(bright upbeat music) - Tom and I really like to attend garden days and tours.

It is so fun to visit with other plant people and share ideas, information, and sometimes plants too.

The Todd County Garden Day is held every other year and we enjoy it so much.

One of the other attendees was telling us about her yard, that she had 12 garden areas and we should stop in and visit when we get a chance.

I'm Mary Holm, host of "Prairie Yard and Garden" and come along as we all go visit this beautiful yard together.

- [Narrator] Funding for "Prairie Yard and Garden" is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years, in the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

(gentle music) Farmers Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering Acira.

Pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a non-profit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

And by friends of "Prairie Yard and Garden," a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of "Prairie Yard and Garden," visit pioneer.org/PYG.

(upbeat music) I often wish that there were more hours in the day and in the night too.

So many people invite Tom and I to stop in and visit their yards, but we are years behind in doing that.

This past 4th of July, we were going to visit our kids and knew we had some extra time on the way home.

We called Donna Uphus who had told us about her yard at the Todd County Garden Day years ago.

Well, it worked for her to have us stop and see her beautiful yard.

And now we can share it with our viewers too.

Thanks so much, Donna.

- You're very welcome, Mary.

- Tell me about what is your background?

- Well, I was born and raised part of the time in South Dakota and moved here when I was 10.

And then I married a dairy farmer and so we had a dairy for, I was there 30 years.

My husband was there his whole life.

And in 2005 we sold the farm and bought this place and I fell in love with the property even before I saw the house 'cause I knew I could garden here.

- [Mary] And what was the property like when you moved here?

- [Donna] Many more trees than there are here.

And right here there was a raised bed garden that got removed.

There was no vegetable garden, so my husband had to clear the land and the trees to make the vegetable garden.

They had some shrubs planted, but really no gardens.

Only the one at the end of the driveway that has the old wagon in it, was the only one here.

- [Mary] So where did you start planting and why?

- [Donna] I started in front of the house.

It seemed like the obvious place.

And my vegetable garden of course.

And then as time went on, I, you know, as I split plants and got plants from other people, they just found a home.

- So where did you place your beds and why did you place them in those locations?

- I wanted to see a garden out of every window in my house when I'm in the house.

And I'm able to do that now.

- [Mary] So do you have flowers for each season too?

- [Donna] I do, I do some perennials, which bloom pretty much all the time.

I have spring bloomers and then midsummer and then late summer and then early fall.

And into the fall some of the like sedum plants that will bloom in the fall, long into the fall.

- [Mary] So what do you start with in the spring?

- [Donna] I have crocus and I have bloodroot and I have tulips.

I have tulips hidden in my beds and they come up and bloom in the spring and they're beautiful.

- [Mary] Well, and I think I saw some peonies when we drove in too.

- I do have peonies, that's in about the second week in June they start here.

And I have red, white, and pink.

- So what is in color now?

What do you aim for now in the summertime for blooms?

- A lot of my day lilies and I have many different colors.

I have purple and red and yellow and orange and white.

And then I have coreopsis that blooms, some Asiatic lilies.

My clematis.

I've got three varieties of that.

Pink, dark pink and purple.

Just many, many different colored blooms.

- [Mary] So where do you get your plants from?

- [Donna] I've gotten, several of my plants are heirloom.

They came from my husband's grandmother's garden.

And my friend Linda who I garden with.

And I've purchased some.

And when we moved here I brought 50 potted plants from the farm.

And then some hostas I've gotten from other people as well.

- [Mary] Do you start annual flowers too?

- [Donna] I don't start flowers yet, but I'm getting a greenhouse so I will be.

I don't have the proper lighting in my house for that without grow lights, so I usually purchase them.

- Donna, tell me about this garden right here.

- Well this was part of the raised bed that we took out.

Also my husband used the beams and put them in.

We had a friend come and help build our fence.

This is our property line.

It just extends a little beyond.

We have Amish neighbors and I had them build me a garden shed and that's there and it's full of my wonderful things.

But I like found items and I like garage sale items.

And so I just started collecting things, horseshoes and license plates that came from various states and various people in our family.

Birdhouses.

The Engleman's Ivy I've had since I've been here for 19 years.

In the fall it turns red.

I have stanchions there because I used to be a dairy farmer as well as tractor seats, which I've ridden many times.

And the hostas, many of them were shared by other people and I've just split and planted them and they've grown and they like it here.

It's a kind of a moist area so they do really well.

So this is my, what I call fence-raised garden.

- [Mary] So what is the significance of the license plates?

- [Donna] Well, one of 'em is my husband's birthdate, 1954 and one of them is mine, 1960.

And I'm from South Dakota, so it's a South Dakota plate.

And then I had a son who lived in Tennessee for five years so he gave me two Nashville.

We used to visit Arizona with my husband's parents and so we have those.

And California was, my husband's sister lived there so she gave us one.

And the rest are just old Minnesota plates 'cause I just love them.

(both laughing) - [Mary] So where do you find your items?

- [Donna] Garage sales and thrift stores and just from other people.

I have a water spigot that I found in a rock pile at a farm where we were doing some landscaping.

And the guy so graciously let me have it, which I was tickled pink.

I just get 'em from other people and friends give me things and the milk can came from our dairy.

So I've got three of those.

So yeah, it's just things that I've collected.

I have a bell, a dinner bell that my son gave me that he had made in Tennessee out of horseshoes and then a piece of a silo pipe.

- So how did you get started with landscaping?

- Just, it just kind of evolved.

My husband started doing boulder walls for people, building boulder retaining walls, just some of our family and it just came word of mouth.

Then we built Lynx National Golf Course, his family and us south of Sauk Center.

So he learned a lot about planting and growing various grass types.

So it just evolved from there.

So people I suppose figured, you know how to grow grass, you can come and do my yard.

So, it's all word of mouth, we've never advertised and so we still, we've been doing it for about 12 years.

- [Mary] Well this is a beautiful kind of a shady area, but can we go and see some of your sunny area too?

- Certainly.

(gentle upbeat music) Mary, this is my herb garden and I put it close to my house because it's near the kitchen, obviously.

I found an old cable reel in the woods.

It was a double actually, so my husband cut it apart and I thought it's a good way to separate the individual herbs and it just adds some artistic interest.

So in this garden I have some perennial and some annual herbs.

Lemon balm, chives, summer onion, garlic chives, oregano and spearmint are all perennials.

And then I have cilantro, basil, celery and parsley that are annuals.

And I also have some arugula and one tomato plant.

And then I just started embellishing it with some of my flowers that I'm obsessed with.

When we were farming, my mother-in-law had a purple clematis, a jacquemontii growing on the front of the house that we lived in and I wanted to replicate that and I couldn't take that one so I bought one.

And so that's been here about 15 years and it blooms beautifully every year.

- [Mary] It is absolutely gorgeous.

And then where did you get that gate?

- [Donna] The gate came from a friend of ours who's, he cleaned out his parents' barn when they both passed away and he gave me that gate so it's very special to me.

I like gates too.

And then this little item here that the silver little flower arrangement, my son who does installing dairy equipment, he is a welder so he just took some of the components that he uses all the time and made me a Mother's Day bouquet.

So it's very special.

And then a friend of mine gave me these little stepping stones.

My husband and I laid this path of, it's limestone.

We took a path out of a customer's place and they didn't want the limestone.

Well one who can't throw things away, there you go.

So here it is at my house.

- [Mary] Well I see some stacked stones too.

- [Donna] My husband and I visited Switzerland several years ago and I saw those, they're called Kairns, spelled with a K, on the shores of Lake Zurich and they had real intricate ones.

And I thought I probably can't do those but I can do this.

So I added them into my gardens as just a little bit of interest.

- So when you harvest your herbs, do you use 'em mostly for fresh or how do you use them?

- I have a food dehydrator, so I will dry some and then I use them fresh as well, and I also freeze some and I just use them that way in all my cooking.

- [Mary] So tell me how you dry them?

- [Donna] I just take the leaves and rinse them and then I put 'em on the layers of my food dehydrator and then I just watch it closely because they dry rather quickly.

- Can you use and do different herbs at the same time?

- Yep.

Like one layer this and one, or do you have to worry about the scent going back and forth?

- No, no, you can do that, but you have to watch them because like cilantro will dry quicker than the lemon balm that way.

But otherwise, yeah, you can dry them.

You know, if you only have enough for one layer, you may as well fill up the machine.

- [Mary] How do you freeze 'em?

- [Donna] I just chop 'em up and put 'em in freezer bags and label it and then I'll put 'em in things like sauces that are cooked.

You don't eat them, you know, then they're no longer fresh.

But they are in a sense, but not like we see them here.

- Are any of the plants here, plants that you've gotten from friends or relatives?

- Hmm-mm.

- The hens and chicks, which are in the center over in the corner and on this corner came from my husband's grandmother's garden.

So they're very old.

And these little variety of sedum came from his mother's garden and so they're old as well.

And this plant there, the ajuga I got from a guy that we know, his name is Ken Anderson.

And we did a landscaping job for my brother-in-law and he and his wife came and brought the plant.

So I met him and I told him I really like that plant so he was kind enough to give me one.

- [Mary] So do you divide some of the plants that are in your beds?

- [Donna] I will, when they get overgrown.

You know, I can tell like the lemon balm, probably by next spring I'll have to take maybe about a third of it out.

- [Mary] And what do you do with it then?

- [Donna] Oh, I'll probably give it away or find a new home for it here.

- [Mary] Do you have to worry about the critters getting into this?

- [Donna] Nope.

I never have had anything in this area.

They stay away 'cause I tell 'em to.

The only thing we've had is deer in the back where the big vegetable garden is so we had to fence it.

But otherwise around the house, nothing.

Mary, this is my sun and shade garden, but primarily sun.

I get a lot of sun in the morning and then in the evening as well.

And in the hot part of the day it's shaded, which I think the plants appreciate.

I don't know how many I have in here, but when I dug the garden out last fall, I took out 67 plants and potted them all and I planted 42 back.

And there are more than that now.

But some of these are the day lilies that are one of my favorite plants because they bloom so profusely as you could see here.

And I like the Asiatic lilies.

And the orange one next to the tree, the bulbs came from my husband's aunt's garden and I helped her reset that garden shortly before she passed away and she didn't get to see it.

So she sees them here.

So I have some plants that came from other people again.

This is a white iris that came from another aunt.

It's called Party Punch Flocks.

It's vibrant pink.

And then I just have a few of the Asiatic lilies and more day lilies and the echinacea.

There's a sedum over there that's came from my mother-in-law's garden as well.

- [Mary] Well it looks like you have another kairn, is that how you pronounced it?

- Yep, I've got a kairn in here too.

And an old gate and statues.

That was an anniversary gift.

And then the path again is the slate that was taken out of that other place that we reused.

- Donna, how do you keep up with the weeding?

- I'm a weeder.

I like to weed.

I just, if I see a weed, I pull it.

So I walk through the gardens pretty much every day and very early in the morning.

And if I see a weed, I pull it or I hoe, I like to hoe as well.

- [Mary] And then do you deadhead too?

- [Donna] I do deadhead.

I'll do that every day as well.

- [Mary] Then do you have water available if it gets dry?

- [Donna] Yep.

I have a sprinkler.

Just a hose and a sprinkler.

We don't have irrigation obviously, it's too big.

So I'll just put a sprinkler on the garden.

Over here, Mary, I have what they call a naturalizing geranium and I just like the texture and the pattern of the leaves and the flowers are so delicate and so pretty.

I just like that plant.

- [Mary] Well you know, they're blue, my favorite color.

So it's a wonderful plant.

- Yeah, they're beautiful.

They're beautiful.

And then over here I have the cosmos, the vibrant orange cosmos.

They love the sun.

That plant, my friend started from seed this year and she shared 'em with me and they like this side because they get the hotter afternoon sun.

And then here on the obelisk I have Morning Glory, which I started from seed this year.

And they will bloom a little later in the season and they will be like bluish purple and some, a white mixture with a little bit of varigation in the bloom itself.

They're very pretty.

- [Mary] Did you start them right on that spot?

- I started them in the ground underneath, you know, on the base, at the base of that structure.

- [Mary] Donna, this is so beautiful with all of your beds nestled in among all the trees.

- [Donna] Well, well they're primarily maple trees.

So I've named this place Maple Haven 'cause it's very quiet and peaceful and it's almost like a sanctuary for me to be able to garden here.

And by the way, would you like to see my vegetable garden?

- [Mary] Oh, I'd love to.

(gentle upbeat music) - I have a question.

What kind of grass seed should I use to plant for a nice healthy lawn?

- One thing that we always recommend when someone is wondering about what is the best species or mixture for them to plant in their lawn, we always recommend planting a mixture.

And part of that has to do with we don't know what the environment is going to be like where they're planting their lawn.

Some grass species and cultivars are gonna do better in certain conditions than others.

By planting a mixture, you can have a lawn that responds to the environment in which where it's being planted.

So where I'm kneeling right now, this is an unirrigated site planted with 90% tall fescue and 10% Kentucky Bluegrass.

Because it's unirrigated, mostly being tall fescue that is making up this turf stand right now.

And we have an adjacent site that was planted with the exact same mixture but is managed differently.

It receives a little bit more nitrogen and it's irrigated somewhat regularly as needed.

As a result, we've effectively been selecting for Kentucky Bluegrass because Kentucky Bluegrass responds to more irrigation, a little bit more nitrogen fertilizer.

So in that site it's mostly dominated by Kentucky Bluegrass and there's a little bit of tall fescue, but that lawn had responded to how we were managing it.

And that's why we recommend planting a mixture is, the lawn itself will tell you what grows best wherever it's going to prefer in those conditions.

- [Narrator] Ask the arboretum experts has been brought to you by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska dedicated to welcoming, informing and inspiring all through outstanding displays, protected natural areas, horticultural research and education.

(gentle music) - Donna, you have so many trees around here, how did you end up putting the garden in this spot?

- Well, it was a flatter spot than most of the rest of the yard.

And when we first moved here, this was solid trees.

My husband took a chainsaw and his skid loader and cleared it all out.

And then since then we've been amending the soil with compost leaves and some horse manure from our neighbors and things like that.

It was just the most sunny spot in the yard.

After we took the trees out, consistent sun.

So it worked really well for the vegetable garden.

- [Mary] So then I take it you have critters.

- [Donna] We have deer that come in from the woods and they like to sample everything.

So about four years ago we built the fence and it's a utilitarian fence so it's not a fancy fence but it works wonderfully.

- [Mary] Do you have any trouble with rabbits getting in?

- [Donna] No, I have the smaller rabbit fence along the bottom and then dirt along, keep dirt up, pushed up to it.

- [Mary] I see you have some plants in here and some on the outside.

What's the difference or why the plants in different areas?

- [Donna] The plants behind us are the raspberries, two varieties, a fall-bearing and a summer-bearing, one on either side and then the rhubarb in the middle.

And then on the west end of the garden are the vinier plants because they grow all over.

The squash, zucchini are over there.

On the corner I have a wild flower little garden area.

I can't pass up a free packet of seed, so.

- [Mary] Do you do a lot of canning with all of this garden produce?

- [Donna] We eat out of this garden all summer long.

We love everything fresh.

So I try to grow, you know, things in succession.

I've planted green beans for example.

I have like three different timeframes that I plant them.

So, and some do better in the cooler season of course than in the summer but we'll see how that goes.

I do have a couple varieties of onion.

I like red onion a lot and I use that and yellow onion.

And they store pretty well if you let the tops dry properly.

I have several varieties of peppers.

My husband's a fan of hot peppers, so I have those and most often we pickle them.

Cucumbers, which are always good.

And then I have broccoli and cauliflower and the greens that we eat and I plant those as well in succession all summer long.

So we get them all the time.

I also grow beets, which we enjoy, cooked and even cold on a salad.

And then I have turnips, which is a plant that I've not tried this year.

A tuber vegetable.

I've grown parsnips in the past.

But I've taken the turnip tops and cooked them like you would collared greens with a little bacon.

They're delicious.

- [Mary] I think I see some marigolds.

Do you have those here in the yard, in the garden too?

I mean.

- [Donna] I do.

I have some marigolds.

I like to do companion planting and marigolds are good for pollination and also to repel certain bugs on some plants.

So I have them in a few different areas.

- [Mary] Tell me about your cabbage.

- Well I grow cabbage because we make sauerkraut and that'll be coming probably in about two to three weeks.

Well, we do it in a very basic way.

We have a Turkey fryer kettle that we line with a clean garbage bag, a sturdy garbage bag.

And then we bring the cabbages in and then clean them and weigh them so we know how much we're working with with the salt ratio.

And then I just clean it and cut it and my husband cuts it with a mandolin and then it gets layered in the kettle inside the garbage bag with salt at every couple inches.

You sprinkle a little salt in there and then when the kettle gets full, we push it down and then we take another garbage bag and fill it about a fourth to a third of water and set that on top and that's it.

And then we just wait for about four weeks and then it gets processed in a boiling water bath.

When we make our sauerkraut, we like to add kale for the green.

It just adds a little bit extra color and onion.

And they obviously, they both take on the flavor of the kraut itself.

But we really enjoy sauerkraut and we use it all winter long.

- So when you make your sauerkraut, how long does it last?

- Processed in a boiling water bath, usually about a year, but I give it away so it doesn't last that long here.

- [Mary] How do you keep up with all of the watering here in your garden too?

- [Donna] This year it hasn't been a problem, but I just have a rainbird sprinkler with a spigot over here in the yard where the well is there and I just water and I'll leave it sit for hours and just water.

- [Mary] When you have the fence here, do you till this in the spring?

- [Donna] My husband has a tractor and a tiller and he can, I wanted the six foot fence so he could get through with his tiller.

So he'll till it for me in the spring.

And then I have a hand tiller that I use in between the rows until things get too big.

- [Mary] How do you keep track of what you plant where?

- [Donna] I keep maps of my garden and I also kept journals for years of all the varieties and things that work well for me and that have performed well.

And I add in plant dates and harvest dates and various varieties as I said.

So I keep a garden journal and that's very insightful.

- When do you usually plant your garden?

- The second week of May for the seed and into the third, to the fourth week of May for the plants.

- Well they're about double the size of my plants.

So you, whatever you're doing is great.

So do you have any future plans for beds or changes here in your yard?

- I would love to have more beds, but I can't because I have already enough.

But I'm getting a greenhouse next spring.

It's gonna be built over the winter with the help of our Amish friends and so that's gonna be out here as well.

So I intend to start some plants and my friend and I will be having a plant sale in the spring 'cause she starts plants as well.

- [Mary] What kind of advice would you have for people that are just starting out?

- [Donna] I would keep a garden journal and it's just little notes of what you, get a notebook and just put in little notes of maybe some varieties that you've tried that have worked and maybe have not worked.

Dates of planting, dates of harvest, use resources too.

There's a lot of resources online.

There's a lot of books.

I use the "Companion Planting Practice."

"Carrots love Tomatoes" was a common book years ago.

Just use your experiences and use the experiences of other people.

- Thank you so much for letting us come out and see your beautiful place and flowers and your garden.

- You're very welcome.

Thank you for having me.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Prairie Yard and Garden" is provided by Heartland Motor Company, providing service to Minnesota and the Dakotas for over 30 years, in the heart of truck country.

Heartland Motor Company, we have your best interest at heart.

Farmers Mutual Telephone Company and Federated Telephone Cooperative, proud to be powering Acira.

Pioneers in bringing state-of-the-art technology to our rural communities.

Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen in honor of Shalom Hill Farm, a nonprofit rural education retreat center in a beautiful prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

And by friends of "Prairie Yard and Garden," a community of supporters like you who engage in the long-term growth of the series.

To become a friend of "Prairie Yard and Garden," visit pioneer.org/PYG.

(bright upbeat music)