So, it’s been long enough since our visit to Minnesota that a post on “spring flowers” is really delayed. Especially given the insane weather they had in the upper Midwest this week! But maybe a trip back in time to look at some nice springy plants will help with the heat.
While in the Twin Cities, we stayed with my father, who has a rather enlightened attitude about landscaping. Not for him the artificial monoculture lawn that’s been fertilized within an inch of its life and which requires massive amounts of water. No, Dad does not buy into the fertilizer-industrial complex. His lawn is a mix of at least two types of grass, ivy, moss, a tiny fern, oregano and thyme which have escaped the bounds of the herb garden, and wildflowers. It also seems to gather short, spiky spruce needles, which makes it less than fun to walk on barefoot in places, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a result of his lawn care methods… At any rate, the rest of his landscaping choices more or less mirror the lawn.
Although a lot of Dad’s plants have something to do with food (the aforementioned herb garden, raspberries, etc.), he also has some cute flowers. Near the driveway, there’s a big patch of native columbine:
We were lucky to visit while the lilacs were still blooming, perfuming the yard with their scent:
Finally, there’s this flower- I have no idea what it is, but it was quite pretty, and fuzzy when seen up close:
