Dakota Blooms: Your Guide to Midwest Gardening

  I think it's safe to say most of us would rather use rainwater over city water, just for the mere fact that it's free! Unfortunately, we can't always rely on rain to water our garden throughout the entire season. Unless you have a very large and awesome rain barrel to use the whole growing season, you will eventually have to use the city water. (P.S. Blog article about collecting rain in barrels coming later). Let's talk about the major differences between the two hydration sources. Rainwater: -Free! -Eco-friendly -Hard to collect large amounts (and sometimes illegal depending on where you live) -Large, collected amounts will need its own filtration system -No contaminants City Water: -$$$  -Easy to use and readily accessible -Endless supply -Contains hard minerals that can sometimes build up in plant containers -Not as eco-friendly due to increased energy consumption -Treated for contaminants      You watered your garden with city and/or rainwater, now you're...

      It's that time of the year here already in the Midwest. If you know what I'm talking about, you know that it's time to keep your car doors locked at all times. If you don't, you just might find some zucchini in it. If you're new to gardening, you might not know that zucchini grows almost like a weed here. Everybody and their cousins will try to give it away if you're not careful. But what will you do if you find yourself in an abundance of that ubiquitous green summer squash? Never fret, I have some ideas for you. Here are some of my favorites: Oven baked zucchini pizza bites Grilled Zucchini strips Vegetable soup with cubed zucchini Zucchini bread Banana zucchini chocolate chip muffins Zucchini brownies Zucchini spaghetti boats Breaded zucchini fries Add zucchini to smoothies (practically tasteless) Add zucchini to stir-fry or tacos Pickle them     Don't feel like using them up right away? That's okay, they can keep in the fridge for 1-2 weeks and...

 The 2023 North Dakota growing season has kicked off! Here is what I planted this year: tomatoes (sheyenne, better boy, and cherry) 💚 parsley 💚 zucchini 💚 lettuce (loose leaf variety) 💔 radishes 💛 sugar snap peas 💛 purple beans 💚 celery 💚 strawberries 💚 peppermint 💚 sweet lavender 💚 sunflowers 💚 chokecherries 💛 maple bush 💚 maple tree (silver) 💚 marigolds 💚 wildflowers 💛 I also acquired a few house plants that I am currently learning about! (tradescantia zebrina, aloe, snake plant, and a mystery one 🙈) 💚= doing well, 💛= doing okay, 💔= not doing well What did you plant? How are they doing? Comment below!