Tomatoes!

This year, I planted four Bush Early Girls (smaller and squatter than traditional Early Girls), two Brandywines, a Sungold Cherry and a Moskvitch (a Russian heirloom variety). The four large plants have new supports that are doing a much better job than my previous bamboo teepee-shaped trellises, and all eight plants have been loving the drip irrigation -- no blossom-end rot this year!

Eventually, the plants were so happy that three of the four the Bush Early Girls collapsed under the weight of all their fruit! So I harvested everything they had (the green ones will ripen on a shelf in the kitchen, still attached to their stems) and pulled them out. This means better air circulation for the larger plants and, frankly, it's not like the two of us were going to be able to eat eight plants' worth of tomatoes.

Here's how the plants look today, after I pulled out the three collapsed plants and did some pruning.


In the photo below, that's one of the Brandywines on the left; the last remaining Bush Early Girl is the smaller one to the right. The blue ornamental is mealy-cup sage (salvia farinacea) and the yellow plume in the upper-right corner is "New Look Yellow" celosia.

With all of this good stuff, we had steak panzanella twice last week!

Steak Panzanella

• Heirloom tomatoes, preferably two different colors, halved or quartered (depending on size)
• Grilled zucchini or summer squash, cut into small chunks
• Grilled french bread, rubbed with garlic and torn into small chunks
• Small amount of chopped onion
• One large steak, medium-rare, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Handful of mixed herbs (basil and dill are lovely)
• Crumbled goat cheese
• A tablespoon or so of capers

Toss with red wine vinaigrette and serve. Perfect for hot weather. Substitute any grilled vegetables you like (it's an easy way to use them up when you have too many ripening veggies in the house).

What Can You Do With One Ton of River Boulders?

The path through the shade garden, before ...

... and after.

The path around the veranda, in progress ...

... and complete.

I moved the entire ton myself!

The Shade Garden Evolves

This is what the shade garden looked like in April 2007 (not terribly shady in this photo because the maple tree above hadn't filled out yet).

Since then ...
... and here we are today.

In the Flowerbox ...

... alyssum and lobelia.

Early May in the Garden

Little violets under the pine tree ...

... potted pansies on the veranda...

... George at sunset ...

... and the tree in Frankie and Radar's backyard.

Perennials Peek Through

Just took these this morning. It finally feels like spring is here!

Here are buds on the lilacs, which were a law school graduation gift from Mason's Grandma Sue.
A peony stalk.

Sedum (I forget whether this is "Autumn Joy" or "Indian Chief").

"Golden Jubilee" anise hyssop (agastache) -- a favorite of the bees.

And you can tell what the last one is (and where I got it!)

Macy's Flower Show with Cathy

This year's theme for the annual show is "We Dream in Color," with gardens created for various countries and continents. As always, Bachman's (local garden center extraordinaire) supplies the design and flowers.

This animatronic sleeping kitty, part of the Russian garden, was the hit of the show; it "breathed."

Elegant columnar shapes and faux terra cotta grace the Italian garden.

It took 2,500 kalanchoe plants to create each flamingo.
Forsythia and daffodils brighten the French garden.

Happy Birds

When I’m missing my garden during the long Minnesota winters, it’s not just the plants, soil and sun I’m longing for, but also the company. In summertime, bees, birds and butterflies stop by for the pollen, for a bath or a sip of water, or maybe to sun themselves on the warm bricks. When a cat or rabbit stops by, that’s even better. (Squirrels, as previously documented, are far less welcome, but I digress.)

Snow reminds me that some of these animals are still around (there were kitty-sized paw prints on the front steps this morning), but I rarely get to see their visits for myself. That’s why I was so intrigued when Pat extolled the joys of a heated birdbath during one of our conversations last winter. Given how difficult it is for birds to find open water this time of year, he explained, they find a birdbath with standing water even more attractive than food.

Onto the Amazon wishlist went a birdbath heater, which Dad gave me for Christmas this year.

I got excited and picked up some suet, as well. (I’d never heard of suet until I moved up North, but it’s easy to see why the high fat content makes it a preferred food source for birds in these cold days.)

I set them both up on the snow-covered patio, right outside the TV room window.

Lo and behold: birds! Even a robin – in January!!

Autumn Chores

Over a beautiful fall weekend, with George displaying all his autumn color ...

... I pulled up the annuals and tomatoes, and cut back the perennials ...

... I brought the parsley indoors (we'll see if it makes it) ...

... we planted three gorgeous "Golden Carousel" barberry shrubs around the front foundation ...

... and we finally got the new house numbers up.