Midwest Gardening: Herbs and Veggies on June 1

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 Such a busy week, I finally took photos on the 1st, and then have not had time, sitting down, to get them up!

Are we doing things differently, Yes! We cut back on the quantity of tomatoes, because my canning pantry is still full from our last two years. We also cut back on zucchini and yellow summer squash for the same reason. We will have plenty of fresh produce, just not for mass canning.

The first plants to pop out are herbs.

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This is the second year for a new Sage plant (middle) and it's doing well. I have another new Sage to the left, with Parsley, lower right is Marjoram, which is lovely with chicken and pork. The other bits of green are sedums. Last year I bought a square foot of small sedums, and sprinkled bits of them in lots of empty places. And they came back! YAY!

The marker on the left is Cilantro from seed which is doing nothing. Every year I plant herb seeds in the greenhouse and they just don't make it when transplanted. So I'm giving up! 

On the front porch I have pots with Parsley, Basil and Rosemary, Cherry Tomatoes and flowers.

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One of the  first plants to appear in the garden are the  Chives, which can really go wild. I keep a container on the porch and have three spots in the garden that always have Chives.

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I'm excited above the herbs and the trough pond is my climbing rose---which if you can see the buds will be a massive display. We have five birdhouses on this trellis, and they seem to all have noisy, scolding, sparrows, and I think some wild canaries in one. 

I spent an entire day, clearing the 5' easement behind the greenhouse and this trellis and used the weed fabric and three big bags of mulch back there, so the rose will no longer be attacked by weeds.

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I'd love to say I'm growing Spearmint---but it's invasive and I have been pulling it out for thirty-eight  years. The two Rhubarbs are doing well, I did a large cutting on Monday. And, we will have dessert this weekend. I did put a Moon Pumpkin started in the greenhouse in between the two Rhubarbs. Cross your fingers we get a nice big Pumpkin. 

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In the vegetable garden on the left are pots with Carnival and Green Peppers, next is Kohlrabi I grew in the greenhouse, then Spinach, then Fordhook Chard, and Ruby Chard, far right are 6 Broccoli plants. This area gets some shade in the afternoon, so I put the cooler loving plants here.

Our vegetable garden is roughly 20x 28' and we use cloth to cover the ground and then plant afterward. It works for us---and keeps the weeds at bay. We don't put mulch on it, and it's removed and reused for usually three years.

It works!!

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And, We leave lots of space in the garden for stumbling around, lol. On the railings I grow Nasturtiums, the bees love them, radishes, green onions, lettuces.

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On our trellis in the middle, I have beans on each side this year. They are doing well, and the birds didn't get all the seeds this year. I really consciously rotate crops. 

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Winter Squash, small Pumpkins and Gourds are along the east side. These hopefully will all be trained up the walls, and I planted lots of sunflowers along here also.

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Three north side trellis' have cucumbers, three varieties, that will be trained to go up. We have been amending the soil on this end of the garden which was all clay and rock. It looked really good this Spring after Hubby tilled in all our raked leaves and peat moss. We did that last fall also.  

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In between the trellis' are suflowers, hopefully not fifteen feet tall. I always try to mix flowers in my garden for the pollinators. We have twelve tomato plants with cages this year.

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A few Zucchini a couple of Summer Yellow Squash. I'm using extra tomato cages as hose protection.

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A few extra plants, Green peppers, and some extra Cherry Tomatoes. This is where the sandbox was the Grand grew out of. We are using paver base now with some future plans for this area. So many projects, so little time. 

Not shown, we are doing red potatoes in a garbage can, where you add soil as it grows. We will see how that works.

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Gardening is not all vegetables, a new trellis for the Clematis, and despite digging out half the DayLilies...they are super full again this year.

I'll show the shady areas next week after I plant some Coleus I started from seed and some new Caladiums.

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In our entertaining areas, I have pots, some filled with Mint for Bee protection, (I'm allergic) and others with Lemon Grass for the mosquitos. 

Flowers from our greenhouse include: 4 O'Clocks, Marigolds, Bachelor Buttons, Alyssum, Nasturtiums, Forget Me Nots, and I planted lots of Zinnias and Sunflowers and some taller Marigolds. These are all around the yard and in garden areas in the ground and in pots.

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On the East side of the house are Perennials, Holly Hocks(only a few this year) some must have froze out. I have planted a tray of seeded starts from the greenhouse and also seeds in the ground, so next year will be again full of Holly Hocks! (Bi-ennials)

The old yellow chair was retired(disintegrated) and is replaced for now with a light orange pot full of flowers and grass. Our Peonies are delayed from the late spring and just starting to bloom this week.

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Along the east fence are lots of winter Squashes planted to climb the fencing. 

I have placed my Hot Pepper pots here, far from the garden and the other peppers. It's always a surprise when a nice bell pepper, slightly misshaped turns out to be hot from cross pollinating. 

We also have Japanese Eggplants and Dill on this side. (no photo)

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The first Peony bloom ....YAY! 

Happy Midwest Gardening, more next week as I finish up the rest of the yard, slowly! 

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW???

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. Please do not use my photos without permission. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts, or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

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Sandi 

Midwest Gardening: Supposed Spring Gardening April 2022

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I know this photo looks like Spring, but yesterday was only one of two days in April that it was nice. Last week we had snow three times, and we have below freezing temps forecasted this week.

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A few Daffodils have actually poked their pretty heads out. No tulips and Iris are only snips sticking up.

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We have a NEW trellis for the Clematis. I relocated the OLD birdhouse on the play set. The grand is seldom here to play on it anymore. We will begin dismantling some of it and using the materials for projects.

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Only things up on our north beds are two rhubarb plants which are doing nicely, and of course mint, same mint I have been pulling for 38 years.

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We have a few chives here and there and I already made a delicious bacon/cheese/chive spread for Easter. My beds are still covered in winter yuck---but that is sheltering the bees and helpful bugs to keep warm enough until it stops freezing. Not to mention protecting tender perennials.

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Hubby started to till this week, but finding it so very wet with the recent rains. We have moss growing on everything as we have had so few sunny days. We are about 3 1/2 weeks behind last year, weather wise.

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I baked the last of the squash and gourds and froze their goodness last week. Two big ones had gone bad, so I dumped them in the garden, as they were really rotten.

Some huge critter left some big prints in the garden with no beginning and no end???just in the middle---An Alien Critter??

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This is my peas---spot for planting, which I had planned to do today---but it's too wet, we had near an inch of rain this AM. The hose goes to the garden sink, we can easily direct waste water from cleaning vegetables wherever needed.

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Inside the greenhouse it's starting to look GREEN! Some pansies I picked up for the backyard and another special pot full. My reused plant tags are being sorted here. I have to come up with a better system, for sure.

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I planted all this in early to mid-March---Cleomes I re-planted again yesterday, very poor germination. The tomatoes are ready for transplanting. Most tomatoes were in cups--but we ran out of room in the house for more big trays.

All the plants were moved out to the greenhouse Easter week, so we would have room to eat in the kitchen.

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These tomatoes in bigger pots look great and the peppers, too.

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Has anyone noticed how few seeds are in packets this year? 

Since when are they stingy on marigold seeds?

I've really kept track of how many seeds are in the packets and the germination---I'll post soon.

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The Chinese Eggplant will need to be thinned this week, they look great!

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This Dill/Cilantro tray looks miserable...so spindly---when the sun finally came out they baked in the greenhouse. I have them in shade now to see what survives. I really have bad luck with herbs from seed.

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Here's another really skimpy seeds marigold tray. 

I will start some more with my old saved seeds.

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The Kohlrabi look great, the planter holds Chives and lettuce. Normally they are on the front porch by now---but it's going to be too cold.

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Yesterday, I finally started cucumbers (3 kinds) Zuchinni, and yellow summer squash, only a few plants of each. Also some Waltham Butternut Squash our favorite and a good keeper, along with mini gourds, and of course pumpkins for pies and decorating!

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I have three planters of Nasturtiums going ---and they all look great!

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This is Radishes and onions. We usually have fruit for Mother's Day---not this year, it will be later for sure.

We got a notice from our community and county that serious Avian Flu has been found in the area, and we have been advised to turnover birdbaths and remove all bird feeders. So sad, it has hit the farmers in Illinois also.

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We love our little tweety birds, so I filled an entire huge garbage can with dumped out feeders-(feed went to the garbage) filled it with water and quite a bit of bleach to kill any bacteria or virus that might left on them. They will be rinsed and stored, and used again when we have the all clear. 

I'm sure the squirrels will be unhappy at not getting any 'leavings' on the ground, and the bunnies, too. Early AM I see a sweet bunny nibbling the thrown seeds and also the tender grasses created around our patio stones.

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The Bleach---will kill the virus, even though it's the NOT-Green thing to do. Birds are very important to all ecology systems and need to be protected.

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I can't wait for some Spring flowers...

My neighbors yard with the white Narcissus, so pretty. 

Tomorrow the electrical power stack, meter, fuse panel, main power line, and line to the garage are all being REDOne by contractors. This is something we can't do ourselves. Tuesday and Wednesday roofers install a new roof  and  gutter system. They are even going to hook up our rain barrels, and work out proper drainage for our 'on a slight hill house'.

That's if the weather holds!

See you on the other side...of lots of money spent on nothing pretty. 

OOPS---last minute addition

I got one long tray of Bachelor Buttons planted in the greenhouse and then....

WE HAVE TICKS in the GREENHOUSE---&#!@*!!!

More on that later!

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Thanks  ALWAYS  for visiting,

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

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. Please do not use my photos without permission. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts, or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Sandi