The Garden Buzz

We've Sold Our Home...and Therefore My Garden

You have probably noticed the new blog design, it's not quite complete. After you read further, you'll see why it's still a work in progress.

You might have also noticed I've been a little absent, and maybe absent-minded as well lately. I haven't posted with my usual regularity or conviction at times. I like to think that's only recently. Well I have what I think is a valid excuse.

Each year our nest is a little emptier. And you know that expression, "rattling around a big old house"? Well it's true. It's time to live somewhat simpler.

The minute I returned from Savannah, I went into high gear getting our home ready to sell. Scrubbing, de-cluttering, fluffing, clearing, hauling, polishing and prepping. It was all to get the house camera-ready for its closeup and the scrutiny of would-be buyers.

And then a little miracle occurred. We sold it before we listed it.

That meant we have had to go quickly, from sold to moving out in 30 days,  into another kind of high gear, finding a temporary place (and garden) to live while we start the next chapter of our life.  More about that in future postings.

This means I'll be saying good bye to my garden. Though that's sad, I'm already looking forward to having a new garden that will be a bit smaller, flatter and more neighborhood-y. Yes, I already know where it will be, I just have to start imagining it.

I will miss my critters possibly more than my plants. I can't even begin to list them all; turkeys, eagles, turtles, otters, deer, owls, crows, coyotes, etc . However I have written about many of them in my Star Tribune "Your Voices" blog and what they have taught me about nature and life.

But I find great consolation in the fact that the youngest daughter of the new owners is a budding bird watcher who can't wait to come enjoy all my feathered friends. It has made the transition so much easier in my mind. 

So let's take one last look around the garden through these past five years...

...And say goodbye.

The Garden Buzz is an eCollege Finder Top Garden Blog!

Last time I googled it, there were over 152 million blogs in the world. So it goes there are a gazillion garden blogs. Anytime you get noticed is a gift.

So it's quite nice to know The Garden Buzz has been selected as one of 51 of the Top Garden Blogs by the website, eCollegeFinder. Why 51? I have no idea. 

Why eCollegeFInder wants to recognize garden blogs? They do a list of special category blogs from time to time and tie it in with holidays and college student interests. This time it's for Earth Day, Arbor Day and National Garden Week.

If you do enjoy reading my advice and adventures in gardening, can I ask that you vote for The Garden Buzz at this page? http://blog.ecollegefinder.org/garden-blogs-award/ There's no sign up or account involved.

You will have to scroll down the alphabetical list a ways to get to The Garden Buzz. You might even find a few other garden blogs to check out in the process. But hey, vote for me!

 

And coming soon....the new design for The Garden Buzz.

 

 

 

Happy Earth Day 2012

Wherever you live...

...at the beach...

...on the prairie...

...the woods and lakes..

...the big city..

...or the farm...

Happy Earth Day!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: April 15

                                                                                The Garden Buzz

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May according to Shakespeare, but it's still April. Other years I might be trudging through snow, but the crazy early spring of 2012 has me on my hands and knees trying to steady the camera while a stiff breeze stirs the buds on the branches, the tiny blossoms above the leaves.

In keeping with the diminutive theme I brought out the macro lens looking for the softness of petals, a ruffle, a starburst, the structure behind the bloom.

Baby bleeding hearts                                                        The Garden Buzz

 Redbud buds                                                              The Garden Buzz

 Daffodil 'February Gold'                                                  The Garden Buzz

 

 Tulip bud above stripy purple foliage                          The Garden Buzz

Blueberry blossoms                 The Garden Buzz

Does anyone know this fruit blossom?

 

The ground-hugging bloom of wild ginger 

 Red currant blossoms                                               The Garden Buzz

 Sweet smelling pachysandra flowers

And can anyone guess this harbinger of spring?

A New Gardener, or Becoming Your Mother

Spring has sprung early everywhere, but especially in Minnesota where it has caught me with a backlog of "down south" stories still to be told, before I can even start on planning and planting up here...

...There is that moment, somewhere in your forties usually, where you catch sight of your mother in a shop window reflection, maybe a photo and then you realize, oh, that's me. Sometimes it's when you catch yourself repeating some familiar saying of hers, at other times it's a certain expression set on your increasingly lined face.

It's way before her time, but watching (and guiding) my daughter create her first garden was like a backward progression of this phenomenon.

It all started last year at the GWA conference when she accompanied me there on our way to visit her brother at his new school. As a budding food writer she found lots of helpful info and parallels at this garden writers gathering. And to my surprise she was right up there when they were handing out the sample plants.

So last fall I helped her plant up a large pot with all her swag, the centerpiece being the cute new Colocasia Bikini-Tini elephant ears. I gave her my sample as well since she's in zone 8. Lucky gal.

A green lizard looking for bugs or bead of water in her elephant ears.

The adorable elephant ears are thriving in her mild climate in Savannah, although I had to scold her for letting them dry out and water them a few times for her this winter when she got busy. Though I will admit, part of her being busy was my extended stay, which necessitated many trips to Tybee Island, countless cooking experiments, forays for cupcakes at our favorite bakery and general larking around. It's a wonder she's getting her thesis done and that I finished several articles while I was there.

One of our expeditions took us to Herb Creek Nursery in nearby Sandfly where I took a few surreptitious shots of their gorgeous succulents to complete my upcoming article in Northern Gardener. She fell hard for the succulents and before I knew it we were trekking around finding inexpensive containers for all of them.

Echeveria, Senecio and Sedum succulents                            The Garden Buzz

She learned some hard realities of container gardening; potting soil costs money and so do pots. I told her to keep an eye out for other items that could be re-purposed for pots. The next day at Target she did one of those SNL-style "Tuurrrget Lady" turns when she spied the cheap enamel Easter tins and said will these work? Next she was onto galvanized buckets at Home Depot.

More Senecio or chalk fingers in a simple bucket                    The Garden Buzz

She got our her handy-dandy drill to make holes for drainage and started planting. Soon we were back to the nursery for herbs. After all you can only purchase so much thyme at the grocery store for her favorite Ina Garten chicken recipes before it gets ridiculous.

Hannah's new garden, on her carriage house patio. That's an old horse mounting block, great for staging pots.

Such a sight in her pink apron and red wellies, bent over a pot with her hands all dirty, a new gardener is born, following many generations before her. Her grandmother's Bakelite bracelets clicking on her wrist as she wrestled those succulents into the soil made me want to cry. 

Familiar sights and sounds

I always assumed she would start gardening, but not this soon. Now our phone calls include her pressing plant issues along with Savannah gossip and cooking questions.

It all gives me hope. Does this mean there's a possibility my son might feel the need to plant something, someday too? 

Enjoying her new garden. Yes, she added a whiskey barrel with tomatoes and basil too!