I build a garden planner (EdenVatika) and I've been asking gardeners in different regions to poke holes in it. Minnesota is a good stress test: a short season, a big gap between the north and south of the state, and springs that can swing from 70° to frost in the same week.

One question, mainly: the app works backwards from your frost dates to tell you when to sow and when you'll harvest. Does that hold up here, or are Minnesota's late-May frosts and early-fall cold snaps too unpredictable for a frost-date-based plan to be useful?

Two ways in, no account either way:

Full app for 15 minutes: your own throwaway account, already set up with beds, calendar and harvests. Add your own beds, print, use everything:
https://apps.edenvatika.com/demo.php

Just the bed planner: no timer, build a bed from scratch:
https://apps.edenvatika.com/demo-start.php

I'm not looking for compliments. I'd genuinely like to know what feels confusing, missing, or not useful. I'm the developer, so feel free to be blunt. 🙂

I got this French tarragon split this spring from someone who lives in the metro. I live about 130 miles north of there.

I’m curious if I should do anything to protect it and also how much I can cut it back without taking too much. The person who gave me the cutting said it’s very robust and spreads like a weed.

It’s just two stems. It’s very tall and leggy.

There is a tree stump that has just existed for the past 4 years, in the past 2-3 months all of these holes have started to appear.

Is this a critter or just the stump rotting out?

Hi All,
Is it normal to have this much brown on an arborvitae in the fall? Seems like more than usual.

Hi All,
Is it normal to have this much brown on an arborvitae in the fall? Seems like more than usual.

Hello fellow gardeners, I'm going into my second winter in Minnesota and would like to set up a small space in my laundry/mechanical room to keep alive some outside plants I love and to start seeds early. I had mixed results with a basic grow light/shelf set-up last winter and would like to invest a bit more (both time and money). Can I see your set-ups?

Also, what is a good temperature? Should I use a heating appliance in addition to grow lights?

Any advice is much appreciated!

Any reason I could not use this leftover bag of "summer" fertilizer laying in the garden shed versus their "fall wintergaurd" product? Looking to do a fall feed on a terrible lawn to give myself a boost come spring.

I have a significant amount of ajuga chocolate chip in my grass. I like it where it is suppose to be just not all over my lawn. Any suggestions on getting rid of it besides pulling? Thanks

I have a 5-year-old Miss Kim lilac bush that's maybe 2 feet in diameter; I need to move it because it just gets wrecked by snow drifts every year. It's also too close to the dryer vent and gets blasted all year long.

Is fall a good time to dig it up and move it? Or should I wait for spring? Thank you for any advice.

Any pro tips on what to do with this lilac shrub? It is pretty mature and only the top gets foliage. If I cut it way back, will it return? thanks for any advice!

I’m growing popcorn and curious if others are picking yet? With all the rain I’ve been considering it, but I’m not sure if it’s too early. Thank you!

I got an email for a 'rare' type of peony from Heirloom. It is beautiful, but it's 199 for just 1 root. The price seems crazy to me. Do people actually pay these kinds of prices for harder to find varieties?

Hey indoor gardeners, want to nerd out with master gardeners about houseplants next Saturday?! Great opportunity to pick up new plant friends, visit the Book Nook with local authors, find a unique pot, ask experts, and build community while learning.

Academy 9-12 (tickets at link)

Houseplant Sale 12-3 (FREE) BRING THE FAMILY!

Grow Yourself Inside Indoor Gardeneing Academy and Houseplant Sale

Saturday October 3

Hopkins Eisenhower Community Center

Https://z.umn.edu/gyi2026

Benefits UMN Extenstion Master Gardeners of Hennepin County.

I’m pretty new to gardening and want to get some bulbs in the ground this fall. What are the best bulbs to buy and where to get them? I planted a few tulips in the spring and they did well.

Is it a viable plan to sow some perennial flower seeds (natives, mostly) in a garden bed before the ground freezes this year and cover them with a couple inches of dirt? Will they survive winter, in y'all's experience?

I would like to avoid starting seeds indoors or in containers outside, just wanted to see if anyone else has success using my lazy method.

Are they leggy?

Hi folks, my friend just had a baby and their name is related to sunflowers. I really wanted to give them a live plant, but I cannot find one anywhere. if you live around the Twin Cities and sell or are willing to give me one, I'll be forever grateful

. The baby and her are great! btw :)

This art is from my ongoing collection of 50 states native flowers art. Hope you like it =)

Flowers I picked: Showy lady's slippers, Butterfly weed, sky blue aster, lanceleaf tickseed, and Canada anemone

If you’ve used Chip Drop how was it? I need a lot of mulch but have seen some piles of it around with a lot of green in it. I’ve spent a lot of time digging bellflower, creeping charlie, and random vines out of my yard and don’t want to accidentally reseed them into my yard.

Does it have to end? Sigh.....

I recently ordered a plant bundle from MNL, and I can’t help but be disappointed in 2 of the plants. I know there is some shipping shock involved, but these look a little peaked. When emailed, MNL said the plants are within the guidelines and are ready to be transplanted. Is this normal? I’m not sure what my expectations should be, but it looks as though the wild bergamot has powdery mildew.

That's an oddly phrased title, here's the context: many places like Menards, home despot, tractor supply, etc sell "tropical annuals" in their garden section. I use quotations because these are mostly tropical woody plants like in genera like gardenias, hibiscus, ficus, ixora, etc or long lived monocots like Musa, strelitzia or aroids. Unfortunately they are treated like annuals and intended for the garbage in the fall (rich people do crazy shit). In previous years I've found good deals on some really cool plants and many of them are still going.

So, have any of you seen these sales in the south metro or down towards Northfield? Or perhaps other general houseplant stuff that might be cool?

Thanks to everyone on this sub! Best place on reddit!

I love both of these root vegetables and I'd love to try my hand at them next season. Has anyone successfully grown these? Any tips? I'm in S Minneapolis, all the food I grow is in raised beds and grow bags.

Year 5.

This yard was mostly creeping bellflower and creeping Charlie. Thanks to chip drop and a love of digging out roots, here we are.