Minneapolis Observer Quarterly - What Grows Here

Roses au Naturel

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 00:10:18 -0500

There’s no need for chemicals when growing these ancient flowers
By Sharon Parker
There is something about roses. Their lure and cultivation goes back to the ancient Sumerians some 5000 years ago, Greek and Roman poets associated them with the goddess of love; they are traditonally so wonderfully fragrant that you can probably smell them in your mind even as you read this, and may be the source of the earliest perfumes.

Spring Beauties in the Lawn

Mon, 08 May 2006 23:41:48 -0500

By Sharon Parker
A couple of years ago, about this time of year, I had the opportunity to take my daughter, Nora, to Western Wisconsin to look in on a couple of horses for her riding teacher who was out of town. After Nora had reacquainted herself with the horses and seen that they were adequately provisioned, we were about to head back, but then I noticed little white and pink flowers scattered in the unmowed lawn nearby. I had to go investigate. There were two different flowers, both about 5-6 inches tall, and with similar five-petaled blossoms about a half-inch across. One had white flowers and three-part leaves; the other’s blossoms were pale pink with darker pink pinstripes, and that one had grass-like leaves. The overall effect was utterly charming.

Shamrocks, Clover, and Easter baskets

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:11:19 -0600

By Sharon Parker
Last year about this time I was just getting into making and swapping artist trading cards (ATCs, see note 1 below) and wanting to do something on a botanical theme and wanting it to relate to St. Patrick’s day. This quite naturally led to a little research on what is the true shamrock--is it the oxalis plants that are commonly sold as shamrocks at florists’ shops this time of year, or could it be the humble clover that grows in our lawns?

Breaking Dormancy

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 09:33:11 -0600

By Sharon Parker
The gardener inside me is beginning to break dormancy and I think it must be the lengthening daylight hours--11 as of today, according to my Weatherguide calendar. It’s also fueled by the swelling buds of the geraniums I brought indoors last fall, and other indoor signs of spring, such as renewed growth on houseplants that have been languishing the last few months.

What Grows Here: Garden Planning Time

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:13:15 -0600

By Sharon Parker
(This article first appeared in The Observer e-mail edition, February 25, 2002)
Garden planning goes well with a double latte, at a coffee shop, with notebooks and catalogs spread across the table, but I’ve also enjoyed it with a cup of tea in the kitchen. I could tell you that it’s most satisfying with a mug of herbal tea with herbs from my own garden, but how would I know?

Favorite Catalogs: Jung Quality Seeds

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 13:04:58 -0600

By Sharon Parker
When I called this 99-year-old Wisconsin mail-order house to ask whether I should pronounce their name with a j as in jack or if it was more like the name of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (yung), they said, “Oh, either way.” Now you know you’re dealing with a Midwestern company--an East Coast nursery would surely never be so nonchalant about their name.

Favorite Catalogs: The Cook's Garden

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 10:25:13 -0600

By Sharon Parker
Earlier this week I wrote that Rose Nichols McGee, who owns Nichols Garden Nursery, gives garden talks “for gardeners who like to eat.” Well, Ellen Ecker Ogden, co-founder of The Cook’s Garden (www.cooksgarden.com), says their catalog is for gardeners who love to cook. But then you probably could have guessed that from the name.

Little Strawberries

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 11:36:47 -0600

By Sharon Parker
(First published in The Observer e-mail edition, January 6, 2003; revised January 17, 2006.)

I was sitting at the coffee shop thumbing through my Jung’s Quality Seeds when a woman who had been there nearly as long as I had got up to leave and spotted me looking at the catalog. “Planning your garden?” she asked. I said I was only looking at the catalog at this point, feeling no urgency to actually start planning anything.

Four Favorite Garden Catalogs, One at a Time

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 19:37:28 -0600

By Sharon Parker
It’s just not the same, not having subzero temperatures and foot-deep snowfalls to make you want to sit in the kitchen and look out dreamily on all that frigid whiteness while garden catalogs and notes and plans, marked here and there with brown rings and splattered spots from your tea mug, lie splayed out before you. Perhaps it just doesn’t seem that fall is far enough behind us, that spring is far enough ahead, to make it feel like garden planning season. Perhaps it’s the easy visibility of the omnipresent weeds that were still standing last fall when we chucked it all in for the season, reminding us that we have work to do before any planting can commence this spring.

Lyndale Park Peace Garden selling origami as fundraiser

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 12:52:17 -0600

The Lyndale Park Peace Garden Project Committee has announced that they are selling origami items as a fundraiser to complete the ‘Spirit of Peace’ sculpture in 2006. The Peace Garden is located near the Rose Garden at Lake Harriet. Tiny hand-folded origami peace crane earrings, fabric origami pins and peace crane mobiles are available for a donation of $10.00 to the project. For further information on how to purchase these items, please call 612-313-7726.

Joel Poinsett and the Origins of a Holiday Tradition

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 09:51:36 -0600

By Sharon Parker
Did you buy one of the new designer poinsettias, with purple or pink or maybe speckled leaves? Myself, I am a traditionalist and rather favor the red bracts that caught the eye of Ambassador Joel Robert Poinsett when he served in Mexico for President Andrew Jackson in the 1820s.

Plant Yourself in a Chair This Winter

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 12:10:54 -0600

By Sharon Parker
I am not one of those who laments the end of the gardening season. In truth, I find it a relief. It is enough of a challenge now to remember to water the houseplants—at least I don’t have to weed those.

October

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 13:54:29 -0500

Letting Leaves Lie
When dealing with the leaves that fall on your garden, less work means more benefit

By Sharon Parker
When we get around to raking this fall—and we will, eventually—we won’t be bagging up our leaves for the city to haul away, and we won’t be scooping them up and filling our compost, which quickly overflows with the bounty of the many trees in and around our yard.

Got Shade?

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 17:12:13 -0500

With a few adaptations, you can still enjoy homegrown vegetables

By Sharon Parker
Green beans grow surprisingly well with only four to five hours of sunlight, as do peas and parsley, and lettuce and spinach positively thrive in the shade. You won’t find that in many books or articles about gardening, however, which is why I’m telling you.

Reclaiming the Prairie in the City

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 11:04:40 -0500

Despite occasional setbacks, landscaping with native plants is catching on

By Sharon Parker
When native-plant landscaper Douglas Owens-Pike was hired by a Kenwood homeowner to install a prairie garden down her sweeping front slope overlooking Lake of the Isles, her neighbors didn’t know what to make of it.