Columbine Munchers

I have had a bumper crop of columbine this year. The four double "Barlow" columbine that I planted five years ago have propagated nicely (the columbine pictured is actually the common columbine - not the double). They are coming in nice and plush. At least they were until a few days ago when my husband and I noticed that some of the leaves were stripped. I didn't give it much thought until yesterday when I noticed that a few of the plants had been stripped of all their leaves. I took a closer look and found tiny green caterpillars greedily munching away. In fact, some of the leaves were nearly covered in them.

I called my husband over to help me pluck them off. As I figured, this was a treat for him. Together we must have picked several hundred caterpillars. This bunch in the cup came from the one columbine plant pictured above. Holy Caterpillars, Batman!!

I think we were just in time for some, maybe a little too late for others, but I am definitely putting this on my spring-time TO DO list!!

MN Landscape Arboretum Part 3

Here is another waterfall. This one you can see a little of the plantings that are around it. I think that they use mostly shrubs and such around waterfalls because of the scale.



Rock gardens rock! This picture does not do this garden justice. I have started a rock garden of my own and took a few notes from this one.



Here's my honey in the Japanese garden. He is creating his own Japanese garden this year. Too bad we don't have room for a waterfall!



Here is the waterfall in the Japanese garden. Well, OK, this actually just looks like a bonsai on an island, but in the upper right you can see the waterfall. But that bonsai is fabulous too!

MN Landscape Arboretum Part 2

This was one of the very natural areas. They have planted these daffodils among the grasses next to the pond. I just thought this was very lovely.



I really like pergolas. I would very much like a pergola off the back of my house, but it is not in the budget, so I will live vicariously.



I thought that this was a very good grouping and I like this color yellow.

MN Landscape Arboretum

A couple of weekends ago my family and I visited the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for the first time. We had lived just twenty minutes away from it for two years and never went. That was probably for the best because we were apartment dwellers and it would have just made me sad that I couldn't have my own garden. In other words, if you live near the Twin Cities I highly recommend a visit.

I took a ton of pictures , but I will only put a few here. I have picked out what I thought were the most interesting.


This was one of the first sights as we entered the arboretum.



This is the front tulip display. I loved the amount of tulips that they had packed together. If I had enough money, I think I might do this too.



There were several water falls. This was one of my better pictures of one.


These pictures will have to serve as an appetizer. Due to the fact that I had a very busy weekend doing home repair and I desperately need some sleep, I will post some more pictures throughout the week.

From the Street

It's Looking Like a Real Live Garden

I have never been really happy with the look of my garden. It has always seemed a little sparse, disjointed, thrown together. But this year may just be the year that it all pulls together. Other than the truckload of weeds that need to come out (I have major problems with grass and creeping charlie that seems to keep growing over the winter), I am feeling it this spring. When I look out at my garden, I now feel pretty good.