The Seed 25: Let Freedom Grow

Sharpen your shovels, and turn your compost pile, Spring Has Arrived! Nation wide, gardeners are busy preparing for the upcoming growing season, and from the look of things, this year will be a time of garden expansion throughout the land.

Even in this troubled market, seed sales are a boom industry raking in 20-30% gains over last year’s sales. Gardening is the new favored pastime of many a cash strapped American family. Presenting an example to the world, First Lady Michelle Obama’s even getting in on the action, as she put her strong arms to work digging a Victory Garden into the White House lawn!

This profuse blooming of garden interest is just what the world needs right now. The U.S.D.A. is about to release a new Plant Hardiness Map that details what anyone with a lick of sense has by now accepted as fact, the “inconvenient truth” that the earth’s climate is rapidly warming. Vegetable gardens and local composting efforts are two of the best ways for folks to work at home toward a healthier, happier planet.

While the Obama’s of the world may be planting the seeds of victory in their gardens, I reap the bounty of freedom in my back yard. Freedom from chemically grown, dangerous, over priced food, the freedom to enjoy the beauty and bounty of life on earth, and the freedom to live with respect for the planet that raised me are all a part of my garden harvest. It’s this humble gardener’s opinion that victory without freedom is meaningless! This spring and summer as I install gardens throughout the Twin Cities, I’ll be sowing the seeds of freedom. I invite everyone reading this newsletter to do the same. Together we can reclaim our planet and our lives from the carelessness of our elders, to give our children and grandchildren hope for a healthy life.

In this month’s issue of The Seed we’ll take a look at some of these garden headlines that define and inspire this new movement to reclaim the good life. With a little luck, and a whole lot of compost, this spring gardeners everywhere will help freedom grow!

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The Seed 24: A Farm in the City

Formerly a city garbage dump in the middle of a low-income neighborhood, the site that St. Mary’s Urban Youth Farm now occupies and beautifies, was once a blight on the community. In the mid 1990’s neighbors along with local gardening activists organized to turn this wasted land into a community asset.

Cheerful and informative, Naomi Goodwin, director of St. Mary’s Urban Youth Farm was kind enough to talk with me about the goings on at the farm, and the story she told was one of transition.

Since 1995 when ground was broken on this garden, the space has served to improve the health and lives of the community. Despite recent funding shifts away from community gardening projects, area residents have continued to recognize and benefit from the farm’s bounty. Youth volunteers work alongside trained gardeners to produce food that is sold at discounted rates in local farmers markets. The young volunteers are trained in skills that they can utilize and market the rest of their lives, while the community receives the benefits of affordable locally grown organic produce.

Birds, butterflies, bees, and other local fauna find a home in the native plants that hold the hillside in place, all the while compost bins overflow and the blades of the windmill turn lazily in the soft breeze. Walking into this garden was like seeing a dream come true. Not only did I feel like I’d suddenly stepped into the countryside, but I could clearly see all of the basic Eco-friendly gardening steps that I teach folks here in the Twin Cities working on a larger scale then I’d ever seen in a city.

Several local organizations work with the land at St. Mary’s. While various groups of volunteers tend to the crops, others work to keep the beehives buzzing.

Naomi impressed me with her sense for the overall health of the space. “We have so many volunteer’s here that sometimes things get out of balance.” Naomi explained, “We used to get a lot more migratory birds stopping by the pond, but since more of our land has gone to food production, and less to native plants, the system is out of balance and we aren’t providing enough habitat to entice them here as much.”

The full vision for the space has not yet been realized. Physical changes such as adding a water pump to the windmill. Once the windmill is pumping, then water from Isle creek pond, which sits in the middle of the farm, can be used on the crops. Organizational shifts away from agency to agency competition for land use and towards a more collaborative approach are also needed before the farm functions to it’s highest potential.

Despite this room for improvement, St. Mary’s Urban Youth Farm is an example of excellence in landscaping. Transitioning this space from a dump to an urban farm has proven to be an enormous benefit to the community. Gardeners everywhere can learn from these neighbors good work, and those of us lucky enough to have our own little corner of the earth to shape, should heed the good example of the folks at St. Mary’s. Wherever we can we need to turn open urban space into habitat for earthlings of all stripes.

In Minneapolis and St. Paul our yards and parks give us green space on nearly every block. I hope for all our sake that many more of us here at home begin to recognize our unique responsibility as citizens of these gorgeously green cities to preserve, and maintain the lush vibrancy of our home towns. I know for my part, I’m planning to put a rain garden full of native plants in the back yard this spring in order to provide habitat for birds and butterflies. After all I figure, why have a yard, when I could have an enchanting, urban oasis!

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The Seed 23: In Love With the Redwoods

Driving North up California’s hwy 101 is a bit like traveling backwards in time, the landscape seems to grow more ancient as the road makes it’s way North. As my partner Shaunna and I drove away from San Francisco’s rolling, paved inclines the cityscapes gave way to large eucalyptus groves and sage covered hills. Not far North of the city we soon found wine country with mile upon mile of leafless rows of, pruned and still dormant grapevines. We traveled onward eventually entering the woods as the day turned to night over the highway. Sometime after nightfall I had to wonder aloud if my road weary eyes were playing tricks on me, as up ahead of our car I started seeing what looked like giant walls right next to the road. The illusion only lasted a moment because when we approached these enormous structures Shaunna and I realized that we were seeing coast redwoods up close for the first time. Excitement filled the car, and all that was heard for the next few miles from either of us were gasps of shock and the occasional “Oh My God!” Both of us had been dreaming of seeing these trees since we were kids, and driving through them for the first time at night was a little too distracting.

We pulled off to rest the night in Garberville, just before the start to an old scenic highway named Avenue of the Giants. The next morning I shined up my camera lens and the two of us set out to meet the trees that had stirred our imaginations since childhood.

Our first stop that morning was only a few miles outside of Garberville. The Avenue of the Giants is a 31 mile stretch of old highway 101 that twists and turns it’s way like a river through huge redwood trees. All along the way there are places to pull over and explore the woods. We quickly made our first stop in a grove of trees wider and taller then either of us had ever seen. We both took time to thank the trees, to pray for their protection, and to put out some tobacco as an offering for them. While walking our way toward the Eel River that snakes through the forest I noticed a scurrying below me and bent down to grab the little salamander at my feet. We took our pictures with this handsome fellah, and put him back where we found him so his family wouldn’t miss him too long.

Walking among the giants Shaunna and I wondered what it must have been like for the native folks who lived here in the undisturbed beauty of these forests a few hundred years ago. We figured this rich and abundant land must’ve made for some fine living. Waking up beneath the protective canopy of these elder trees, and walking down to a river teeming with life to sing a grateful morning song sounds like a pretty good way to start each day. These trees have witnessed the people passing through them loose the greatest wealth mankind ever knew, the ability to live in balance with our environment. When peoples needs are freely provided for by their surroundings, folks end up with a lot more time to sit back and just be grateful for the life they live. I guess that’s basically why I spend so much time encouraging folks to grow their own food. When we grow our own food at home, and mix those food plants in with some native plants for the other creatures to enjoy we start to live in a way that taxes our environment less and begins to bring our corner of the earth back into balance. If we all just do our little part and empower those around us to do the same, we’ve got a chance to experience some of that fine living too.

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The Seed 22: Healthy Yards, Healthy Lives

We need food, we need air, we need water. Generally speaking we need all of these things to be clean and free of toxins. We share these needs with the rest of the creatures on this planet. These common needs of all earthlings are best served when the world around us is balanced. For example, If the microbes in the ground are fed nutrients in the form of a cow pie, then the microbes in the ground help the roots of the grass take up water and nutrients, and the grass can grow up tall to feed the cows. The cycle starts all over when the cow lifts her tail to waive goodbye to the grass she has digested.

Now, if for some horrible reason the ground is treated with chemicals such as fertilizer or pesticide then the microbes in the ground will be killed off to a degree that the grass will now not be able to grow without the assistance of the chemical fertilizers. Instead of being dependant on easy to produce cow pies, the food cycle on the planet becomes dependant on environmentally and economically costly products. This is one tiny example of imbalance in a world full of similar circumstances.

We need only look around us to see the world out of balance. We can see the air we breathe, as it’s laden with chemicals. We can taste bleach and metal in the water we drink. Our rivers and lakes are overgrown with invasive species and toxic run off. Our food travels thousands of miles in petroleum burning vehicles only to arrive to our dinner tables laced with carcinogens and bacterial diseases. These problems are only a drop of water next to the ocean of trouble this planet is facing. Enough Is Enough! It’s time we clean up our act!

In a time of need like this the world has only one place to turn. Gardeners, I’m talking to you! It’s time we put our heads and hearts together to keep this planet from self-destructing. Giving Tree Gardens is happy to announce that we’ve come up with a plan to guide brave gardeners everywhere in their heroic efforts. Our plan is strong in that it’s simple and ready to be adapted to the creativity, lives, and yards of anyone willing to pick up a shovel and work toward a better, healthier day.

In this special edition of The Seed, Giving Tree Gardens is proud to announce the launch of our new free educational program: Healthy Yards, Healthy Lives, 7 Steps for Growing Personal and Global Health in Your Own Back Yard!

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The Seed 21: Change Begins At Home

Let’s begin this month’s newsletter with a riddle:

What does a parking meter hold, a baby need, and a politician always promise?

You guessed it, Change!

Recently there’s been a lot said in this country about the subject of change. It seems to me as though many of my fellow countrywomen and countrymen have had their hopes for America renewed by the symbolic election of Barack Obama, a man who promised in his victory speech that, “Change has come to America”. Well this humble gardener couldn’t be more ready for some changes in America! The changes I’m most excited about however, will require much more then symbolism and politician’s patriotic promises. Real change is as inevitable as the snow that will soon blanket our yards, and once real change has taken hold, it will effect every part of what we see and do just as the snow changes the landscape. One big question many Americans are forming for themselves right now is "How do we stay ahead of the learning curve of change?" Many of us have a sense that there are going to be adjustments that need to be made to the way we live our daily lives if we are going to keep ourselves and our communities livable and economically viable, but what will these changes look and feel like?

Change is what makes a gardeners life exciting. We watch for the seasonal changes in our yards, we rearrange garden beds to give us a different sense or feeling in our landscape, we happily observe trees growing taller and perennials spreading out. Change comes as natural to a gardener as the sunset or the moonrise, so this gardener has a few suggestions for how Americans could change the way they live with their landscapes, while positively impacting their own lives, and the way the entire community functions. This month’s newsletter is dedicated to long needed change, and the capacity we each have to make this world a healthier, happier, and easier place to live.

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The Seed 20: Gardens on Franklin

The Seward Co-op Grocery and Deli on Franklin Avenue in South Minneapolis has been a source of growth and nourishment for the entire community. Healthy, organically grown produce, wonderfully prepared foods, and customer service that is second to none are just a few of the regular offerings of this fine institution.

Giving Tee Gardens has been blessed with the opportunity to work with The Seward Co-op for the last four years in order to create yet another high quality daily offering, namely an organically maintained blooming landscape that offers year round beauty. Thanks to the teamwork between these two organizations, what was once a drab parking lot is now a space that the community can enjoy.

While the co-op moves locations to a few blocks further East on Franklin Avenue this winter, Giving Tree gardeners will be readying our garden supplies, and sharpening our shovels for the beginning of our next phase of gardening along Franklin Avenue the following spring.

In honor of a job well begun, and much more gardening fun to come I give you this volume of The Seed, an homage to one of my favorite gardens at one of my favorite places in all the world The Seward Co-op Grocery and Deli.

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The Seed 19: Mile High Gardens

Wherever I travel I visit gardens. I’ve visited fancy Parisian topiary gardens, I drank coconut milk fresh from the machete sliced hull in tropical Jamaican gardens, I’ve admired the proud overflowing window boxes of cottages in the German alps, and I’ve wondered at the selections found in Costa Rican garden stores. It seems everywhere I go I can connect with the space and the people easily through my love of gardens and plants. In many of the gardens that I’ve visited I’ve found gardeners hard at work planting, preparing the soil, or maintaining their precious little piece of earth.

Gardeners seem to be an easy lot to connect with in general, and when I’m visiting with gardeners in places new to me, I just love asking folks about the local methods, climate, seasons, soils and plant selections. This month I had an opportunity to connect with gardeners in mile high, Denver Colorado as I visited the city and explored the famous Denver Botanic Gardens.

Lucky for myself, and anyone else Denver bound, the locals are a friendly and helpful lot. I found plenty of gardeners to chat with throughout Denver and enjoyed myself thoroughly walking through the amazing garden displays at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and visiting with the gardeners who shape them.

When talking with gardeners from other areas I’m always looking out for the similarities and differences between my gardens at home, and those that I’m learning about. The range of possibilities seems to expand when I learn what folks in different parts of the world are up to. Below is a little of what I learned while visiting the Denver Botanic Gardens.

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The Seed 18: Garden Design 101

Garden design can be a daunting subject even for some of us with green thumbs. I’ve encountered lots of folks who are somewhat mystified by the abilities of others to design attractive gardens. I must admit I recall a time when although I’d had years of experience working in nurseries, I was intimidated by the prospect of making my own garden designs. As with any investment in time, energy, or money, it’s important to feel successful in order to boost confidence, and I’ve come to the conclusion that success in garden design is achievable for anybody willing to be patient with themselves and their garden.

After a few years experience designing gardens, I found that there’s an important learning process behind every successful design. It should come as no surprise that the first learning curve in any garden design involves plants. Take a moment to consider the space you wish to garden. Is it sunny, or shady, or a little bit of both? Is your space wet or dry? Now take this simple checklist to the garden store and begin to open the doors to your imagination. Have your friendly neighborhood garden store clerk show you around to the plants that fit your site. Before buying anything make a checklist of what you find. Start with the plants that catch your eye. Mark their shapes, sizes, textures, bloom times, and leaf and bloom colors. Look for plants that contrast with each other in color and texture. Choose plants in a variety of height ranges. Have a look at trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. The more plants you consider for your landscape, the more informed you can feel about your choices.

Once you’ve made a complete checklist of all the plants that catch your eye, sit with your list for a while in the space to be gardened. Take in everything that surrounds the space. You’re going to want to choose plants that work well with their visual environment so determine what it is that defines the edges of the space. Is it up against a house or fence? You wouldn’t for instance want to place a large shrub in front of a window, as that may block the view, but you may want to use some plants for blocking the sight of utility meters or a compost pile. Consider whether you’ve got a canopy to tie into visually through the use of large shrubs.

Next imagine the plants on your list at their full size and start by placing these imaginary creatures in the new garden. I like to build from the back of a space toward the front starting in back with the tallest plants. At this point it may be helpful to get out some sticks or marking tools to poke into the ground wherever you think the plants could go. Once you have found potential homes for the largest of your selections, begin to place markers for the mid-sized and smaller plants as well. With some smaller plants you may want to plan for groupings to be planted instead of individuals. I love for my gardens to draw my eye up and in, so I like to have very short plants in the front, and create a sort of asymmetrical stair step effect by building upward in height till my eyes find the tallest plants in back. For the health of your gardens it’s important to plan the space so that it’s covered in green. Too often I see gardens that are mostly wood mulch with plants scattered throughout. We don’t want your new garden to end up looking like the gas station or bank up the road, so instead of planning to use mulch, plan for ground covering plants in and around the larger plants. After you’ve found a place for all of your plant selections step back and imagine them all together. While imagining the new garden notice if there are any empty spots. Ask yourself if there is enough variation in height, and texture. Determine whether there is enough collaboration of textures as well, do some of the plants shapes or textures get repeated throughout the garden thus pulling the eye along? Make sure your list will create a garden in bloom from the time the ground thaws in the spring till the hard freezes of fall hit. Consider the winter season. Ornamental grasses can be a beautiful accompaniment for the garden as their slim textures will still be present throughout winters as well. Many plants will act as snow catches through the cold months giving us gardeners a reminder of the glorious growing season past, while providing us hope for the warmth and growth to come.

It is now be time to fill in any weak spots on your plant list and then head back to the garden store to fill up your family truckster with all of your green selections. After you’ve prepared the soil with compost you’re going to be ready to place your plants in their potential homes. Remember the key word here is potential as building any garden is a sculpting process, and your plant placement may need adjusting once you see the plants in the spot that you’d imagined them. Move the plants around until your satisfied with their placement and…. You’re ready to plant!

If you thought that up until now you’ve been very patient with this process, you may be surprised at how much more patience is required to enjoy watching your garden fill in and become itself. Just like with our children, we may have hopes and desires for what they will become, we may even spend our lives guiding them along, but ultimately our children and our gardens are a reflection of so much more then our desires and hopes. The things we love have a life of their own, and the best any gardener can hope for is to be available to offer guidance throughout the growing process.

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The Seed 17: Garden Melodies

What is it that makes some gardens so inviting while other gardens seem like the same old landscaping? Health is a very important factor in making a space seem beautiful, but even some healthy gardens don’t draw in or excite the eye. It is also important for a space to feel balanced. Some folks would understand balance to mean symmetry, but even symmetrically planted spaces can feel out of balance if the yard surrounding the garden isn’t taken into account. New and unusual plantings are yet another way to stimulate a gardener’s eye, but again without the proper context, health, or balance unusual plants may just look out of place. Once a gardener learns to compost, the health of their gardens can be almost assured. Finding balance in your landscape can be a bit more challenging until you learn to view your garden in three dimensions.

Balance is found by making your new plantings come into context with everything that shares the space of the new plantings. To find balance I always look to the tallest elements in a landscape first. The tallest elements are usually trees and / or buildings. A planting that is properly in balance will allow the eye to stair step down from the highest point in the landscape. Often times this will mean having large under story shrubs near trees or buildings, and then shorter shrubs or perennials surrounding the tall shrubs.

Part of what can be discovered in the process of balancing the taller and shorter elements in a garden is a sense of rhythm. This sense of rhythm will play out in terms of height as well as length. Think of your garden for a moment as though it were one of your favorite songs. In most of the songs we like there is a continuous flow of notes arranged into chords and these chords into melodies. If each plant is a note in a song, and each grouping of plants is a chord, then we can see how we can create different chords by grouping different plants. Once a few chord groupings of plants are made it is only a matter of arranging these groupings in a somewhat repetitious matter so as to create a melody.

Some of my favorite music has a sort of raw, un-produced sound. I liken this sound to a natural environment where there is repetition, but never exact repetition so the eye is always surprised in its journeys. Changing the plant groupings somewhat throughout your garden will probably only add to the natural, un-produced feel of your landscape. That visual connection with the natural world could be enough to turn your boring yard into a landscape sanctuary, where just like when we listen to a great song, we can set down our stress and be transported to a world that makes sense.

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The Seed 16: Beneficial Organisms

No Plant is an Island

The garden is a truly magical place. For every gift of the garden that we can see, taste, or feel there’s a million hidden gifts that we may never be able to perceive except in our imaginations. Imagine the micro-cosmic universe of the soil. Tiny soil fungi called Mycorrhizae live partially in the soil, and partially in the root hairs of the plants. These soil fungi aren’t free loaders though as they live symbiotically feeding and watering the plant roots in return for carbohydrates given by the grateful host. These fascinating fungi are only the final step in a process of turning nitrogen in our atmosphere into nitrates that our garden plants can easily absorb to help them grow. This nitrogen fixing process is a story involving a host of characters from the friendly mycorrhizae, to the soil detrivores like worms and millipedes, to the nitrogen fixing roots of legumes like beans and peas. This incredible, complex tale of converting nitrogen in the air into food for the creatures of this planet is just one of the hidden, magical stories our gardens can tell if only we learn to listen.

I’ve heard it said that all of the problems on earth could be solved in the garden. Yep… I think that’s pretty well put. I see that much magic and potential in gardens, but I also believe that the inverse is equally true. Most of the problems in the garden can be solved by looking to the earth. After all the beauty of a garden is but a small reflection of the magic of the whole earth. In this newsletter we’ll explore a few of the magic solutions that wise old Mother Earth has presented for all gardeners to learn from.

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The Seed 15: A Season to Begin Again

Long chill spring times like this one afford gardeners plenty of time to split and divide perennials. Some folks take advantage of the extra cool weather, using this time to re-vamp tired soils in existing garden beds. I’ve already consulted this season with quite a few folks who just wish to make their current garden beds look a little more healthy, vibrant, diverse, and full. I’ve been telling these folks it must be their lucky year. In years like this we have plenty of time to lift out the newly emerging perennial plants, re-work the garden soils where they came from with a healthy amount of compost, and replant the original plants together with some exciting new selections. In past extended cool seasons I’ve had impressive results from this very practice. I helped a friend through this process a few years back and he referred to the farm-compost that we worked into his soil as “super-poo” by the end of the growing season. I always tell folks the same thing, once the bed is empty of plants or grass, just turn in 6 inches of compost with a shovel or garden fork, leaving large chunks of existing soil where it’s possible. Once the soil and compost is turned together use a couple more inches of compost as a mulch layer. Plant, water, and Stand Back! Transplanting existing iris, coneflower, sedum, and a host of other perennials in this manner leads to such abundance that you may just have to back up after you water in your new gardens so you’re not shoved aside by the rapid growth! If your replacing sod and you haven’t got any transplants to fill the space then starting with baby plants in a temperate season like this is also an excellent idea, as the cool weather helps reduce the shock of transplanting seedlings or starter plants. In the St. Paul yard show to the left you can see how we’ve reworked the soil, and replaced the struggling sod with a garden of baby plants that are already showing signs they’re enjoying their new home. As this garden fills in the roots will penetrate the earth sending water deeper then grass could ever thereby feeding the trees in the yard and the water tables below. The diversity of plant life in this garden will be a home to birds, bees, butterflies, and a menagerie of other native wildlife, yet another task that a sod lawn could never perform. It may just be this gardener’s opinion, but the new garden should surely be more delightful for the passing neighbors then even a perfectly healthy grass lawn could ever be. We’ll be sure to check back in with this young garden later in the season to see what our fresh start has produced. Sometimes in life we wish we could just start over. If your compost bin is half empty then maybe you’ll be thinking how much work all this sounds like, but if your compost bin is half full then maybe you’ll see how lucky we are to be given the rare opportunity to begin again.

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The Seed 14: Waking Up With Spring

My first act of gardening this spring was to prune an apple tree. Late in the month of March before the snow and slush made it’s last hurrah, I visited my friend Valerie’s back yard to get her apple tree cleaned up in time for the growing season. Valerie and I paced back and forth around the tree spying branches to cut back. We worked for about a half hour to remove any branches that were rubbing each other, as well as any branches that were crisscrossing the canopy of the tree, or too tall for us to reach with a ladder. By the time we were done the tree had a shape that could be likened to a wine glass, which should make the fruits on this producing creature even more accessible for Valerie and her grandkids.

Even before this early gardening trip, I was noticing the first signs of spring pushing out of the gardens, yards, and parks in the city. Plantings along the South sides of buildings are among the first to wake up in the urban environment. After that comes the forming maple buds that mark the clear blue sky with thousands of tiny red and yellow dots, and with them a flurry of winged activity in the tree tops. Vibrant male cardinals, as loud visually as they are vocally are easy to pick out on the bare branches of neighborhood trees. Mallard ducks can be seen flying overhead in pairs throughout the day. The colorful world seems to be stretching and yawning, waking itself from the long white dream called winter.

Now that the snow is gone, I’ve been a busy gardener. It feels therapeutic to peel back the layer of hay that protected the plants from the drying winter air, winds, and sun. This layer of winter mulch caught all the garbage, salt, and leaves that was thrown or blew on it throughout the cold months. As I pull off the spent dirty hay to bring it to compost I think of how it can be helpful for all kinds of creatures, to peel off the protective layers that they build around themselves in this stressful world. The farm compost that I layer on top of the freshly raked gardens dress them up just as much as it promises to re-invigorate their soils for another season of growth. I love a good metaphor and there’s nothing like spreading a healthy layer of shit around a garden to remind me that if we allow it to compost and change, all the shit that we create together will eventually settle in to make us healthier and stronger then before we made it. At least I really hope this concept applies to gardeners as much as to gardens.

While I’ve been out in the backyard or over at the Co-Op gardening I've had plenty of breaks in the raking and shoveling due to all the folks that stop by to visit. You’ll get no complaints from me about these welcome interruptions. Talking with passing friends and neighbors I can see moments of vibrancy that remind me of the cardinals and maple buds in the tree tops. Like the bulbs and perennials slowly pushing out of the ground until you can hardly even imagine a world where they didn’t cast a proud shadow, the folks in this city emerge in the spring warmth from beneath thick winter layers to show the world their own vibrant colors.

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The Seed 13: Sue's Garden

Sue Hensel is about as cool a neighbor as a person could ask for. I first met Sue when we worked together on a neighborhood committee. One of the goals of our group of neighbors was to foster a greater sense of safety in our neighborhood. I remember one meeting in particular when Sue invited all the neighbors over to her art gallery to have a neighborhood art night. Sue opened the doors to her gallery and her heart as she welcomed all us neighbors into her creative space. I remember thinking how lucky the neighborhood is to have someone so dynamic and giving. Sue and I easily became friends, so when she asked me to come up with some ideas for her landscape I was more than happy to help. Together we thought up a plan and soon Giving Tree Gardens was hard at work turning Sue’s yard, which at the time she deemed “the dead zone”, into a functional, beautiful space. As Sue and I worked together to drastically transform her landscape, I realized that a transformation was also occurring within me. Working close with such an accomplished and openhearted artist as Sue gave me the opportunity to discover and express the artist within myself. For this month’s issue of The Seed, I sat down with my friend and client Sue Hensel to talk about the garden that helped a gardener grow.

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The Seed 11: Margaret's Garden

Acomplished gardener Margaret Wilke graciously invited Russ Henry, owner of Giving Tree Gardens, into her home for tea, cookies, and a plate full of garden talk early this January. Here are some excerpts from that garden chat.

Russ-“ I remember when we began working together you were a bit nervous about certain aspects of this project, what was it that made you nervous and how have things turned out?”

Margaret- “Well it was quite a big space and I wondered if it might be too much work. Could I make it look nice? It was just a bigger project than I had ever tackled before. I still have aesthetic concerns about how to balance things out, but I feel more comfortable now that I won’t make too many big mistakes.

If I do, . . . Oh, well.”

R-Well, we’ve still got shovels!!

M-“Yes, that’s right! The front yard was a bit of a surprise to me. I didn’t realize how different gardening in the front yard is from gardening in the back yard! In the back yard you’re kind of doing your own thing. You don’t worry if your hair’s looking crazy. In the front yard it’s a whole different deal! The whole world is out there having a good time watching you! I remember one guy in a pick-up truck who rolled down his window and said, “Hey I like your garden, but I don’t like where that plant is over there.”

R-“Drive by criticism? Well that’s one way to meet a neighbor.... Did gardening in the front yard help you connect with other gardeners in the neighborhood, aside from the drive by type?"

M-“There are two other front yard gardens just half a block down. One fellow has quite a few native plants in his front garden. This was my first year out there in the front. I think next year we’ll probably end up sharing plants. That would be fun!"

R-"Can you gage what kind of effect your new garden has had on the neighborhood as a whole?"

M-“Oh my goodness! It’s fun! … People really raved about it! The neighborhood is very enthusiastic about it, which is just great…. I had a whole contingent of people from the annual neighborhood picnic that wanted a tour and they came over right then!"

R- "We used a whole lot of compost in this garden, and at first you wondered if we needed as much as we were using, how did that turn out?"

M-“Well, as I’ve told you before, the compost saved the day, especially since we had such a hot dry summer. We ended up using 11 yards of compost in the front yard! We are on what’s called the Anoka Sandplain here. We have about two inches of topsoil, and then sand, sand, sand as far as you down as you can dig. Water, of course, just runs right through it. When it did finally rain, the compost just soaked it up like a sponge, which was great! Then it held the moisture so that even though it might seem dry on the surface, if I got down into it, [the soil] would still be moist underneath. I did break down and water occasionally during the hot dry spells, but not nearly as much as I would have to if we had just put a little bit of compost on the surface of all that sand. I also used quite a bit of my own compost when I planted things.

My family considers me a little bit over the top about my compost. When you make your own compost it has eggshells, coffee grounds, broccoli stems, plus all the spent flower stems and other green material from the garden in it. There’s more variety of nutrients in it than in the bulk-produced compost that’s mostly leaves and manure. When I plant something, particularly perennials, I always put some of my own compost in with it. I never have enough! It’s amazing how fast it goes. My family knows that if anybody’s caught dropping a banana peel in the trashcan instead of into the compost bucket, they’re in REAL trouble!! My husband will attest to that.”

R- “Any big plans for next season? What’s going to happen out there?”

M-“I want to make the new garden bigger. I still think there’s too much grass! I would like to figure out how to create more of a framework of evergreen material around which I plant annuals and perennials. The challenge with such a big public prominent garden is how to get it to look like something in the winter. It needs more structure, more architectural pieces. Figuring that out will be my next challenge.”

R-“What words of garden wisdom could you share with a less experienced gardener such as myself?”

M-“Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. They are just part of learning. Even with experience there are always surprises. Sometimes a plant that has done well for years will “croak” for no explainable reason. The one right next to it might be fine. Then a plant you thought was a “goner” suddenly flourishes. It’s just that there are so many variables. Light, moisture, bugs, timing of the heat or cold. There are a lot more things going on than we know about. The mystery of it is wonderful, if you just accept that there’s going to be a lot that is unexplainable. It’s not fully predictable. If you want fully predictable, then . . .”

R-“Rock mulch?”

M-“Yeah, that or the standard fare. But that’s not for me . . .

I need surprises.”

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The Seed 10: Variety is the Spice of Life

We’ve all had one of those jobs. One of those same-thing-every-day-carpal-tunnel-for- the-soul kind of jobs. You've probably endured through weeks and months that left your brain throbbing like George Jetson’s finger after a hard day of button pushing. In fact any monotonous, dull, or unvaried interaction we have with the world around us leaves us feeling drained. How would your body feel if it had to eat the same food every day? What if you had to hear the same song every time you wanted to listen to music? Life would quickly begin to get a bit humdrum if all your choices could be counted on one finger. That draining sensation that accompanies a lack of variety in our lives is ultimately unhealthy because our bodies, minds, and spirits are biologically required to draw inspiration from a multitude of the earth’s gifts. Man can not live on bread alone, Right? ...In this way the life that is created on earth is born interdependent with a wide variety of the creatures already here. Yep, you know what I’m talking about here, the whole “web of life” idea. It’s not just a cute Disney movie theme. Actually it’s the way life works on this planet to create a healthy vibrant ecosystem, an ecosystem that is capable of covering this planet with teeming life from the driest desert to the depths of the ocean.

So if all the space from the hot Sahara to the bottom of the Pacific is practically frolicking with a smorgasbord of life, why shouldn’t we enjoy that same luxurious richness in our own space at home?

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The Seed 9: Reduce Your Ecological Footprint

Fear not brave gardeners, I’m not suggesting that you go out and get a smaller pair of garden clogs to squeeze into. Instead I’d ask folks everywhere to examine the impact of our lawns, landscapes, and lifestyles on the local ecosystem. Think of your yard as a type of footprint that falls on the earth. Now ask yourself if that footfall is delicate and well placed, or are you just plodding along squishing whatever’s in your path? I know I’m preaching to the eco-friendly choir here, but I figure even a free range organic choir could use some good hymns when they go rambling into the world singing their big green ideas. The big idea here is that perhaps with a little honest examination we can find ways at home to reduce the size of our own footprint on the environment.

Oh Really???

One of the most intriguing things I encounter on a regular basis is hearing folks talk about sustainable concepts like they’re so new-fangled, out there, or fringe. Oh yeah, I get it, because the idea that we should keep living as a species, and that the earth should not die simply because we want luxury, that’s just so far fetched. This always leads me to ask the question,

What is so wierd about people not wanting to kill themselves?

Whenever I encounter a mass of folks blindly harming themselves with their own philosophies, customs, or beliefs I sit and wonder who might be profiting from these seemingly self-inflicted wounds, but then that’s just silly, who could possibly profit from millions of people pouring unneeded dangerous chemicals on their lawns every year??? Certainly not we organic gardeners, I can’t make a dime trying to sell my happy healthy clients on new-fangled, out-there, fringe ideas like better life through chemistry!

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The Seed 8: Put Your Garden To Bed

A heavy frost has laid itself down on your garden bed. The leaves have wilted and turned color. Now before you go off to cover you gardens with a warm blanket of hay, you may find yourself wondering exactly what to cut back and what to leave standing in the garden.

The Minnesota wintertime landscape can be a bit stark. Usually by December most of what we see is covered in snow. At this point of the year, since your landscape is essentially a field of white it can be aesthetically important to have some texture in the garden to break up the white monotony. Choose what to cut back in your garden based first on whether the plant in question will stand tall enough to catch snow and look pretty in the winter. Any herbaceous* perennial that stands shorter than about 12 inches is probably not going to be seen over the accumulated winter snow. Many of these shorter plants end up a soggy brown mush in the spring, and so it will just be easier to cut them back in the fall. Hostas are in this category. It can be challenging to make a garden bed look tidy in the spring with squishy rotted hosta leaves all over it. I like to leave standing, coneflower, persicaria, astilbe, mullien, milkweeds, and most grasses. Any tall plant that will catch some snow and cause a little texture to pop out of the white winter garden should be left to stand proud.

Be careful! There are a couple of common mistakes to avoid while performing cutbacks. First, there are a few plants that are deceptively evergreen. The first fall that I worked in gardens, I got myself into a bit of trouble with “the boss” for cutting yucca back. Yucca, hens and chicks, pachysandra, and some low sedum are all types of evergreens that at a glance appear as though they may be herbaceous. Some plants, such as St. Johns wort and Russian sage can be thought of as being categorized somewhere between an herbaceous plant and a shrub. These plants have partially woody stems. Plants like these will not fully die back to the ground, and if left standing they will sprout greenery in the spring from the dormant soft wood of their stems. Perhaps worse than cutting back an evergreen plant, would be cutting into the green thumb of a gardener. God know's I've gawked at many a galling gory gash gouged in good gardeners gloves after gripping greenery for cutting without regard or guidance. That is to say, please don’t cut your fingers off, at least not in the garden.

When a hard frost comes along you must snip it. When there’s dead leaves in your palm you must snip it. Unless of course it looks good through the winter, then wait till spring and snip it into shape! Let the evergreens alone, and for goodness sake, snip the gardens, not the gardener! It’s not to late to snip it. Snip it good**.

*Herbaceous: A plant that does not have a woody stem, and dies back to the ground every year.

**Snip it good: An explanation for all those who are too young, too old, or for those like me whose parents didn’t let you listen to rock music in 1980. This is a play on the 80’s new wave song called Whip it. Thank you Devo!

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The Seed 7: To Mulch or Not To Mulch

Mystery Mulch Unmasked!

Mulch is any material you use to cover a garden bed in order to preserve moisture, moderate the soil temperature, and suppress weed growth. All types of mulch are grouped into two basic categories, organic and inorganic. Types of organic mulch include compost, hay, leaves, wood chips, bark, peanut hulls, pine needles, animal manure, ground corncobs, and even recycled materials such as recycled wood or paper. Perhaps the most commonly used form of inorganic mulch is crushed stone. Plastic or fabric sheeting is often also used, sometimes in conjunction with other organic mulch such as wood chips. Both organic and inorganic mulches sold in retail stores are commonly little more than reclaimed industrial waste, as is the case with wood chips, which land developers must pay to get rid of before retailers bag it and sell it to us. Some of the newer post industrial waste products available for adventurous gardeners include shredded tires, aluminum foil, and my personal least favorite sewer sludge. For our gardening purposes here we will make one more distinction amongst mulches as we separate them into the categories of summer and winter mulch. Summer mulches are most of the above listed items such as wood and animal manure, while winter mulches are those temporary mulches such as leaves or hay, which we use to insulate our northern gardens from the drying winter wind and sun. Now that we know what we’re dealing with here let’s have a closer look at some of the more commonly used mulches.

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The Seed 6: Beat the Heat

Hot enough for you? This is the perennial question that millions of Minnesotans seed their greetings with every year late in the month of July. Just like clockwork hardy northerners get to experience a touch of the tropics from the middle of July through the middle of August when the temperatures and humidity levels soar into the 90’s. It is at this sweltering time of year when many of the fruits of our gardening labors begin to pay off, and the legacy of our gardening mistakes are made clear. Fresh tomatoes, summer squash, and visiting Monarch butterflies are among the riches being touted in some of my friends gardens while other friends of mine it would seem have nothing to talk about but the terrible heat and drought. Why are some of us enjoying the heat like a party in a sauna, while others treat this weather as though it were a plague? Do the gods just like some of us better? Or do we have any say in the outcome of this gardening riddle?
In this months newsletter we’ll explore a few ways to “beat the heat”, and along the way we’ll see if we can turn one man’s plague into another man’s party.

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The Seed 5: Ornamental Edibles

We've all heard that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. While this saying may have impacted many a baker or cake maker, we gardeners can whole-heartedly ignore it. Why? Because as any good gardener can tell you, you can have your beautiful garden and eat it too!

With limited garden space in the city, and a ever rising cost of store bought foods many urban gardeners are finding the benefits of planting their city yards with lovely edible plants.

“Let them eat cake” is the response infamously attributed to Marie Antoinette after being told that her loyal subjects could no longer afford bread. Perhaps if the lady Marie would have been trained in the gardening arts (or maybe if she just wasn’t so cruel) her answer would have been something more like “Let them grow gardens”.

Many city residents are concerned that their lawn space is too small or too shaded to grow edible plants. Some folks worry that edible plants may be less than lovely, and they don’t want to compromise their desire for a beautiful landscape. We urban folk can also sometimes forget that we have the power to care for some of our most basic needs in our own back yards.

I love to ask my new garden clients if they want to use edible plants in their landscape. Many of these new clients are surprised that this is even an option in the city. Many still are more surprised when I begin to tell them about the myriad of lovely edible plants that are available for their small, sometimes shaded urban yards. I assume that many folks picture rows of corn and soybeans when I first ask about using edible plants in their landscapes. This imagery is quickly replaced however when I begin to describe what types of edible plants I use, and how I use them.

Raspberries can be a very useful plant in the urban landscape. With their abundant fruiting and scratchy thorns raspberries can not only produce delicious fruit, but when planted near windows or fences they can also act as a green security guard for your property. Strawberries tend to be prolific growers and mix well with other low plants to form beautiful ground cover. Asparagus is easily blended into a sunny perennial border with its graceful ferny foliage. We’ve all seen apple trees in Minnesota, but many other fruit trees can grow in our northern climate as well. Plums, pears, and cherries will all thrive in a city lot if they are protected from the drying winter winds and sun. I’ll often suggest the use of Serviceberry as an under story tree. Serviceberry, Chokeberry, and Chokecherry will all abundantly produce sweet berries even in the shade. Nanking cherry is a reliable performer. Prolific white flowers followed by a stampede of red or white sweet cherries make Nanking one of my favorite edible shrubs. Some edible plants are very showy such as the twisted branching Contorted Filbert, which stands out well as a specimen plant in highly visible garden spots where it will produce edible filberts (a.k.a. Hazelnut). Smaller annual edibles and herbs are wonderfully attractive when used in a perennial garden. Kale and chard are two very nutritious plants that are available in a rainbow of colors. Sage, thyme, lavender, rosemary, parsley, chives, basil, cilantro, and so many more herbs are perfect in containers or at the gardens edge. If you need to find a fast growing vine to cover your fence or trellis consider one of the many varietys of edible grapes or perhaps hops vine. Either seclection is a perfect start for gardeners who wish to brew their own wine or beer.

When planning the edible landscape make sure to ask yourself a few questions. First you need to determine what if any maintenance is needed for the plants you are considering. Cherry trees and hazelnuts are relatively maintenance free whereas apples and pears will require pruning and clean up. There are many books available to help the novice gardener through the process of learning to grow edible plants. Look for books that are tailored to the specific plants that you are growing, as these tend to be more informative than those books that try to show us how to grow it all. Be sure also that any new gardening books you get to help you with edibles are focused on organic practices. Many gardening books are written with the sponsorship and guidance of the pesticide industry. Avoid these books and all of the health and environmental consequences of following their advice. Another question to consider about your edible plants is how they are pollinated. Many fruiting trees and shrubs will need to be cross- pollinated with another variety of the same plant in order to produce fruit. So a ‘Polaris’ blueberry will not produce fruit unless it is planted near another variety of blueberry such as ‘Northblue’.

Even a quick glance at the available edible ornamental plants will prove that there are a myriad of choices for attractive edible landscaping plants. With all the chemically altered farming practices and processed foods lining the shelves of grocery stores it seems as though the queens and kings of our time would declare to the hungry populace “let them eat fake”. A gardener knows better. We know we can have our enchanting, organic gardens, and eat them too.

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