Northern Gardening

I couldn’t help but notice that a pair of monarchs was mating in the grass next to the garden I was weeding today. I had kind of assumed that this wasn’t a very long process, but it went on pretty much the whole time I was outside–over two hours!  It looked a lot like butterfly origami, but after a while I really wanted to tell them to, “Get a room!”

Monarch Origami

This is the first season that I have had lots and lots of butterflies and I attribute that to the new butterfly/hummingbird garden I installed last season. They really do seem to flock to all the butterfly specific plants that are growing there.  Their favorites though are definitely the Liatris ligulistylis and the new shorter Little Joe Joe-Pye weed.  I have a whole row of the taller ‘Gateway’ right next to the butterfly garden, but they flock to the new shorter and bushier version.  I think it is without doubt superior to the taller varieties, because it gets blossoms all along the stem and not just a large flowerhead at the top.  Not to mention that it isn’t 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide!  When the two ‘Little Joe’ that I have get big enough I am definitely going to divide and replace.

'Little Joe' Eupatorium (Joe pye weed)

My Blue Ribbon at the Fair

I know that my annual phlox does not look very good in this photo, but thankfully it looked much better when they did the judging three days ago at the Goodhue County Fair.  I am proud to say that I not only won a blue ribbon for my phlox, but also a red ribbon for my annual scabiosa and several white ribbons for my other entries. I couldn’t be happier and encourage all gardeners out there to take your flowers to the county fair or even the big one…your state fair.
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Today was one of the most anticipated days of the entire growing season.  I ate my first homegrown tomatoes!  I don’t have a lot of tomato plants, but I am growing a few heirloom varieties including the Nyagous that I ate for lunch today.  They were delicious and almost worth the long wait.  Nyagous is described as a black tomato, but don’t let that put you off, because the fruits are really more of a mahogany with grayish-green highlights.  Nyagous tastes good, grows well and was the first tomato to ripen in the Tomato Success Kit I have growing on my deck.

My first Nyagous heirloom tomatoes

For many years my husband subscribed to the theory that if you turned your gas grill on high and let it set for five or ten minutes all the greasy crud will burn off. No need to take the grate off the grill and clean it before cooking, right? That changed when he gave our entire family–including himself–the worse case of food poisoning ever. We all spent days barfing (and other things) and since then he has always removed the grates and cleaned them in the laundry room every time he grilled.

It wasn’t too bad a job until we bought our new grill and the grates weigh a ton. I had to wash them one time when he wasn’t there and I immediately decided that there had to be a better way. One night I happened to catch an infomercial on the Grill Daddy Pro and I immediately got online and ordered it for Father’s Day at their price of $24.99 plus shipping and handling. When my husband opened it, he was not impressed. It was immediately delegated to a far corner of the basement never to see the light of day.

That changed when I had to do the grilling the next time and there was no way I was going to drag those heavy dirty grates through the house again. I managed to find where he had hidden his Father’s Day gift and used it myself to clean the grates. No muss, no fuss–I loved it! The grill was so sparkling clean that my husband even asked what I had done to get it back to looking like new. When I told him it was the Grill Daddy Pro I offered to show him how it worked the next time he grilled and he hasn’t quit using it since.

He tells everyone how great it is and even tells me that it is one of the best presents I have every gotten him! If you are looking for the perfect Father’s Day or birthday gift for your husband or dad, I not only recommend it highly, but check out Amazon for a much better price than what I paid. It was worth every penny, but why pay over 30 bucks with shipping, etc. when you can get it on Amazon for so much less?

I consider every flower in my garden to be precious and when I do decide to cut some stems for flower arrangements,

Stargazer lilies and pink cleome make a lovely indoor bouquet.

One of the most important things you can do to make your bouquets last is to always use a commercial floral preservative for your cut flower bouquets. Floral preservatives provide a balance of the three components that benefit cut flowers the most, sugar, citric acids and antibacterials. The sugars feed the flower, the citric acids make it easier for the flower to draw water up the stem and the antibacterial keeps bacterial growth down in the vase water.

Here are some more tips from the experts on how to keep all of your cut flower arrangements looking their best for the maximum amount of time:
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