LIFE INTERRUPTED

Posted on June 5, 2012 by snowbirdredux

It’s all about the garden these days.

                          NEW PERENNIAL BED

VEGGIES

POND

Digging Days have been the hardest. And T.M. has conveniently been off the hook due to “knee issues” which have rendered him unable to push down hard against a shovel or even bend to dig and delve. To be fair, he has constructed a number of raised beds and pushed the wheelbarrow here and about.

I, however, have dug more holes than I can count, relentlessly determined to plant as many perennials and vegetables as spring permits. This spring.

                               WAITING – – –

I am already scoping out the plots for next year. I know. I know. I promised myself that I would not go crazy this time and that I would fully appreciate and honor the limitations of an aging body.  But I can’t help myself. So many plants. So little time.

        LOWER GARDEN JUST WAITING FOR VEGETABLES!

And so many dandelions. Sweet, old-fashioned, yellow posies. Turning  memory into wishing puffs, wind-blown dreams, every child’s proud gift to Mom. The bunnies love them and I thought foolishly, at first, that the dandies just might keep our rabbit friends occupied and distracted – far away from the lettuce and peas and radishes.

What did Mr. McGregor do? And didn’t Peter outsmart him in the end?

We thought to just leave the dandelions. Let them enhance the lawn and decorate the croquet court. Provide munchies that would sate and satisfy. Besides, they have such a sweet name. Actually from the French, “dent de lion” which means lion’s tooth (look at the leaves!) And think about dandelion wine and manna for the bees and the herbalist’s panacea for diabetes and blood building, not to mention the plain fact that they are deemed more nutritious than spinach!

But no. Civic duty, it seems, rules beyond the life of furry creatures and nutrition. Our neighbor, for instance, has a pristine lawn, only recently invaded across the border, just a bit, by yellow heads, creeping, wafting, perceptibly over the line.

In California  I made an effort to suppress the dreaded thistle, and as an organic gardener I even succumbed to an annual application of Roundup, hauling my unwieldy canister up and down the hills, spraying and destroying before the tufts erupted and blew about and impregnated our neighbor’s soil.

There are, it’s true, a few thistles on Mt. Faith, but in Minnesota it is mainly the dandelion which define the bad neighbor. Lawns are sacrosanct. Good turf is a mark, not of excellence, but of the norm, of acceptability. In California, on the other hand, turf is BAD. In the west it’s all about the water. Lawn is thirsty and water is scarce, therefore Californians are encouraged to create sod-free gardens. And we did.

If you remember the film “Chinatown” with Jack Nicholson, it was all about the gangster/political war that battled to steal water for California. It was brutal and ugly and set the precedent.

However, there is an obsession in this state of Minnesota with the lawn. The mowers are ever present and persistent. Militant, you might say. When we first moved here, one year ago, one of the first queries from Aunt Lilah and Cousin Maryanne was  – “how does the lawn look?” I was puzzled. Now I get it.

When questioned, my relatives all said, with some solemnity – 2-4-D.  And I bit and bought it. But thought twice. And read the label and checked on my Master Gardener list of toxic chemicals and knew I couldn’t go there. I’ve worked too hard to create an enticing, healthy environment for our birds.

When I googled organic treatment for dandelions, I got a list which started with “digging up,” and then went on through boiling water, smothering with mulch, burning with a torch (all of the above not conducive when millions are involved) and ended with corn meal gluten and a product called Iron-X – the last two available from a company called “Gardens Alive.”

As it turns out, corn meal gluten is only effective against seeds and not established plants. However, Iron-X is doable, if a bit pricey. I have now hefted my sprayer around the whole property and will watch and wait. And hope my back improves before I have to treat it all over again.

I’ll report back.

P.S. Uh Oh! But what about the Creeping Charlie!

Posted in favorite things, Gardening, minnesota life, wild animals | Leave a comment

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Posted on June 2, 2012 by snowbirdredux

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Belated!  I missed it!

I intended to write about our first year and celebrate the occasion, but somehow, we thought it was May 29th and it was actually May 22nd. I looked at my old year’s calendar and discovered the notation: “We’re Here!”  On the 22nd! How time flies.

But here we are, just over one year later, now into June, exhilarated by our good fortune to have found and become blessed by the house on the hill. We can’t imagine living anyplace else.

We’re still tweeking and perfecting the space for our needs and esthetic preferences. We’re still arguing about color gradations. We’re still at odds about the usage of the Grumpy Room. But we’re home.

There are many reasons why Fergus Falls, Minnesota, is a fit.

1.     We have never slipped so easily into friendships. And so many. Our social calendar is complicated and full. Just this week I’m looking at – writer’s group party at Rod’s at Battle Lake, dinner with Valerie and Anders at Guttenberg Heights, “Peony Party” at Sandy’s, Concerts In The Park, with Farmer’s Market. To name a few.

2.     This old house is looking more and more like home. New configurations and re-organization have made all the difference. The vegetable garden is expanding day by day. The new perennial bed is happening. We bought and planted a crab apple tree (Red Baron).

3.     Tomorrow I’m on the radio! Yes. How did that happen? I hope I don’t choke or make a fool of myself. I will be the co-host of a call-in garden program with Bev Johnson (no relation) who is part of the Master Gardener group in Otter Tail County.

4.     We have spent “quality time” with family. Memorial weekend with Aunt Lil, going to all the family cemeteries for dedications and ceremonies. Coming up – a big family celebration honoring Aunt Lilah and Uncle Ralph. I couldn’t like it more.

5.     And – oh yes – did I mention – we love it here!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!

STRAW BALE UPDATE

MUSHROOMS IN THE STRAW!

NEW PERENNIAL BED

THE RED BARON

VEGETABLES!

MEMORIAL DAY – FERGUS FALLS STYLE

MEMORIAL DAY IN THE RAIN – HICKSON, N.D.

PEONIES

MEMORIES FROM GRANDMA PAULINE AND MARIE

 

Posted in COMMUNITY, faith, Family, favorite things, Gardening, In Memorium, minnesota life | Leave a comment

CITIZENSHIP APPLICATION

Posted on May 26, 2012 by snowbirdredux

It has been over one year since I started this blog about the trials and foibles and delights of moving from California to Minnesota. Of one thing I’m now certain – there really, truly are differences between the two “lands” and this morning in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune, Mike Wolffe (a fellow immigrant) had me hooting in appreciation in a piece entitled “Pleased To Make Your Acquaintance.” I’m reprinting it here on Snowbirdredux because Mike says it so well:

“I’d like to share a few of the valuable lessons I’ve learned in the past four years as a naive immigrant to your beautiful country (yes, Californians think of Minnesota as a foreign land):

*Nobody here uses snow chains. No matter how bald the tires, no matter how icy the roads, I have yet to see a single Minnesota car with chains on its wheels. By comparison, I kept a set of chains in my SUV when I was living in Los Angeles. Why would I do something like that in the land of sunshine? Because when it snows in the mountains and the crowds head up to the local ski resorts, the authorities actually stop traffic and force everyone to put on chains if they want to continue up the mountain. Since the authorities took snow and ice that seriously in southern California, I assumed that Minnesotans must spend the entire winter driving around with chains on their tires, even if all they’re doing is heading to the nearest Culver’s.

*The fast food rocks here. Culver’s ButterBurgers, where have you been all my life? Potbelly, can you ever forgive me for thinking other sandwich chains had decent subs? Taco John’s, I would still love you for your tacos if you stopped making Potato Oles – but please don’t stop making Potato Oles. Southern Californians may brag about In-N-Out, but I’ll take these three bad boys anytime.

*Target stores are not a big deal in southern California, but here they are a way of life. Evidently, by law there must be a Target within five miles of every residence. Minnesota Public Radio announces the stock price hourly. To speak ill of Target is to blaspheme.

*Liquor stores are closed on Sundays. What’s wrong with you people? Why do you  hate capitalism?

*Meat raffles exist. The phrase “meat raffle” sounds like a bad joke to my non-native ears. Perhaps I just don’t understand the awesomeness of winning a platter of raw meat at a dive bar.

*”Minnesota Nice” also exists. However, whenever I mention this to Minnesotans, they invariably tell me they’ve been to California and the people there were soooo sweet. My conclusion: Yes, Minnesotans are nice; they’re also a small and homogenous group. There are 5 million nice people in California, too, but they’re surrounded by 32 million rude people. If you turned Minnesota into a giant salt shaker and sprinkled its citizens all over France, you’d get California.

*No one here cares about celebrities. I came to Minnesota totally prepared to namedrop the B-list actors I had randomly encountered in Los Angeles. Crispin Glover ran away from me at a museum. Maria Bello got mad at me in an elevator. Ed Begley Jr. mistook me for his friend in the middle of the street. But when I tell people I used to live in L.A., nobody bats an eye. Nobody asks what famous people I’ve seen. After 15 years of pretending I was too cool to care about celebrities, I’m rather disappointed I can’t share my stories about them. You people really don’t care.

I like it here. The freeways aren’t as crowded; the air isn’t so yellow, and the wild animals are actually animals. I do get homesick for real topography – mountains, deserts, coastline – but overall this is a fine country to live in and raise a family. I plan to apply for citizenship as soon as I figure out what “uff da” means.”

Here’s to Minnesota. And I know what uff da means!

Posted in COMMUNITY, favorite things, Immigration, minnesota life | Leave a comment

BIRD BONANZA

Posted on May 23, 2012 by snowbirdredux

 

This was a very good week.

After consulting the on-line hummingbird migration charts one month ago, I noted that they were on their way! Hurrah!

I ferreted out the feeders from the jumble in the garage and soaked and scrubbed and boiled my mixture (1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water). After hanging two feeders on the shepherd’s hooks, I waited in anticipation. Nothing. I took them down and rewashed and re-hung. And waited some more.

And then, this week, as I was glancing out the dining room window – a quick flash. But very black. My “Birds of the Great Plains” lists only three hummers for this area (unlike the many species we encountered in California). The Ruby Throated, it seems, is the primary visitor. But the Rufous and Black Chinned can occasionally be seen whizzing and buzzing about.  Looking at my bird maps I see that the Black Chinned is considered “limited and less common,” but there he was, with a predominate blackness, at my Mt. Faith feeder. Welcome.

The next day I caught a glimpse of a brilliant orange at the same feeder. An Oriole! Hence another quick run to the garage for the hanging dish which holds the grape jelly. And now the Oriole is home again at Mt. Faith.

My friend, Susan, has reported a wren soap opera in their yard in Michigan, where the male has already made the nests (often three). The wren waits and sings and pines and waits some more. It’s a compilation of “The Bachelor” and “House Hunters.” Will she come and choose him? And will they find the perfect pad? Stay tuned.

Last year I experienced a successful wren mating on Mt. Faith, and I have yet to see, this season, another episode. It is true that Mom, last year,  brought food AND took out the poop bags, and Dad only fed and ignored the diaper chores. Perhaps that’s the problem. Divorce. And no child support.

The sweetest bird world scenario, however, also occurred this past week, when I spied a cardinal flying to the sunflower seed feeder and repeatedly, grabbing a treat and taking it to a female who scrounged upon the ground. At first, I thought it must be a feeding routine, in the way that parents poke worms and seed and other bird yummies into the progeny. But it seems  far too soon in the season for the appearance of youngsters. However, my bird book confirms – “During courtship, the male feeds seed to the female, beak to beak.” How dear. It reminds me of my own marriage.

My personal chef admits that he gets up each morning and plans the meal he will serve to me that day. For my pleasure.

Lucky Mrs. Cardinal. Lucky me.

I must brag. Take a look at some recent culinary treats.

(I would print the recipes, but he doesn’t have any!)

Breakfast – poached egg, with asparagus and fontina cheese

Tillapia Tostada

           Chicken, cabbage and rice

Spinach Salad with Yam

Shrimp and noodles

Roast Pork and Vegetables

Home-made Pizza (I DID make the dough)

 

Barbeque with Salad

Posted in Birds, Family, favorite things, food, Wild Life | 1 Comment

IN THE GENES

Posted on May 16, 2012 by snowbirdredux

 

Grandma Marie always lived with us when I was growing up and so consequently I was the little girl who resided in the fairy tale cottage on Coronado Avenue in Long Beach, California. It was a small white house, surrounded by a picket fence and entered through rose arbors – two in the front, one on the side, and two on either side of the front door. Our hydrangeas were enormous and deep, deep blue. Our fuschias made wondrous dancing ladies when I pulled out all but two stamens. And all around the periphery of the small lot, hundreds of daffodils and sparaxis bloomed in the spring. Strangers drove by just to see our yard in full profusion. It made me happy, but I took it for granted.

Sparaxis in my yard

When I was a young mother, we visited my mother’s cousin, Alida Olson, who lived on a century farm (having been in the family that long) near Glenwood, Minnesota, and it all came back to me. While everyone visited inside, I strolled, open mouthed and amazed around her enchanted country garden. In that moment I was hooked and wanted more than anything to be able to recreate the magic.  To plant and tend and inhabit the spirit and essence of Alida and Marie. Since then, I have tried, with varied success, in every place we have lived.

A few years ago, through her local garden club, my cousin Marlene was introduced to a book about Minnesota gardeners: “Growing Home, Stories of Ethnic Gardening” by Susan Davis Price. One chapter entitled “A Fairy Cottage” was about our own Alida, now 95 in 2000, the year it was published, and still going strong. I had hoped to revisit her upon moving to Minnesota, but she now would have been 107.

This part of our family, like all the branches, started immigrant life in a dugout. Alida  tells the tale of a great storm when the oxen were covered with ice and her grandmother used twine to get to the barn and back. “Everyone around here spoke only Norwegian then,” she is quoted. And I remember our visit in the mid 1970’s and how amazed I was that her two bachelor brothers, then in their 70’s, who had been born in Minnesota, spoke not a word of English.

The author explains how Alida’s neighbors often worried about her behind the heavy cultivator and mowing her big country yard. At 95. The glory of her garden was such that passersby thought it was “a nursery.” I thought it was heaven.

Her “Love lies a bleeding” (polygonum orientale), which Alida called “kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate” was spectacular, six to eight feet high, self-sowing every year. I’ve made a note to look for seeds.

Here on Mt. Faith I have the perfect setting and blank slate for just the sort of garden that Marie and Alida perfected, yet I’m not certain that I received the physical stamina genes along with the desire. However, with my heroines in mind, I’m making a start.

On the front south lawn, I’ve drawn out my first perennial bed. I used Marlene’s suggestion for an easy way to avoid sod digging and tilling. After drawing out the shape with a hose, I laid down newspapers, hosed them, covered them with compost and mulch. The grass should break down into good rich soil and I can plant anytime by moving the mulch aside and just digging down. Just in time for the annual Fergus Falls Garden Club plant sale.

I’m hoping my combinations work well in the three tubs by the back door.

Tub 1: Ornamental corn, nemesia, Licorice Plant

Tub 2: Purple fountain grass, fuchsia Gartenmeister, veronica (speedwell) and impatiens hawkeri, pink frost.

Tub 3: At garden club I won a drawing for a dahlia “Sorbet Blend”, which should come up on my “tree branch stake,” surrounded by petunias.

Now if I can just figure out where to put the love-lies-a-bleeding!

ADDENDEUM:

Mystery solved about the lovely pink blooming shrub beside the drive. Thank to Cyndi in the Fergus Falls Garden Club – “flowering almond,” and according to your source, either named prunus japonica or prunus triloba. (I wish they wouldn’t do that with the Latin names; we expect it with the common monikers.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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RITE OF PASSAGE

Posted on May 12, 2012 by snowbirdredux

How is it that this little boy, this first grandchild, this delight of our life, is graduating from college? I’m feeling a bit nostalgic.

So much of our quality time with Sean occurred when he was little, long before he branched out into a wider, more adult existence. But I know that the essence of the little guy who shouted hello to strangers across the street, dove into books with passion, mimicked life with élan, and thought deeply and creatively about the world around him, is the same big Sean today.

On my desk with special books – Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, I Married Adventure, The Book of Angels, the I Ching – is a copy of the 2003 River of Words, a poetry annual which celebrated young poets across the country, and on page 21, from Carmel Middle School in California, is Sean Fleming, age 13.

Your Majesty, the Oak

Your torso sways in the wind

You are old

You are wise

Your scorched skin, defiled

A pale remembrance of your once royal body

Knobby knees

Persistent woodpeckers

Storing their riches in their bank,

you, leaving nothing but holes in return

Sharp green leaves your only means of defense

no longer effective

Your only happiness left in this cold world

the knowledge that you have given birth to many others

Your children, your acorns,

the only living part of you left after you have fallen

a long awaited rest

You are old

You are wise

You are oak

These days Sean has been editing a poetry journal at Sonoma State.

And preparing to teach English in Thailand.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that we trudged up a steep hill in Ferndale, California, he and I ahead of the rest of the family, and I said something about them being “slowpokes.”  “Yes,” he said, “and we’re fast pokes!”

Dear Sean – you’re not yet old, but I know you’re wise, and I’m sure you are a fast poke.

Sean today, with Uncles Kevin and Tony

My own poem, written for my son, Kevin, now dedicated to my grandson, Sean:

Small boys with apricot cheeks

Jousting with Arthur, tussling with Pooh

A Wonderland becomes a wonder land

Too soon.

– Bon Voyage. We couldn’t love you more.

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RICK TO THE RESCUE!

Posted on May 10, 2012 by snowbirdredux

 

The key note speaker a few weeks ago, at the Master Gardener’s all day extravaganza in Otter Tail County, MN, was Joel Karsten. Joel is a Minnesota horticulturalist who has created something which seems at first outlandish. Garden in straw bales? You’ve got to be kidding. No soil? No weeds? Moveable?

Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Yes.

It sounded too good to be true and we thought it would be fun to try. The first hurdle was the bales. It turns out that they are readily available in the fall, but not the spring. After many calls here and there I was ready to give up when I got a call from cousin Rick who remembered my enthusiasm at Easter. He heard about a farmer with bales near his place in North Dakota, went and loaded up his truck, and called me to say he was on the way to Fergus Falls.

T.M., DEBBIE AND RICK UNLOADING

If you decide to try straw bale gardening, you must not confuse hay and straw. Straw is the stalk portion of grain crops (wheat, oats, barley) and hay is a grass based legume and you don’t want that springing up among your carrots.

Joel Karsten, at his Garden Day lecture, enumerated on good reasons for giving it a trial. It is inexpensive because there is no need for a container or planting mix; there is no need for hoeing or digging up the ground; it provides good access with the height; holds moisture and drains well; is reusable or becomes broken down into primo mulch in the fall. And, it is moveable if need be. He told of a friend who was a renter and unexpectedly had to move in the middle of the summer. Instead of leaving his vegetables behind, he simply loaded the bales onto his truck and brought them along to the new garden.

The first guideline (if you care to try) is to position the bales cut side up in a sunny spot. They can be two rows side by side, but not three, with 3 feet spacing between rows.  North to south is best, but not essential depending on the light pattern in your garden. It might be helpful to establish a stake at each end of every fifth bale in order to provide strings for plant support, or a means to drape plastic over newly planted seedlings. Joel suggested 14-16 gauge fencing wire every 10 – 12” above bales.

It will take 10 – 12 days to “condition” the bales before planting and Joel assured his wary audience that we could expect “hyer-decay” of the straw with good bacterium and microorganisms if we followed the instructions. He also said to expect worms and mushrooms to magically appear and the appearance of a “lovely nitrogen rich media.” I know, I know. Hard to fathom.

The conditioning recipe begins with nitrogen. Joel suggested a “cheap lawn fertilizer, but cautioned you make sure that it doesn’t include a herbicide.

THE FORMULA

Day One: sprinkle evenly, ½ cup per bale of nitrogen fertilizer and water in.

Day Two: Water

Day Three: ½ cup per bale and water

Day Four: Water

Day Five: ½ cup per bale and water

Day Six: Water

Days 7 – 9: ¼ cup per bale and water

Day 10: 1 cup (10-10-10 fertilizer) per bale and water.

WE’RE AT DAY ONE!

Ten bales for vegetables.

First half cup of nitrogen.

Two bales for entry walk flowers.

STAY TUNED!

 

 

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ONCE IN A …

Posted on May 8, 2012 by snowbirdredux

 

The night of the recent “Super Moon”, May 5, 2012 (Cinco de Mayo), was the evening we experienced the Holy Uff Da Storm. Consequently, viewing sites in Fergus Falls were nil and we didn’t get our desired sighting on the designated day of the event. A few days later, however, I snapped the still lovely lunar light with my little Nikon Coolpix. The moon was appropriately hanging around my meditation tree.

And blue. “Once in a blue moon” means something like “hardly ever” and the “special-ness of the Super Moon means that the full moon occurs at the same time when the moon is closest to the earth. Also called perigee in science-speak.

Much later in the night, after moving from east to west, it woke me from a sound sleep by beaming through my bedroom window.

Is it true, I wonder, that more crimes are committed, more hospital admissions noted, more strange behavior resulting in lunacy happens under the pull and influence of the moon? I know it makes me restive when it’s full in the night and I end up tossing and turning, unable to still my mind.

Hanging above my desk is a copy of the Arthur Rackham illustration, “Faeries Away!” showing forest spirits wooshing through the trees past a crescent moon. Shakespeare used the moon in Midsummer’s Night’s Dream as a luminous, passive watcher whose power, at the same time, intoxicated and incited and enchanted.

Whatever it’s pull, I’m a sucker for it’s magic.

 

 

 

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HOLY UFF DA!

Posted on May 4, 2012 by snowbirdredux

 

Growing up in California meant that electrical storms were an oddity. Something to be marveled over. A once a year (or not) happening. The last year before our Minnesota move, I recall a night when we heard the distant rumbling, and got up to sit on the deck with a bottle of wine to watch the lovely flashes against the far hills. Like kids watching fireworks at Disneyland, we oohed and aahed at the show, exclaiming in wonder at each new heavenly burst.

Last summer, after moving to Mt. Faith, we got a taste of northern fury and had a new appreciation for the thunder and lightning god. Perhaps it had something to do with the Norwegians, who early on worshiped and capitulated to Thor. They migrated to Minnesota and now he reigns on the northern plains.

Last night he reigned supreme. And, fittingly, it was the early morning of Thor’s Day – Thursday – when he let loose his power. I’ve heard the expression: “Godgubben afar” – or loosely translated: “The good old fellow is taking a ride!”  No wonder that my friends today, looked at me with hesitation and answered my nervous queries with – “Oh yeah. There was a lot of thunder and lightning last night.”

Good old fellow! A ride? That god wasn’t on a joy ride.

It was our first experience with thunder that didn’t take a breath and pause in between booms, but shook the floors and walls and resonated in our bones and rattled our teeth in one long continuum. On and on. With lightning that blinded, everywhere, in all directions and a wind which tried to blow the house down. The NOAA radio reported “severe thunderstorm moving through Fergus Falls with possible tornado which can strike without warning.”

It did move through, west to east, just as NOAA said, and I could swear that it’s path ran precisely along Mt. Faith Ave. By the time it could be seen through the upstairs bathroom window, rampaging onward towards Underwood and Battle Lake, I realized my heart was pounding.

Oh yeah. There was a lot of thunder and lightning last night.

Posted in minnesota life, MOVING, storm | Leave a comment

FIRST BREATH OF SPRING

Posted on May 1, 2012 by snowbirdredux

I feel like shouting out a few rounds of the Hallelujah Chorus!

Last year we arrived in Minnesota right after the first flush of spring and I missed the initial epiphany, the joyousness of the baby buds and early greenery, the ecstatic turning point of the new season. This year, I have been monitoring the lilac hedges with a passion, walking their length, willing them on, fretting like a nervous midwife at their resurgence. I’m still not certain if the syringa vulgaris blossom rebirth this season will encompass the whole vast expanse of the plantings, but I’m hoping for a show.

“When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom-ed”, wrote Walt Whitman as an elegy for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The lines eternally stuck in my head from my English Lit classes and I am pleased to see that the bush closest to the “dooryard” here, is the first to spring into full flower. Or almost. Soon. I just long to see the full panoply.

The second to bloom on Mt. Faith is the Purple Leaf Sand Cherry – prunus x cistena – with it’s sweet teensy white flowers and dark foliage. Thank you Marlene, for properly identifying this shrub last season.

Just today, while skimming the pond, I came upon the Columbine  (aquilegia), poking up among the rocks. It’s one of the “Shakespearian flowers”, which is usually described as “fairy-like, in a woodland glen.” Can’t get any better than that.

Some private gardeners and a number of public botanical sites, in fact, have attempted to re-create a Shakespeare garden, using all the plants that he alludes to in his plays. I personally, love the idea. Who could not be moved, for instance, by Ophelia proclaiming – “rosemary, for remembrance.” Or by the drama of preserving for all eternity, the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York. I did just that, in California, spacing them on opposite sides of the garden, as was fitting.

I attended the annual Garden Days conference this year, put on by the local chapter of Minnesota Master Gardeners, at which I succumbed to the charms of lilies, Asiatic and Oriental. They are expensive, and the first one I selected turned out to be $35 for one bulb! Oops. Sorry. No thanks.

I eventually settled for 6 varieties: Patricia’s Pride, Litouwen, Centerfold, Anna Marie’s Dream, Casa Blanca, and Tiny Snowflake.  Good news. Tiny Snowflake and Anna Marie’s Dream are already emerging, like enchanted maidens, from their deep winter’s sleep.

Most spectacular, however, along the driveway – a beauty to behold. And I am calling-in-all-friends and relatives.  Susan – Barbara – Marlene – anyone – HELP! What lovely shrub is this?

Spring is lovely in Minnesota. Hallelujah!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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