In case there was any doubt....

as our friends bloodroot and hepatica are showing us...SPRING HAS SPRUNG! Captured out on a new client site visit.

A Bee Lawn

This post from the U of M Extension service will turn upside-down your assumptions about what makes a good lawn. As the mantra goes..."a weed is just a plant in a place you don't want it." Click on the link for the full story: A Bee Lawn

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones - a primer

Here's a great primer explaining the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones via the University of Minnesota Extension Service. There has been much talk of late of how plant hardiness zones may be shifting. This explains the system and how the Twin Cities is still pretty well-rooted in Zone 4a, even though we have many adventurous gardeners tempting fate and living life on the Hardiness-edge!

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones revisited

HOMEGROWN update

Avocado Green's installation Homegrown at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has been a great success. Many of our friends have been out to experience it in person and given us a lot of wonderful feedback. For all of you whom haven't had a chance to check it out, it's not too late. The "Powerhouse Plants" exhibition is on through October 10th. And in the meantime, here are a bunch of photos showing you how Homegrown has evolved over the season along with a few of our visitors. If you have a photo of your encounter with Homegrown, please send it in and we'll add it to our collection!

"Homegrown" at Powerhouse Plants

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska, Minnesota has a special summer exhibition called "Powerhouse Plants" which focuses on the multitude connections between plants and people: as nourishment, energy source and inspiration. Part of the fun is a juried art competition where artists and designers where asked to intepret these connections in new ways. Avocado Green was honored to be one of the five submissions selected for installation.

Our installation was assembled the last week of May. Entitled "Homegrown," the installation is in essence a "green wall" layered in a familiar context to appeal to the kid in all of us. Here is a quick synopsis of the design intent:

Approaching "Homegrown", one sees a simple building facade not unlike a child's drawing of a house. Upon crossing through the door, a wall of garden springs to life with a vertical cascade of color, smell and texture. A vertical garden presents the familiar in a brand new light, inspiring a fresh look at the role plants play in our lives. The landscapes that surround us often become "background" for the casual observer; here plants are "front-and-center". The installation becomes in both form and message a billboard for the power of plants to go beyond their perceived passive role in our everyday lives.

I've included some construction photos here, along with a few hints of the completed work, but you are going to have to visit the Arboretum to experience the work in it's entirety. It's located on the trail near the Sensory Garden and the Iris Gardens, and maps are provided at the gatehouse for this, the other artists' installations, and all the other special exhibits comprising "Powerhouse Plants."

Special thanks to our carpenter and all-around handyman extraordinaire Gary Bieniek and irrigation contractor MJ Holasek Irrigation for their services in making this project a reality.

If you aren't familiar with the Arboretum, it is a fantastic regional resource for all ages and interest levels: intense gardener to the casual picnicker. Acres of display gardens and trails can easily consume an afternoon. Visit www.arboretum.umn.edu for more information.

The "Powerhouse Plants" exhibition runs through October 10th. For those of you who can't make the trek, I'll be posting more photos over the summer tracking how the garden wall grows!

Something wicked this way comes...

WICKED PLANTS by Amy Stewart

Just finished this quick, entertaining read. I recommend this for any plant nerd out there looking for some cocktail-party trivia to impress your gardener friends. While after reading it your takeaway may be "huh, just about everything can be deadly if you ingest enough of it," the real message is what we as humans usually deem the separate realms of the chemical and natural worlds are really one in the same.

Particularly fun factoids include:

All parts of your Easter Lily are toxic to cats.

Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac are not an ivy, oak, nor sumac, respectively. And none of them are actually poisonous.

You never see a Cashew in it's shell at the grocery because the Cashew is in the same family as Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac, and its shell has a similar irritating oil that causes a nasty rash if any part of you comes in contact with it.

You could die from a diet consisting of only corn (I'm not kidding).

Also, for great photos of some of the plants featured in the book, check out this site:

'Wicked Plants' at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden