Category: Environment

Sometimes We Must Take Good With Bad

The Cedar Journal May 24, 2023

In gardening we all are constantly learning from the plants we tend, sometimes they don’t like the soil, they are too wet, or to dry, too much sun or not enough, it can be frustrating sometimes!

This week was one of those garden weeks that makes me wonder if my hobby is controlling me or might send me to the crazy farm.

I had two of my most beautiful pumpkin plants bitten right in half by the murderous slugs!

Exhibit A; Pumpkin plant several weeks old with bite mark severing it from it’s roots.

If Mother Nature has a court system I want a hearing!

But, the slug buddies across town seemed to have conspired with the other murders, taking my new Echinacea plant nearly to the ground. In our back garden.

Exhibit B; Echinacea plant with signs of slug activity.

I am filing charges!

Then Mother Nature sent me this as I went into my cabinet on the back porch to get my pots to start more plants…

Disclaimer: If skeletal remains are not your thing please STOP reading… or looking…

I can’t hide this crime so I put it on display…

His after life job… watching me pot new seeds.🤣😂

So when the World seems to be going down the slow slide into the abyss, and the US government can’t get their crap together enough on a budget deal so that many of us who get paid each month can not be stressed!

Mother Nature keeps doing her thing without us humans.

So she gifted me this…

Mother Nature trying to balance out the slug problem… yup, that works for me! Thank you Mother Nature!

Or she gifts me a rare sighting…

All reminders that we need to take the Good and the Bad all in stride.

Is there anything growing where you live right now?

Do you think I might see a June pay check?

Place your comments below, we always love to hear from our loyal readers. The answer is NO, we have not been out on the water yet this year!🫤

Finally Friday!

The Cedar Journal May 19, 2023

This week we were graced here in The Netherlands with a Thursday holiday. Not a holiday when you have garden to catch up on still from three weeks of vacation and a Hubby that works on the holiday!

At least the weather felt a bit more like holiday weather with sun beating down on my face and neck as I tackled the weeds.

I finally finished this morning and now can spend the weekend relaxing.😂🤣 Anyone of you who has ever had a garden is now laughing at that last statement, very well, I will try to do less this weekend in the garden.

Here are a few photos and videos of how it looks right now. Enjoy!

From the back of my garden towards the front.

One of two Aalsmeer climbing beans. I got these last year from my volunteer job at the Historic Garden, Aalsmeer. The other one doesn’t look great as the slugs have been busy eating it!

Best of my broccoli plants. Again slugs have been eating everything…

From my strawberry plants to the front of my garden.

What happens when you plant an entire pumpkin?

Wordless Minnesota Wednesday May 2023

The Cedar Journal May 3, 2023

Hummm…Earth Day Reflections

The Cedar Journal April 23, 2023

The day after Earth Day 2023… my head is clear as I have recovered (mostly) from jet lag. Since the Hubby and I landed at the first of the week we have experienced darn near three of the four seasons that Mother Nature offers in my former homestate of Minnesota!

Hummm… where to start…?

How about water? Lots of water!!!

A late Spring snowfall and record breaking winter snow cover in Duluth area then a few days of crazy warm. This video of Thomson Dam at Carlton, MN shows the amount of water exiting the Northland and heading into Lake Superior.

Most April visits this lake welcomes me with nice open water for paddling. Not this year!

Swing bridge on the St Louis River. Hummm… a bit unsafe due to water levels.

A smaller river in Carlton County at high levels… still unsafe to paddle. Hummm…

All that water in Northern Minnesota that doesn’t flow into Lake Superior flows towards the Mississippi River. St Paul, Minnesota; Minnehaha Falls.

Then as usual there are the host of other things that give us time to stop and ponder the Hummm…

Like the following…

Rest stop education on septic systems and how they work. Hummm… yes, a study of how the “can” works while sitting on “the can”! Maybe we need a closer look…

Why anyone with a brain would even think of placing any of those items down a toilet is begone my brain to comprehend. Hummm… closer…

Nice to explain how “sh*t flows” and sponsored by the UMN! Good research and education money providing education to all who stop at this rest stop between Barnum and Mahtowa, MN.

We had to pick up a book on how to negotiate this strange weather. Hummmm… not sure it is helping.🥶

What better way to start the season than with a little outdoor cooking! Hummmm…a bit cold but sure tasted great! We are all about solutions and not about weather stopping us from enjoying our few days of vacation!

From outdoor cooking to just enjoying Earth Day with a book from the local library. We hope you consider your relationship with Mother Earth for our future generations!

Sunday Sun April 2023

The Cedar Journal April 2, 2023

Thank You, my dearest blog followers!!!! It worked! Mother Nature heard me and each of you and granted me here in The Netherlands some wonderful sunshine on this first Sunday of April.

To all my Minnesota readers who just received more snow and to any of my readers that were in the destructive path of the most recent tornados, I will keep asking Mother Nature to stop this extreme crazy!

Until that happens maybe a few pictures of our garden will help ease the pain for your bad weather.

When I wrote my blog on Friday it was buckets rain falling from the sky! I went to the garden anyway to lift the black clouds of my soul. As I entered the garden I could hear laughter in the rain! There was an entire level 6 (9-12 year olds) planting this garden. It lifted the black clouds as the rain continued to fall. “Thanks Mother Nature!”

Alfalfa with a garlic that are doing just fine in the rain and cold.

Can anyone ID this plant? New sprout coming up in a fellow community gardeners plot.

Even with the sun out today the wind was cold and biting off the North Sea. Tonight they are calling for a freeze. This cotton cloth cover will hopefully protect my young carrot seeds that are peeking through the soil of the straw bale.

NOT WEEDS! This is rye grain that I planted last fall. You can tell that the plants closer to the bales are getting more heat and protection. I will most likely get a staggered harvest. That is perfect for my needs.

These young plants all have glass covers for tonights freeze, the homemade wind screen needed to be on the other side of the bale today. “🙄🙄 Oh well, that is gardening”

What is growing or not growing where you live? Lets us know in our comment section.