Loyalty Garden, is a tribute to veterans like Pat and features Nonstop® begonias and a U.S. Navy medallion.

Orange tropical impatiens grow beneath the pine trees she planted long ago. “My deceased husband’s favorite color was orange,” says Cathy.

In some cases, the theme is simply a color combination, such as her University of Minnesota maroon and gold bed, or her pink and purple bed, or her orange and yellow and pink bed. Limiting each bed to no more than three colors is pleasing and soothing, according to Cathy.

Scattered among all of these beds are 114 varieties of hostas. Cathy loves their soft green-on-green look and has been collecting them for many years.

Pleasing Pollinators The garden in front of Cathy’s barn is designed to please winged visitors with a buffet of portulaca plants.

A painted lady butterfly rests on lantana.

“A lot of people don’t know about portulacas, but they are very pollinator-friendly plants,” Cathy explains. “They open up in the sun, and then at night they’ll all close down, so you won’t see the flowers.”

Garden visitors are often invited to “sit on the barn veranda and enjoy the antics of the hummingbirds and the beauty of the butterflies.”

“They’re very territorial,” Cathy says.

“They don’t let anyone else feed while they’re feeding. … You’ll see that they chase each other off, and they’ll zoom around our heads.”

Cathy’s next garden project is a large pasture nearby. She and Pat have tilled the area and plan to plant wildflowers among the pollinator-friendly clover that is already there.

“My overall goal is to create a beautiful place for man and beast while supporting our ecosystem,” says Cathy. “Plain and simple, without pollinators we could not survive.” ng Northfield-based Ariel Emery Butler is a freelance writer and editor.

With waves of blooming annuals, Cathy’s barn bed hums with birds, bees and butterflies.

Hummingbirds are constant visitors to Cathy’s garden.

Garden Advice Use annuals for impact.

Cathy’s gardens rely heavily on annual varieties. She works at a greenhouse until mid-June so her planting is often delayed.

To get big and bountiful blooms, she says to “water, water, water.” She also uses a fertilizer that has a large middle number (phosphorus), such as a 10-54-8, and she is not afraid to cut back plants to increase their volume.

Go for big beds.

Small flowerbeds have less impact.

Coordinate colors by bed but “don’t be afraid to use oranges with pink and purples and that kind of approach,” she says. “Don’t be afraid. Mix them up.”

Don’t be too quick to clean up.

Cathy leaves hosta and daylily stems standing. When the stems dry, bees hibernate in them.

“Leave a winter habitat for the bees and butterflies,” she says.

—A.E.B.

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Aster Abundance

Plant these native choices for fall beauty and pollinator food.

If you’ve wandered by an aster on a crisp autumn afternoon while the sun warms your back, then you’ve seen what this plant does for local wildlife, especially pollinating insects and bugs. From a distance, it may seem like asters are the center of a snow globe as the glittering, delicate bodies of flies, bees and beneficial wasps rise and then settle again over the flowers.

Scientific studies show precipitous insect decline, which behooves gardeners to not only be aware of the issues facing pollinators but how we can be part of the answer. Providing as many resources as possible for adult and larval-stage insects and bugs is one way to help. Another way is creating awareness in our communities by displaying stunning plants loaded with pollinators. Asters fit the bill on both counts.

Asters provide shallow blooms that make for easy pollinator landing pads, and with the large number of available florets filled with food, an insect can hang out longer while feeding and conserve energy. Male bees are often seen refueling on asters before they continue their search for a female. Various flies, such as bee and syrphid, will visit, alongside soldier and other 30

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Calico aster

Story and photos by Benjamin Vogt

beetles. The specialist arcigera flower moth caterpillar feeds on aster blooms and seeds, then overwinters as a pupae in the soil, emerging as an adult in late summer to mate and begin the cycle again. Pearl crescent and silvery checkerspots also use asters as a host plant.

Pollinator support goes hand in hand with beauty for us. As a group, asters provide a succession of blooms that lasts from the first big-leaved asters flowering in late summer to the aromatic asters still blooming in mid- to late autumn.

What’s in a Name?

Now before we go any further, it’s important to note that asters aren’t Aster anymore. Most are now officially called Symphyotrichum pronounced sim-fie-oh-TRICK-um or sim-fee-oh-TRYkum. Aster is an old-world genus name coming from the Greek “astron,” which means star. There used to be about 180 North American plants in the genus whose flowers looked starlike. But with advances in DNA research, we’ve seen that just because plants look alike doesn’t mean they are closely related. So now

an aster could be Symphyotrichum, Eurybia, Baccharis, Ericameria, Solidago and more. The benefit of this Latin chaos? We can better understand how plants interact with their ecosystems and effectively track the rise or decline of species.

Regardless, we’re going to look at a few asters as “asters,” focusing on Symphyotrichum species, which thrive in most cultivated garden settings. With the exception of smooth aster, they are all hardy to USDA Zone 3. Here are six native asters that provide blooms and pollinator food from August until October or beyond.

Sky Blue Aster, Azure Aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense) If you enjoy the general form, size and bloom color of smooth aster but have a really hot, dry, sunny site, then this is the aster for you. It’s a bit more airy and open in structure, and still moderately branched at the top, but it will thrive in well-drained sandy, rocky, clay or loam soil that gets all the summer and autumn heat.

Heart-Leaved Aster, Blue Wood Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) There are plenty of woodland aster choices, and while more sun will mean more blooms for heart-leaved aster, you’ll still get the color you’re looking for in a shady, dappled sun or woodland edge garden. Reaching roughly 2 to 3 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide, this aster does best in medium moisture soils with decent organic matter, think loam to loamy clay. Can you guess what shape the leaves resemble?

Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum) The center of each bloom on this aster turns from yellow to pink when the nectar supply is exhausted. Those nectar tubes are shorter than those of many other asters so you’ll see a great diversity of short-tongued pollinators visit. Calico aster is a go-to deep-shade to part-shade perennial with hundreds of small white flowers with wiry, bushy tops and slender legs. With ample moisture, it can get 3-by-3 feet in size, and 2-by-2 feet in medium to dry sites. The leaves are small and thin and, given its leggy nature, underplanting with sedge or a thicker native groundcover might be ideal.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

Sky blue aster PHOTO COURTESY OF THOMAS BARNES, USDA

Smooth Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve) Perhaps the most adaptable plant on this list, smooth aster does well in full to part sun with medium moisture, in everything from loamy clay, to clay, to loamy sand soil. It will bloom in late summer to the middle of fall with blue to violet flowers atop 2- to 3-foot stems with moderate branching toward the top. As you might have guessed, the leaves are very smooth with a bluegreen tint. Plants are 2 feet wide on average, and the autumn color is yellow to red. In open soil or a bed dominated by wood mulch, self-seeding can be moderate. In a dense planting, you’ll only find a few seedlings, year to year. Hardy to zone 4.

Smooth aster

Heart-leaved aster September/October 2019

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Aster Abundance

Aromatic Aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) Asters are absolutely critical to late-season and migrating pollinators, which is why having a succession of them is so important. Some years, I see a few straggling pollinators coming by after a hard frost or two, and aromatic aster keeps the blooms coming once the warm afternoon sun hits the garden. This is a tough, slowly spreading, shrublike aster that reaches 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide when moisture is ample, slightly smaller when it’s not. Aromatic aster tolerates drought and prefers full sun and medium to well-drained soils. The flower color ranges from magenta to violet blue, while the seeds hold on most of the winter, entertaining humans and feeding wildlife.

HEATHER HOLM

Aromatic aster (front and middle) adds bright color to a fall garden.

Big Leaf Aster (Eurybia macrophylla) This might be the groundcover you’re looking for in a shady to part-shade site around leggy calico aster. The oversized leaves tend to reach no more than about a foot tall. In late summer, the flower stalks go another foot beyond that but with a smaller number of white blooms than other asters on this list. It will bloom in late summer, probably just before calico aster, and in a loamy soil it will spread moderately by rhizomes (lesser so in clay). If you have a shady area you don’t know what to do with, let this aster do its thing.

Now that fall is here, stop to take a deeper look at the massive variety of aster-ish asters North America provides—your garden and the pollinators coming through will be the richer for it. ng Benjamin Vogt is the author of A New Garden Ethic (New Society Publishers, 2017) and a writer and garden designer in Lincoln, Neb. His website is monarchgard.com.

Bloom Succession From earliest to latest, here’s how they flower: Big leaf aster Calico aster Smooth aster Sky blue aster Heart-leaved aster Aromatic aster

—B.V.

Resources Asters are available in most nurseries and garden centers. To find the native species, check with nurseries specializing in prairie or native plants.

—Eds.

Big leaf aster

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Grow your own beverage supply with grapes and hops.

Story and photos by Jennifer Rensenbrink

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, I READ THE BOOK Gaia’s Garden (Chelsea Green, 2009)

by Toby Hemenway. Early in the book, he describes his patio, featuring a grapevine-covered arbor. Inspired, my husband and I built a large cedar arbor over our low, sunny backyard deck in 2014.

Hemenway’s patio arbor illustrates a permaculture concept that he calls stacking functions—each plant and each structure fills more than one purpose.

The grapevines he planted provide shade, fruit, and a beautiful space to transition from house to garden. This concept stuck with me as I planned my own arbor—I wanted plants that would provide more than just flowers or shade.

We had experience growing grapes for eating and jelly, as well as a failed hops-growing experiment. (We tried brewing with an ornamental hops variety—Oops.) But those experiences taught me how quickly and vigorously both hops and grapes grow, and how to manage them. We decided to try wine grapes and hops: our booze-themed arbor was born.

Plants and Plan In 2015, we planted four bare-root hops plants from a local brewing supply store: one ‘Centennial’, two ‘Cascade’ and one ‘Chinook’. We also planted two University of Minnesota hybrid wine grapes: ‘Frontenac Gris’ and ‘Marquette’. The plan: train the wine grapes up at opposite corners, while stringing up twine along the sides for the hops to climb. Growing hop bines on twine makes harvesting

The grape- and hops-covered arbor offers cozy seating at night.

BOOZE BOWER easier; you can just snip the twine and pull the whole plant down.

The first year, we worked to get plants established, tying the grapevines to the pillars with twine every few inches to keep them going the direction we wanted. We also protected them from rabbits that first winter with chicken wire.

We had our first harvests in 2017, and the past two years have seen our plan coming into fruition. By June each year, we have almost complete shade on our deck, as well as privacy on both sides courtesy of the hops.

We’ve learned a lot about these plants, too. Hops and grapes are easy to grow.

They don’t require much watering and both prefer full sun. The plants on the south side of the arbor are much hardier, produce more flowers and fruit, and are less susceptible to insect damage. The hops on the north side still come up each spring but are less vigorous.

Yearly Chores Every spring, we string twine in a zigzag pattern from eye hooks along the top of the trellis to hooks screwed into the side of the deck. The hops wind themselves up the twine but need occasional tucking and trimming of side shoots. When they reach the top of the arbor, we string additional twine across the top and occasionally stand on a stepladder and tuck them in or trim them off—they require some coaxing.

Hops have almost no pest issues, but you’ll want to wear long sleeves and gloves when trimming or harvesting because the bines can irritate your skin.

How do you know when it’s time to harvest hops? Different varieties have different timelines, but in general, when our deck starts to smell like the Surly brewery, we know it’s time to get ready.

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Booze Bower

we have given some away to neighborhood brewers.

Wine grapes are trickier to grow than hops, primarily because of pest problems: grapevine beetles and Japanese beetles.

Grapevine beetles are fairly easy to deal with: they’re large and move slowly. In the early morning or evening, we simply knock them off the leaves into a container of soapy water.

Japanese beetles are far worse, as many northern gardeners know. They nearly devastated our ‘Marquette’ vine in 2018. The container of soapy water method can work for them, but only in the very early morning or late evening. Since the grapevines are now mostly on top of the arbor, beyond our reach, we’ve resorted to knocking the beetles down with a broom handle, then stomping on them—it’s fun until you find them in your hair. We are exploring further integrated pest management strategies to try on Japanese beetles.

Harvest Time Making a batch of beer with fresh hops is mostly a matter of getting a little help from the staff at local brew supply stores to put together your supply list.

After a couple of practice rounds with a beer kit, you’ll have the basics down quickly.

Fermenting grapes into wine has a much steeper learning curve. We’ve got two years of experience in attempting wild fermentation, taking extensive notes each time in hopes of slowly improving, year by year. Our Marquette grapes have not yet produced a drinkable wine, but we did end up with 10 bottles of a funky, almost kombucha-like Frontenac Gris last year that we genuinely liked. It wasn’t exactly wine, but it was good.

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The author’s countertop fermentation system for white and red grapes

The author’s husband bottles the fermented grapes.

Challenges What are the downsides to the booze arbor? We may end up having to cut the grapevines back severely in a few years in order to stain the structure—but, we may want to do that anyway to rejuvenate the vines. We don’t do the type of pruning that professionals do in their vineyards, so eventually we’re going to end up with a tangle of old vines up there.

Other challenges include needing to drop everything to deal with the harvest. Our wine harvests have been small, and we think fermenting a couple of buckets of grapes on the kitchen countertop is fun. Last year, we picked our wine grapes in late August.

The hops have been more hit and miss, as they are usually ready to use in September, when back-to-school madness is in full swing. We didn’t use any in 2018 but are hoping to use at least some of them this year. That’s the beauty of the stackedfunctions model—we still enjoyed the shade and privacy they provided, so nothing was truly wasted. ng Jennifer Rensenbrink is an email developer, freelance writer and gardener based in Minneapolis. Her blog is stackingfunctionsgarden.com.

BINES VS. VINES How a plant climbs reveals whether it is a bine or a vine. Hops grow on bines, which climb by growing in a helix pattern and grasping with tiny hairs along the stem. These hairs can irritate your skin. The bines die back to ground level each year. Grapes grow on vines, which use tendrils to climb. They lose their leaves but the vines persist over the winter, becoming thicker and woodier over time.

MINNESOTA-HARDY GRAPES The University of Minnesota has been developing northern-hardy grapes for many years. Current offerings include three types of Frontenac grapes, ‘Itasca’, ‘LaCrescent’, ‘Marquette’, ‘Bluebell’ and ‘Edelweiss’. Many of these are hardy to USDA Zone 3.

—J.R.

The plants create seclusion for the author’s deck.

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TREES TO PLANT NOW Tree choices for the North will change as our climate does.

Story and photos by Diane McGann

Kentucky coffeetrees are resilient large trees and native to southern Minnesota.

Thinking about a tree to plant in your yard this year—one that will grow and flourish for the next 30, 40 or 50 years?

How about an Ohio buckeye or blackjack oak? These may not be the usual recommendations you’d get from a nursery or garden center, but as Minnesota’s climate gets warmer and wetter, they may be trees that will thrive here.

Gardeners in the Twin Cities area and southward may see the number of trees that grow well here increase. According to Lee Frelich, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Forest Ecology, mid-Minnesota is currently home to 38 species of native trees. Five of those species may not survive as our climate warms—as warm as Des Moines or even warmer by 2070—but trees from just south of USDA Zone 4 will do well, increasing the tree options to 58 species.

Gardeners in the northern third of the 36

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state will see some favorites, such as white birch, go away while trees they could not plant before will thrive.

Frelich advises gardeners to plant species in the southern half of their Hackberry: another large tree option

current hardiness zone and the northern edge of the next-warmest zone. For zone 4 gardeners, that means choosing trees from southern zone 4 and the northern tier of zone 5. Zone 3 gardeners should choose varieties from southern zone 3 and the northern range of zone 4. Many tree species have their northern limit just to the south of zone 4, Frelich says.

“Those include some species of white and red oaks and sycamore,” he says.

“Native trees such as hackberry, Kentucky coffeetree, American basswood and disease-resistant elms will continue to do well. Residents of the northern biome should consider sugar maples, white pine, basswood and red oaks.”

Trees Coming and Going An example of trees that will do well here in a warmer future is the red oaks, including scarlet oak and shingle oak.

Shingle oak leaves

Climate Change in Minnesota

“Scarlet oak is present near Madison, Wisconsin, and should grow well in zone 4 right now, and shingle oak may become our new junkyard dog tree,” says Frelich.

Scarlet oak, true to its name, produces beautiful scarlet-colored leaves in the fall. Fast-growing and easy to maintain, scarlet oak withstands drought and windy conditions. Shingle oak, so-named because it was originally used for house shingles, is native to the Chicago region, and is a possible replacement for green ash. The only oak tree in the midwestern United States to exhibit leaves with smooth, unlobed margins, its fall color is variable, sometimes morphing from yellow-green to russet.

The sycamore tree is another species creeping north. Tall, straight and hardy, sycamore’s most notable characteristic is its camouflaged trunk, the result of bark patches sloughing off and revealing its underlying cream-colored inner bark.

Some native species growing close to the northern edge of their range will grow well in a warmer climate. One example is the Kentucky coffeetree, a large, upright, oval-shaped tree with big woody pods and very large leaves. Its common name refers to early settlers using the pods as a coffee substitute and, despite the Kentucky in its name, it is native to southern Minnesota.

Far north regions of the Upper Midwest will welcome sugar maples, heralded for their stunning fall color.

And, more gardeners will be able to plant elms again. Gary Johnson, professor of Urban and Community Forestry at the U of M, is excited about new cultivars of elm trees, bred to resist Dutch elm disease. Several have been growing on the St. Paul campus of the university and are doing well. They should thrive in a warmer Minnesota. Favorite varieties are hybrids ‘Accolade’ and ‘Triumph’ and American elm varieties such as ‘New Harmony’ and the local ‘St. Croix’. In addition to the new species Minnesotans can embrace, the health and longevity of some trees already present in the northern landscape will improve. “Redbud and catalpa—native to our south—were marginal here, but will now do much better,” says Frelich. “Honey locust will also thrive.”

Higher temperatures, especially lows. According to U of M climatologists testifying before the Minnesota Legislature in January 2019, the average daily lows in winter in northern Minnesota have risen 4.8 degrees since 1895. In the southern half of the state, winter lows are 3.4 degrees higher than before 1900.

More rain but not consistently.

Annual rainfall is up 12 percent (3 inches) overall since 1895. However, late summer has become consistently drier. In 2012, some Minnesota counties applied for both federal flood aid and federal drought aid in the same year.

Feels like Des Moines. According to Frelich, by 2070 the Twin Cities could have a climate similar to Des Moines, or in a worst-case scenario, as warm as Kansas City.

—Eds.

Sugar maple

River birch will thrive in a warmer climate.

River birch will continue to flourish, but white birch trees will be disappearing from northern yards and forests, according to Frelich. White birch is one of the trees most sensitive to climate impact, he says. Many of those on the north shore of Lake Superior have already died.

Balsam firs, black and white spruce and tamarack trees will also decline. Unfortunately, however, buckthorn will not disappear. Japanese maples will not thrive in northern gardens just yet, although scientists are working on developing a strain that can adapt to colder climates.

“White pine trees will remain in Minnesota, but red pines will go,” Frelich predicts. “This is because the red pine needles stay wet for a long time, and then fungus gets them. Meyer’s spruce and magnolia may be good, and the Ponderosa pine is doing well here. It’s drought-tolerant.” Frelich advises that, unlike trees, native shrubs and other plants will not be much affected by climate change because they’re less exposed to weather elements, although some new shrub species will become available.

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has planted many of these new varieties and marginal trees to test for hardiness.

If you are considering a marginal tree, see how it’s doing at the arb. Nurseries are beginning to stock some of the recommended southern tree species, and stopping at nurseries on the next trip to a southern gardening zone is always an option.

September/October 2019 37

Trees to Plant Now

Keep Planting While earth’s human inhabitants created the greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide that are exacerbating climate change, Frelich says that we can also help fix the problem. “We would have to plant or reforest an area about equal to the 48 states to sequester most of the carbon emitted in the next several decades,” he says. “This will buy us time to make the transition to renewable energy. It sounds like a lot, but worldwide, it is only 5 percent of the land area.”

While planting trees might not be the sole answer to combating changing weather patterns, northern gardeners can celebrate their new options and help ameliorate the effects of climate change by planting a few of the new tree species that will soon be at home in the Upper Midwest. ng

Red pines may decline if the pace of climate change continues.

Diane McGann is a Stillwater-based writer and master gardener.

RESILIENT

Tree Options, Old and New

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Bur oak

COMING SOON

H. ZELL, CREATIVE COMMONS

Resilient favorites. According to Lee Frelich, these existing landscape trees are expected to continue to do well in Minnesota for the next 50 or more years: American basswood, disease-resistant elms, Kentucky coffeetree, magnolias, oaks (swamp white, white, northern red, northern pin, bur).

New options. These trees from southern locales may also grow well in a changing climate: black locust, black oak, chinkapin oak, honey locust, northern catalpa, Ohio buckeye, redbud (Minnesota strain), scarlet oak, shagbark hickory, shingle oak, southern pin oak, pin oak, tulip tree.

Coming soon? These trees may migrate to Minnesota over the next few decades: black gum, blackjack oak, flowering dogwood, mockernut hickory, Osage orange, pignut hickory, post oak, sassafras, shellbark hickory.

—D.M.

NEW

Osage orange flower

Honey locust

BA BY P

O

UP RC

E IN

A pest that’s bigger than a bug requires special garden strategies.

PESKY PESTS

What Is That?

The first and most important step in effective pest management is to determine what is destroying your garden.

Sometimes you can pinpoint the pest by where the damage is. Skunks will be attracted to compost piles containing eggshells, and they will dig small holes in the lawn looking for grubs.

Raccoons and porcupines love fresh garden produce and can decimate an edibles garden in one night. In my rural garden, the raccoons love strawberries and corn, while the porcupines prefer lettuce and pumpkins. Rabbits also eat vegetables and prized shrubs and trees. Deer will eat just about anything but have a special attraction to woody shrubs in winter and lush, tender plants like hostas in summer. Wild turkeys—a new pest for home gardeners—browse on buds in winter and often travel in large groups. I’ve seen flocks of 50 wild

WI LD

T

Y KE UR

Most gardeners face some kind of large pest. Deer, porcupines, rabbits, squirrels, woodchucks and other animals can wreak havoc in gardens, especially in winter when food is scarce. Even neighborhood dogs and cats can be problems when unsupervised in the garden.

My goal is to deal with pests of all sizes effectively, humanely and in ways that cause the fewest ripples across my local ecosystem. After all, sometimes these critters help control smaller destructive pests; for example, skunks eat grubs. Techniques for thwarting large pests vary: some are inexpensive, some expensive, some more dramatic than others. Some are also illegal, so check local ordinances if you are tempted to reach for a shotgun, poison or installing an electric fence.

Story and photos by Susy Morris

turkeys in my garden, where they eat beets and broccoli in summer and yew in winter.

After identifying the type (or types because it’s often more than one) of pest, consider eliminating the items that attract them. In a deer-heavy area, a hosta garden may not be your best choice. Avoid putting fruit, eggshells and other items that attract pests in your compost piles (or switch to an enclosed tumbling-type compost bin).

If you find that pests are only bothering specific plants during a particular season, protect those individual plants during times of high pressure. I wrap roses, blueberries and hydrangeas with burlap in winter and have a series of homemade cages to protect other tasty plants from winter browsing by deer and turkeys. Circle tree trunks with hardware cloth cages to prevent rabbit damage.

Fences and Repellents

For large pests, try a variety of deterrents, including scarecrows.

While expensive, fencing animals out of the garden or areas of heavy browsing is usually the most effective method for dealing with large pests. With some pests, if they can’t see it, they won’t try to get it. Squirrels and raccoons can get over many fences and woodchucks can dig under them, however. Hedges are a good-looking option if there is space.

Install 18 to 24 inches of hardware cloth at the bottom of the hedge and bury it September/October 2019

39

DE E

Pesky Pests R

Deer are probably the most difficult pest to deter. They’re able to jump 6-foot fences and have tastes that vary widely, and the buffet of things they’ll eat is growing. Experimenting with supposedly deer-resistant plants seems the best strategy. In my garden, deer decimated the blackhaw viburnum hedge planted to surround the vegetable garden. I switched to a beech hedge, which has been untouched by deer.

Your local hardware store is full of repellent options, such as owl decoys, motion-detecting water sprayers, coyote or fox urine sprays, red glowing predator eye lights, pie tins and streamers tied to wire and hot pepper sprays. Many of them work—for a while. The element of surprise helps, and switching up methods from time to time keeps the animals from realizing the smell they detect is not really a fox.

Living with Pests Eradication of pests is not really possible or even a good idea. More animals will fill the void when others are removed. If you live in the country and have significant deer and wild turkey pressure, finding a responsible hunter to hunt your WO property can help both the pest OD pressure in your garden and the wild animal population in your area as a whole.

U CH

GARDEN PROTECTION IDEAS

Electric net fencing works in areas of high pest pressure.

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Bags tied to strings are a deterrent to deer.

Wire cages protect prized plants.

CK

10 to 12 inches deep to block rabbits, woodchucks and other tunneling pests.

In my garden, boxwood is the best evergreen option.

For USDA Zone 3 gardeners, a privet hedge with a hidden hardware-cloth barrier may work.

If pest pressure is extremely heavy, an electrified fence works and is a humane deterrent, if it is allowed in your area. Add a strand of electric wire at the bottom and top of an existing fence or invest in an electric net fence.

Portable electric net fencing works best in my large garden, where the edibles garden is completely enclosed in electric. Tasty ornamental plants are planted together in one border, which is enclosed in electric fencing during the winter. Electric fences work best when kept hot and baited when first installed to train animals to avoid them.

The deer, wild turkey, porcupine, skunk and raccoon pressure is so high in my garden that I would never have any vegetables if I didn’t use electric net fencing. I plan to install thick hedges, hardware cloth and a permanent single strand of electric at the bottom in the future.

Poisons, shooting and trapping should only be used if health concerns are evident, such as a rabid raccoon or skunk. In that case, call animal control or a professional to deal with the issue.

Trapping and relocating wild animals may feel humane, but it usually creates pest problems for someone else (most likely another gardener) or problems EL RR for the relocated animals as they UI Q S aren’t familiar with local food sources and have no protective dens to hide in.

For some gardeners, dealing with large pests is an ongoing task. I’ve found two things that help: First, accept when one method is not working and try something else. Second, connect with other gardeners for insight into local critter issues and tried-and-true methods for dealing with pests effectively. ng Susy Morris lives on 150 acres in Maine and blogs about gardening and sustainable living at chiotsrun.com.

Four-strand electric wire is a temporary option.

If they cannot see your garden, deer often won’t come in.

RESOURCES Written by Theresa Rooney, a University of Minnesota Extension master gardener, The Guide to Humane Critter Control (Cool Springs Press, 2018) offers information about common pests, both large and small, in northern gardens.

—S.M.

Wattle fencing will keep rabbits out.

Burlap offers winter protection for target shrubs.

September/October 2019

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Nature’s Call

I

n his essay titled “Why We Need Gardens,” neurologist and author Oliver Sacks wrote: “I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.”

Sacks, who died of a rare cancer in August 2015, explained how he was introduced to the wonder of gardens as a child.

As a physician in New York City, he took his patients to visit gardens whenever he could, believing that, in addition to music, gardens were vital “therapy” for people living with chronic neurological diseases. What is it about nature that is so calming and reinvigorating, he wondered, recounting the time a friend with Tourette syndrome became calm and ticfree on a hike in the desert? Patients with advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s disease can’t remember how to do everyday things like tie their shoes. “But put them in front of a flowerbed with some seedlings, and they will know exactly what to do—I have never seen such a patient plant something upside down,” Sacks wrote.

“Clearly, nature calls to something very deep in us,” he continued, explaining his belief that nature deeply affects us spiritually and emotionally, as well as physically and neurologically. Had I read that essay before his death, I might have written Dr. Sacks a letter saying that, as a longtime gardener and lover of long walks in the woods, I couldn’t agree more with what he said in that lovely bit of writing. It can be found in the posthumously published collection, Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales (Knopf, 2019). I’m not sure how I developed biophilia, an urge to connect with living things and nature, which I suppose progressed over time into hortophilia, the desire to interact with, manage and tend nature. But I’ve got both, big time. And I know a whole lot of other gardeners who would say they do, too.

Like Sacks, I can’t tell you precisely how nature works its mojo on people, but I do remember the first time I saw it happen. I was in college and working nights and weekends at a women’s shelter in North Minneapolis. The shelter had once been a convent, so the narrow, tile-floored room I used as an office had probably once been a nun’s bedroom. Our country

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doesn’t care about people with mental illness, so the underfunded shelter paid me, and several other young women, about $8 an hour to look after dozens of women of all ages who were struggling with schizophrenia and other serious mental health issues. Tucked away in their own narrow nun’s cells upstairs, these women often also suffered from eating disorders, broken hearts, drug-and-alcohol addiction and abusive boyfriends who showed up to bang on the front door at all hours of the night.

My job was to listen, comfort and do my best to protect them from harm, which was usually self-inflicted. Fires were started. Wrists were cut. Toxic chemicals were swallowed.

Eyes were glued shut with Super Glue. Minds can do terrible things to people when they don’t work right. I tried to make my office feel homey, hoping to provide even a brief respite from pain. One day, I brought in a few cuttings from my houseplants and put them on the window ledge. Within a week, those green leaves and vines poking out of thrift-store vases began catching women’s eyes. What is that? Could I have one of those?

I brought in more cuttings, filling the ledge up again and again with little vases as more women asked for plants to put in their rooms. Soon spider plants hung from the ceiling, and ivy and ferns crowded the top of my desk and file cabinets. As my stark office began to feel like an indoor garden, the women hung around longer. We still talked about medications, goals and treatment plans. But there was more—How often should I change the water? When should this go into a pot with dirt?

Should I feed it? Perhaps it was nice for them to not be the subject of conversation for once.

Hort therapists say that nature is essential to human health. And research indicates that plants in patients’ rooms not only decrease the length of hospital stays, patients who can see nature outside their windows need fewer pain meds.

My anecdotal study revealed this: Women often left a lot of their belongings behind when they moved on from the shelter. But most of them took those little plants they were caring for. I wonder what Dr. Sacks would make of that. ng Meleah Maynard is a Minneapolis-based writer and editor who blogs at livinthing.com.

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What is a Master Gardener and how can we connect with you?

Master Gardener Volunteers are community members respected and valued for their research-based horticultural expertise and community-strenghtening capacity.

Our mission is to use research-based horticultural knowledge and practices to deliver educational outreach and project-based efforts that inspire change and promote healthy people, healthy communities and a healthy planet.

Legacy gifts from members like you help to ensure that MSHS gardening programs inspire generations of gardeners to come.

For more information about ways to make a legacy gift to MSHS, please contact:

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• Master Gardener volunteer led classes are available throughout the year.

Or request a Master Gardener for your community project, event, or school.

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