Garden Siren Call

  A new look at the Nasturtiums, now blooming Nasturtiums planted in the "back circle" garden and marked by shish kabob sticks. This year's "start from seed" project involves Nasturtiums, a flower that attracts butterflies, bees, and hopefully not Japanese beetles. We have a sunny garden location in our large yard, and this year I thought Nasturtiums might work in a new area of space. Previously, I had a huge Karl Foerster, or reed grass, that had overgrown the site. My husband and I teamed up to divide and conquer this lovely ornamental grass a few weeks ago (see related blog on Garden Siren Call). I was walking through a garden center when I spied the Nasturtium/Jewel mix seeds for sale. This is a good fit for my newest annual garden project, which is starting some annual flower from seed to see what happens. Last year I started a sunflower from seed, and it worked really well until the Japanese beetles came out and found the sunflower appetizin...

Sticks from the birch trees, ready to be hauled to the local landfill Small cobbie stones on the patio, ready to be replaced, and for the French drain, above the wall.      Wind is a big challenge for an enthusiastic gardener in rural Iowa.    The wind, you see, makes the trees in the yard shed sticks, by the zillions. And someone in the family has to pick the sticks up before the grass can be mowed.    So who is that? In our family, it's me. Hubby suffers back pain if he has to pick up too many sticks. After the journalism career ended I vowed to myself that I would get every stick picked up before Steve mows the grass.    This year, almost every day in the last month has been windy in our part of Scott County, Iowa. We planted birch trees several years ago and the branches and/or sticks of the trees have fallen. And fallen.    While birch trees remind me of my native Minnesota, they also can be messy in the springtime...