Midwest Gardening 2023: Finally getting ready to plant!

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Last Thursday I managed to get the front porch cleaned, all the 'started' plants outside, and the furniture and windows cleaned. 

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I purchased a few plants that I normally start---like herbs and a few flowers.

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Rosemary, Cilantro, Thyme...

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The Liatris bulbs (55) I think all must have sprouted. I put 2-3 in a 4" pot and they certainly have outgrown their containers. With icky weather looming, I chose to harden off these plants on the front porch, back in the shade of the overhang. 

The evening temps have been in the high forties, so that's perfect. Here they are protected from the wind and blazing sun if we have any.

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I did move this broccoli tray to the back porch to wait to go into the Vegetable Garden.

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My Giant Dahlias are almost to big to transplant, I will have to trellis them.

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The Elephant Ears are slowly turning their leaves---that is the last window I have to clean, when the plant gets moved. I really wish it wasn't raining today

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My very limited source of purchased plants. Sadly not using the greenhouse this year, is definitely crimping the budget.

The yard is quickly catching up on the late Spring. 

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Our Viburnum promises to explode as soon as the weather goes back to sun.

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Our Yellow Barberry has exploded---I will have to prune this back. The mild winter has helped some things for sure.

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The Iris are busy making leaves, not too many stalks yet though. 

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I think this is the fourth year for these Hostas, so I may have to divide them this Fall.

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This is our humongous Giant Hosta and it's so beautiful as it unfolds and grows so fast this time of year.

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I love this later variety of tulip that grows in our planter along the steps.

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On the back porch are my coleus which are so slow--planted in early February.

Peppers, Tomatoes and Liatris are ready to go---but the garden isn't tilled yet, 

WE ARE SO FAR BEHIND!

but, gorgeous weather forecasted for Monday planting!

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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, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi

 

Midwest Gardening 2023: Way Back When...Ivy Tomato Cage Topiary

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Way back when...in 2015, one of my first posts was this how-to make a homemade Ivy topiary. I had roughly 8 inexpensive ivy plants I had put in my floral arrangements that year, and I didn't want to kill them, so I thought what a great idea for a topiary since they had so many long trailers.

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Original Post for Ivy Topiary HERE

2015, Gosh that was a long time ago in the blog world. Anyway, we are behind in the Spring weather here in Chicagoland, we are having one of those years where we jump from snow last week to the 80's this week. 

Plants and PEOPLE are confused, lol. 

I dread turning on the air conditioning, 

when we have only had a few days of windows open.

Our gardening is way behind, but I had to get the house plants out of my claustrophobic kitchen. Because of our all house mess this Spring, we never got the greenhouse planted, and the weather prohibited taking the fragile  seedlings from the kitchen to the greenhouse.

Anyway...back to the IVY TOPIARY....

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Here it is in 2016...already almost full in the 12" original pot.

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I think this was 2020, thick and full and already on it's 16", third pot.  At this point it was trailing 30" from the bottom of the pot to the ground.

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This year, it was huge, but the pot weighs nothing because the plants have eaten all the dirt...I will have to transplant it to another bigger pot and somehow do an extension? I've done this three other times, and I know the root ball will be all roots and no dirt.

For now, I gave it a huge trim, it was touching the ground when perched on the bar stool. I didn't have my blogger brain on and forgot to take photos today of before...but as you can see all the trailers are cut and on the floor, and I have two glass jars filled with healthy cuttings for rooting.

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It's now in the 16" pot...and it needs to have new dirt in it again, which I will do later when it recovers from the trauma of being chopped.  I clipped anything dead or scraggly off....and it is still so full! 

I'm wondering if I can somehow wire another extension on it. Anyway, it's outside now and will be happy in the corner long as I spray and drown it regularly in water.

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Tools just my scissors. When making cuttings for rooting, make sure you strip all the leaves on the stems below  the water line. I picked only the thick plump stems, and cut off all the woody or thin bits. I had a grocery bag of throwaways, but I think I will have enough new plants for everyone I know for  Christmas.

I'm thinking Holly and Ivy...LOL. 

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Here you can see some of the cuttings that didn't make it...anything that didn't look happy and rich green. The smaller jar is full too.

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I will have my kitchen back...with all the plants wandering to their new locations outside, but these cutting will come inside.

I love my blue jars, this is a two quart Ball jar from upper Wisconsin. I literally got cases of them from my mom-in-law and her friends.

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It was fun to take photos outside, the rich greens and sunlight after such a long dreary Spring.

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The reason these Liatris are on the porch is to harden them off a bit before planting. Inside the house was too warm and not full light, despite our having the huge windows and a fan blowing all the time.

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Broccoli was ready to go into the ground weeks ago--but snow isn't really conducive to planting. Tilling isn't done yet. Hubby has other things he has to work on---we are dealing with construction deadlines, electrical, and plumbing. The all house generator will be installed next week and this week the plumber is coming to check the wall and floor construction for the basement bathroom. 

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That sprawl on the chair is Dahlia bulbs for giant Dahlias? I didn't realize the plants were Giant, I have to figure out a wind safe place to pot these??? 

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The Elephant Ears went bonkers---I have them leaning to the house---but they will shift around with the light...they are like---LIGHT VANES...and sway and grow toward the light. 

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This is my entire collection of other flower/starts..Coleus which are really plants. 

Plantings will be slim this year as I'm used to growing all my own flowers. The budget will be tight. Another project will be these back stairs that need to be replaced with synthetic planking---this area never has sunlight for 9 months of the year and it just is rotting.

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We do have peppers, more Liatris, Japanese Eggplant, Yellow and Red??? not sure, labels got jumbled in the house upset. The Peppers on the left look fab, which is great. Hopefully the Peppermint pots I hid in the compost pile will revive and we won't have to buy any of those. 

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Last look at my Ivy starts, inside my home's color scheme. White clouds, blue sky, green grass and wood tones for the trees.

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Eighty degrees outside today will end our 

Tulips Fast...so they are just saying 

and waving "Goodbye" from 

Midwest Gardening's Spring. 

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW!

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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, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi

 

Midwest Gardening: April 2023

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The entire country has been plagued with CRAZY weather this year. Think, 200" of snow in California to a 1400 mile long front (yesterday) fueled by 60 degree temperature differentiations, tornadoes, 70mph+ hurricane winds, flooding. 

Original planting forecasts said we would be able to plant in Chicagoland by April 15...not a chance. 

We have standing water in our garden, one day it is freezing, the next day its 65 degrees. YES, simply crazy even for the Midwest.

So, I'm still gardening in my kitchen, hoping to move into the greenhouse this week.

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Coleus and Elephant ears are in here...starting to really grow.

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I transplanted tomatoes last week. We have a fan going all the time on them, to strengthen the stalks. (It really works). I use the tall drink glasses with one small hole drilled in the bottom for drainage. The plastic tote is very nice for supporting the cups. 

Special Post HERE on why we use the cups for tomatoes and planting in the garden.

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Green Zinnias from seed, these were planted too early!

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Peppers are thick and green---moving them into 3-4" pots has really helped them.

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More tomatoes and I have 8 pots of 2-3 Japanese eggplants in them.

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This was a huge dahlia corm that would fit into a small pot. In three days it's a foot high now.

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Broccoli plants look stronger everyday. 

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These are small Dahlias, Cone flowers, something else...slow starters, hoping they will take off in the greenhouse.

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I'm using Miracle grow potting soil for these starts. 

I really need to start my trays of marigolds as well as the squash/pumpkin plants. Also the flower boxes with onions, lettuce, and Nasurtiums. We won't be buying many plants this year as the budget won't allow it at all with the basement disaster.

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 Besides our basement disaster, we need to gut the greenhouse. Seems the mice think glass insulation is a great place to live in...and we will switch to thick styrofoam. This was all planned to do in March---but the basement disaster diverted this plan.

This is a photo from last Fall. Now we have standing water in the garden from this week's crazy weather. While today is glorious sunshine, but a bit chilly.

After helping hubby move into his office down stairs, (we laid vinyl sheet flooring in there yesterday). I may venture into the mouse hut (greenhouse) and attempt to pull out all the insulation after removing all the contents first.

Another Fruitbasket UPSET! 

How are your Spring Gardening

 plans going?!

If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by blogger or FOLLOW IT which you will find in the upper right hand corner of this page. 

Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!

Love Your Creativity

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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, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi