Midwest Gardening 2024: Last of the Garden!

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Quick Post this morning!

Sunday, my son and family came to help us with the yard. We got the backyard pretty well cleaned up and the Caladium and Dahlia bulbs dug up to store. All the smaller pots cleaned and emptied and stored. Most of the dirt from the pots went into the bin in the greenhouse, and the pots that I use to start things are there also. 

Since I still can't bend over or exert more than 10# lifting or pushing, my D-in Love dug up all the beets and Carrots and Parsnips.  I knew they would be pretty good if slugs didn't get at them. All the greens have been rich and lustrous.

I made Beet Soup in August when I did the last thinning and had lots of small beets, and the soup was delicious.

The Carrot patch was going to be a mystery, because when I thinned twice they were very tiny.

I watered heavily two days before, so they came up pretty easy except for the really long parsnips.

Here is what I planted last Spring. Dates I have are 5/16-18 into the ground. This was the last area of the garden to be planted besides transplanting peppers and tomatoes.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Parsnips...

wait unti you see. 

New variety I tried, Danver by Ferry Morris. Normally I do Chantenay but they are really small. The Danvers An incredibly sweet, stubby, carrot for mass planting.

I tried this blend, thinking of roasted carrots for the Holidays.

I tried a bit of old seeds ..these are Faxil Rainbow Carrots. All the areas of carrots came up thick!

I planted two kinds of beets...

Detroit Beets are the workhorse of home gardens. We always get beets from them, but the critters and bugs loved them too. So this year I planted all my roots in semi-shade in a different area.

This is roughly a Gallon of Beets. YUM and all a pretty nice size. I will get maybe two jars of small beets for pickled beets.

The others were those tape strips-not sharing the package (Burpee)---which performed Very poorly...compared to everything else---and only 6" away from all the wonderful beets and carrots we did GET!

Here's Our Haul!

Lots of CARROTS, there are some other small carrots in here besides the Danvers. 

We sorted according to size. My D-in-Love took a big bag of everything home. These photos are after she got paid in produce...lol.

This bowl is  18" wide for scale! 

These are our large Carrots and Parsnips.

This is a HUGE Bowl -18 inches, 

WOW!

We did a hose scrub. I'm storing them like this in our porch fridge, instead of scrubbing them so clean they spoil fast. I can always scrub them before cooking.

I have lots of recipe's planned. 

I'm a little disappointed that there weren't more of the different colors, and it is hard to tell which are parsnips and which are carrots. But, we love both so it won't matter when they are being eaten.

This is the area that I blocked off with fine mesh over our normal fencing.

 Clearly the bunnies didn't get in here....
YAY! 

HOW WAS YOUR HARVEST?

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thanks ALWAYS for visiting!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. Please don't use my photos without my permission.

 Sandi Magle

OldNewGreenRedo

Midwest Gardening 2024: The last of the Zuchinni!

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This post got stuck in the drafts...and I forgot to post it.

Roughly a month ago, late September, we pulled all our tomatoe vines and brought in all the hidden huge SUBMARINE Zuchinnis that were lurking where you couldn't see them.

There is nothing wrong with large Zucchini and they make the best bread and muffins when shredded.

I had this nice clean kitchen, so I just had to mess it up!

We love fresh baked breads and muffins, mostly because I can control the sugar and fat in them and add more spices for flavor instead of fat and sugar.

Our Christmas gift last year was a new chopper---and boy does it do a great job on Zuchinni, I pushed in large pieces of cleaned and seeded zuchinni in the hopper.

And this is what we ended up with. That's like a  quart and a half of shredded 

zuchinni.

Here you can see the process. I had 5 big zuchinnis to shred. The bowl in the middle is the waste which will go into the compost pile.

I bag my zuchinni into 4 cup bags---Most of my recipe's call for 3 cups---but when it thaws there is so much water, that the 4 cups become 3 drained.

Garden waste for the compost pile. We compost everything but meats, oil waste and banana peels. I also avoid strawberries and other berries because you can't control berry plants once they get going.

Now for my favorite Zucchini recipes:

These were super nummy!

I've made these with corn/canola oil instead of butter..and still delicious, also milk, 

 I've used almond milk for those who are dairy free.

These are quite sweet, I use a simple powder sugar glaze instead of frosting.

I've substituted 1/3 of the sugar with unsweetened apple sauce, which brings down the sugar in these and add 1 cup of slow cooking oats to it also. I've used this recipe for muffins also! 

Apologies to anyone I stole these recipe's from. Sorry I just clip and file them and I usually change them anyway. 

Hugs and Happy Zucchini Baking!

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thanks ALWAYS for visiting!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. Please don't use my photos without my permission.

 Sandi Magle

OldNewGreenRedo

Midwest Gardening: What's Blooming in Mid October 24

Midwest Gardening: What's Blooming in Mid October 24

Most photos taken the week of October 7th-10th. 

After an extremely wet summer up until September and SUPER HOT,  plants and flowers are actually happiest right now, mid October here in Chicagoland. It's been dry for at least 6 weeks, so watering has been a must.

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I did water these poor Coleus after this photo. 

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My planters under the back eave were magnificent, and are still blooming. White Caladiums (from tubers) and Coleus grown from seed. The Giant Coleus were huge this year, they loved the hot and wet climate we had. 

Impatiens are still prducing some flowers...waiting for frost to end that.

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Over three feet tall, these were gorgeous, no matter where I planted them.

Leaves are already dropping with the dry weather.

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The last pot was the thinnest, but it gets the most sun and wind in this location, probably the reason the plants were smaller.

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I got a second blooming on my 'grown from roots

 Delphinium. This plant will get transplanted next year. This is a fenced area is where I cater to root/tuber starts. 

Rich ground, a fence, and some serious shade actually helps to start new plants/tubers safe from critters.

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Water, water water is all we have done the last month.

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My annuals are still in bloom, Peppermint Zinnias, 4-foot tall Marigolds and lots of other colors of Zinnias. They were ALL really late this year. The Coreopsis are already done, and I have spread their seeds hoping for more next year.

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Zinnia pod, prime for picking for seeds. I select the bigger flowers and let them dry on the stem...then pluck and harvest seeds. 

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Zinnias are wonderful and prolific, also pretty hardy for light frost, perfect for our location.

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This is the second growth of Sage...IT"S VERY HAPPY this year. Lower right is Majoram, which I have to cut back several times in the summer or it will swallow the whole bed.

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Our garden is pretty much finished, but the carrots are super lush and thick. I have 4 varieties, anxious to see what they did. This area gets partial shade during the summer, so we will see.

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Behind the carrots is my ragtag Swiss Chard, hit or miss. 

My broccoli plants  performed ZIP, we had two scant meals. Between being chewed by critters and then attacked by bugs, they were a waste of space. Same for the Brussel Sprouts. I will try a different location next year.

I emptied all the fence and patio pots last week and dispersed the dirt to: the box in the greenhouse, permanent planters, or the compost pile. That's always a big job.  later I will mix in fertilizer and new or composted dirt to freshen the soil.

I had surgery on the 15th, so all this had to be at least under control before then.

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Such a jumble of half dead plantings, time to recycle the dirt. I will have hubby bury 6 pots of peppermint in a plastic bag in the compost pile. Saving me $$$$ in Spring when I restart them in the greenhouse. Leaving them in a bag, stops them from spreading where we don't want them. 

Peppermint is my Bee protection, as I am severely allergic. We keep Peppermint pots by the grill, the dining tables, the entrances to the house. That way they don't interfere with their busy bee pollination missions.

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Here's the back porch with all the potted Coleus and some peppermint, this is total shade here.

Jumping to October 18th, I walked around the backyard and took a few more photos for the next post.

Also have a Fall project....NEXT

DEPARTING LILIES! 

If You enjoyed this post please FOLLOW IT in the upper right hand corner, to get just one email of each AD-Free post.

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thanks ALWAYS for visiting!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. Please don't use my photos without my permission.

 Sandi Magle

OldNewGreenRedo

 

Midwest Gardening 2024:Vegetable Garden Heat, Rain, Critters and BUGS

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Along with the BEASTLY temperatures most of the country is suffering through, we now are having Gallons---What's a Cubit, Lord---Rains! 

Along with the rains, comes voracious BUGS,  after the bunny/mole/vole/chipmunk spring planting infestations. I've worked so hard, and am cursing all along the way.

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This is one day's damage, they were perfectly fine when I weeded a day ago....Miss GREEN here just drowned the entire garden in bug killer--(safe for animals and vegetables) which will work only until the next deluge and then will have to be sprayed again.

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Here's our garbage can  full of potatoes, almost ready for some more dirt. They seem to be bug free at the moment.

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Luckily the planter boxes have been pretty immune to the crawly bugs. Radishes are done, but the lettuce keeps going. The pot on the ground is a cherry tomato.

I have two planted along this fence with marigolds to attract the b

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These flowers are the last things I have planted in the garden during the heat wave to attract pollinators. 

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The Broccoli on the left is also nibbled on, first by bunnies (I now have netting all around them) and now the bugs, hopefully the spraying will work. The greens are  different kinds of chard which is doing okay...I need to weed them again.

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Along the fence under the planters is a whole line of asparagus, which are seeding nicely. Hopefully we will have a crop next year-(12 plants 2 years old now and the seedings) 

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The beets in front and the carrots in the back are almost ready to thin. I pulled weeds and in one day of heavy rain everything has doubled in size.

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The back trelesses are starting to support climbing Kentucky Wonder beans. I've planted Balsam and Tall Marigolds  between them. NONE of the Sunflowers made it through the critter niobbling.

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This corner has Winter Squash plants, I got the varieties mixed up in the greenhouse so we will see what happens.

This is my CORN patch......LOL...no corn just weeds, tomorrows project.

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We only have three Zucchini plants this year...but they look very happy and are caged.

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I have two bean plants from 2 packages of bush bean seeds. JEESH, something got at the seedlings immediately when they came up---this planter is two feet off the ground. The spinners deterred no critters at all.

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The other side of the long raised planter has Pickle Bush Cucumbers, which are HAPPY, and blooming like crazy. Won't be long (next week) and we will have cucumbers for PICKLES.

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Two days ago, I severly trimmed back the Heirloom Tomato plants. I removed all the secondary stems (without blossoms) that weren't supporting assistance for the plants. This gives more growing energy to the tomatoes. We have only 8 plants this year since I still have so many canned tomatoes.

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In the center of the garden is the large bedspring trellis. This year the plants are in pots, and we are growing climbing Cucumbers in these pots. on the corners are 

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Green Pepper and Carnival Pepper Plants. These are all blooming and starting peppers already.

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There has been minimal bug issues here, but I sprayed anyway.

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The other side of the trellis is full of climbing Green Beans. I may have to thin these out---as those pots are really full.

I didn't get photos of the Pumpkin plants which are blossoming and the Rhubarb which is ready for it's third cutting I'll use for JAM!

Goals tomorrow: weed, and replant the Corn field (with a new fence around it), replant the depleted pots with radishes and onions...and I'm not sure what I will try in the large raised planter, maybe more onions and I may try some eggplant there, as the ones along the east fence aren't doing much. Also have to replant the fence line planter not shown with Asian Purple Beans---which were also eaten the first time. 

At the price of seeds---this has been a very expensive year...8 packages of Sunflowers, 6 packages of Beans, at least 6 packages of flowers of Balsam, Marigolds, and Zinnias  have simply fed all the greedy critters around here with no food or beauty for us. SIGH!

We've invested in some additional small hole plastic fencing and some netting. The first roll of netting saved the broccoli, and then it just was eaten by bugs...very weird year so far and we seem to be on the losing side.

WHO ARE YOU SHARING YOUR GARDEN WITH???

LOL! 

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 or anywhere I shop.

Thanks always for visiting. 

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

Sharing at these great blog parties!

Farmhouse Friday

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Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi