Spring at Big Woods State Park

Last weekend Nate and I took a trip down to the Northfield, MN area and explored Big Woods State Park. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, the Big Woods was once a huge temperate hardwood forest spanning most of southern Minnesota. Most of the trees have since been logged or cleared for farmland, but the state park preserves a part of what was once a rich forest biome. We set out in search of early spring wildflowers, hiking six miles and finding all sorts of wonderful blooms poking out of the leafy forest floor. Using Clayton Oslund's book "What's Doin' the Bloomin'?" we identified most of what we found and learned lots of interesting bits along the way!

Wildflower and Horsetail Rush

 Wild Ginger

Dutchman's Breeches

Bloodroot

May Apples and Trout Lilies

Trout Lilies

Pileated Woodpecker damage

Hidden Falls

Marsh Marigolds fill a dry creekbed

 Nate and Apollo enjoy the stream

Garden Season is Here!

Hello friends, and welcome to our garden blog! We hope this will be a way to allow our friends and families to follow our gardening escapades. When winter comes, we'll be talking about what we're doing with all this food we grew, how we preserved it, what we're cooking, and fun tidbits about growing your own food. We have some seeds in the ground and a couple veggies already erupting from the garden beds, but I don't have photos for you just yet. They'll be up in the next couple days. More entries and adventures to come soon, and if you have a garden of your own, share your experiences in our comments!

<3 Nate and Nicole