Midwest Gardening 2024: Yard Projects and Vegetable Gardening for Seniors.

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Projects and the Vegetable Garden, June 3, 2024

We are still in Catch Up mode from all the projects that didn't get finished last year.

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These wood 'boxes' were used on the East side which is now all planted in Perennials and they are waiting for a new location?

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Hubby finished the back porch, again we are using the carpet for safety, wood stairs are very slick with ice or even rain. Safety is a theme here at our home now as we age and todder herea and there.

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This ledge was built for planters...and soon will just have are garden refuse cans underneath. 

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Speaking of Garbage...here are all our cans lined up for one week (minus two more for yard waste). Cleaning sheds and all the projects in the yard has really kept our garbage collectors busy...every week. 

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Five of our Seven yard waste cans!

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Hubby has been replacing our wooden walkways with cement squares. All the new wood along the railings are reinforcements and replacing. Sometime this summer all the wood will get stained.

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We have a gentle slope on this lot across the back yard, so the step downs are here and there. Hubby is laying block for here.

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Inside the new service patio, We raised this bed with new and compost soil added. I planted Asian long pole beans in here and some squash. The old gates are going to be perfect for trellises.

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Between laying 'stone' in the greenhouse, here and the walkway, we are done this year. Next year we will do in front of the greenhouse and along the other side.

Starting in the small patio in the garden...that I hope is a Holly Hock...it's going bonkers in that small planter. Lots of birds bath in this old birdbath we have had forever.

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Our Silver Maple trees have actually grown since the severe trimming two years ago. and this area has some shade. We've moved the Pepper plants we usually had here into the garden, but the Peas are thriving and this week are starting to blossom.

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The back stairs did get done late last year...but the decking and the siding is fighting with molds. We are planning on pressure washing everything when the planting is done.

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Above the back pond, where I really hacked back the roses, they are beginning to bloom. Unaltered photo---so bright.

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This was our woodpile area, which we cleaned up as most the wood had rotted. We severly pruned back the Lilac, but they are hardy and will definitely recover. 

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This is our infamous compost pile, the stuff to the right is our neighbors. All kitchen waste, most grass cuttings, leaves, trimmings go into here and get tilled up with some compost starter. We couldn't do what we do---if we didn't have this.

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Early last week...all the construction still going on.

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Top down... 8 Broccoli plants (now only 6) someone was chewing on them. 

Strips  of Chard Fordhook and rainbow.

Walkway

Wide Carrot bed 

Lines of Beets

and 4 Brussel Sprout plants. 

 A bit of empty space to the right waits for flower transplants. 

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This area was the holding spot for all the planting containers. 

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Much of that is Mint that I wintered over in pots inside of a plastic bag we buried in the compost pile. MINT has to be potted or it will invade everywhere. We use it to control the bees where we sit, work or by entrances. 

This is about $120 worth of plants that are on their third year....a big REDO savings.

Behind this area are the railing containers.

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These were actually planted in the Greenhouse...and are producing great onions, lettuce, spinach, radishes and some flowers. This one has a vine on one end...waiting to see what it is???

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I had to add extra dirt to this pot to get the radishes going to radish?? Or however you say it.

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I planted two types of spinach, and it is very successful when there aren't critters chewing on it.

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I have 5 of these mixed planters from the greenhouse.

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 I've started three more with more Lettuce/greens,  greenhouse Hot Peppers and some greenhouse flowers.

The box planters below are for shady plants, I can move these around where I need a little character later.

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We had to 'weed' kill the Morning Glories under the trellis...they have been an issue for twenty years or so. They just ruined the beans and pickles last year. 

We have pallet wood, an old bedspring and some 4x8 trellis frames upright here. Hubby made a raised shelf now for pots...so the Green Beans have a chance to survive up off the ground. 

I have our Peppers in pots here also on the right. 

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Another raised bed has Bush Pickles, several Squash (for the trellis on the fence) and Bush Beans. This will help our senior backs. I may have to add more dirt later.

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I have only 8 Heirloom Tomato plants this year, grown from seed and kept in the greenhouse this Spring. Honestly they were starting to blossom in there.

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I grew these bush Pickles in the greenhouse...! 

Critters seem to leave larger plants alone.

We are designing the garden for Seniors as we are on the long end of our  70's now.

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I have Trellis Pickles in here. We filled all these pots from the compost pile and added new potting soil also. These pots will all stay in the garden year-round and be fertilized with new soil added as needed. 

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The potted Carnival and Green Peppers look healthy and HAPPY!

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I planted Zucchini, only three this year from the greenhouse.

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This is an ornamental Corn plot---but I think the bird/chippies/moles/mice have eaten every sprout that came up. I can still do something else here if that is what has happened.

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Along the back fence, we have beans, squash, sunflowers, but they have been chewed on also

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My neighbor has some sort of bamboo like grass that gets 12 feet tall as a privacy screen. 

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Beans are having a hard time here, Kentucky Wonder.

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More Squash and some Marigolds.

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1 sprout making it from 6 seeds. and a hole from some critter chewing on them?

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We banned the family away from here until Father's Day so we can get all the  areas FINISHED. 

Still, everything seems to still be a work in progress.

We had to take a few days off because of all our heavy rains, but, I will be out in the yard all day today.

I'm sure everything is going crazy out there!

How are your Vegetables Doing?

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A Tour:The Year in our Garden

 Spring arrived very late in Chicagoland. Like much of the country this year, the weather was bizarre.

Snow, ice and cold temperatures replaced the normal gloomy days of rain in March and April. My fisher boy and girl are ice fishing in a frozen pond. No luck, I bet.

You can see how low the sun was---keeping the snow from melting in the back yard.

Nestled next to our vegetable garden is our 6' x8' greenhouse. Normally we start our vegetables the beginning of February. Not this year, our plants were started in the house in early in March.  We are cutting back on plants this year, because of the remodel. Being optimistic, we moved our pots to the greenhouse the week of Easter.

Since then we have a few good days---and lots of ugly ones. This last week of April 30th  has been ugly since last Monday.

And one moment of sunshine belied the cold temperatures in the 40's.

 But our plants still grew safely in the heated green house.

 

Our tulips stayed wrapped, and then exploded with the one nice weekend.

  

But the greenhouse heater was back on and has been ever since. Two large black garbage cans of water provide radiant heat when the sun comes out! But, Mother Nature can be stingy and slow to awaken.

On the warmest weekend I  bought pansies...and quickly potted them here and there and crossed my fingers. It's too crappy out and even take pictures now.

Here, Southern exposed areas surrounded with concrete will bloom, even in the cold temps.

  We have planted, a small lettuce selections in the back yard and on the side fence wall.

Last year in early June, we moved transplanted tomatoes out to the yard. This year they will be in the garden.

Railing pots for herbs, lemon basil and oregano.

These lattice panels are a REDO reuse from my closed brick and mortar shop. I had built one room into a trellised garden, and now the trellises are in my garden. I do not recommend wood mulch for the garden.(not a GREEN thing to do!) This was last year, because I wasn't able to garden and help weed. We will be toughing it out this year with weeds and a mulch free garden.

 

 

The tarped sandbox and the church pew on the patio. 

Every kid should have a sandbox even if it's a tub full of sand. When we have a gathering, everyone gets their fingers in the sand.

The garden isn't just for growing food, I love hanging wash surrounded by our veggies and flowers.

And my dragonflies on the fence, with the perrenials in full bloom and a huge kohlarabi and some japanese eggplants.

Pots waiting to be moved.

 I have pots everywhere filled with annuals, and I move them around to where the yard needs color.

We have three fountains on the property. My fairy pond is nestled in bushes under the tree next to the screened porch.

The large pond under the south kitchen window. This is the noisest of the ponds and is surrounded with perrenials and pots full of color.

My fisher girl and boy---are patient and trying to catch fish in the pond.

Last two years, our feed trough pond has been overturned because of the Grand. Now she is going to be four, and is very good about listening to Gramma and Grampa. So we will shallow fill the pond this summer.

The pump is an old one from the Fishmarket. The harrowing tale of it's retrieval is here.

But, the birds dont' care where it came from and love taking a bath under the water and wait in line, LOL.

One of my favorites are the Hollyhocks on the side fence. They were gorgeous last year. I spread the seeds, in hopes of keeping them. Not too many are coming up this year though. It's still early though.

These are our old deck railings and boxes, however Carpenter Bees took up residence and we had to take it all down last year. I will miss the flower boxes and the privacy of the screen lattice, but we will see what grows on the front porch now.

The best part of vegetable gardens is the constant stream of fresh produce.

The first crops are always salad greens. We eat lettuce, spinach and mixed greens for almost 5 months of the year from the garden.

 

 The next crops are cucumbers, summer squash and zuchinnis.

 

 We have about three weeks of raspberries, this was our largest picking around July 1.

Once the tomatoes start,  I freeze, can, and also roast the cherry tomatoes. We do a final ripen in the windows in the kitchen, or critters and bugs get to them.

  

I roast tomatoes when there is not enough for canning. These are frozen in bags and added to dishes throughout the year---so much extra flavor! DIY-Roasting Tomatoes.

Towards the end of the summer in September the romas are ready for canning and CABBAGES for making sauerkraut and cabbage soup.   Hubby taking a breather after carrying our 10# cabbage to the table. 

At times the produce is overwhelming. I remember this particular week, we had two pickings like this. We grow pole beans and they are crazy when they get going. I freeze beans and broccalli. Cucumbers I try and keep for relishes and Hubby eats the smaller ones, constantly.  Squash are canned in a tomato juice concoction of celery, onions, peppers, zuchinni, pressure canner time is 90 minutes. But my zuchinni medley is so good!

We have garden duties split, Hubby is in charge of the garden, and I'm in charge of the flowers, and hacking away at the bushes and trees---and the cooking, canning, and freezing.

Hubby does help with the canning, especially doing peppers, barbecue and hot sauces, they are his specialty. We can make a good team when the jars are filling and so hot it takes two to keep up.

More produce. We eat very healthy...and almost turn green in the summer!

Back to my flowers, shade loving plants around the Fairy fountain and flower pots.

We have summer shade on the patio---which is wonderful when it is hot. Always hoses everywhere to water all the pots.

The screen porch back stoop has shade lovers. My Rex Begonia's my favorite with coleus,  and peppermint. My house plants thrive here and are outside from May until October.

The beauty of a garden--- is it always changes...the lights, the scents, the sounds...

and provides homes and food for critters, bees, and butterflies.

When the sun lowered again, we knew Fall's on the way. I moved many tropicals and houseplants back into the house.

The last of the day lilies and the garden was still lush.

Explosions of color in late summer and ornamental grasses surrounded the fishing pond.

Flowers in full bloom, while others began to get leggy and sprawl. Notice the daylily pods in the lower left.

 

The last summer bouquet inside.

We picked apples in Fall and canned 37 quarts of applesauce and and as many pints and half-pints apple butter from my sister-in-laws trees that year.

Fall began and Pumpkins were everywhere....and then made into pies and pumpkin butter, cookies, muffins, cake, etc. etc, etc. I'm planning a whole month of pumpkin recipes for Fall blogs.

Huge ones, rescued from an early frost.

Pumpkins and dried gourds in the planters. Nipped flowers struggled to bloom.

Our last Maple to change, this tree was usually dark cinnamon color but last year went golden.

A couple of days later...a frost. Mums and marigolds held out for a few days and then the trees emptied.

A final heavy frost, then snow and the garden settled in for Winter.

I Hope you enjoyed a whole year in our garden.

Thanks for stopping by, I love all your comments and questions and will try and answer them all.

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

 

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