Helen Yarmoska is a Star Tribune employee and Hennepin County Master Gardener

I heard that Minnesota has more second homes per capita than any other state in the nation. That tells me there are more second home gardens, too!

Because I’m a garden fanatic, I’ve started a few gardens at my cabin north of Mora on the Snake River. But, over the years, I’ve learned to treat my cabin garden differently than I do the garden in my own back yard.  Here are “Helen’s Rules” for cabin gardening:

Keep it low key.

We all love to garden (or you wouldn’t be reading this blog), but do you really want to spend half of your vacation weeding? Use mulch, consider containers and, most important, take a laissez fair attitude toward your garden.  So you don’t get that many tomatoes. Who cares? Think of your second garden as your “fun” garden.

Consider critters

Whether your cabin is on a lake or in the woods, you’re going to have critter problems. I’ve seen my cousin’s golden retriever take a snooze in my Aunt Pat’s bed of impatiens and I’ve cursed the deer that shredded my hostas. And don’t forget about human critters. My niece won’t let anything — including a geranium planter — get in the way of her dive into the lake.

I’ve bravely posted a picture of the shade garden at our cabin. (I say bravely because I’ve only weeded once this season! Thank goodness the oak leaves provide instant mulch.)

What are your rules for gardening at the cabin? How is your cabin garden different than your home garden? How do you deal weeding, watering and critter control when you’re not there?

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 9:18 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.