Garden update - May 22, 2009

Dinner tonight: Grilled southwest chicken salad. All the lettuce freshly cut from the garden. Dressing made with chives and parsley from the garden.

Nothing tastes better than eating the little guys that you've been watching grow from little seedlings.

I need to get one of those harvest tracker thing-ama-bobs because I'm meticulously weighing anything I cut/harvest from the garden (not herbs, but veggies, which has only been lettuce/greens thus far). I'm sure that will get hard to track once the tomatoes start up, as we pop so many little ones as a snack when hanging outside and just pick and give away over the fence.


Anyway, here's some pics from the past day or two of what's been shaking/developing. The lilacs finally bloomed - the scent is fantastic! We went from a late frost to mid to high 80 temperatures in the same week, and I think it took a minor toll on some of the plants, but all seem to be doing okay.

Green in the wrong kinda way...

Two of my friends who live up the block have an empty lot next to their house. Their father owns the empty lot, and they just put in a huge garden today. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE.

I am super jealous, and openly told them that. Their aunt and cousins were helping them put it in, and I think it is going to be more of a family kind of garden, but...did I mention it is HUGE? I swear it is bigger than my whole yard.

I can't believe I have garden envy like this. Sad, sad, sad.

Plea for Help

Ever get started looking for one little thing, and then you find a great forum, and then BOOM all of a sudden it is 3am and you still don't know if you can move your strawberries or how to do it, but you have about 8,000 new ideas for your garden and the wheels are turning because you're trying to think of where you can put this great new thing you just HAVE to grow?

Um, so it happened to me. OK, it's happened to me a lot. And it happened again last night. Sigh.

Anyway, in the week and a half since I last posted, a lot of stuff has started coming up and making itself known in the garden. Other stuff...not so much. I am doing a square foot gardening (kinda) thing, and still have two completely empty boxes, which is especially good since I always SUCK at succession planting and this way I will have some space to play around at the end of summer.

So here's the stuff I have questions on:
1) I gather that I cannot move my strawberries now (just planted them last year). However, is it okay for me to pluck out some of the daughter plants/runners that have rooted to transfer to a pyramid box set-up I'm building?

2) And if so....with the strawberry pyramid set up, I get the nesting doll thing with the box sizes. But do I fill the WHOLE bottom box with soil/compost/sand mix and then put the next box on top? I feel like that is wasting all that soil under the second box. I can't find a straight answer.

3) Is there a chance that the sunflower seeds I meticulously harvested from my rockin' flowers last summer/fall won't take this year? I planted a bunch today, and am now in fear that they won't grow for whatever reason and I'll be sunflower-less. I guess I can wait and see, but wonder if there are any odds for that kind of thing.

4) Our birdfeeder is currently right in the garden. We can move it with some effort, if we need to. Will the bird poop adversely affect the soil/plants? what about the leftover seed/feed that spills out? Just wonder if I need to move it for the benefit of the garden.

5) I want to start a compost pile. I'm thinking in the back of the yard, by the fence and the garden. I'm wondering if compost piles smell really bad. I know, I know, logic would dictate that they do. But just curious. I want it close to the garden, but don't want to have a stinky pile of compost spoiling my fake nature retreat.

6) Everyone's lilacs are blooming in town, except for mine. WTF? It is really annoying me as I cruise through town and smell the blooms, see everyone's pretty purple and white flowers, and come home to my shriveled looking whatever the heck is on there. Picture below, let me know if anyone has any insight.

Overview of them behind the swing. There are 4 bushes total.

Close up of the "blooms" - are they just not ready to burst open yet? Or is there something going on here?

Ditto to the above caption.

7) My raspberry canes, planted last summer, multiplied over the fall/spring. I pulled out a ton of the little scraggly ones, but some of the sturdier, thicker ones I have left. Will these become regular canes and produce fruit? The stalks aren't wood-like yet, like the canes I planted last year, but I am thinking this is just how these things work, right?

WHEW.

OK, so if anyone has any insight of any of these questions, I'd appreciate it!

OK.

Garden thus far...

So I've been taking advantage of the great weather we've been getting around here and planting some goodies in the garden.

I built a small cold frame using old windows and spare boards we had in the garage. Imagine my excitement as my little seedlings from my "Ghetto Greenhouses" made their way into the cold frame!! Imagine my joy as they seemed to be in the right place, some sunshine glowing in there, a little moisture building up!! Imagine my sorrow when I realized that I didn't pop it open on a warm day or two, and everything in there ROASTED. Sigh.

Also, a bunch of the seeds planted in ghetto greenhouses didn't sprout. Another sigh.

BUT...that's why we have garden centers with people you like running the show. Even though I now feel like a cheater. And even though I put in a lot of effort on those babies. Oh well. We will still have produce this season, by hook or by crook, and I planted a bunch of seeds directly into the garden boxes.

Also, I am giving the "Square Foot Gardening" method a whirl, but with some modifications. I built all the boxes and grids. Went out to buy the materials for the "Mel's Mix" and realized I'd have to sell my first born to fill every box with it, so I poked around on the internet and came up with some alternatives for Mel's Mix using compost, soil, some peat moss, and ran with it. Fingers crossed that it'll work out well enough.

Soooo....here's the play by play on what is planted. Frankly, I am just so damn excited to see GREEN happening all over the yard, I'm in a great mood every time I walk out there!!

Overview of the garden area (aka the back third of the yard)
Lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, rapini, broccolini
Chives & garlic chives in the mini-barrel, peas, beans, lettuce
Tomatoes, peppers (hot and bell), bush beans
Middle left - onions, leeks, celery, tomatoes. Middle middle - cucumbers. Back row - empty. Smaller box to the left - potatoes. Herbs in the pots (rosemary, thyme, parsley, lavender).
Raspberries and hyacinths (which blossomed today and smell amazing! And the cold frame of doom.
Strawberry patch. I'm building a pyramid box, and am unsure if I can move them at this stage or if I have to wait until next season? Thoughts?
Cherry Tree!!! and butterfly garden in the background.
I think this is the salvia from last year. And I planted a few snapdragons to get some color in there now.
Lilacs are nice and green, can't wait for them to blossom so I can smell them as I lounge on my swing!

Garden 2009: State of the Yard/Garden

Well, today was a very busy day for the fam. Hubs hauled through the garage and set up our new workbench while I built 4x4 raised bed boxes for the garden.

* We're going to proceed with some Square Foot Gardening this season and hope it will be successful for us, with less fuss and muss and more yield in the end. After poring through Mel Bartholomew's book, I decided to do some advance work on locating vermiculite, which I had been unable to find at our Menards/Home Depot over the past few weeks, at least not in large bags. Thankfully, I found out that Wannemakers (Downers Grove) carries it in large bags, so when I'm ready, I'll be heading there to pick it up for my "Mel's Mix" for the beds.

* I'm definitely not a crafts(wo)man by any stretch. Considering the "horses" I used to cut the wood are actually, um, two patio chairs, I'm impressed anything got done at all. So I've made four 4x4 boxes so far. I think I'm going to try to make two or three more this week and then configure the garden space. I've also made a couple of 3.5x3.5 boxes that I plan to use for potatoes. I was going to give the garbage can method a whirl, but had some random wood lying about, so made some boxes that I can stack and fill with dirt as they grow.


* Some pleasant discoveries...While clearing out the fall/winter debris, I discovered that the strawberries are already starting to green up and look like they're as excited for spring and warm weather as I am! We yielded about three last year (Yeah, like 3 strawberries. Total.) so I have high hopes for some tasty fruit this year. There were some errant runners that seem to be coming up outside of the allotted strawberry patch, so I think I'll extend it a bit this year.

* And in a very happy surprise, I went to move a pot, and in all the dead, dry foliage from last year, tons of fresh green chives were already coming up!! What a thrill! We pulled a couple pieces off and chewed on 'em. Tastes like spring and yumminess. I transferred them from that pot into a cute little mini-barrel planter I picked up at Tuesday Morning for under $10.

* The "ghetto greenhouses" are coming along... I think. Of everything I planted in them, I think broccoli raab, swiss chard, spinach, and lettuce are the only things really starting to come up. Reserving hope for them as the weather warms up, though two were subject to some abuse by the hound from hell, Millie.

* OH, and since we got new windows, I made a cold frame. Kind of. I didn't do it properly with angling it and so on. I basically made a box to match the window size and then attached a window with the hinge. And my measurements were off a tad, so it looks a little askew. Hmm... Tossed in some peat pots with seeds planted and I'm crossing my fingers. I liked seeing some condensation in it today, and popped it open as it was about 65 or so outside. We have a bunch of windows left, so I plan to make one or two more. If anyone in the area wants a couple, let me know! We're right by Brookfield Zoo.



Soooo....That's about it for where things are so far. Slowly but surely marching into growing season, and hoping it is the best year yet!

Way behind on posting, but catching up elsewhere!

OK, OK, OK...I've been incredibly errant in keeping up with my blog here, but with good reason! I've been taking advantage of the lovely weather that has been shining down on us here and there and getting a lot done outside!!

I went to the Flower & Garden Show and have to say it was amazing. Separate post forthcoming on that shebang. Needless to say, saw an awful lot of ideas that made me think I should just demolish the garage and half the driveway to make more room for garden space. Alas, I'm stuck with my little backyard garden and a yard overrun by a dog and two kids. Sigh. A girl can dream, though. Right?

Been reading up on Square Foot Gardening and decided that I'm going to give it a whirl this season. Worth a shot, and seems like it may be easier to tend and easier to protect than rows if I want to try to extend the growing season well into the fall.

Otherwise just puttering about, enjoying the green smell in the air, and time outside with the family!!!

Chicagoland Flower & Garden Show

Hi folks!

Mr. Brown Thumb (a great local gardening blog, if you haven't checked it out yet) was able to score some great passes for some of us garden bloggers for the Chicagoland Flower & Garden Show. I'm scoping out the seminars to determine what days I should get someone to watch the girls so I can head down there unfettered.

I'll be posting about my adventures there. I recommend checking out Mr. Brown Thumb's blog to check out some of the great stuff he's already posted from the show.

More to follow...