Due to bad weather and overextension of my time and energy, I have decided to postpone the heirloom plant sale until Friday & Saturday, June 14 & 15. The native edible perennials are ready to go but some of the annuals need a little more time to develop. I will stick around the farm in case folks show up anyway. Sorry for the short notice. It has been a crazy week, and it seems it will probably get worse before it gets better.
glorious flowers
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Heirloom Vegetable and Native Fruit Sale Saturday & Sunday, June 1 & 2
Spring is off to a slow start but the bulbs I planted last fall are starting to pop up. Tulip leaves and crocus flowers are starting to dot the front yard. So far there is nothing available for sale from Magic Summer Minifarm. However, I have been preparing for the June 1-2 heirloom vegetable and native fruit sale and I have listed the varieties that will be part of the sale below. Depending on the inventory left after the June 1-2 plant sale, I may add a second weekend sale in June. Or I may let it dictate, to some extent, the contents of the garden. Fond du Lac Reservation is starting a monthly farmers' market this year in July. Look for Magic Summer Minifarm produce there (more details to come).
Vegetables:
artichoke: Tavor
cucumber: Lemon
White Wonder
eggplant: Black Stem (orange fruit)
Rosita (pink)
Thai Green (green)
Thai Yellow egg (yellow)
gourd: Loofa (vegetable sponge)
Thai Bottle (used to make containers)
melon: Ananas D'Amerique
Tigger
Valencia Winter melon
Yellow Canary
pepper: Maule's Red Hot
Pasilla Bajio (long, brown, mildly hot)
Thai Yellow Chilli
Wisconsin Lakes (sweet bell)
summer squash: Rugosa Friulana (wrinkled yellow crookneck)
winter squash: American Tonda (pumpkin)
Knife River
Musquee de Provence (AKA Cinderella pumpkin)
strawberry: Everbearing
tomato: Black from Tula
Tigerella
Silvery Fir Tree
Purple Russian
Super Sweet 100 (not an heirloom, I know, but they are delicious)
watermelon: Cream of Saskatchewan (white flesh, short season)
Golden Midget (yellow skin, red flesh, personal size)
Orangeglo (orange flesh)
flowers: Cosmos
Marigold
Sweet Pea
Zinnia
native fruit trees: American Plum
Chokecherry
Juneberry
native fruit shrubs: Aronia (chokeberry)
Sand Cherry
Elderberry
Highbush Cranberry
native nut trees: Hazelnut
native ornamentals for pollinators: Lilac
Shrub Rose (pink)
Basswood (AKA Linden)
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Beginnings
(*)Speaking of the bitter cold, I don't actually mind it as much as I mind the more than foot of snow still chilling in the backyard. I made my first trip to the compost pile in months (most of our compost has gone to worms or wildlife since the snow got deep) and it was pretty difficult. The Ojibwe name for March translates to "hard crust on the snow moon," and that hard crust is exactly what I was stomping through to reach the compost pile. The pile is apparently not warm enough to melt the snow on top of it. I haven't had great success with compost so far--still trying to figure out how to mix things in the right ratio to make it cook. One issue may be that I covered the compost pile with a black tarp, and now it is dry because the melting snow can't penetrate the tarp. The microorganisms that help create compost require water for their metabolic processes. Once the snow melts I could replace the tarp with black landscaping fabric to allow moisture in. I might turn the compost, depending on how it looks, and I'll add the biodynamic compost preparations to it either way. Some animal is living (or scavenging) in the compost pile. I saw a mouse- to rat-sized hole dug into the snow on top of the pile. I'm hoping whatever made it hasn't chewed through the tarp, but I'd be surprised if it hasn't. Oh well--this is a learning process and I am still figuring out many things. And at least I still have my awesome gardening job to help support and develop the minifarm while I figure those things out.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
MOSES Organic Farming Conference
I went to the MOSES Organic Farming Conference last month for the first time and it was really great! I learned so much! My two favorite classes were "The Art & Science of Organic Seed Production" and "Restoration Agriculture."
The organic seed production class was extremely helpful for my new interest in seed saving. It saved me at least a year of mistakes because I learned about the population sizes required for adequate genetic diversity in various crops. I also learned that many of the supposed "selfers" --like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, and peas--are routinely cross-pollinated by insect activity; and that time, distance, and/or physical barriers are required to ensure pure seed even for selfers. I bought so many different varieties of corn in the past few months, and now it seems that for most of them I don't have enough seeds to constitute a proper population size. When growing corn for seed, you want to save seeds from at least 200 plants. But those should be the best 200 plants, so really you should plant at least 400 seeds. What I may end up doing (next year) is trialing all those varieties to see who grows best, and then pray that I'll be able to find enough seeds the following year to grow them out. This year, I plan to grow out the oldest corn seeds I have, which happen to also be the corn that grew best in my work garden last year (Lindsey Meyer blue corn, a stout, super-early, delicious, beautiful heirloom corn that is surprisingly difficult to find). I will also be growing all the Glass Gem corn seeds I have. I picked up some Glass Gem seeds at the Biodynamic Farming Conference seed swap in November. Before I took the seed production class, I gave half of them to a seed saver who had made a very generous donation to our developing Fond du Lac Reservation seed library. But then I was able to purchase a few more Glass Gem seeds from Native Seeds/SEARCH recently. I still don't have 400, but I may try saving the seeds anyway and perhaps try to rejuvenate the gene pool in a year or two by purchasing more Glass Gem seeds and growing them all out. Apparently Glass Gem corn was an internet sensation last year--pictures of the unbelievably beautiful ears went viral and Native Seeds/SEARCH sold out for several months. Google it if you haven't seen this corn yet.
Restoration Agriculture was a class on North American permaculture taught by Mark Shepard, author of a book by the same title. Mark talked about the fact that every other civilization that has relied on annual crops for its main food staples has collapsed. The reason for this is that in order to plant and maintain annual cropping systems you have to destroy ecosystems. This destruction leads to other problems, like decreased biodiversity, erosion, and loss of fertility. Annual systems are also less productive than perennial ones, and they require infinitely more work. Mark advocates replicating the oak savanna that once dominated the area now known as the United States, planting tall nut trees (oak, pinyon pine, chestnut), shorter fruit trees or sugar maples (apple, apricot, pear, cherry, plum), vines (grapes, passion fruit, hardy kiwis) and fruit- and nut-producing shrubs (hazelnut, sand cherries, chokeberries, Juneberries, brambles). For a groundcover, you can use mushrooms, medicinal perennial herbs, asparagus, strawberries, etc. This is an intermixed, multi-story system that replicates Nature. And in a younger system, you can grow annuals between rows of perennials to increase the variety of food produced, make use of the space, and/or feed livestock. He has a maintenance plan that even my husband can follow. He calls it STUN: sheer, total, utter neglect. Mr. Shepard suggests that we plant way too many trees and shrubs, and let Nature select the best ones. While we may not plan to "STUN" our plants, it is effectively what happens sometimes when life gets in the way and we fail to pay as much attention to the garden as we may plan to initially. Mark also discussed the importance of water management using a keyline system to direct all the water that enters the farm in a very intentional manner. His aim is to cycle all water that comes to his farm either through crops or livestock. This system requires some technical assistance and professional measurements, but it should eliminate or at least significantly reduce the need for irrigation. Taking that class and reading the book makes me feel like I am on the right track with Magic Summer Minifarm by planting so many trees and shrubs last year (with at least twice as many more coming in May!!!). One thing that definitely needs improvement is the multi-story aspect of the minifarm's permaculture plantings. I plan to amend it this year by training grapes onto the American plums and planting a wild strawberry groundcover. Also I need to do the keyline water management system to capture more water for the dry sandy soil. I really can't wait to get started!
The organic seed production class was extremely helpful for my new interest in seed saving. It saved me at least a year of mistakes because I learned about the population sizes required for adequate genetic diversity in various crops. I also learned that many of the supposed "selfers" --like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, and peas--are routinely cross-pollinated by insect activity; and that time, distance, and/or physical barriers are required to ensure pure seed even for selfers. I bought so many different varieties of corn in the past few months, and now it seems that for most of them I don't have enough seeds to constitute a proper population size. When growing corn for seed, you want to save seeds from at least 200 plants. But those should be the best 200 plants, so really you should plant at least 400 seeds. What I may end up doing (next year) is trialing all those varieties to see who grows best, and then pray that I'll be able to find enough seeds the following year to grow them out. This year, I plan to grow out the oldest corn seeds I have, which happen to also be the corn that grew best in my work garden last year (Lindsey Meyer blue corn, a stout, super-early, delicious, beautiful heirloom corn that is surprisingly difficult to find). I will also be growing all the Glass Gem corn seeds I have. I picked up some Glass Gem seeds at the Biodynamic Farming Conference seed swap in November. Before I took the seed production class, I gave half of them to a seed saver who had made a very generous donation to our developing Fond du Lac Reservation seed library. But then I was able to purchase a few more Glass Gem seeds from Native Seeds/SEARCH recently. I still don't have 400, but I may try saving the seeds anyway and perhaps try to rejuvenate the gene pool in a year or two by purchasing more Glass Gem seeds and growing them all out. Apparently Glass Gem corn was an internet sensation last year--pictures of the unbelievably beautiful ears went viral and Native Seeds/SEARCH sold out for several months. Google it if you haven't seen this corn yet.
Restoration Agriculture was a class on North American permaculture taught by Mark Shepard, author of a book by the same title. Mark talked about the fact that every other civilization that has relied on annual crops for its main food staples has collapsed. The reason for this is that in order to plant and maintain annual cropping systems you have to destroy ecosystems. This destruction leads to other problems, like decreased biodiversity, erosion, and loss of fertility. Annual systems are also less productive than perennial ones, and they require infinitely more work. Mark advocates replicating the oak savanna that once dominated the area now known as the United States, planting tall nut trees (oak, pinyon pine, chestnut), shorter fruit trees or sugar maples (apple, apricot, pear, cherry, plum), vines (grapes, passion fruit, hardy kiwis) and fruit- and nut-producing shrubs (hazelnut, sand cherries, chokeberries, Juneberries, brambles). For a groundcover, you can use mushrooms, medicinal perennial herbs, asparagus, strawberries, etc. This is an intermixed, multi-story system that replicates Nature. And in a younger system, you can grow annuals between rows of perennials to increase the variety of food produced, make use of the space, and/or feed livestock. He has a maintenance plan that even my husband can follow. He calls it STUN: sheer, total, utter neglect. Mr. Shepard suggests that we plant way too many trees and shrubs, and let Nature select the best ones. While we may not plan to "STUN" our plants, it is effectively what happens sometimes when life gets in the way and we fail to pay as much attention to the garden as we may plan to initially. Mark also discussed the importance of water management using a keyline system to direct all the water that enters the farm in a very intentional manner. His aim is to cycle all water that comes to his farm either through crops or livestock. This system requires some technical assistance and professional measurements, but it should eliminate or at least significantly reduce the need for irrigation. Taking that class and reading the book makes me feel like I am on the right track with Magic Summer Minifarm by planting so many trees and shrubs last year (with at least twice as many more coming in May!!!). One thing that definitely needs improvement is the multi-story aspect of the minifarm's permaculture plantings. I plan to amend it this year by training grapes onto the American plums and planting a wild strawberry groundcover. Also I need to do the keyline water management system to capture more water for the dry sandy soil. I really can't wait to get started!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
an abundance of seeds
I have been buying seeds like a maniac lately and now have far too many to be able to plant all of them this year. I admit I did get sucked in to the 2012 doomsday hype a little, and felt I should be at least somewhat prepared for a societal collapse or other disaster. I have also been searching hard for Ojibwe heirloom crops for work and for the community I live in, for my husband's tribe. I have been thinking quite a bit about seed saving, and preserving crops for war-torn countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, as well as traditional indigenous crops that are becoming rare. For some reason the word "rare" seems to be a cue for me to click on "add to cart." I guess that's not a bad thing. I will take care of the seeds, propagate them, and distribute them to other seed savers, so they are certainly in good hands. Inexperienced hands with good intentions, anyway. Actually, I have been advised by more experienced seed savers to buy what I can of the rare seeds because they will not always be available. I joined Seed Savers Exchange, which comes with the added benefit of access to the Seed Savers Yearbook, an enormous catalog of seed savers across the world (but mostly in the USA) offering thousands of rare varieties. Unfortunately I haven't been able to use my 10% membership discount with Seed Savers Exchange much because I have found that I'm more interested in the seeds offered by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and I have purchased the majority of my seeds from them. I have also found some gems sold by Turtle Tree Biodynamic Seeds, Trade Winds Fruit, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Native Seeds/SEARCH, the Museum of the Fur Trade, and Renee's Garden. I feel like the $35 membership fee is worth it just for the access to the Seed Savers Yearbook, though. In browsing the yearbook I'm drawn to anything with Ohio in the name (Ohio Pole Beans, Ohio Cutshort Beans, Ohio Calico Corn, Ohio Pink Tomato, Ohio Blue Clarage Corn...) probably because I'm homesick. I am also drawn to purple or blue vegetables, pretty dry beans, varieties from the northern Native American tribes, endangered varieties, and novelties. It can get expensive fast, though, especially for "unlisted" members who don't have any seeds listed for sale. For example, one packet of corn, with around 50 seeds, costs $5 for unlisted members.
Since I have encountered a dearth of Ojibwe heirloom varieties, I have been seeking out seeds of the crops grown by their neighbors, like the Mandans, Arikaras, Hidatsas, Lakotas, Menominees, Oneidas, and Ho'Chunk, and their relatives the Potawatomis, Odawas, Lenape (Delaware), and Algonquians. Also, since climate change research suggests that Minnesota summers are becoming hotter and dryer, I want to trial some dry farming techniques from the southwestern tribes. The Hopi techniques are particularly unusual to me. They entail very deep planting of many corn seeds in one 12-inch hole. I want to plant the seeds of plants who have grown this way successfully, so I want to use Hopi corn for this experiment. I think I already expressed my excitement for the success I had with Hidatsa Red beans in the 2012 growing season. They are amazingly drought tolerant, prolific, and low-maintenance, and they matured faster than any other beans I grew. I'm hoping the beans from the Hidatsas' allies, the Arikaras and Mandans, are just as rugged.
I started saving seeds last year but I meant to save a lot more. I learned quite a bit about seed saving, though, so I certainly feel more prepared. I bought corn condoms so I can grow several varieties and hand pollinate them. I will also be twistie tying Curcurbit blossoms to hand pollinate those. I can't wait...
Since I have encountered a dearth of Ojibwe heirloom varieties, I have been seeking out seeds of the crops grown by their neighbors, like the Mandans, Arikaras, Hidatsas, Lakotas, Menominees, Oneidas, and Ho'Chunk, and their relatives the Potawatomis, Odawas, Lenape (Delaware), and Algonquians. Also, since climate change research suggests that Minnesota summers are becoming hotter and dryer, I want to trial some dry farming techniques from the southwestern tribes. The Hopi techniques are particularly unusual to me. They entail very deep planting of many corn seeds in one 12-inch hole. I want to plant the seeds of plants who have grown this way successfully, so I want to use Hopi corn for this experiment. I think I already expressed my excitement for the success I had with Hidatsa Red beans in the 2012 growing season. They are amazingly drought tolerant, prolific, and low-maintenance, and they matured faster than any other beans I grew. I'm hoping the beans from the Hidatsas' allies, the Arikaras and Mandans, are just as rugged.
I started saving seeds last year but I meant to save a lot more. I learned quite a bit about seed saving, though, so I certainly feel more prepared. I bought corn condoms so I can grow several varieties and hand pollinate them. I will also be twistie tying Curcurbit blossoms to hand pollinate those. I can't wait...
Thursday, November 29, 2012
and here comes the tundra
The hard freeze came to my neighborhood a few hours after I got home from the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association's Sacred Agriculture conference and visiting friends and fam for Thanksgiving. The temperatures dipped down around 0F. That was disappointing because I didn't get a chance to harvest everything I could have, plant the rest of my tulips and camassia, or mow the future bee forage area. At least there is snow to insulate all the new perennial additions to our homestead from the harsh Minnesota winter.
At work I became an official University of Minnesota Master Gardener. State Master Gardener director Julie Weisenhorn drove up to Fond du Lac Reservation to give my cohorts and me our name tags, certificates, calendars, and some huge, beautiful, red velvet cupcakes! We completed our training earlier this year and then racked up 50 or more volunteer hours each by planting culturally significant plants with clients and staff at an addiction treatment center, assembling plant identification cards for Ojibwe ethnobotanicals, and creating a 4H garden and holding junior master gardener classes at a local community center. I've been wanting to become a master gardener for a long time, but haven't really lived in any place long enough to take the classes and volunteer and all that until now.
So now that it's cold outside I'm focusing on the indoor garden. I have amassed some pretty cool plants this year with my extra income, like a Vanilla orchid, coffee, figs, several Cattleya orchids, and a tea tree. I've had a bit of trouble with the tea tree because of an assumption I should not have made. I figured tea trees prefer dry conditions because they are from Australia. But they actually live in swampy areas in Australia, which I learned a few days ago after I came home from my vacation to find my little guy's leaves all shriveled and dry. He was even infested with mites, which is rare for tea trees because the oils they produce are fairly strong and repellent to most insects/arthropods. My tea tree must have been under quite a bit of stress. I feel bad but now I know how to take care of him a little better and hopefully he will grow back soon. To make use of my mistake, I trimmed off all of the branches with dead leaves and I'm currently infusing some grapeseed oil with them. I rinsed the mites off, but if any were remaining the grapeseed oil would have smothered them. And I'll strain them out later, before I use the infused oil to make salve. Mites are hard to get rid of, and with a large plant collection where many plants are touching or close, they can spread fast. You can physically remove the mites or at least keep their numbers low by spraying regularly with lukewarm water (spray them in the shower once a month or so--and turn the leaves over to get those creepers hiding out on the bottom). You can also cut off the affected plant parts, kill the mites with neem oil, or smother them with horticultural oil.
My biggest insect problem in the house at the moment, and probably since we moved in, is with fungus gnats. They are small flies, about the same size as vinegar flies (AKA fruit flies, the ones that hang around your dirty dishes, recyclables, or compost) but less robust and darker. They don't do much harm, they are just annoying. Their maggots live in soil and consume dead and decaying matter, including plant roots. They persist in large numbers around our house, alighting on the television at night and swarming the windows in the morning. They are attracted to yellow things, just like other common greenhouse pests like whiteflies and aphids. So you can make a simple trap by spreading something sticky on a yellow piece of paper and hanging it or staking it near your plants. I use Tanglefoot, which is an inexpensive natural product made of gum resins and vegetable wax. It is messy to apply because you want to cover as much as you can on both sides (or tape it to a window) and it is quite sticky. I spread it with a compostable knife so I could just toss it in the compost afterward. Another option for controlling fungus gnats, which I haven't tried yet, would be to make a Bt (Bacillus thurengiensis) soil drench. Bt is a bacterium that is ingested by immature insects that kills them. There are three different strains, and each one is specific to a different order of insects. Bt israelensis kills flies and is the active ingredient in some mosquito dunks. Bt kurstaki kills caterpillars, and Bt popilliae kills beetles.
I read on the Perelandra website (www.perelandra-ltd.com) about the cycles of energy that occur with the changing of the seasons. Machaelle has a special relationship with her garden and she says that she marks the exact moments of the equinoxes and solstices with a simple ritual like lighting a candle. She says the garden cycle starts in the fall, when the plan for the next growing season forms, and it solidifies at the winter solstice. The plan is put into action at the spring equinox, and it comes to fruition at the summer solstice. After reading that (well, what she wrote is much more poignant), I decided to start acknowledging the passing of the seasons by being present and awake. This year that means waking up at 5:00am on what could be a very important solstice. I will also hold off on developing any sort of plan for the garden and homestead until after the winter solstice when the devas who care for the plants will have their own plan, which I hope they will share with me.
At work I became an official University of Minnesota Master Gardener. State Master Gardener director Julie Weisenhorn drove up to Fond du Lac Reservation to give my cohorts and me our name tags, certificates, calendars, and some huge, beautiful, red velvet cupcakes! We completed our training earlier this year and then racked up 50 or more volunteer hours each by planting culturally significant plants with clients and staff at an addiction treatment center, assembling plant identification cards for Ojibwe ethnobotanicals, and creating a 4H garden and holding junior master gardener classes at a local community center. I've been wanting to become a master gardener for a long time, but haven't really lived in any place long enough to take the classes and volunteer and all that until now.
So now that it's cold outside I'm focusing on the indoor garden. I have amassed some pretty cool plants this year with my extra income, like a Vanilla orchid, coffee, figs, several Cattleya orchids, and a tea tree. I've had a bit of trouble with the tea tree because of an assumption I should not have made. I figured tea trees prefer dry conditions because they are from Australia. But they actually live in swampy areas in Australia, which I learned a few days ago after I came home from my vacation to find my little guy's leaves all shriveled and dry. He was even infested with mites, which is rare for tea trees because the oils they produce are fairly strong and repellent to most insects/arthropods. My tea tree must have been under quite a bit of stress. I feel bad but now I know how to take care of him a little better and hopefully he will grow back soon. To make use of my mistake, I trimmed off all of the branches with dead leaves and I'm currently infusing some grapeseed oil with them. I rinsed the mites off, but if any were remaining the grapeseed oil would have smothered them. And I'll strain them out later, before I use the infused oil to make salve. Mites are hard to get rid of, and with a large plant collection where many plants are touching or close, they can spread fast. You can physically remove the mites or at least keep their numbers low by spraying regularly with lukewarm water (spray them in the shower once a month or so--and turn the leaves over to get those creepers hiding out on the bottom). You can also cut off the affected plant parts, kill the mites with neem oil, or smother them with horticultural oil.
My biggest insect problem in the house at the moment, and probably since we moved in, is with fungus gnats. They are small flies, about the same size as vinegar flies (AKA fruit flies, the ones that hang around your dirty dishes, recyclables, or compost) but less robust and darker. They don't do much harm, they are just annoying. Their maggots live in soil and consume dead and decaying matter, including plant roots. They persist in large numbers around our house, alighting on the television at night and swarming the windows in the morning. They are attracted to yellow things, just like other common greenhouse pests like whiteflies and aphids. So you can make a simple trap by spreading something sticky on a yellow piece of paper and hanging it or staking it near your plants. I use Tanglefoot, which is an inexpensive natural product made of gum resins and vegetable wax. It is messy to apply because you want to cover as much as you can on both sides (or tape it to a window) and it is quite sticky. I spread it with a compostable knife so I could just toss it in the compost afterward. Another option for controlling fungus gnats, which I haven't tried yet, would be to make a Bt (Bacillus thurengiensis) soil drench. Bt is a bacterium that is ingested by immature insects that kills them. There are three different strains, and each one is specific to a different order of insects. Bt israelensis kills flies and is the active ingredient in some mosquito dunks. Bt kurstaki kills caterpillars, and Bt popilliae kills beetles.
I read on the Perelandra website (www.perelandra-ltd.com) about the cycles of energy that occur with the changing of the seasons. Machaelle has a special relationship with her garden and she says that she marks the exact moments of the equinoxes and solstices with a simple ritual like lighting a candle. She says the garden cycle starts in the fall, when the plan for the next growing season forms, and it solidifies at the winter solstice. The plan is put into action at the spring equinox, and it comes to fruition at the summer solstice. After reading that (well, what she wrote is much more poignant), I decided to start acknowledging the passing of the seasons by being present and awake. This year that means waking up at 5:00am on what could be a very important solstice. I will also hold off on developing any sort of plan for the garden and homestead until after the winter solstice when the devas who care for the plants will have their own plan, which I hope they will share with me.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Siberian squill
A few weeks ago I had this intense introduction to Siberian squill, a very hardy, early spring flower. I had been reading the book, "Attracting Native Pollinators," which recommends planting Siberian squill for native bees foraging in early spring. Its vibrant blue flowers are a great source of pollen, and observers will see bees carrying the blue pollen from the flowers in their pollen baskets and scobae. Siberian squill is extremely hardy and can survive in zone 2 (-50F)! I found Siberian squill on sale online so I promptly purchased 200 bulbs for my yard. Then I googled Siberian squill to learn more about it. I found an entry on www.minnesotawildflowers.info that calls Siberian squill invasive and advises readers to eradicate it! The website claims Siberian squill spreads rapidly and crowds out native wildflowers, and is therefore undesirable. Other folks say it forms a beautiful blue, ephemeral carpet of flowers over decades, that it is a welcome sight after a long winter, and that all traces of Siberian squill are gone by the end of May.
So I decided to go ahead and plant the Siberian squill I ordered this afternoon. I certainly don't want to propagate problematic plants, but to me the potential benefits of planting Siberian squill far outweigh the risks. Just in case, though, I decided to plant the bulbs in the gravelly, sandy, nutrient-poor fill dirt surrounding our house. That way its vigorous tendencies will be curbed a bit. I am definitely looking forward to seeing those pretty blue flowers popping up in the frozen Minnesota March and watching all the visitors who will come to visit them!
So I decided to go ahead and plant the Siberian squill I ordered this afternoon. I certainly don't want to propagate problematic plants, but to me the potential benefits of planting Siberian squill far outweigh the risks. Just in case, though, I decided to plant the bulbs in the gravelly, sandy, nutrient-poor fill dirt surrounding our house. That way its vigorous tendencies will be curbed a bit. I am definitely looking forward to seeing those pretty blue flowers popping up in the frozen Minnesota March and watching all the visitors who will come to visit them!
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