When the frost is finally out of the ground, there is a flurry of activity around the gardens in Minnesota.  When I first moved here and started my own gardens, I had this vision of an English country garden, or closer to home my mother in laws garden, with perfect rows and raised beds, and no weeds!  But I learned early on that the forest will keep taking over, and there was good reason to embrace the "weeds"
For one thing I did not  want to use any chemicals , herbicides, fertilizers on my gardens, vegetable or flowers.  Our land was  wild when we moved here, and I wanted to be a good guest.  The weeds were here before we were, and as I have learned over the years, each one has it's own purpose.

This pink and purple area is made up of iris in the back, chives in the middle, and a petunia basket in the foreground.

  So today I have pictures of my co existing front garden that also provides some herbs for my kitchen.   I used to use a purple only theme, because by August every thing will be covered with Grandpa Ott purple morning glories.  But there are so many beautiful colors out there that I have added a full spectrum this year.

the wild columbine are out now

Filling in is the greenery of dandelions and plantain. both are beneficial plants.  

 

  

Well I am off to use my new eco friendly lawn mowing program. I will have pictures soon!

Blossoms of spring

This was a huge surprise today! I found it on one of my houseplants. This is on an orchid cactus, but I have only ever had red and pink varieties and when I saw the bud on this one, I thought it looked yellow, but up until yesterday it had enough pink on it for me to think it was just another pink one. I am just mystified as to where it came from. I am wondering if they can change colors or what.

I hit the greenhouses early this year and got these pinstripe petunias. I went to get more and they were gone already!  Our vegetable garden is in, and the new section of raspberries is looking good.  We have had a lot of rain this spring, and I am looking forward to a stretch of dry days so we can make some hay. There are baby bunnies and one of my banty hens is sitting on a clutch of eggs.