Birds, Poorman's Bouquet and Midwest Gardening 2024 Bounty

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It's Mid July 2024, after several years of drought to extreme drought our NE Illinois area, we have now been deluged this year like much of the country. Very Hot and Wet here in Chicagoland. Upside the trees and bushes are lush and green, green, green.

The long table in the front of the livingroom looks out to the front yard and several bird feeders. We always watch from here and keep our bird books handy for identification.

The rain has been so frequent, you have to dash outside for anything, grab some produce, dump saucers or pick a few flowers, before the next rain.

This is the last magazine subscription coming to our home. Many years ago I eliminated ALL of our other subscriptions, to save paper and the planet---this one is the last subscription to run out. Birds and Blooms is a very cheery magazine, with fabulous photos of birds across the country and information on how to attract birds and their habits.

This is what I call unconscious decorating. I cover my dark wood furniture in summer with lighter vintage tablecloths, the magazine is here with our special bird identification printouts. This stuff has just sort of landed here...over the last month and suddenly it's a 

vignette. 

The thrifted pot  I found last month holds bird books from my childhood with notations inside from 1953-4 of birds seen then. Oddly enough with our climate warming, we are seeing different kinds birds now... different than 60 years ago and others seem to be gone. I haven't seen an Oriole in YEARS.

My Philodendron plant needs repotting, it's scraggly. I moved it from the bedroom to here hoping the light will be better. I dashed outside yesterday and cut the drooping flowers from the last storm and put them in my French enameled coffeepot.

My Poorman's Bouquet: Hosta leaves, Lilies, tops of blooming Hostas, Giant Sedum heads, Coreopsis, Phlox are so rich in colors and a sprig of Sweet Potato Vine that was broken and I'm trying grow roots on.  Lilies don't last long, but keep blooming from their buds  if you just pull the expired blooms off. This bouquet should last a week.

It's really an exuberant display, and makes me smile.  My Danish bird figurines are collected on the table and corralled in a little wagon that I found months ago in a thrift store. I imagine I've tossed some seed in there and they are just visiting.

In the kitchen...

I also dashed into the garden and grabbed cucumbers, two HUGE Green Peppers, the last of the Snow Peas, the first of the Broccoli, and a tiny Zucchini. 

We've had a half dozen Zucchini's from our three plants this year already. Everything grows overnight it seems.

I put up a gallon go overnite Dill Pickles recipe here: OVERNIGHT DILL PICKLES on Thursday...so delicious and crunchy, and a large container of Danish  Pickles, recipe here: FRESH DANISH DILL OR SWEET PICKLES. I did the sweet version. 

The heat and the rainwater are making some things especially (cucumbers prolific) and others seem to be at a standstill. Tomatoes are huge but refusing to turn red. It's already late for tomatoes to begin turning with all this heat.

The last of my potted peas. I may get one more picking, and I plant to do another pot at the end of the month---in a bigger pot that won't blow over. Hopefully I can start them in the greenhouse if it isn't too hot to protect from the voracious critters we have this year. 

I'm going to try to make  a homemade critter spray...and I will let you know how that works!

See you again Soon!

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Midwest Gardening October 2020:Front Yard

October, what a crazy month. 

I realized I hadn't done a post for gardening this month.  

Pretty much because of the weather. 

Early on we had very hot, high 80's for a couple of weeks, along with really dry. Then we had some rain and sharp drop in temps and total windy days with 50mph gusts. Really not conducive to senior gardening. It's bad enough falling, without being blown over, lol.

Finally a break in the weather yesterday, 

so I ran around and took photos of the yards, 

just as it is now, before we started Fall Clean Up. 

Our bird feeders have been full of birds. 

We are on a migration flyway, and several visitors appeared and went: multiple woodpeckers, some Thrushes, Cedar Waxwings, and many different wrens.  

The Maple tree behind is the last one to usually turn, but it has lots of green still.

Starting on the east side, we still have Zinnias blooming despite three frosts. All the vegetables are  done on this side, and I've cut back many of the perennials. The yellow chair, won't make it through the winter, it has finally rotted, so I will have to plan on something different here next year. 

The Sweet Pea trellis only has Morning Glories on it now. I had pulled the sweet peas out a couple of weeks ago as they were starting to mildew.

The pond area still needs a final clean up--

I pulled the plug yesterday. 

Hubby put some railings in the back, for safety sake. I had wanted to transplant the Phlox somewhere else, but will have to do it in spring. The ground is still very dry 6" down. The teardrops and the succulents I planted around the pond did very well. Hopefully they will winter over. I still need to cut back the Iris...we had no fall blooms this year, nor a fall bloom on our roses, either, which I have cut back also. 

Probably due to our stressful dry and hot weather.

Our massive PUMPKIN will come in the house tomorrow, as a hard freeze is forecasted for the weekend. And, I'll make tons of pumpkin butter. That will be our gifts to many friends and family, and we've run out of it, in the pantry. 

We had 6 Mandilla plants, and I have brought 4 inside. They were so gorgeous, and I hope to winter these over in the house. You can see the purple potato vine got nipped and is yellowing.

This west side...is a mess. Walnuts everywhere, twigs and tons of leaves. It's too wet to rake now, so I'll save that for later.

The West side pots, one was totally done and not worth taking a photo. This pot is still blooming and the Coleus is gorgeous. The surprise mystery grass, became some sort of Papyrus. These were $2.94 at Walmart, when I purchased Papyrus from a nursery in the past they were like $12.99...??? I will look for them again at Walmart.

We planted seventy or so Spring bulbs 

on the Mound, as we call it.

The birds have been loving the birdbath..you can see one here. Next year should be very interesting, when all the perennials I have planted mature a bit. I have Phlox, three kinds of Sedum, some small Tree Rose of Sharon, a bush Rose, Day Lilies, Orange Day Lilies, Liatris, Shasta Daisies, Russian Sage, white Delphiniums,(which I think fried) and Periwinkle that went crazy with the sun. (This area was once occupied by a huge Spruce, which died very quickly last Fall.

The dry ground was so hard, we used an augur on an electric drill to plant bulbs. Easy Peasy!

We have also planted 4 small Conical Firs across the front. We mulched this pretty heavy because of the squirrels.

The Oak that planted itself from somewhere, (there isn't an oak anywhere near here) is quite colorful for an oak. It's about 10 years old, and really growing a lot each year now.

Not everything is dying. Here our Tree Rose of Sharon is forming its notoriously fecund seed pods. Plant one of these and you have bushes/trees for life and longer.

As I ran around with the camera, the birds are so used to us, they are simply willing to have a chat and pose. This is a OLD birdhouse we did a REDO on this spring: new bottom, new roof, and new perches on the front. Our friend on the roof checked out all the apartments.

The mailbox planter at the street is really finished. But, as long as there is color from the yellow Marigolds, I will leave it. The Vinca Vines were transplants from the yard. This is another ground cover that does well in our area. The flowers really baked out here this year, with our record summer temps. The purple Salvia and  Petunias gave up a month ago.

Here is our biggest project this year, a new culvert under a new 6 car driveway. Yikes that was expensive. We waited to plant sod and had to water it the last two weeks. Today it is raining all day, they promised us an inch...much needed. (We got 1 1/2"---YAY!) 

We had to cycle water all summer, hoses everywhere, (we have a very deep well). 

The pots on the rocks along the garage, held heat through the frosts. The cement siding also holds heat, so these plants are still blooming. The Sweet Potato Vines  frosted though. I miss the long trailers they provided. 

 With all the wind we've had, this area and others are hard to keep clean.

I'v not been into any decorating, I only bought two Mums this year. Our pots of Lemon Grass are hanging on. Hubby has to get the faux pumpkins down from the garage attic, maybe. 

It is Really Hard to get into decorating mode. 

BUT, Now we have to deal with Mother Nature's 

decorations,

TONS of LEAVES! 

(or what I call mulch, LOL)

A very GREEN thing to do.

How did your yard survive 

the summer heat?

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Sandi