A Ha! Something Does Grow Under Pine Trees

We've spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks working in clients yards, cleaning up the fall/winter debris and getting things spruced up for the 7 months that we actually love living here in Minnesota's Lake Country. I actually enjoy spring clean-up time and it's been particularly fun for me identifying what our clients already have in their yards as the plants are just poking through the soil.

Rhubarb is plentiful in this area and in all the landscapes we've worked on, rhubarb is coming back to life exactly where you'd expect... in a garden bed, against the fence, in a far corner of the back yard, etc. I have yet to see a plant that thrives under a tall pine tree like my rhubarb plants. Clearly the pine needles naturally provide the soil acidity that rhubarb plants crave (see horticultural notes below).

I love watching rhubarb come to life each spring,

when it's crinkled up leaves unfurl and colorful stems emerge.

A Ha! A great solution for a perennial landscaping conundrum ... nothing seems to grow under pine trees. In fact, the colorful stems and the large showy leaves of rhubarb make a great foundation planting, adding great interest (and flavor) beneath a tree that is known for large bare spots surrounding it.

My point in all this is that you don't have to conform to the norm when planting your edible plants. You don't have to have the perfect garden patch to grow foods you enjoy and are ultimately more nutritious than anything you can buy at the local grocery store. I'll be keeping track of the rhubarb here throughout the season and will include harvesting tips, recipes and preservation information when it's ready to be enjoyed!

A few horticultural facts about rhubarb: It is a cool weather perrenial that does not do well in warmer climates. Rhubarb tolerates most soils but grows best in fertile, well-drained soils that are high in organic matter. Rhubarb is rather tolerant of soil acidity but does best in slightly to moderately acid soil. (from rhubarbinfo.com).

Recycle & Reuse in an Edible Landscape

You really have to check this out. It's an amazingly simple idea. Reclaimed gutters to plant greens, lettuce, low growing edibles. And it looks nice, too. These would also be great mounted on a fence...a new take on the living fence. Enjoy.

Temperature Swings Are Like Mood Swings - You Never Know What You're Going to Get

Springtime in the upper midwest could mean 80 degrees and sunny, 50 degrees and threatening, or 30 degrees and a foot and a half of snow! It's so much like mood swings that you have to be ready to take cover at any time! Case in point, it was 80 degrees and absolutely gorgeous yesterday - a great day to work on the edible landscape. Today, it's in the 40s, cloudy and threatening storms. The rest of the weekend we're looking at rain and snow mixed...but hopefully not just snow.

This time of year is tough on a gardener who longs to get outside and plant things, yet knows it's just too early. To plant now is to commit herbicide, so we wait. And we tend to our seedlings started indoors. And we wait. The good news is that we're just a couple weeks away from having to worry about snow for awhile.

This is especially good because I have a couple new beds to put in this year and my Pineapple Tomatillo seeds should arrive any day. I found these in the Cook's Garden catalog and I'm dying to try them out. They're supposed to have a flavor similar to pineapple. This is just one of the many things I'll keep you posted on as my edible landscape comes back to life and is embellished with more delicious plants.

'til later
Happy Gardening!