Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

Saturday, June 21, 2025

Midwest Gardening: Vegetable and Herbs/Container Gardening, not always Pretty!

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First of all, it took me an entire month to clean up the yard and then plant the garden, pots, and flowerbeds. Every year is so different, I have records now from the last 15 years or so, and this year we were way behind with weather, mild days, but very cool/cold  nights


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Coleus are very slow---these were planted in February...and finally transplanted last week...so slow, but now they should take off. The Delphiniums grown from seed are still not ready to plant in the ground, but I moved them into larger pots. I have two Canna that have been planted since March, that just budded out finally, so they are in the shade along the backside of the house. The greenhouse is just too hot.

Also, taking a year off for illness from gardening(last year) really left things in a rubble. 

This Spring, we hd 170 bags of Top Soil/peat moss mix delivered to spread everywhere...still have a few of those to do. We've been gardening for 40 years here, amending the soil, but also wearing it out.  

 That and the Fall cleanup and trimming that did not get done. Well,  you gardeners know how it is...never ending, so I haven't been posting, but instead working.
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Weather in general since Mid-May: we have dodged frosts, horrible storms, two very dry weeks, and on and off high heat. Some plants are happy others are NOT.  

Temperatures with a 40 degree variance from night and day, is really unsettling for young plants. The greenhouse easily hits 100 if I don't have all the windows, doors open and the FAN going full blast it's too hot. Then the low 40's outside at night were a shock for transplanted vegetables and flowers.

One of the first planting I did were in these planters on our front porch where last year I just dumped a container inside them, this year they were layered with compost and dirt and mass planted with herbs peppers and flowers. These planters drain almost too much, so they need water regularly.

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Our front porch get tons of sun, wind and the full power of West to East storms! The planters are doing okay, the lettuce planter below is happy with herbs/lettuce and some Marigolds. 
Herbs in the box two box planters are Oregano, Thyme, Basils, Parsley, Cilantro, Onions, Dill, Chives

My Rosemary Pot is double potted with our Old and one new Rosemary....it's not quite thrilled about so much rain.

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Basil, Marigolds, Zinnias and Chives in here! 

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To the Garden. The planters I planted first have already given us much produce. The radishes weren't good at all, too cold and then too hot and they bolted. But, the lettuce and onions have been superb. I planted many varieties of lettuces and spinach and it is all FAB except no sign of the red lettuce at all, must have been a dud batch of seeds.  These will all be great if they don't bolt.

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I planted two varieties of Peas in huge pots, the First Pot is already ending. I'll pick tomorrow and cut out the dead/dying  but the pods have been fabulous -sweet and tender!

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The second pot is just flowering...and starting to pod, so it's perfect. This area gets afternoon shade, so maybe we will have peas into July. I'll replant on August 1 for a Fall crop.

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Throughout my planters this year, I have included flowers here and there to attract the pollinators. Here is a Nasturtium just starting to bloom. I call them the work horses of the garden, they bloom fiercely until dying in September. These are  in the Fence planter we built last year. I added 10 new bags of dirt to it, and seeded it heavily with pickles and squash in one side and bush beans and squash on the other.

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The blue hose is a new drip system we are doing ourselves. I've alternated squashes with beans or pickle bush pickles. 

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Pickles are doing okay, they seem to be slow with our goofy weather. Squash will be trained to go on the wire and wood fence, hopefully.

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Some sweet Violas among the squash and bush beans! 

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Boxes of climbing beans on the center trellis. I've extended bamboo poles to train them to the trellis-hopefully. I'll have to thin some  of these. Last year we had terrible beans because they were all eaten. This year with Critter ridder and all the new mesh fencing, we have managed to keep the bunnies out. Moles and Chippies are seeming to leave everything alone? 

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And a lone cantalope plant from 12 seeds???? I can't say anything has been eaten this year...as we heavily fenced everywhere now...bunny proof unless they dig under.

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On the other side of our bedspring trellis,  I have Cucumbers growing, and Peppers in pots. Everything has been a slow start this year.

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My husband wanted the tomatoes in containers ===to control them...we will see.
 
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I have a few in the ground and some in the big NEW bucket planters. We had many buckets, but also inherited some from a friend. In between I planted peppers, and some spindly sunflower starts in the ground. on the trellises. Normally I plant beans on these trellises, but my days of climbing a ladder to pick beans are over...LOL. 

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The NEW 3x6 x 2 foot high planters are full of mulch, brush, and lots and lots of dirt, maybe 40 bags each of top soil along with 1/3 compost dirt. We made a trellis between the two boxes which is hard to see. The plan is the Zucchini and Yellow summer squash will climb up these. Supposedly you clip off the large bottom leaves?  Definitely a new experiment for US.

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We have Zucchini, Carrots, Beets, Onions, Swiss Chard, Flowers,
 Climbing Asian foot-long beans in this planter. I used an old gate on the other end to use as a trellis. 
OLD NEW GREEN REDO...! 
It will be exciting to see if I can get everything to grow where we want it to.
I still have to get the cloth on the ground to reduce the weeds, the point of planters is to save on the back...though there is still plenty planted in the ground...I'll show that in next garden post.

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This is the Potato Bin Garbage can. Hubby dumped too much dirt in it last time, I'm afraid he buried so many of the plants.
Look at those Green Onions go...behind in a railing planter. Num. I have planted maybe 4 times, so we have had green onions all the time.

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The Fence planters are really amazing...look at this crunchy Romaine type lettuce, and it's so tasty...having it for supper tonight with Salmon on 
Artisan Greens...oooh, lah, LA! 

Next what was blooming!
 Then the rest of the Vegetable Garden.

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?


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





Thursday, October 19, 2017

Midwest Gardening in October

I've already belabored the woes of our crazy Midwest weather this year, it's been crazy all over the country though. Bits of beauty survive in our yard despite no Fall color to speak of and everything
on the tail end of dead.

Here in Chicagoland, despite the heat and drought of August and September, the Zinnias were extremely vigorous. Not too many blossoms, but lots of growth. In drought I hold back on fertilizing, as plants are just trying to maintain their existing leaves and flowers. I'm sure this reduced blooming on everything.


The last two weeks Silver Maple trees have cast about leaves almost everywhere each day. We will be mulching all our garden beds, a GREEN thing to do.


These double layered Zinnias have petticoats of orange under there crimson centers. The lime green leaves in pots are the last of our hot peppers.


I leave perennials in the garden until they seed this time of year. 
Black-eyed Susans are in the background, ready to drop their seeds.



Leggy Coleus and the last of the Impatiens on one of our full rainbarrels.
Rainbarrels are a great way to help drought gardens. We have four and will probably add another next year.--another GREEN thing to do.



Our pond with dried up squash vines hanging. Cherry Tomatoes behind still trying.


Some Ruby Chard and Carnival (mixed) Chard. 
This will make some great greens for some soup. NUM!




Mislabeled HOT peppers----LOTS more than we will ever use.


Cinderella has nothing on us. 
This pumpkin perched itself on an OLD antique cultivator and grew to a 
spectacular size for a homegrown pumpkin.


I have big Scandinavian hands----so this will show how big this perfect pumpkin is.
We only had two large pumpkins and three small ones, about 20% of our usual production.



REDO: Hubby rebuilt the 'family' cultivator last year, and now it's a pumpkin perch.


Here's the last Spaghetti Squash still on the vine with overgrown green beans hanging there too. This was taken late in the afternoon, I love the shadows and leaves in this photo---un-altered photo.




The front porch is finally cool enough to sit on the furniture. 
Trees block the low sun now, instead of boiling the porch.  
My Fall arrangement is a REDO with dried gourds from last year. 


My house plants are still happy on the porch. But they will have to come in soon.

I haven't found my bin of Fall decor, yet or my sunflower pillows?
But then, without color in the trees, it just doesn't feel like Fall.




Next week is Halloween---really? 
An OLD thrift shop witch swinging in the wind, I call her Gerty and she is the 
extent of Halloween decor this year.

Maybe this weekend, we can get some things up. 

When is it going to look like Fall? Orange and Yellow, 
doesn't go well with Christmas Decorations, lol.

How's your Fall going?

Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

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

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!






Sandi






Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Garden Mosaics Class


So a year ago---yes, a year---I took a CRAFT mosaics class with my friend E. 
I did a lengthy post on it, then, lost it---somehow. Disgusted, I went on to
do something else. Cleaning my folders, I found these photos all ready to go. 


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Here is our instructor, Lisa Tolbert (left) from Mosaic Whimsies  setting up for the huge class.
I know this is a long post, so bear with me. 

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A greenhouse was the perfect place to do this kind of messy class. 
This was in March 2016.  We had 60 degrees when we went in, and then a rainstorm, then hail (not fun in a greenhouse) and finally snow in the three hours we were there---just an average spring day in Chicagoland.

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Well, here is the OLD bowling balls, all ready for us to choose from. Yes bowling balls to become 
mosaic gazing balls for your garden. A great REDO and GREEN project, everything used would normally end up in a landfill.  All your chipped dishware and trinkets, reused.

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Lisa had a few of her gorgeous pieces on display to inspire us. These were glass on glass windows. 
She teaches many classes and travels all over Chicagoland and N. Indiana.



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Her shabby chic pieces are always a favorite at local shows. Don't you love the pearls worked in.
 She does custom work for people. Check out her website.

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She had trays upon trays of scrap pottery, glass, baubles---
plus we all brought some things of our own to use.
 I think there were 18-20 people in this class. 
We each used a dollar store tray to pick out our pieces. 
It is surprising how many pieces it takes to cover a bowling ball.

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This was a large class for advanced or beginners. Lisa has quite a following. Here you can see the first of many weather changes---we went from HOT, to RAIN, to HAIL, to SLEET, to SNOW 
in three hours.

 The bowling balls were set hole down on flower pots for ease of working.


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First you cut your pieces into workable sizes. The curved surface provided a few challenges. 
E worked with lots of interesting bits and pieces: 
jewelry, small figurines, glass, mirrors, game parts, fun stuff. 


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Some people are extremely controlled and methodical and
 follow directions to use pieces of the same thickness. 

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You can't help but get movement in your designs on a round surface. Members of the class 
were nice enough to let me roam around and take pictures.

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E again---concentrating. You really have to think small areas with this sort of projects, or

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...go with a pattern and stick to it, long as those pieces don't run out!

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Here's Lisa gave technical advise and encouragement. 
Mosaics like this are not for the hesitant, because the adhesive can become crusty in no time. 
Then, you spend more time scraping stuff off then getting anything done. 



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Group shot, to show you how different the bowling balls morphed into gazing balls. 
Flowers were a big theme and super for the round shape.

Everyone was encouraged to take home extra pieces to complete the bottom at home. 
A quick tutorial on how to grout your piece, was given and after three hours or so--
we were all sent home in the snow. 


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I started with these sort of flower mandalay type shapes.

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The leaves are toward the bottom.  I worked with glass pieces surrounding my focal points.

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Loved all the vintage dishes worked into shapes. There is some transferware here.
I'm pretty freeform and work with however my pieces break.

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This circle has mostly iridescent glass---which should show up brilliant with sunlight.

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Blue and white----Most of my chipped cracked dishes were blue and white. I used a few low bowl pieces on here, which were great for the round shape.

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on the other side more blue and white.



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I finally found this wire vase late last fall, perfect as a stand for my first Mosaic Garden Ball. 
I think this post qualifies for vintage, even though I created something NEW.

Now to mix up some mossy green grout...
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This made quite a mess in the kitchen but went very fast. Roughly 30 min, from mixing to the end.



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After the grout is totally set, I will go back and scrub the surface clean with a scrubby.

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Now to spray the base, that will be another day, if we ever get Spring.

Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

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

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!






Sandi