Yellow Plum Tomato

 I planted a yellow plum tomato plant. Today the first one was ripe. There is nothing finer that the taste of the first home grown tomato. I could have taken a picture but I was in too much of a hurry to taste it.

Rooftop Garden

 My neighbors have a one story flat top roofed house on a narrow yet long lot. I have always admired their yard. The front yard has native plants and a raised bed for kale and peppers and herbs. The back yard has flower beds, a round garden with poles tied together at the top for beans, a small grassy area, and a wooden platform for their picnic table and chairs. Their back yard ends on a steep cliff that goes down to Chester Creek. My neighbor is a good gardener and now I see she has started a rooftop garden. She is really taking advantage of the sun that shines on her roof.

Ladybird Garden Revisited Times Three

This beautiful wood cut out is on the new play area for the kids. This is above the door right at the level of my neck.

This is below.

I can see why kids love it here.

Chimney swift tower.

A long board for the kids to use like a balance beam.

Yikes!

I was exercising on the equipment for adults to use while the kids play. I was on an elliptical talking to a girl and her Aunt Martha who grew up on a farm in Texas with Guernsey cows and Holsteins. They grew garden vegetables. She loves windmills too but not the kind that create electricity. I like all windmills. The girl's little brother looked like he wanted to use the elliptical so I let him have it. I tried the exercise bike but that is hard to do when I am wearing a skirt so I kept walking. The garden has a new turf that does not need much mowing. Was it part buffalo grass maybe?

This is the board walk back to the class room area.

Big Bluestems.

I am back inside by the introductory video.

This garden has their own database. Visit wildflower.org/plants-main to explore the database.

So purdy!

I should not have taken so many pictures.

Oh, they got a downstairs? Cool.

This is my view of the prairie from one of the windows downstairs. This would be a fun place to volunteer..

 

Hartley

This morning I went for a walk at the Hartley Nature Center. This time I didn't park in the Nature Center parking lot. I parked on Hartley Lane where the Superior Hiking Trail enters the Hartley Nature Center after leaving Bagley Nature Center. Wow, they have a beautiful prairie here. I stayed on the snowmobile trail or what was formerly known as Old Hartley Farm Road.

This used to be a farm owned by a farmer by the name of Hartley. Look at all the yellow golden rod, Black eyed Susans plus the purple bergamot. Gorgeous yellow and purples.

Hartley had the biggest farm in Duluth. Here are the stairs to what used to be the root cellar to store root vegetables from 1910 to 1920. The lettuce here was great. Hartley introduced a new vegetable to this region - celery! I love celery. I can eat a bunch of celery every week. I remember by "wasbund's" grandmother, who was in her 90's and declining mentally a little bit, was eating a bunch of celery every day. Her family was worried that she was eating too much celery. I thought to myself, if you have to overeat on one food, what better food than celery? She was such a nice Finnish lady. I remember she told me once, on her 94th birthday, "It's embarrassing to be this old!" When Farmer Hartley passed away the farming ended. All employees were let go. The family donated the acreage to the city. I hope Farmer Hartley agreed with that decision.

Look at this plant! I have never seen this before. 

Here is the plant again.

When I get home I look it up in my trusty wild flower book, Wildflowers And Weeds: A Field Guide in Full Color by Booth Courtenay and James H. Zimmerman. This is a turtlehead! And it looks like a turtlehead too now that I know the name. Turtlehead is in the snapdragon family.

What is this one/ I have no idea.

According to my wildflower book this is red baneberry. The berries are poisonous to humans but grouse like them. Good thing I didn't taste one. As I walk along today I destroy the nasty invasive tansy that is everywhere. I rip off the yellow flower head and throw them on the path. Sometimes I rip out the whole plant which is as tall as my waist and throw it down and step on it. My hands turn yellow from all this work but they smell great. I only do this on public paths. I don't do it in private yards except my own. People have been passing me all day today. Some people are on fat tire bikes and some on foot. A handsome jogger goes by without a shirt on. He has a man bun and from the back he looks like a lanky Brad Pitt. I am not sure Brad Pitt has a man bun. I don't follow Brad Pitt that closely.  The Brad Pitt look-alike says, "Hello, neighbor."  My eyebrows go up. A light bulb turns on in my brain. He is the middle school science teacher next door.  "Oh, hi neighbor," I say hurriedly.. "Nice to see you. I thought I saw your car. Keep running though, don't slow down." He smiles and waves. I am not used to being recognized in Duluth. Only a few times have I been recognized unless I am on my own street. I am uncertain how I feel about loosing my anonymity.

 

Xylophones

 Today I visited my new favorite garden center which is not near my house but on my way back from my stream monitoring assignments. I think the people who named it didn't have much imagination because the name of the place is A + Garden Center. What this place lacks as far as a cute name is more than made up for in the beautiful displays and luscious plants they have for sale. Walking into one of their two greenhouses is like walking into paradise. They have trees and shrubs and annuals and perennials and house plants and herbs and succulents. They have garden ornaments and fairy garden supplies and mulch and soil and rocks and garden tools and grow lights. Even though this place is in Saginaw and not actually in Duluth, the drive is worth it. The service is also excellent. Today I was walking out and I saw peacocks. I have been here twice and never noticed the peacocks before. How is that possible? This is molting time for peacocks. I am so tempted to reach in and grab a few of those lovely tail feathers.

These peacocks and fancy chickens enjoy luxury accommodations which include xylophones!

Garden Scenes

 

I rented a community garden space a little more than a mile from my house. The spot next to mine is empty and covered in black plastic to prevent weeds. One of my pumpkin vines left my garden and went into the empty space. I got a good sized pumpkin there.

I also have a pumpkin in my space. In total I think I have three pumpkins this year.

After twenty years of planting sunflowers only to have the deer chomp off their heads when they are 18 inches high and leaving me with a row of sticks, I finally grew a pumpkin to the flowering stage. Aren't sunflowers the happiest of all flowers? Today I left with an arm load of kale and three tomatoes. 

Munsinger Gardens

Yesterday I spent the day with a friend at Munsinger Gardens. Kudos to the city of Saint Cloud for dedicating money and time to this beautiful public space. These yellow bell shaped flowers eventually turn into these frilly balls that remind me of the tree tops in Dr.Suess's The Lorax.

We had a nice picnic lunch in the shade by the river. We watched families gather. We watched some wedding photography. We saw a boat load of monarchs who might be gathering up on their journey south.

 

Sweet Smell of Spring

Walking around Duluth at this time of year is an olfactory treat. The lilacs are in bloom. The bleeding hearts are in bloom. The lupines are in bloom. The crab apple and plum trees are in bloom. The Allium are in bloom. The bridal veil bushes are in bloom. Forsythia is in bloom. Lilies of the valley are in bloom. Azalea bushes are in full bloom. The air is perfumed with the sweet scent of flowers. Here is a photo of my purple shamrocks in bloom.

My Garden

See that darker patch of earth on the left?  That is my new garden that I spent hours weeding. You can probably see the garden is on a slope down toward Lake Superior.  I learned a few things doing this chore. Duluth soil, unlike Ramsey soil, is black and rocky with grape like globs of clay. Digging in this soil is more difficult than digging in the  Anoka sand plain. Weeds in this soil hang on tighter than in the Anoka sand plain. Dandelions with their hairy carroty roots cling to grape like globs of clay and will not let go unless I physically lift a clump of soil in the air and break the black earth away from the roots. After all this work I hope this garden does well. I was speaking to another gardener at this community garden. I told her where I lived before I planted my tomatoes around May 15th. I asked when she planted her tomatoes. To my utter shock she said she waits until Father's Day to plant tomatoes. She said it can snow in June in Duluth. I rented a half plot. She rents a full plot which is twice the size of mine. She plans to plant cucumbers in one half and winter squash in the other. She rents other gardens around town for her other vegetables. She told me the rabbits ate her lettuce and the shoulders of her carrots at this spot last year. Gardening is always an experiment. I hope this garden is successful!

Free Seed Library

I had my orientation to the DCGP (Duluth Community Garden Program) last weekend via zoom. I learned about free seed libraries around town. I looked up the four locations. The closest one to me was 1.2 miles away. I took a walk down there to check it out. The contents of this free seed library, if I had to describe it in one word, was sad. Inside I found 3 packets of seeds. One was a mostly empty winter squash packet dated 2010. The second packet was also winter squash from 2010 but it had more contents than the first one. The last packet was of sweet corn and the date on that package was 2007. I thought about taking the 13 year old corn seeds but I put them back. This seed library was sad enough without me taking any seeds out of it. I will buy my own seeds and put my leftovers into the box for someone else to take.

Bertha's

I signed up for a community garden. The home I am renting has no space for one so I had to go elsewhere. I can't go all summer without gardening, can I? I hoped to get a space in the community garden just a few blocks from here but that was all booked up. Instead I got a half size plot at Bertha's garden which is 1.2 miles west of my house. I can walk there once gardening season starts. Now I can start thinking about what to plant. Tomatoes and peppers for sure. I wonder if sunflowers would make it. This garden plot is in an urban area but I see deer tracks around my house. I think I will give sunflowers a try. I so love sunflowers but so did the deer who lived in my yard. Year after year I planted sunflowers only to find the tops chewed off and nothing left but a row of sticks.

Why Not?

Why not pick a few zinnias from the garden and bring them inside?

Grandpa's Whistle

My irises are blooming today. These irises used to be my mother's irises. Before that they were my Grandfather's irises. When I see these big beauties in my yard I remember my Grandfather's whistle. When he was feeling good he would whistle. He whistled hymns most of the time and he had the ability to whistle in and whistle out. He could whistle a hymn without stopping for breath. I, too, whistle when I am feeling good but I seldom whistle hymns. I whistle rock and roll songs, classical music, and the odd television jingle.

Wild Flowers

Last night my chapter of master naturalists had a meeting.  Dave, a former park ranger, spoke about winter wild flowers.  He talked about how some seeds are dispersed. Seeds with fleshy fruit around them, like rose hips, are usually eaten by birds or animals.  The seeds can tolerate the travel through the body of the bird or animal and are spread that way.  Other seeds are flung out by the force of the seed pod springing open in a sudden manner that throws the seeds out some distance.  Others float away like milkweed seeds.  He put up slides of wildflowers as they appear at this time of year and asked us to identify them.  I thought one was bergamot and I was right. I thought five other ones were also bergamot and they weren't. Without seeing the flower in color and location, these slides were difficult for all of us. We have two members in our group who are really talented at identifying wildflowers and neither one of them was there last night. I don't know a vetch from a aster from a Canada puccoon from a zig zag goldenrod.  What I can do is look at a plant and study a dichotomous key and figure it out.  Or ask somebody, I can do that too.

Squash

 Last week I baked a butternut squash.  I really struggle cutting a hard squash in half before baking it so this one I baked whole and that was a lot easier. I added nutmeg and cinnamon and butter and milk and a couple eggs and ate it in a casserole. Besides an acorn squash in the freezer I still have 8 squash left. Three of the squash I grew myself in my own garden.  I might get another squash tomorrow in my final box of vegetables from my CSA farmer.  So I had to do something to reduce the number of squash.  Squash has never been my favorite vegetable.  I do like a spicy squash soup and I have more than enough to make a lot of soup.  I took one of the home grown squash today and I made it into a cake. I found a recipe on line that called for one cup of grated squash. The cake turned out pretty tasty. I put a little extra ginger, cinnamon and allspice in it so it taste like a spicy spice cake. In any case, only 7 more squashes to go.

Foraging!

This morning I looked out my bedroom window and saw a black capped chickadee in the black spruce that now resides too close to my house. The little chickadee grabbed a wild grape and popped it in it's mouth.  I didn't know I had wild grapes right there outside my window.  Sometimes I wish I was more observant.  On Sunday morning I mowed the lawn.  As I buzzed the grass next the apple tree I saw a beautiful Haralson apple hanging right there.  With one hand I plucked it off the tree and took a big bite. With apple juice running down my chin I mowed back and forth. I found not a single worm hole in this apple. When I passed the tree again I plucked another apple and stuck it in the pocket of my overalls for later.  By my driveway I have found several large sized puffball mushrooms. I read that if they are white they are edible.  I could try eating one of those. So far I have picked them up and rolled them like bowling balls down the driveway to watch them explode, break into pieces, and send a big puff of mushroom spores into the air.

Who Likes Grape Jelly?

Last night I had an extremely busy schedule. I worked all day. I had an interview after work. I monitored two streams.  I went swimming.  I shopped for food. I picked up a pair of pants from an alterations shop. I went to the library. When I got home I grabbed some raspberries and Greek yogurt and sat down on the deck to relax.  This was about 7:30 in the beautiful evening.  My backyard looks like a fairy land because the crab apples are in bloom. The air is perfumed.  Pink and white blossoms look vivid against the summer blue sky with a couple white fluffy clouds for contrast.  I hear an ovenbird calling.  I see the baby chickadees come to my window feeder and clumsily land, take a seed, and fly off. Then I see my chipmunk come out of my rain gutter and skedaddle to it's home under the bird feeder post.  I have a bird feeder post stuck into the ground.  Around that I put a six inch diameter pvc pipe so the squirrels cannot climb the post.  The chipmunk home is part of the reason this bird feeder post is no longer straight up and down.  It leans at an angle to the southwest. At the top of the pvc pipe I have a metal baffle.  As I look at the baffle and contemplate straightening that post the chipmunk pokes it's head out of the baffle and crawls over to the oriole feeder.  The chipmunk eats grape jelly.  I say, "Hey, that is for the orioles," even though I have seen red bellied woodpeckers eat it too.  The chipmunk pays no attention to me. When the chipmunk had enough grape jelly it perched under the baffle on top of the pvc pipe to wash it's face which was now sticky with grape jelly. Lucky for the chipmunk I just bought more grape jelly. I guess I had better refill the oriole/woodpecker/chipmunk feeder.

Rx for Cabin Fever

Before

After

Just imagine you live in Minnesota.  It's a Saturday. The world outside looks like a snow globe. Snow falls fast and furious in the sky. You do not need to go out. Yet you want to go out. That is right. You have cabin fever.  What are your choices?  A local author is speaking at the library.  The pool at the health club is calling your name. You don't need groceries.  You don't really need to go out at all. The house is clean but it could be cleaner.  You could visit friends or family. You could read a book or watch a movie. Instead you risk life and limb.  After a swim at the health club followed by a dry and wet sauna you go to the local big box department store to save big money. There you find 3 lacy curtain panels and a curtain rod.  You get home at dusk.  You decide to put up the new curtain. As you work you see the woodpeckers in the yard and stop to take a movie of them eating suet.  You remove screws drilled into the wood prior to 1991.  You stand on a chair questioning your sanity.  You install a new curtain rod and stand back and admire your work.  As you admire your work you see "your" herd of deer. None of them have antlers.  You could go out looking for shed antlers.  You watch the deer frolic in the blizzard.  Two of the larger deer raise up on their hind legs and fight like a couple of kangaroos.  All the deer are putting their snouts into the snow for fresh forage. One of them, you call him Tigger, paws at the ground. She or he doesn't like a cold nose. Every once in a while this Tigger deer jumps up in the air with all four feet like it just got electrocuted. Why?  Why Tigger, why? Is that particular patch of buck thorn especially spicy?  You are glad you are not a deer tonight  You think winter is better when you pre-pay for a seasonal contract on snow plowing.

Deer Hunting Opener

I caught one! This dear deer must be able to read my mind and intuit my stand on gun control.

How To Stay Healthy and Live Longer

One of my goals is to stay healthy and live longer.  I listen to advice and cherry pick the advice I prefer and implement changes in my life style. I thought I was doing pretty well. One piece of advice is to eat locally and seasonally. I joined a CSA (consumer supported agriculture) and I pick up my food from farmer Becky (due to give birth at any moment) and farmer Ryan. My farmers live in Nowthen which is the next town north of me. This week I got a huge red cabbage (so good!), two apples, two golden beets, 5 stalks of Swiss chard (great with eggs easy over), 3 onions, 3 jalapenos, 3 banana peppers, acorn cup squash, some cilantro, two potatoes and 4 radishes (not my favorite). I paid extra to get a quart of organic strawberries every week. These strawberries are to die for. These strawberries are small and misshapen and so full of flavor my mouth fills with saliva just looking at them. These strawberries are so good I don't want to make jam. I don't want to freeze these strawberries. I want to gobble them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Isn't eating them fresh and plain the healthier option? Another suggestion to stay healthy is to avoid white sugar. I reduced my sugar intake but to be honest, cookies made with stevia do not taste as good as cookies with cane sugar. I even investigate which sugar is better - cane or beet?  I investigated but I don't know the answer. I decide to try honey. Honey has a strong taste that I don't like. But I have maple syrup in my fridge from my very own maple trees.  I try that instead of sugar. I like maple syrup as a sweetener as long as it's thin syrup. I like thin syrup better than thick. Gradually my tastes change and I don't like sweet anymore.Now I like sour. I like sauerkraut and balsamic vinegar. I will eat a cookie with real sugar but only if it's a really good cookie such as a homemade cookie, a cookie from a local bakery, or a pecan sandie. My family in  Sicily prepare vegies for me that are so delicious that I start cooking Italian style. Soda pop isn't good for you. Seriously? Two diet Pepsi's are not good for me? Why not? It's pop not whiskey. After consuming a lot of pop over the years (in chronological order orange/tab/diet coke/diet pepsi), I quit my sinful diet pepsi. That was hard. Drinking coffee helped. I never liked the taste of coffee so I started to like coffee by sucking on sugar free coffee hard candy. Yuck. After a couple month of unsuccessful attempts to quit soda I bite the bullet and drink a cup of coffee. Sonofagun! Caffeine is my new friend! My face is hot and tingly. My arms are swelling and my clothes are stretched like the Incredible Hulk. I have energy! I feel happy! Now I love coffee. Coffee is made from beans. Basically coffee is dirty bean water so that has to be better than pop. I also come to like herbal tea brewed in a teapot and poured into a glass with a stick of cinnamon and a slice of lime. My favorite right now is a tea that combines cardamom with cinnamon and ginger. Delicious! When I went to Sicily I was in charge of the fermenting for a day when grandgirl #2 was coming into life.  Grandgirl #1 and I fermented milk kefir and water kefir while keeping an eye on the sauerkraut and komboucha. Now I love water kefir. I smuggled some water kefir grains into the country (in my sock, please don't tell on me) and I ferment water kefir at home. Strawberry ginger and strawberry cinnamon are my favorite flavors although strawberry basil is good too. I love water kefir. My body seems to love it too. Despite all these healthy habits I suspected I was not doing something right. I came to this conclusion after not the first, not the second, but after the third mouth sore.Where I used to not snack between meals, I was snacking between meals (but only on quality snacks such as a ginger/rhubarb oat scone sold at the Nowthen Farmer's Market and made my Offspring #2's friend). My weight is good but I am exercising less.  So I asked for advice. My dentist gave me some mouthwash samples and some xylitol tablets and told me not to eat candy. I listened. I went to the doc. She said eat candy. I like her advice better. I went to the pharmacy and found some sour candy sweetened with, of all things, xylitol.  Perfect! She also told me she has no opinion on organic versus non-organic. How strange! I didn't ask for her opinion. Then I had another doc appointment and she gave me nutritional advice. Stop with  the citrus she says. I think of the five  green limes nesting together in the drawer of my fridge and control my eyes because they really want to roll. Stop with the coffee she says. I weakly protest reminding her she told me to quit soda pop. Try vitamin water she says.  Yuck. I'm not going to spend my money on vitamin water which is full of who knows what. She goes on with more advice. Stop with the strawberries she says. Sonofagun! My precious quart of strawberries that I pick up every Thursday? I guess I can make jam. I ask about the water kefir.  She says the water kefir is fine but make it peach or blueberry. I buy some peaches at the store. The season for Colorado peaches has past. I buy four peaches. The chickens eat three and 3/4 peaches because I couldn't eat them myself. These peaches had no taste. I make kefir from apricot nectar now. My doc goes on and this is where I get upset with her. Stop with the tomatoes she said. Livid with anger I insist she cannot tell me this now which is the height of the homegrown tomato season. I inform her that tomatoes are my favorite food. Sonofagun. Maybe I'll feel better if I just eat a Hostess cupcake and a bag of Doritoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.