Midwest Gardening: A Summer of Records, and none Good.

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Summer of 2026, my Midwest Gardening posts have been few and far between. Like much of the USA, climate changes have wrecked havoc on normal garden growing practices here in our corner of NE Illinois.

After 4-5 years of drought or drought-like conditions we tried to adapt to a heavy watering schedule, but this summer's months in my zip code had way more rain than the usual averages, after a quite dry Spring which was down by a percipitation third.  No wonder I had problems getting seeds in the ground to start. 

April had a 3.4" deluge in one day, and that was about it for the whole month...right after I planted seeds. 

5/15/26 greenhouse

Even May was cold and I kept all the plants in the greenhouse until late in May.

Then came the hideous heat, all of our summer months have averaged  4-5 degrees hotter than normal.  

And, get this from AI....which is great for statistics if you give it specific questions.

Monthly Breakdown for 60047 AI

June: An exceptionally wet start to the summer with 7.46 inches of rain recorded locally, largely driven by back-to-back severe storm systems and flash flooding. 
July: A brief dry spell in mid-month was bookended by major holiday storms, bringing the local total to 3.98 inches (near normal). 
August: A rainy finish to the season brought 5.16 inches of precipitation to the area, keeping the soil highly saturated heading into autumn. 

Overall, 60047's total year-to-date precipitation sits at 31.53 inches, pacing well ahead of the typical 26.65-inch year-to-date average. AI

Add to that higher winds, higher heat...and CRAP, our garden yields were drowned, blossoms closed before being able to be pollinated, and those winds turned our  plants and flowers over. I've just about had everything in slings or tied up.

Early Peas were pretty good, then they rotted. A second and third planting, did not take...too wet, too hot.

Our normal canning is 25-30 jars of tomatoes each summer-pints and quarts, and we've only 15 pts this year. Maybe they will produce a few more...lots of grape tomatoes, though.

This was the best single picking I had this summer.

Beans are normally 5-1 gallon packages, I've gotten maybe 2 1 quart packages of beans. 

Pickles I did get 1 gallon of Dills and  8 jars of bread&butter pickles and quite a few fresh. But ,they have been done in the garden for 3 weeks now,  basically boiled and steamed.

Peppers, I made 6 jars of pickled long yellow peppers, See above. we also have been using them all along, but only 2 carnival peppers so far. The plants are still holding in pots, though spindly.

Summer squash/zuchinni from 6 plants, just 1 yellow summer squash and then the plants rotted. rotted. 

We've had about 8 Japanese Eggplants from 5 plants (1 died), they are blossoming again and are fast growers, we may get a few more.

All my other squash plants in the garden either died, got bugs, or just didn't produce. I did pick 1 long hard shell squash which rotted in kitchen drawer in less than a week.

Green onions, lettuce were great until July. 

BASIL, Rosmeary, Majoram and Sage are all...excellent. I've already put up a huge pack of frozen pesto, how to here.

Herbs apparently love it hot and being drowned. The Cilantro is good, the curly parsley...Eh.

We still have Carrots, Beets, Onions, waiting for harvest.

Broccoli, we've had 3 small stalks, Brussel Sprouts-the plants are struggling,  and potatoes to harvest===so who knows? I hope they aren't rotten at the bottom. Lots of greens still going though.

A few sprigs of Chard and Spinach are trying. I had bought more seeds for a late planting, but it is too hot and wet now.  I would rather start them late next week and end up in the greenhouse in October.

We resurrected the back 40, a small 10x14 plot with new dirt, compost, and lots of peat moss. Hubby planted it heavy with squash and pumpkins...we are still waiting to see if anything happens there.  

I'm afraid these below will be our only pumpkins  this year. 

Old canning rim pumpkins, velvet and an artisan Gourd cat

Perennials" Phlox have been bonkers over 4-5 feet tall.

It's a jungle out there still.

Black-eyed Susans were very happy. 

Roses had one big bloom and then nothing.

My Russian Sage was spindly but lots of fronds.

Peonies were gorgeous for a fleeting moment until the next storm.

HollyHocks...were spectacular, and are very soggy and ugly right now...hoping the seed pods get a chance to dry out for broadcasting.

My planters were all happy, but now the Petunias have pooped out from the heat...clipped back they may re-bloom. 

Hydrangeas have added some growth and quite a few blooms on my two new plants from last year.

2025..Nasturtiums Sigh

My Nasturtiums (3 packages in different planters) didn't make one plant this year, even pre-soaking and planting twice. Even started these in the greenhouse in May.

Zinnias and others from my mixed seed collections are doing well and will be good until a hard frost.

4 packages and saved seeds of Mammoth Sunflowers,  didn't produce any. These will be started in the greenhouse next year. 

So many Sunflowers were blown over, and then rotting on the stalks. I will get very few seeds this year. Other sunflowers from saved seeds did okay, but they are drying up or rotting on the stalks.

Today, Friday Sept.4  4pm...the TEMP is 88 and feels like 97...UGH.

Post Script: I was gone an hour this noon,  and we got another 3/4"rain in an hour, when none was forecasted.

Please share YOUR GARDEN 

I hope it did better than 

OURS!

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle