@LifeTimeCooking We have a three year crop rotation for the garlic, onions, and leeks. There are many varieties of garlic! We grow Aja Rojo, Belarus, Krasnodar Red, Red Grain, Red Rozan, Rosewood, Armenian, Bogatyr, Chenok Red, Estonian, Georgia Crystal, German Extra Hardy, Lotus, Music, Persian Star, Shangdon, and Siberian. #gardening, #zone4b, #minnesota, #nodig, #compost

@feinschmeckergarten Excellent. Your gardening methods have been helpful for years. No till helps the creatures overwinter too. Our locality has row crop farming mixed with wood lots, wide drainage features with willows and seasonal hay making. Therefore woods edge birds and the insects they eat have habitat. However, remnant tallgrass prairie bird habitat is rare. This locale was the edge of deciduous woods and oak prairie savanna in the times before Europeans. #nodig, #Zone4b

February 6, 2026. Gardening report. Winter season pruning of our apple trees is happening. The temperature was a pleasant 1 C in southern Minnesota. There was a lot of growth during the 2025 season. Some of the waterspouts at the crown are two meters long. Pruning can be a time of zen. #gardening, #apples, #Zone4b

@joewynne Thank you for adding diversity to the habitat for the pollinators. The stiff goldenrod is an attractive plant through the seasons. We also have stiff goldenrod seeds doing the cold stratification in the refrigerator. #nativeplants, #minnesota, #Zone4b

Natives are beautiful. We are growing as many varieties as we can. The idea is to have a diverse ecosystem with a seed bank. The positive thinking is that hundreds of varieties will add resilience for nature. These lovely seeds were collected from a two year old swamp rose mallow. We are doing cold moist stratification in damp sand for many native plant seeds. It is an activity that helps the soil and the pollinators. We need them. #nativeplants, #minnesota, #Zone4b, #compost, #pollinators

December 27, 2025. The garden seeds arrived! The photograph has a few interesting varieties. Purple cabbages were successful in 2025. We will expand with the Copenhagen variety. The rocket arugula will be planted in many more spots than last year. The Suyo Long cucumbers produced all growing season. They are back. It’s a big carrot year in the spiral notebook planning. We added a summer squash for fun. And we added another Arikara bean variety. #gardening, #minnesota, #nodig, #Zone4b

@GardenatHoverflyMeadow Yes. It is a lovely list of native plants. These names are familiar friends. We are growing native plants for the planet in southern Minnesota. #nativeplants, #pollinator, #minnesota, #Zone4b

@handmade_ghost This is a wonderful cedar waxwing portrait and description. The cedar waxwings are here off and on foraging ripe berries. It is fun to observe them. Their boisterous foraging transitions our walking into birdwatching. #minnesota, #Zone4b

A November 28, 2025 milestone. The shredded carrot fermentation is jarred after nine days on the countertop. The late November fermentation went well without fruit flies or bits of mold making a scene. The recipe is in the Kirsten Shockey “Fermented Vegetables” cookbook. We use this in baked savory muffins and more. It’s also a substitute for sweet potatoes as we leave sweet potato growing to other gardeners. #fermentation, #minnesota, #growyourown, #nodig, #Carrots, #Zone4b

This pollinator has managed to survive five frosty nights in southern Minnesota. The middle of November is late to be an active Question Mark butterfly. An unripe squash, not pictured, has been gnawed by critters. This is the food source for the solo butterfly. There are habitat benefits to leaving the plants in the nodig garden nearby. #minnesota, #zone4b, #pollinators, #gardening, #compost

It’s another gardening milestone. The last 2025 compost is moving to the garlic rows. And the 2025 to 2026 garlic is all planted. We are raising 17 varieties for home science. For example five large cloves of the Georgia Crystal, Shangdon, and Siberian varieties all weigh 119 grams. It’s a three way tie for heavy. We keep planting the largest cloves and fermenting the rest as home horticulturalists do. #minnesota, #compost, #growyourown, #Zone4b, #garlic, #fermentation

November 14, 2025. Garlic photoshoot, weigh-in, and planting. Garlic planting is an optimistic step as garlic spans the end of this growing season and next season too. It’s exciting. Lots of compost is used. The five heaviest cloves are weighed. Math is used to squeeze more bulbs in. This garlic growing space is on a four year rotation in a nodig garden in southern Minnesota. #minnesota, #garlic, #compost, #Zone4b, #growyourown, #fermentation, #sambal, #gardening

November 10, 2025. The leek harvest is cleaned and dehydrating. The garlic, yellow parma, purple onions, and shallots all did well this growing season. A few of them had tall neighbors, a few of them bolted. #nodig, #minnesota, #zone4b, #gardening, #growyourown, #compost

@anabollocks Offering fermentation as a preservation method for the unripe green tomatoes. The small green tomatoes can be fermented whole in a seasoned brine. These become tomato flavor bombs to be eaten in one bite with your mouth closed. It is similar to an exploding olive. Larger green tomatoes can be sliced and fermented in a seasoned brine. #fermentation, #zone4b, #growyourown

@Vanalope Pepper start stuff you say. Southern Minnesota is Zone 4b at our nodig garden. We plan for planting out in mid May. We adjusted to plant several weeks later as the 2025 spring was cool. It was a good growing season. #minnesota, #Zone4b, #growyourown, #nodig

@tickfoot Thank you for sharing the soil biology information. This is a good reminder of the microscopic life forms helping the soil. #compost, #nodig, #minnesota, #Zone4b

From August 1, 2025. The obedient plant is Physostegia virginiana. The plants are blooming profusely! The long flower spires develop from the bottom upward. The pollinators choose a blossom size to match their body size and climb in and out of each open flower. Therefore a variety of pollinators are present, which is good for diversity. Obedient plant spreads rapidly by rhizomes, it is aggressive that way. #nativeplants, #minnesota, #pollinators, #rewilding, #gardening, #Zone4b

@colo_lee Yes. They are healthy in poor soils too. Ours are about 18” tall at the bloom. And the leaves are like vertical yucca leaves this time of year. They are great companions in the zone 4b rock garden with other shorter native plants. #nativeplants, #Zone4b

@otterX We have harvested rogue burdock and used the root in kimchi. How are you enjoying it? Burdock will try to take over in southern Minnesota. #burdock, #kimchi, #minnesota, #Zone4b, #fermentation.

What is this small angular life form on the Russian Sage stem? Several are visible. The ants are interested in them. June 17, 2025. Southern Minnesota. #nativeplants, #minnesota, #zone4b, #growyourown, #prairiesage, #askfedi