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Photo: Johnson Street Garden

What would a greenhouse be without an urban garden?  In this case it would only be half as cool.  After a sunny Minneapolis weekend, the Johnson Street Urban Garden  started to take shape.  100 square feet of garden bed was tilled by hand (and shovel) and 100+ plants were moved from the greenhouse into the ground.

Photo: Shawn with a hose

Shawn and I (self-proclaimed urban gardeners) also planted some seeds in the top garden bed and other areas around the yard.  Love-Lies-Bleeding seeds were planted on the top garden bed.  Skyscraper Sunflowers were planted along the fence in hopes of growing a “living wall” along the property line.  Skyscraper sunflowers can grow up to 12 feet tall.  Lady Bird Poppies are sprinkled randomly all over the yard.

Now we wait.  The anticipation is killing me.

Less than a month ago I bought some seeds from a local greenhouse.  I am not entirely sure how I developed such an obsession with seeds and plants.  It just happened during one of the days in the last twenty days.  The Johnson Street Greenhouse was born during this time.

My love of growing plants from tiny seeds really might be something that I loved from elementary school forgotten long ago with many other childhood pleasures.  My guess is second grade when my class folded seeds into wet paper towels, shoved them in a sandwich bag and taped them to the window.

Ahh, the memory of understanding germination for the first time.

Five different flowers were started indoors:

• > Bonfire Salvia
• > Giant, Violet Queen Zinnia
• > Nicotiana
• > Tall Double Mix Strawflower
• > Red Velvet Celosia

All of these flowers will grow between 2-4 feet and bloom all summer… Hopefully.  Right now there are over 100 plants growing in The Johnson Street Greenhouse, ready to be planted in the garden.

You might be asking, what the heck is The Johnson Street Greenhouse?  No worries, it is the name of the newly established makeshift greenhouse (the house where I live) on top of a hill in NE Minneapolis.  I’m a big fan of clever names for everyday places and things… Or I’m just crazy.

After a period of dreadful writer’s block Spring is finally blooming new ideas and activities.  I can honestly say that Winter has never lasted so long in my life.  This fact shouldn’t be so surprising to me given that I did move to Minneapolis.  Regardless, Spring is as here as its going to be I think.  May is a couple days away, already.

This brings me to my point for today.  I have become a garden man.  The snow has melted in the backyard, revealing 100 sq. ft. of empty garden beds and even more square footage of grassy pathways and yard space* slowly coming back to life after months of freezing under 15 inches of snow.  This newly discovered outdoor space is a blank slate that desperately wants to host several award winning BBQ’s this Summer.

Research began immediately in search of interesting things to grow in the back yard.  This started a few weeks ago… Now I can’t stop thinking about composting and ways to collect rain water for use in the garden… for some reason.  I spent a couple hours reading building plans for outdoor garden showers to be one with nature.  At that point I realized I may going too far (and maybe obsessive in a mostly good way).  Obviously the shower plan was scratched and I returned my focus to plants.

I am starting everything from seeds.  The backyard garden gets a sunny Partial Sun rating.  What would you grow back here?

* We’ll all have to thank Shawn for buying a such great property during his house hunt last year.

During the Easter weekend I drove over to the Lac Courte Orielles Ojibwa Reservation (LCO) in Northern Wisconsin.  My Grandparents live there so I met my mother who drove north from Cincinnati.

Only a 2.5 hour drive from Minneapolis, I can see spending some weekends visiting the Grandparents this Summer.  Oh yeah did I mention the small motorboat that really wants me to launch it into the water and venture across the lake to the bar with boat parking spaces.

The pictures were stitched together to make the panoramic view.  I took the pictures at the flow from Lac Courte Orielles Lake to Little Lac Courte Orielles… Take a look at the map.
View LCO in a larger map

Much more to come from the LCO in the coming months.

On my way to grab an afternoon 2-4-1 at a hole in the wall bar after a filling Caribbean buffet in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, this guy came strolling down the street.

Now, I am not one to judge others…That is unless you wear the F-word on your hoodie.  If you wear the F-word on your hoodie, my judgment would be that we simply have very different tastes in music.

I also know that if I were to wear that hoodie, my mother would likely beat me down…no matter my age.

I love my mom.

It should not be news to you that our economy is apparently a step above being dog poop on the sidewalk.  Perhaps that is an exaggeration.  However, when you’re discussing this with a jobless person that recently relocated to Minneapolis, and two months later they remain jobless… The exaggeration sounds just about right.

Who wants to sit around and talk about the deplorable state of our economy/job market?  I don’t.  It is not new and it does not seem to be getting better any time soon.  Hopefully, though, the solution is as simple as change your approach.  Or completely changing your goal.  Tough times call for creative thinking, and creative thinking is what I do…

Right now, I am wishing the weather was appropriate for a lemonade stand to be setup outside.  I want to hire some neighborhood kids to work my lemonade stand, pay them minimum wage, and pocket the profits.  Just kidding…I would pay them in lemonade.

The new cool, hip phrase that kids in the neighborhood start saying is “Gettin’ paid in lemonade!”

Genius!

This photo was taken at 9:30am on 2/27/09: The day after #snowmageddon in NE Minneapolis.

I will say that this place is beautiful after fresh snow.  The sun never fails to light up the snow covered landscape every morning after it snows in Minneapolis.

Happy Friday!

Everything is covered by 2:15pm.

Also read…

Original post Waiting for Snow in Minneapolis

The snow started falling in NE Minneapolis slightly less than 1 hour ago.

Currently 1:00pm central time.

Snow snow snow!

Also read…

Original Post Waiting for Snow in Minneapolis