Midwest Gardening: Putting in Vegetable Garden May 15-29, 2020

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We've been planting our little hearts out...

with a PLAN?

After a hard freezes May 8-10th, we planned on planting the week of the 15th. 

Chicagoland weather forecasts were for lovely weather with reasonable temps in the evenings. We made a basic plan for the vegetable garden and began laying it out. 

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We used this plan as a guideline.  I will make a copy of actual plantings when everything is done. It did help though especially when planning plants that are helpful next to each other. 

New/old redone trellises were placed along the north fence for squash/pumpkins, green beans and sunflowers between.

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Tomato cages were set out a reasonable distance apart and spaced so we can open/close the greenhouse windows.

 We grouped by colored cages for different varieties of tomatoes. We planned on Early Girl, Better Boy, San Marzano, Golden Jubilee in the garden and Cherry Tomatoes in pots on the front porch and along the sand box. (The Grand girl loves to pick them, and that way she can help WHEN she visits.)

Planting Tomatoes! 

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Two posts ago---I explained why we no longer will use peat pots, or starter pods. 

I very early transplanted small seedlings into larger deep pots 2-3 plants per pot.  Here you can see the root formation ---in the larger pots.  Excess weak stems were clipped off early on.

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HERE: We trim all but the top three sets of leaves off our plants when we plant them. A sharp knife or scissors will do a good job. clippings go to the compost pile.

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Here's a planted drink cup and showing the fabulous roots.

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These are then planted as deep in the ground as they can go--up to the first leave branch. YES---12" or more deep! 

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Cages are placed immediately...so the plants roots will not be disturbed. The plants look short because they are planted so deep. All along the buried stems, roots will grow, making your plant even stronger and a higher yield. (Learned this one from my Mom in law!)

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Here we have zucchini plants, green beans along the fence and trellises. Some sunflowers and zinnias planted between the trellises. Flowers will encourage pollinator visits. Pumpkins, squash, were planted along the fences.

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Our pickle/cucumber plants along the bedspring trellis. We planted two varieties Pickler and Burpless. I planted sunflowers, zinnias and coreopsis(?) at the ends to attract pollinators.

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Swiss Chard plants were set in slits of the fabric, as well as some seeded rows.

Sweet peppers (mixed) went in the pots by the mini patio, we've had so much rain, I removed the saucers.

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Pots really work well here in Chicagoland for Peppers. Helps to eliminate pests and munching critters. 

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Here we have Kentucky Blue green beans on the trellises. Bush pickles (something new for us) Eggplant in front, and flowers along the fence.

Move on to May 29, 2020

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Roughly two weeks later. We have had lots of rain and lots of sunshine. Currently the Silver Maple trees are raining wingy-dingys...and they are piling up quickly. ONE of the major reasons for the weed fabric. I will be able to sweep and vacuum up the mess instead of pulling thousands of maple trees out of the garden.  It will be a full time job for a two weeks or so.

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Our Broccoli has been munched on. We will sprinkle some slug control, and spray with soap...and see if we can stop it. 

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The hot peppers are over on the side patio---sequestered to help with no cross pollination. Excuse the messes, we have only been planting and it will be a few posts later when all the 'messes' are removed. 

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Last night the Mesclun lettuce bolted. I will clip that out this morning. We have lettuce on the fence and on the front porch. More on herbs and potted veggies, later.

Rough plan for along this wall and fence shown below.

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South side (shady) of the shed mostly planted with peas, and lettuces. These are doing very well. We added a couple of romaine plants as well as our own seeded varieties. 

We will have salads everyday now until Fall. (We removed three bushes and an old/dead rose from here. I think I want a flower box for color, we will see. I had originally planned on pumpkins in here, but planted those elsewhere.

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In the greenhouse we still have a few plants waiting for my son, coming this weekend. We have all been in shut-down now for over two weeks, so we will be visiting with family ONLY! 

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Our San Marzano plant starts were looking so putrid in the house, I planted this second batch in late April. The originals revived in the greenhouse so this second batch will go to friends and neighbors. I never bothered to put them in large pots, and we had no room in the greenhouse at the time! 

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Our almost EMPTY greenhouse!  It's a mess, but we will clean it up when everything is planted. I still have flowers and transplants to do. 

Plan for back forty...

And I will take photos of the back forty---!

Yesterday Hubby worked on irrigation hoses, and dug my big hole for the roses.

We have been so busy---and really have so much more to do! Off to supervise bush removal for the front of the yard! 

HOW'S YOUR GARDEN GROWING?

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Thank you for your cooperation, 

Sandi 

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