Summer in Minnesota is the season for backyard barbeques, Fourth of July fireworks, of course, road construction. It’s always a mixed blessing when your neighborhood is slated for street repairs. On the one hand, you have to deal with the inconvenience and noise, on the other, you can say goodbye to the potholes that swallowed two poodles and a Prius during the spring. Along with the typical notices and schedules, some cities are starting to send their residents an unusual request when road maintenance projects begin. “We would like to build a free garden for you along the edge of the road,” …

After five years of long commutes, crabby drivers and yawn-filled mornings, I am finally moving to Stillwater this June to a home within biking distance of my office. Hello to leisurely walks on hot summer evenings down to Nelson’s Ice Cream shop. Welcome to Summer Tuesdays, even at the Historic Courthouse, and to Lumberjack Days as well. Find me soon perusing locally owned shops and restaurants on oh-so-cute Main Street, eating pastries at the Bikery, and dancing to my friend Mary’s band at Charlie’s Irish Pub. I’ll have two extra hours in my life each day, and I’m looking forward to …

If our state were not so cold, our winters not so long, perhaps the garden mania wouldn’t be so wild. When you live in a place with snow arriving from October until April, however, it’s only natural that people will embrace the spring with fervor once it finally arrives. Seven months is a long time to dream about flowers and birds. In recent years, our local garden mania has picked up a new flavor. People are no longer content to just plant a pretty garden in their yard. Now they want a garden that stops polluted runoff, attract butterflies and birds, or improves wildlife habitat. After …

I was born on a frigid day in December, Devils Lake, North Dakota, 20 below zero. My parents had planned on a Thanksgiving baby, but I was bound and determined to stay in the womb for another two weeks. As my mother likes to say, “We figured that it was so cold outside, you had decided to try and wait out the winter.” That same year, 1978, the Washington Conservation District started its tree program. I doubt that thoughts of trees or conservation passed through my parents’ minds as they bundled up to head home from the hospital, but I think it was awfully nice of the people around here to …

As I write, my colleagues at the Washington Conservation District are out at the County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, handing out approximately 20,000 trees and more than 100 rain barrels, ordered during this year’s spring sale. Indeed, spring is a time when many of us look out the window into our yards and realize we aren’t quite satisfied with what we see. The nurseries will be humming in a few weeks as people get ready to plant new gardens or buy additional flowers for existing plantings. Some will be replacing trees and shrubs that were damaged by deer and rabbits over the winter. In addition…

A coworker introduced me to the idea of community-supported agriculture a few years ago, when she mentioned a friend of hers who farmed a small plot of land in Lake Elmo. “You buy a share from him,” she explained, “and then you get a box of vegetables every week during the summer and early fall.” That summer, my husband and I decided to give it a shot, splitting our share with another couple we knew. We quickly discovered the benefits of a CSA membership. We got a box of freshly picked vegetables every week, all organic and all locally grown. Each box came with a newsletter that had updates …

My mom has a no-fail strategy for getting rid of large items from her house. She lives on a busy highway leading out of town, so she simply places items at the end of her driveway and they are gone by the end of the day. She has successfully used this technique to get rid of old light fixtures, cabinets from her bathroom, an old kitchen table, two-by-fours, sheet rock, metal pipes and more. No matter how strange the item, it always seems that at least one person driving by wants it. We used a similar strategy for getting rid of junk when I was in college at the University of Wisconsin. On our…

Everyone dreams about their children’s futures. We hope that they will be healthy and smart, surrounded by friends, and one day find true love. We take steps to ensure their success in life, scheduling regular doctors visits to keep them healthy, and starting college savings plans before they can even walk. The concept of sustainability is rooted in this universal hope we all share that our children and grandchildren will lead lives as good or better than our own.  The Brundtland Commission of the United Nations, held March 20, 1987, defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present…

Faced with the prospect of record flooding on the St. Croix River, volunteers turned out in droves to fill sandbags in downtown Stillwater. So many volunteers came out, in fact, that city officials called off the effort early. It goes to show that people in the area are passionate about their community and aren’t afraid to get a few sore backs if it helps to protect the people and places they love. This same kind of community spirit and can-do attitude can be seen in towns small and large on both side of the St. Croix River. A group of artists, scientists and community leaders in the Hudson …

You may remember the MTV show Pimp my Ride, and anyone who has ever driven a clunker should understand the show’s appeal. In each episode, the team selects a person with a truly awful car and then spends a few days restoring and customizing the vehicle. Where were these people when I needed them 15 years ago. My first clunker was a Dodge Omni, a hand-me-down from my mom. I was 16 and overjoyed to be out on the roads in just about anything. We had moved from California to Wisconsin in that Omni, with my mom and grandma in the front seat and the dog, two cats and me in the back. My mom got a …

When Ron Wingstad starts talking about chimney swifts, his voice picks up intensity. “Chimney swifts have declined by 50 percent just in the past 40 years,” he says. “So Audubon Minnesota has been working with Boy Scouts and we have 30 some troops around the state building chimney houses.” Wingstad is the Audubon-at-Home coordinator for Woodbury-based Audubon Minnesota, and he is a natural born bird lover with a perfectly fitting last name. Sharon Stiteler is a part-time park ranger for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, and she too is wild about birds. Stiteler runs the …

I don’t want to sound like a used car salesman, but I’ve got a great offer for you and I think you’ll want to stick around to hear more. I have a whole variety of landscaping amenities for your home, including trees, shrubs, raingardens and more, and these things are going at rock-bottom prices. Can’t you just see yourself driving away with a new bundle of seedling trees this spring? How would you like a bright colorful raingarden for the front yard, just in time for the Fourth of July? Just drop me a line and I’m sure we’ll find something that can work for you. What’s that you said? Your …

Why hello there yard! Somehow in the blink of an eye as I was unfurling my scarf and taking off two layers of pants, the earth turned, the thermometer jumped, and three feet of snow disappeared from the hill in front of my house. For one glorious week, we were all walking around recklessly outdoors without hats on our heads, happily stretching mittenless fingers in the sun. But that ended quickly with another round of snow. The National Weather Service is predicting record floods throughout Minnesota this spring. In fact, they issued a revised flood forecast in mid-February that actually …

I have a theory that it was not actually a straw that broke the camel’s back; it was a cigarette butt. Yes, it’s true that she was carrying far too many duffel bags and Turkish rugs. It didn’t help that the people kept referring to her as “him,” and would it have killed them to give her a sip of water along the way? When the man flicked his cigarette butt onto the trail without even a backward glance, though, that was when she stopped, reared up her head and let loose the biggest wad of spit she could muster. My camel moment happened two years ago while driving home from Lake Maria State Park…

Can you find nature in your own backyard, or is it something that requires travel to enjoy?  In my home—nestled snug against the woods and looking out across a patchwork quilt of marsh and pond—the natural world seems close at hand. Growing up, however, that wasn't always the case. In California, our backyard was a postage stamp of grass walled in on all sides by a 10-foot redwood fence. One could scale the fence, as I often did, and walk down the entire length of the block looking down into neighboring yards with identical parcels of yellowing grass, all surrounded by the same never-ending …

For the first 23 years of my life, I didn't just hate running. I detested it. You wouldn't see me trotting so much as a mile unless a bear was chasing me—and even then I might just choose the lesser of two evils and let the bear eat me. When a girl I knew in college slipped on an icy trail a broke her knee while out on a winter night's jog, I thought, "Who are these people that are crazy enough to run at any time of year, let alone in the winter?" Yes, all these thoughts flashed through my mind at 5 a.m. one Wednesday morning as I headed out for a run— I slipped on a small patch of ice and …