Located 12 miles SE of McGregor, Minnesota, 155 miles north of Minneapolis, my brother, Mike and myself reside in a small house nestled on over 14 acres of extraordinary land. We have a pond that's a run-off of a creek that runs through the entire property. Surrounded by the creek is a watershed loaded with micro-organisms; eventually leading to slightly higher elevations covered in dozens of various kinds of wildflowers just waiting for pollinators to extract nectar and distribute pollen. In the Spring of 2015, we scattered thousands of milkweed seeds and we now have countless thousands of milkweed plants. During each summer and especially towards the end of the season there are thousands of bees and hundreds of butterflies. (Pictured are some flowering milkweed plants and one shot with a Monarch)
We installed two rain barrels on our property. We use the water for all of the potted plants and hanging baskets. There are several web sites you can check out and obtain an enormous amount of information on do-it-yourself projects and ready-to-go units for purchase. You will also notice our compost pile. It’s amazing how much quality soil we get with our minimal efforts. There are dozens of web sites on composting as well, with several sizes available to cater to any type of need. Even if you only grow a few potted plants, you will be producing your own soil; the best soil. Just about any type of plant will grow much bigger than with any other soil you have previously used. Pictured here is our compost pile after all the plants were planted and potted. Also (pictured is one of our rain barrels which will fill up the 55 gallon capacity with 1/2" of rain).
In mid-August of 2015, Mike decided to start a butterfly garden. The size he cut out was 9 x 9'. He then cultivated the soil and transplanted milkweed plants present on the property. If you can’t find milkweed plants for transplanting, you can purchase the seeds or select locations you can purchase plants native to your region. Refer to the Monarch Butterfly Page on how you can start your own butterfly garden in just about any area whether you live in the city or the country. it's easier than you think. The flower garden pictured below contains all perennials with the exception of a couple dozen marigolds. The garden is also a great attractant to pollinating bees and butterflies. Out of the 18 different kinds of flowers in this garden, it’s the lavender that attracts most of the bees in late summer.
Over the last few years we have installed 24 bluebird houses. We usually get around 50% occupancy, the tree swallows get the rest. The one’s pictured next to our pet cemetery are attached to galvanized poles because of the abundance of predators present. To increase the chances of bluebird occupancy, it’s best to clean the houses out sometime after they have left for the year. This is also a great way to examine certain happenings that occur, such as insect infestations, predator chewing's around the openings, water leakage, etc.
(Pictured below are our gardens). The larger garden (50 x 80') and my brother’s garden (22 x 40' & 16 x 20') are both 100% organic. Currently we don’t use any herbicides or pesticides and our fertilizers are organic. I have used various pesticides in past years and if all else fails, I would consider using them again. We avoid growing plants that are more likely to get a disease or an insect infestation. I credit the last few years to tilling multiple times, adding compost each spring, plant rotation and quality water. Our water is pumped in 300 feet from the pond to the gardens. We grow red, white and yellow onions, shallots, leaks, celery, peas, beans, carrots, many kinds of peppers, corn, various kinds of berries, summer and winter squash, cucumbers, lettuce, asparagus, fingerling potatoes and of course, tomatoes. The best all-around tomato for cool climates is called Fourth of July, they are a little smaller than Early Girl but are better tasting and they ripen much earlier. We have very short seasons, less than 90 days of semi-safe gardening. We’ve had frosts even in July and August. This makes gardening in our region very challenging. This year a deep frost occurred on June 13th. Mike covered all the plants the night before but we did lose a few tomato plants.
The arbors in front of our gardens and the one by the birdhouses and pet cemetery are made of Tamarack. Yes, the same wood we use for all of our wood products. Our close neighbors and good friends, the Millers, gave us the arbor by our grave site and their son, Dave, helped me build the other two arbors on our property. The Miller family will always have a special place in my heart due to many reasons that would take too long to expound on now. By the way, the actual city of Tamarack borders McGregor and is a few miles from our home. We don’t have to travel very far to extract tamarack from overcrowded areas. There are hundreds of thousands within a couple of miles from the computer I am writing this article on right now. In the basement of the home we live at; which is our Go-Green office. And of course, all of our tamarack wood products are produced on our property, almost completely eliminating the need for transportation.
Jeff's Garden
Mike's Garden
The last picture is very special to us. Oscar is nearly 12 yrs. old, Scrappy was about 15, she was a rescue dog who sadly passed away on April 2, 2019. She was so special, I had to write about her profound impact she had on both of our lives. So special, she will become head writer for a column titled, "I Will Speak For You." Please read the special article "Dogs Best Friend" to learn more about Scrappy. Sassy was and still is in our hearts, a very special family member, she passed away on April 18th 2015. Oscar basically runs this place. I better get going he’s outside picking timber for me to shave.
