Ideas & Inspiration Garden Tips
Whether you are a beginner or veteran gardener, our experts have some how-to tips to keep your garden looking great.
Garden Tips
Plant Care Tips: How to Save Your Plants from the Cold
As temperatures drop, it’s time to protect your plants from the cold and transition them indoors. Here at Sunnyside, we track the daily lows carefully—tropical…
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Garden Tips
Seed Starting
Growing plants from seed can be a fun and exciting project to jump-start the gardening season for the whole family.  Growing seeds is a lot…
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Eco Tips
Bee & Butterfly Boulevard Garden Beds
We’re creating Bee-friendly and Butterfly-attracting boulevard gardening options! A Garden with a Greater Purpose An effective way to garden with a greater goal is to…
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Garden Tips
Perennial of the moment… The Peony
Peonies are about to burst! These colossal blooming perennials always catch my eye and my nose. Hurry up and stake yours if you haven’t yet, they are about to bloom in the landscape.
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Garden Tips
Gardening With Mom-(80s & Original Mom Jeans)
Mom wasn’t a farmer, but she could grow a mean head of cauliflower. One of my fondest childhood memories is spending countless hours out in the garden with my mom.
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Garden Tips
You can grow grapes in MN. Get started today!
Tomatoes, apples, blueberries, raspberries and other tasty fruits are fun to plant and watch grow into treats for your dinner plate, but did you know…
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Garden Tips
How to grow veggies like a rockstar!
What do you need to grow vegetables– and actually have something to show for it? Think prep early, and reap the reward later.
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Garden Tips
It’s About That Thyme: Herb Care & Food Pairings
As Minnesotans, we know how short summers can seem. We tolerate grocery store greens most of the year, and look forward to the season where…
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Garden Tips
Spring Grass Care
Turf 101 To get started right away on a great looking lawn, lightly rake to loosen up dead grass and thatch from the previous…
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Garden Tips
Cut Flower Gardening – Planting and Decorating
Design simple, stunning bouquets with plants from your own garden. A landscape can be more than just curb appeal and trees for shade. Consider how you like to enjoy your beautiful home on the inside.
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Garden Tips
Create a Car Stopping Window Box Display
Create a car stopping window box display This 4 foot window box is loaded to the MAX with some great color and essential greens. You…
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DIY Landscaping
Container Design for Fall
SIMPLE DESIGN FOR FALL *Container design for fall can be fun and rewarding. When you hit the garden center in September there are way…
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African Violet-Pet Friendly Houseplant
African violets are pet friendly. Fido and Mr Kitty can rest easy knowing these traditional blooming plants are not going to give them a belly…
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Garden Tips
Fall Grass Seed
Fall grass seeding may be on your mind and we have a few expert tips to help you along. The MN lawn that survives through…
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DIY Landscaping
To the Cabin! & the plants to bring along.
Gardening at the Lake Low maintenance, winter hardy and deer resistant plants for cabin. Why not incorporate some easy maintenance beds to your favorite family…
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Garden Tips
10 Plants You Didn’t Know Repel Mosquitoes
âMinnesota has two seasons, winter and road construction.â
âWe’ve got 20,000 lakes when it rains.â
âThe state bird? Mosquito.â
DIY Landscaping
Residential Rain Garden-DIY
Residential Rain Garden-Lesson & Design Become a water hunter! Run off from homes and patios often runs straight into city drain systems, this could be…
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Garden Tips
Strawberry Fields Forever
Gardening for life! Growing plants that produce fruit is delightful for your spirit and your dish of ice cream. Strawberries are probably one of the…
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Garden Tips
Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree
The Ficus lyrata, commonly called the fiddle-leaf fig, is a perfect indoor specimen plant. The plant features very large, heavily veined, and violin-shaped leaves that…
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Garden Tips
Tips on caring for houseplants
This is the time of year when we get a lot of questions about houseplants at Sunnyside. We Minnesotans are coming out of a dark, cold, dry winter season and your plants may be showing signs of distress.
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Garden Tips
Protecting tender plants
Some plants aren’t as tough as others.This can be a grim fact to face for northern gardeners. We invest our sweat, lower backs and money into certain plants only to see them crumple and die by the cold hands of our Minnesota winter.
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Garden Tips
Scented Greens. That smelly time of year!
Delightfully scented, that is. This pre-holiday season, late fall is known as one of the more aromatic times of the year.
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Garden Tips
Eucalyptus Pods
Long lasting, with a silvery-blue tone and a graceful habit, Eucalyptus pods are a wonderful addition to your winter containers, as well as to your holiday centerpieces.
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Garden Tips
Pine Cone 101
From large to small, ornate to ordinary, plain or on a stick, Sunnyside Gardens is the place for pine cones! Varieties Sugar – The largest…
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Garden Tips
Ceramic Pots–RIP petunias–Caring for Ceramic Pots
Fall is quickly turning to winter in Minnesota, so it’s time to think about what to do with the beautiful ceramic containers that served you so well over the spring, summer, and fall.
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Garden Tips
How to Overwinter Roses
Before you start to worry about whether or not your roses need winter protection, check to see if they are a Zone 3-4 hardy variety.
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Garden Tips
How to Prepare Trees for Winter
Winters in Minnesota are not only hard on humans, they are tough on plants, too. Even fully hardy plants can be affected by a variety of stressors during the winter.
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DIY Landscaping
DIY Succulent Pumpkin Garden
Create a beautiful fall centerpiece with a pumpkin, squash, or gourd of your choice and some succulent clippings! Read more for methods and care.
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Garden Tips
Fantastic Pumpkin Varieties
There are countless varieties of pumpkins and winter squash in this big, beautiful world. Here are just a few of the varieties we have this…
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Garden Tips
How dandelions behave going into winter & other famous perennial weeds.
Like all living things that overwinter in MN, fall is the time to start preparing to be isolated from warmth and sun. Squirrels are busy…
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Eco Tips
Urban Gardeners Can Help Native Minnesota Bees Thrive
Let’s talk about how we can support native Minnesota bee habitats! As a quick review, native bee populations are in urgent need of our help.…
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Garden Tips
What’s in that bag of soil?
Soils: Demystified Here at Sunnyside, we offer a variety of soils and soil amendments. The array of options to choose from can be daunting, but…
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Garden Tips
So many rabbits!
At any given moment there are more rabbits in my yard than anyone could successfully shake a stick at. For me, the concern is winter…
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Garden Tips
Fertilizing Your Lawn and Garden
To have the best looking lawn and garden, it is important to give them what they need. Just like humans, plants and grass are living…
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Garden Tips
Seed Collecting & Vegetable Gardening
Harvesting Vegetable Seeds Start next year’s plants from this year’s crop! Tomatoes, peppers, beans, and peas are all good candidates for harvesting seed. Cucumbers, melons,…
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Eco Tips
Composting 101: How to Turn Waste into Garden Gold
Composting isn’t rocket science—it can be as easy or as involved as you want! Whether you have a simple pile of yard waste in your…
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Garden Tips
How to Propagate Succulents
Turn one succulent plant into many! Succulent propagation is an easy and fun way to grow more succulents from the ones that you already have.…
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Garden Tips
Japanese Beetles are here….now what?
When I was in college a friend gave me a beautiful necklace with a preserved shiny green beetle as the pendant! How cool for a…
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Garden Tips
Dracaena Canes
Houseplant 101- A Cane Dracaena is a common, tall houseplant that is easy to grow and striking to behold. A Dracaena can tolerate sun to…
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Garden Tips
Mid-Summer Blooming Perennials for Your Minnesota Garden
Summer is in full swing! How is your garden looking? By now, there should be many mid-summer blooms starting to appear! Learn more about ten mid-summer…
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Garden Tips
Annabelle Hydrangeas
From sunny locations to shady corners, this traditional shrub is a cottage garden essential. Â The large white pompom flowers cover the plant from late June…
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Garden Tips
Enhance Your Curb Appeal with Hydrangea Trees
Give your entrance, yard, or patio an extra burst of color with a dazzling hydrangea tree! Hydrangea trees, in particular âLimelight,’ Quick Fire, and the…
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How to Successfully Grow Tomatoes
Is your lack of green thumb affecting your tomato plants? We are here to tell you that you can have delicious, homegrown tomatoes – even…
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Garden Tips
Why You Should Mulch Your Garden
Let’s face it, many of us mulch specifically for curb appeal. It really is amazing to drive up to your home and see your freshly…
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Garden Tips
How To Do Berry Gardening with Baby Cakes Blackberries
Looking to dive into berry gardening this summer? Meet Baby Cakes—a dwarf, thornless blackberry plant that’s perfect for containers, small gardens, and berry-lovers of all…
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Garden Tips
Plants to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden
Want to enhance your garden while supporting local ecosystems? Planting a butterfly-friendly garden not only boosts your landscape’s aesthetic appeal but also creates a thriving…
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Garden Tips
Lavender for your garden, for your senses.
Lavender is everywhere these days.  In the local grocery coop we see essential oils and lotions claiming to calm and soothe restless minds and bodies.  Natural…
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Garden Tips
May Gardening Calendar
There is MUCH on the garden to do list for May. May is for Mulch as well as planting flowers. May is a busy time…
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Garden Tips
Pruning Schedule
Pruning not only helps your garden look good, but it is also essential for the healthy growth and flowering of your plants. Other reasons for…
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Garden Tips
How to Plant Bulbs
At Sunnyside Gardens, the vast majority of the bulb plantings we do are completed in the fall in order to have spring flowers. We most…
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