New friend, new garden to visit!

Thanks to our neighborhood 'Pollinator Garden Project"  Hope answered our call for volunteers!

Hope lives on the edge of one of the parks with beautiful garden beds surrounding their home and responded to my request for information that helped me pick a successful site in that park!  She joined us on planting day to help get the plants planted.  Afterwards she allowed our planting team to make a visit to explore her garden beds!  It was a delightful visit also with her husband, Dan, who does the hardscape design and projects for her!  

Here is a bit what we eagerly explored:

Yes, this is Minnesota grown Wisteria!

What dramatic welcome to their home!
  Yes, it is Hosta Montana Aureomarginata in its
maturity and glory!  (my favorite hosta)

Veggie Gardening Raised Bed Style

Tammy, our neighbor across the street, is an avid gardener!

We are so glad she moved into our neighborhood last June!   Needless to say we have become good gardening friends!  She's the age where she could be our daughter, so Denny has taken her under his wing for tutoring her and helping her learn new skills of home ownership.  She has an adorable loveable little dog named 'Marlie
' who has adopted Denny as her best friend also!

This spring one of her gardening goals was to create some raised beds for growing veggies.  I took her to my gardening friend and authority on raised beds for some information and to view some successful established raised beds!  To make a long story short, she ordered some raised beds delivered, with some assembly required, and it became a three neighbor assembly project, which was fun.  We are all looking forward to enjoying lots of tomatoes this summer!

Her mini veggie gardening area is already bursting with plants in the raised beds and also even a mini potato patch, a raised strawberry bed, rhubarb plants, raspberry plants, a blueberry plant, few cucumbers, green beans, peppers, beets and even spinach!  Behind her back fence there is an easement about 5 ft deep, which she has planted squash, few pumpkins, etc.! 

Very efficient use of space indeed and she is having fun being creative!  It is lovely to look at and enjoy while we are waiting for our tomatoes!  We are also enjoying her fire pit in the evenings!

More posts later about her flower garden beds!

Note the 4 Ft high pile of bricks she loaded,
 hauled home & unloaded by herself one day!

Raised beds in progress!  Note the 90 bags of soil
 she hauled home and unloaded herself!

Strawberry Patch!

Joan's new passion, Orchids!

Before I left Joan's she asked if I wanted to see her new love, Orchids! 

Like I would say NO!  So she got the jump on me with orchids and I was eager to take a look!  Needless to say I started asking lots of questions and got lots of answers.  All of these orchids are in their second bloom since she got them and they are all moderate priced plants purchased at Big Box Stores!

Oh my!  This is what I saw!

The third pollinator garden bed planted!

Finally, the mulch for Diamond Ridge Park was delivered and volunteers spread it so we were
able to plant!  I bid farewell to the rest of the 150+ plants I had been gathering and tending for these 3 gardens! 

I guess our volunteers were worked out as it was only Jana, the leader of the project, her husband and 3 kids and myself who showed up to plant one evening at 7 PM.  Almost three hours later we picked up our shovels, empty pots, etc. and headed for home in the dark!

But we had three energetic creative kids who soon got bored with the playground equipment and got involved in planting and watering the plants!  It became a family affair, which was rewarding and helpful!  Good kids and they had a good time!

Currently we are waiting for approval from the Park Department to OK our plan to install water barrels at each bed to be filled weekly by a volunteer for the summer to enable us to have a convenient method to water our young plants to help them grow strong roots.  Little did we realize at this location we would be involved in a battle with rabbits over our plants right away!  Just a few days later I was called into action with my rabbit/deer spray!  There must be a herd of them there so I am arming my sprayer with a new big jug of concentrate and am preparing to win the war!

Little Ceasar

I have a mini hosta bed developed to showcase a small collection of "mini hostas", varieties that have been developed to remain small, often only 4-6 inches high.  I've added other dwarf shade perennial to the bed for interest.  

Recently I was visiting Joan's gardens to pick up some native perennials she was donating to my neighborhood pollinator garden bed project.  Of course, it was an excuse to stroll among her various garden beds, to catch up with her plantings!  Our friendship developed 19 years ago when we met at a garden club meeting and then shared an addiction for collecting hostas later on.  It was fun to see how many of her hostas have grown and how her "mini collection" has matured.  As we passed by "Little Ceasar" I commented on how I somehow missed getting that one and admired how hers had spread so much and looked so attractive.  Yes, she asked if I would like a piece of hers and, of course, how can I refuse!  So she got her shovel and I ended up getting a very generous piece (like half of of hers) which looks like a full grown plant!  

I just so happened to have a spot in my mini hosta bed open because one had not returned this year!  It looks like it belongs there doesn't it?  It is so different than the others I have so it is a good accent one!

"Little Ceasar" is only 6" tall and normally matures at 6" wide also!  It is so crisp and fresh looking with those twisty leaves showing off its colorful attitude.  I am looking forward to seeing its lavender flowers later this season.

Phase three of our Pollinator Garden Bed Project

The mulch arrived, thank you Park Department, and volunteers quickly got it spread....so we could move onto the planting part!

Two beds were planted one day by two teams of volunteers.   My team planted the Judd Park bed, which involved four of us.  Two of my trusty neighbors and a new acquaintance who lives next to the park!  What to plant where was the first decision making process and I finally arrived at a plan so distributed the plants out where they should be planted!  Yep, there were sufficient plants!  The sigh of relief was loud!

We split into two teams then and went to work pushing the mulch away from the spots, digging holes and planting the plants,  Before we collapsed, we quickly gave each plant a good drink of water from the water jugs we had brought with us!  Just two hours after greeting each other when we arrived we were done!

Then off we went to explore our new acquaintance's garden beds, which we had been admiring from a distance while we worked!   More about that in another post!

The bed doesn't look very impressive but it is a work in progress.  Denny has made a temporary sign for each bed to explain what was going on in these spots.  The majority of plants were started this spring and being perennials it will take them about three years to mature.  The first year we expect they will sleep while their roots grow and spread below the soil line.  Next year they should creep in their growth and the third year they should leap to maturity!  Meanwhile we will enjoy the show, keep an eye on them and their moisture needs while providing education to the neighbors and park visitors.

I recently discovered we will be able to apply for certification to become "A Monarch Waystation", which is a new feature and includes signage for each bed!  Wow!  This project is turning into a very worthy addition to our neighborhood parks!  I now have visions that we just might become leaders to spread this project to the many other neighborhood parks in this wonderful city of ours!  Well, it is nice to dream a bit!  Every journey begins with a single step and often the destination goal expands after a successful outcome. 

Note the path designed to encourage close interaction with the plants 

Visiting the Peony Queen of Rochester!

A visit to Vickie's garden beds Sunday afternoon was a real new experience for Denny!

He is so proud of his one and only peony that is a very dramatic bright one!  He had not realized how many varieties there are.  He was amazed and eagerly strolled along with me while we explored all the different ones she grows!  I had to keep reminding him we didn't have space to plant more of them!  

Obviously Vickie has a very happy growing place for them and it is her favorite plant to grow!  Here are a few pictures of some of the ones blooming when we were there!  It's hard to believe that some of them are actually peonies!

  

Farewell to Joe!

Today we gathered together to comfort Barb and say farewell to her husband, Joe!  Joe passed away several days ago ending his struggle with cancer and heart disease.  

So many wonderful memories with these friends.  I turned to Facebook later today and found the below memory was, posted by a mutual friend,  recalling an event just six years ago!  A mixture of tears and smiles when I recalled that day!  I had made a digital scrap page to celebrate the friendship among gardener friends. 

Phase 2 of the Neighborhood Park Garden Bed Project

Saturday morning we joined forces with other volunteers to "dig" further into our project!

Three pollinator garden beds at our three neighborhood parks!

Lots of men with muscle and shovels showed up ready to make fast work of this project!  It was a treat to get acquainted with some new friends!  A rented sod cutter was a learning experience but it made a difficult challenging job so easy and fast!   Then off to the compost site with the sod and a return with finished compost to spread on the beds.  It took four round trips and one of the volunteers got a bonus of a free truck load of sod for their yard! Recycling at its best!

Denny joined us with our car and trailer ready to drive and haul stuff to and from the compost site.  He was just recovering from hernia repair surgery so was limited to being the driver with the trailer, which became a pretty important thing since we had only one truck owner show up to help also!  However, he found it difficult to "just stand and watch" others do the lifting, etc.

The next step was to till the compost into the beds and that completed the goal for the day!  Four hours later we had three 350 square foot garden beds ready for a cover of mulch!

Oops...no mulch delivered yet so that was the end of the day's work!  Signs were posted to advise park visitors of what was going on in those spots!

As soon as the mulch is delivered early next week, compliments of our Park and Recreation Department, we will schedule planting day and line up volunteers for that!   Soon I will be done babysitting 150 plus native plants I have collected for this project!

I am in the stripe shirt & Denny is the tall guy with light blue shirt!

This is the garden bed I am working on

This is the garden bed I am planting, it is in morning shade!

Succulents in the hosta bed!

Yep, imitation is the best form of flattery, right?

 Well, last year while I was visiting the Bond's, who are shade gardening friends, I found an adorable hanging basket of succulents hanging in a spot of sun in one of their hosta beds!   Yep, I found the right hanging pot of black wrought iron (similar to hers) and the right spot of sun on the edge of my major hosta bed.....and went shopping for the right succulents... and I got my own "succulents hanging out in my hosta bed!".  

Love it and can't wait to see the creeping succulent creep further over the edges!   It took me a year to get all the pieces together, but I did it!

Restoring and rejuvinating our neighborhood wecome sign...

70 years ago our neighborhood began with a subdivision named "Country Club Manor"!  I recall when the first demo homes opened up and the streets were in the process of being built.  The first demo homes were without basements (which is rare in MN.)  I recall they were basic three bedrooms and no garages!  Garages were extra and definitely separate structures.  Prices were about $13,000 and financing available for $500 down payment.

30 years ago we purchased our current home here, which was built in that early time period of this subdivision but has been remodeled with a two car garage attached and a small dining room and porch added behind the garage portion.  Our goal was to have this our last home as it is all on one level with a finished basement and we are still here.

Recently, the original "Welcome to Country Club Manor" sign was restored and I was asked to take on the responsibility to "head up" rejuvenating the planting of a 12 ft x 12 ft garden bed in front of it.  Well, how could I say no when it is only just around the corner from where we live and I knew a few neighbors who would be sure to help me!

So, yesterday the last batch of mulch was installed in the new bed!  It ended up being reduced to 10 Ft square with some brand new railroad ties enclosing it!  Thanks to donations of money for plants and plants, labor, compost, mulch and railroad ties it is done!  18 plants with 7 varieties will provide lots of  color and low maintenance care all summer.  Two other gardeners in this block have offered to help me keep it alive and blooming this year, at least.  Watering requires carrying water there!

It has been fun and rewarding so far and we are looking forward to see all the plants begin their bloom seasons!  I even planted a few sun flowers for fun!  I'll keep you posted with pictures as the flowers begin their show!  Currently the Coreopsis are smiling brightly!

Close Ups at Barb's Garden Beds

A bit of decoration for a cool spot to sit and rest or chat!

How's this for color companions!

Now a memorial plant for a long term friend....

This year our treasured dramatic peony is absolutely fantastic as it blooms reminding us of a dear friend who left us earlier this year having struggled with Parkinson's Disease for so many years.

Reggie shared this plant with us many years ago and from the size of it I think it is time to share ours with others soon!  His last years were spent on a feeding tube and not being  unable to clearly communicate with his voice but  he never complained or lost his sense of humor.  Our friendship spanned 47 years sharing so many wonderful times and several heart breaking times in both of our families lives.  

This beauty of this plant this year is assuring us he is now free of his body which was so challenging to cope with.

Another dear friend remembered.....

This striking iris reminds me of Bonnie, who always seems to have several to donate to our Garden Club Plant Sale! 

Yep, I just had to buy a pot of them one year and now have them three places in my garden beds!  It is such fun to think of Bonnie, with her smile and hugs always greeting you!  Actually, I find myself smiling every time I admire this plant all gardening season long!  It's Bonnie on my mind!

The lovely miniature home was also a purchase at one of our annual plant sales from our section of "Country Store Items", gently used garden accessories!  It is solar lit so the windows are lit up at night!  I need to be sure to park it in a sunny spot so it charges up during the daylight!

Iris Palida Verigata, the foliage is a eye catcher all summer!

And, the bonus is the flowers are that awesome grape fragrance!