Showing posts with label raised planters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raised planters. 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.  





Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Midwest Gardening: Garden Starts, Plants, Planters...wishing for Spring!

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It's trying hard to be Spring in Chicagoland, it was 70 yesterday, but will be below freezing tonight, it's already in the low 40's at 1pm. I hooked up the heater in the greenhouse as I have all my Dahlias, Potato Vines, and miscellaneous summer bulbs started in there. Hopefully since it was sunny today, it will hold. I will put it on high tonight.

I haven't posted much about our home, mostly because it has been full of bags of donations, shipments of 'stuff', and barely put away Christmas, and well---PLANTS, lots of PLANTS.

In the Kitchen...I began the garden starts last week, March 5-10, actually and entire month late. But, that is another story.  

Check out THIS POST it's a great blow by blow of the entire process from the past! YIKES I'm behind this year.

Anyway I had to move plants everywhere ELSE! To the Bedroom with four...

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I have a different piece of furniture here now...but I'm double protecting it...from the water from these plants.....

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And these. Hard to take photos with bright light outside, The hanging spiders have been quite happy in here with an air purifier and a humidifier running full tilt all winter. The only plant not happy is my Rex Begonia..which I think got overwatered...they are touchy but gorgeous.

Back to the Living room and PLANTS!

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The biggest plant was this darn IVY TREE...which I love and hate...each time we transplant it, it becomes HEAVIER. LOL. It's very happy in the living room windows.
I also moved three Mandilla into the living room and  more plants into my bedroom. It's pretty much plant heaven in our house right now. Oh, another one is in the bathroom...very happy there.

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Chaos and Plant Central: The upright box is one of the big garden planters 3'x8'x 2' high (above bunny munching) for the vegetable garden, the other is opened on the floor---a million pieces of metal...that should be lots of fun. 

(Each year from now on we will build or order raised containers for the garden.) We are getting too old to be lifting and bending over so much, and container gardening will be more compact, also less tilling for my hubby. At 78 the tiller basically drags him around. 

Wood will be very pricey with the Canada Trade wars...and tariffs, so we opted early to purchase these metal ones at a steal. They are 50$$ $more now then early February.

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Middle pot: I purchased a lovely lime Philodendron to put in the bottom of the pot with the Dracenas. It will be on the front porch this summer under the eaves, maybe the end of April or May.

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This  LIMEY should look great in that old antique pot with the Dracena spikes.

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The climbing Mandilla on the left is growing so many new shoots, it's going everywhere. I had fertilized everything the end of February and the plants are now kicking into high gear.

Our kitchen is perfect for starting plants, two huge windows facing South and East. Problem was I had so many plants wintering over in the house.

March 5-10 I  planted a bunch of flower and vegetable seeds. When they begin to sprout, the tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and flowers, I will keep you up to date on how everything is doing.


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It takes a lot of room to do starts. Hopefully I can fill the greenhouse with the rest, if the temps would moderate a bit more. It's been pleasant in the 80's in the greenhouse, I actually turned the fan on yesterday.

Later this week, I would love to start Peas, and the lettuce/radish/onion pots for the railings so we can have fresh veggies---as soon as possible in the greenhouse. By April we should be able to put carrots, beets, broccoli, and Kohlrabi into the ground, they are all cool weather plants. 
Since critters ate my zucchini, beans, cantalope, spinach, brocolli, and all my sunflowers last year...I'll be starting those in the greenhouse and move when they are BIG into the gardens. (Another reason for raised planters).

LEFT:  I moved my two rosemary plants into one big ugly pot. It's been okay this winter...and will definitely be happier outside when it is warmer. I'm going to have to replace many pots this next year. 
REDO:  I will garage sale for some.

CENTER: 
The wooden spoons on the covers are holding them down for they were a bit warped. I use big baking trays under some of my starters. I have two layers of plastic covering the surface of my cabinet, which has worked in the past.

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First thing up planted on March 5 was COSMOS. YAY! But this means I'll have to transplant them to bigger containers later. UGH.


The South window has these shelves set up. IF all goes to plan, everything will be in the greenhouse before Easter, so we can eat (10 or so) at the table.

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These are Birthday flowers  (the roses were done)  my from February. I actually love the spicy scent of carnations...so nice to have something blooming now. Of course the roses are drying straight in the hall wall for use some other time.

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I Can't wait for flowers like these!


How are Your 
GARDEN PLANS
Going!?

Thanks always for visiting. 
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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











Monday, January 20, 2025

Midwest Vegetable Gardening Recap 2024:When Life became too Frenzied.

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2024 was quite a year for us, huge projects planned, the greenhouse loaded with seedlings and plants, but my illness  limited and my husband assisted and cared for dear friend, whom we lost.

Such is life, I'm on the mend, my hubby is executor and our life is now full of bills and a tale of two houses. BUT,

When Life became too frenzied, 

    She came to her garden 

 And whispered to the plants

 Until her smile returned 

 And her mind was calm.

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I don't know how many times I took a few moments of peace in the backyard this year, watching the plants grow, staring at clouds, talking to the birds and trying to muster the energy to get something else done. Simply watering, the endless cycle of watering, in late summer was exhausting. We even put timers on some of the hoses. 

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Our year began with a warm spell in very early Spring here in NE Illinois, so March 1-5 we gutted the greenhouse. It was lovely and mild outside and we could even hook up the hoses and sterilize all the shelving, everything was piled in the yard.

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Why? We had an infestation of moles and mice in the gravel floored greenhouse and they were living in the fiber-glass insulation and in walls. It was disgusting, so after cleaning the empty greenhouse hubby re-insulated the lower walls with foam sheets and then covered it with waterproof vinyl shower panels followed by treated lumber trim. Then we laid a new floor of patio blocks-very tightly pushed together with sand as a filler.

 

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We left loose sand on the blocks and I would sweep it into the settled areas. Eventually it was all gone. Moving back in was a joy, the upside for all the work. The greenhouse was very snug for our seedlings which grew and grew and GREW.

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I planted quite early in the long fence boxes and in larger single pots.

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I started seedlings in the house in early February..while we started flower seeds, peas, bulbs, and onions in  the greenhouse in late March. 

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Inside on the kitchen table. Mini bulbs and Ranunculus...
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Our tray setup in my kitchen--with Peppers started first.

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Moving into the greenhouse with a little heat help...the pots with trellis were snowpeas.

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In  late March We had to run the heater on and off just in the evenings, as the greenhouse would get to 90+ degrees easy during a sunny day. I spent a lot of time running in and out opening and closing windows.


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By April, everything was ready for bigger pots, and our yard was bursting with bulbs blooming lush and full (what the bunnies didn't eat).

The greenhouse was hot...and plants GREW too fast before planting in the ground.

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Dahlias...really went crazy.

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In the yard our Bulbs came up quite early the second week in March--the rabbits ate everything as fast as they popped out of the ground. We started spraying coyote urine deterrent and that helped, but we found rabbits in the main vegetable garden too and also chipmunks that were also eating seedlings. I put up fences, tents, netting and we tried many different eco-friendly products...UGH. 

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Hubby built a long raised planter along the fence.  It is lovely to garden at waist height in the raised planter, but the squirrels and birds thought so, too. We will be fencing these planters in this year to protect our starts. I planted beans three times and lost 95% of the plants. We basically had 2 meals of beans for 2, from 6 packages of seed. LOL. Making beans like $9 a pound.

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Cutting blocks for the new garden patio...we were lucky on three blocks had to be cut for the greenhouse, but more on the outside. We have been here since 1984...so this is the third/repair transformation on the garden area...hopefully the last.

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Hubby also redid wood beams across the garden along with the new planters, and fencing across the back of the lot.  Some vining plants tried to climb but we may need some lattice bits here and there. Our wind is substantial here, so thick posts are a must and sturdy trellises. The snowpeas blew over multiple times, I will have to use bigger pots and more dirt this year.

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Raised shelving for pots around the trellis area in the vegetable garden. This was ideal and the PEPPERS were ecstatic to have sun all day and really produced. 
And, everything clustered kept them from wind damage.

We still had problems with critter/munchers despite lots of netting, foil strips, fencing...I planted corn three times and it came up and then disappeared.

Most successful seeded crop----OODLES OF GIANT COLEUS. I had to give lots away. I start those first in February, same time as our Tomatoes and Peppers...and whoa...did we have gorgeous Coleus on the right and left, and bulb raised Caladiums. Harvested bulbs we will start in early February---they take forever to get going. 

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I planted an extensive area with asparagus, carrots, beets, chard and spinach in semi- shade.

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Beets and Carrot sprout quickly---and need to be thinned.

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After thinning a second time, a must when broadcast planting. Our carrots and beets were very successful, though and delicious. We still have carrots in the drawer now.

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Some parsnips in the mix here as well as white, orange and red carrots.

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I thinned the beets twice and we had beet green and baby beet soup ...excellent. 


I pickled some beets, and we had lots for meals roasted or boiled...so healthy and delicious.

The Chard and spinach had a hard time with the hot temperatures and shut down growth and then had a resurgence in late Fall. 

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The Fence planter boxes produced oodles of different lettuces, green onions, herbs and flowers. These pooped out in Mid-September, and we pulled a lot of plants out...early.

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Nasturtiums are my favorites for planter boxes along with marigolds which the bees love, they have continuous blooming and I start them both early in the greenhouse.

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Our garbage-can potatoes. We harvested white and red potatoes, close to a 1/2 of bushel. These were harvested very late, since we still had green plants. 

Easy Peasy-You plant potato chunks at the bottom of a garbage can with 1/4 full of dirt (with holes for drainage), when the plants are tall, plant more potatoes and fill with dirt to the bottom leaves, etc., until the bin is full. Keep moist

 LOTS of potatoes this way. Just keep moist and use good dirt.

(We used compost dirt and peat moss mixed with potting soil. They also keep well. We just finished the last of them at Christmas. When I don't use potting soil, I add a fertilizer to the compost dirt and the peatmoss.

This year we planted less tomatoes, only 8 plants instead of more than 24. They produced well, but were spindly from the early rains. Results didn't overwhelm us, thank goodness. Food Canning is a long process and I wasn't really up to it. The plants were done at the end of August, which is early, but they were just baked and dried out from our high temps, cloudless skies with no rain.

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First picking of Veggies. Cucumbers were fabulous and we filled our canning shelves with relishes and pickles, and 2 huge gallons of crunchy refrigerator dills and lots of Relish.

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Homemade pickle relish 

Cucumbers were planted in 12-16" pots raised up off the ground. Which worked excellent, I also had 6 pots of Green/Sweet and Carnival Peppers. I actually moved two pots into the greenhouse in October, but they got frosted with a deep freeze in early November. 


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We tried Snowpeas in large pots in the greenhouse, and they survived and produced a lot of peas until it got too hot in August. They did blow over, so I will use bigger pots this year. I did bamboo and netting ...which worked well, and the netting kept critters from chewing on the plants when they were young. I tried netting the broccoli, but that was a  critter favorite. It was also too hot for good Broccoli and one early harvest was the best. 

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Yellow summer squash was only two plants, and so were Zucchini...and we had PLENTY to eat fresh. Next year we may plant a bit more for canning, my shelves are getting empty. The trick is to have Zucchini, Tomatoes, herbs and peppers all harvesting at the same time for canning in tomato sauce. But, I even made Zucchini pickles which were tasty.

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Pie pumpkin and Butternut (miniature...apparently)

Pumpkins and Squash, weren't great...lots of vines, but in early summer the blossoms were smashed by rain and the heat made them wilt before they could be pollinated properly. 

We had fruit that rotted early at say 3-4" because of the wet and hot conditions. Then we went into total DRY, while the rest of the country was drowning. Weather was crazier than normal this year. 

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We did get 5 pumpkins, and maybe a dozen mixed squash. We just had the Butternut and Delicata this week, delicious.  I did make pumpkin bread, muffins, and Pies. Nothing is better than home baked pumpkin, which I chop up measure and freeze for recipes.

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A real surprise was our two Rhubarb plants that produced again and again. I did a final cutting in FALL and it was still tender and sweet. I always leave at least a third of the stalks on the plant to keep growth going. And even with the hot and dry temps (remove dead leaves and stalks) the plants kept going. I have some in the freezer, and I made muffins,  strawberry/rhubarb jam, lots of pies and cakes. So good for you.

Despite my health, I did manage to get everything in the ground this year, except for a couple of tomatoes, and maintain it. I had help with harvesting, my kids picked vegetables on weekends... throughout the summer, and we canned and froze a lot. 

Many hands make light work!...and family projects are always fun.

The best part about Vegetable Gardening is planning for next year. We will start seeds in February and my next post will be Garden Planning and a rundown of the successful seed selection I had last year. Many, I will use again for our 2025 Midwest Garden. I'm so looking forward to a better year and feeling much better now three months after surgery. 

Thanks for Visiting and 

WHAT WILL YOUR GARDEN BE GROWING!

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