Birds, Poorman's Bouquet and Midwest Gardening 2024 Bounty

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It's Mid July 2024, after several years of drought to extreme drought our NE Illinois area, we have now been deluged this year like much of the country. Very Hot and Wet here in Chicagoland. Upside the trees and bushes are lush and green, green, green.

The long table in the front of the livingroom looks out to the front yard and several bird feeders. We always watch from here and keep our bird books handy for identification.

The rain has been so frequent, you have to dash outside for anything, grab some produce, dump saucers or pick a few flowers, before the next rain.

This is the last magazine subscription coming to our home. Many years ago I eliminated ALL of our other subscriptions, to save paper and the planet---this one is the last subscription to run out. Birds and Blooms is a very cheery magazine, with fabulous photos of birds across the country and information on how to attract birds and their habits.

This is what I call unconscious decorating. I cover my dark wood furniture in summer with lighter vintage tablecloths, the magazine is here with our special bird identification printouts. This stuff has just sort of landed here...over the last month and suddenly it's a 

vignette. 

The thrifted pot  I found last month holds bird books from my childhood with notations inside from 1953-4 of birds seen then. Oddly enough with our climate warming, we are seeing different kinds birds now... different than 60 years ago and others seem to be gone. I haven't seen an Oriole in YEARS.

My Philodendron plant needs repotting, it's scraggly. I moved it from the bedroom to here hoping the light will be better. I dashed outside yesterday and cut the drooping flowers from the last storm and put them in my French enameled coffeepot.

My Poorman's Bouquet: Hosta leaves, Lilies, tops of blooming Hostas, Giant Sedum heads, Coreopsis, Phlox are so rich in colors and a sprig of Sweet Potato Vine that was broken and I'm trying grow roots on.  Lilies don't last long, but keep blooming from their buds  if you just pull the expired blooms off. This bouquet should last a week.

It's really an exuberant display, and makes me smile.  My Danish bird figurines are collected on the table and corralled in a little wagon that I found months ago in a thrift store. I imagine I've tossed some seed in there and they are just visiting.

In the kitchen...

I also dashed into the garden and grabbed cucumbers, two HUGE Green Peppers, the last of the Snow Peas, the first of the Broccoli, and a tiny Zucchini. 

We've had a half dozen Zucchini's from our three plants this year already. Everything grows overnight it seems.

I put up a gallon go overnite Dill Pickles recipe here: OVERNIGHT DILL PICKLES on Thursday...so delicious and crunchy, and a large container of Danish  Pickles, recipe here: FRESH DANISH DILL OR SWEET PICKLES. I did the sweet version. 

The heat and the rainwater are making some things especially (cucumbers prolific) and others seem to be at a standstill. Tomatoes are huge but refusing to turn red. It's already late for tomatoes to begin turning with all this heat.

The last of my potted peas. I may get one more picking, and I plant to do another pot at the end of the month---in a bigger pot that won't blow over. Hopefully I can start them in the greenhouse if it isn't too hot to protect from the voracious critters we have this year. 

I'm going to try to make  a homemade critter spray...and I will let you know how that works!

See you again Soon!

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What's Bloomin' in Midwest Gardening 2023

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Good Morning, first hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. We celebrated with family yesterday, and it was lovely in the low 70's and we even roasted marshmallows at dusk. 

But yesterday early, I ran around the yard and took some quick photos...of what is in bloom!

We are just budding out after a very late dreary Spring, and we are already in drought here, but everything is busting out with diligent watering. Portulaca or Moss Roses in a pot. A bit of this and that in the earn. The stars here are the Hosta bursting in this shade bed.

These I grew from rootings from Home depot 2 years ago...they are huge this year.

I had to support all my Iris, with the dry winds, so many tipped over and broke, they are in the house in vases. We will have a few more next week, I personally like the foliage as a great contrast against the brick.  Plant in lower left is a transplanted Phlox grown from a root start. Crossing my fingers. Newly purchased Shasta Daisy is just opening. I had a much lower budget this year, but we lost so many perennials with the freeze and thaw winter. So I moved a lot of things around, and did purchase a couple replacements.

This front bed has several types of Day Lilies, Boxwood and Iris in the back, and Sedums in the front row which are very drought tolerant.

Another gorgeous IRIS, this one soaked up the sun and no adjusting of the photo could bring out the details...so pretty and tall!

These are my favorite, classic Iris, I've long forgotten the varieties. 

Out on the mound near the street, nothing is blooming YET, except these little pom-pom perrennials I just planted. In two weeks there should be several plants flowering. I've given up planting annuals out here as it just bakes in the sun. Perennials have deeper root systems and seem to survive better. I did loose a Hydrangea, a Rose and something else, I have to look at notes here this year, sadly. 

Without our own greenhouse plants this year, I purchased only a few basics. I'm skipping the trailers this year. Hubby had to rebuild this box as another car backed into the structure and really did a number on it. 

No one ever stops, to say they are sorry or help with the damage. That's three times in two years!

I've planted here, but it will take awhile for any really photo worthy shots. I'm trying Dahlias I started in the house, but they were so spindly, I don't know what will come of them.

My big pot by the stairway holds a 4th year Hibiscus (branches) we wintered over in the garage which was kept at a 45 degrees and lights on. The first weekend we brought it out, it got frosted and all the leaves dropped off. I pruned it and watered it, and it's coming back with buds all along the branches...we will see what happens.

I had tried digging it out to pot and bring in the house, but the roots were so massive, we decided to try and keep it wintered in the garage. 

More Iris behind the pond. The rose had significant damage, and this creeping invasive vine...went bonkers this Spring. I have to get in there and hack this down and try some root poison.  (Not a green thing to do--but it clearly is way too happy now.)

It also climbed on our trellis and swallowed our already dying Clematis.

Here is the Rose damage here. It is coming back---I didn't trim it early so I could see what was really dead. Will get to this sometime this week. So much winter damage...the worst we've had--and a very mild winter, also. The yellow Barberry are very happy also...and will need to be thinned drastically--and they are very prickly! 

Happiest plant on our lot...this Viburnum, which we deeply  trimmed from the inside out last year...and it rewarded us with TONS of blooms. A new drain pipe is going into this boxed area and I think that accounts for everything looking better.

The porch is sparse for now---the planter on the table is for my D-inLaws Birthday.

We have two Manilla hanging in pots. I will have to remember to water them. If they don't grow much in a week,  I will move them into the sun.

My porch herbs are happy! All the usual suspects, Cilantro, Thyme, Basil, Rosemary, and Parsley. 

Not a flower...but definitely Bloomin' are our two  Rhubarb plants---I'm thinking Rhubarb jam, rhubarb pie, rhubarb bars, bread, muffins, pudding....etc. NUM!

Not much is blooming---except of course weeds, this of course is Dames Rocket or Silver Dollar plants. I don't mind a few and the flowers are quite pretty and even cut well for bouquets. 

Another plant, Baby Tears...which the mild winter has encouraged. I've been digging  up hunks of this and using in my pots. SO FREE PLANTS! YAY! 

This area had our rain barrel and a bush which was lost last year with all the construction on the roof. I usually have a huge pot of Impatiens and Coleus here,

 but not yet.

I"M SO, so, So, far behind!

I am slowly tying up all the daffodil greens to make room for other plants. Eventually they get cut. The greens need to help and store food to the corms. Of course Daffodils really don't need any help to thrive. Buy them once and you have a gazillion for life!

The Hollyhock bed is coming along. I planted new ones last year and some this year also that are supposed to bloom immediately. YES--that is still the tent full of contents of the basement disaster. 

We are still working on that!

Last place with anything flowering is this small shaded bed next to our storage shed.

I grow root perennials in here, usually. I moved everything out , but these two columbine which are so happy here, and put in lettuce seeds and lettuce plants. This area gets filtered light with some sun...perfect for tender plants and lettuce, oh I did plant some Wasabi Radishes in here, too. We will see, lol.

Oh and it is totally fenced...seems we have bunnies that like to eat everything!

I've totally forgotten what this blue is, but it's happy right here, lol. where nothing is. At one time I had copper leaf and lime Heuchera or Coral Bells here, only one of four have survived over the years.

Crappy soil and tree roots seem to be the blame. 

This Clematis got a new trellis last year, and seems to have survived, despite the new well pump put in a week ago and getting bent and pushed aside.  Honestly another almost 3K...I wish we had moved a couple of years ago, instead of having to replace everything AGAIN!

Yep---stay in your home---and eventually rebuild it. We've put more $$$$ into this house in the last year then we paid for it by almost 50K. Something comes to mind about pouring money into a never-ending hole...

a joke...

NOT REALLY!

Still plugging away here in the Midwest...

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW!?

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Sandi

 

Happy Halloween from our Home to Yours!

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Definitely some OLD, NEW, GREEN, REDO in this post. 

It's finally Fall in Chicagoland, trees and foliage have been gorgeous and just as quickly dropped onto the ground. We've had brisk temps and then some sweet warm days...I call them the Golden Pumpkin Days!

We really don't do that much decorating for Halloween. We are on the busy entrance to our subdivision, so foot traffic is scarce and so are trick or treaters. So, we decorate for the drivers stuck at the stop sign and ourselves. 

Hubby is responsible for the blow-ups. We didn't put the OLD 8 foot Cat up this year...it's been awfully windy this season.  

 

This is the NEW lamp post that replaced the tree hubby took down when I was gone this summer.  I used three NEW spiderwebs from $Store.  I used 4 cable ties to put them up---easy peasy.

Here he is making sure the OLD train is still working....I tripped on a cord and ripped it, Thank goodness for Gorilla Tape, it's working pretty well!

Our garage OLD wreath with a REDO, I added some thrift store spiders, a $ store web, and our Old stick pumpkins (these are leftovers from my shop days, closed for 16 years now)  and the pumpkin on the left was a Good Will) GREEN purchase. We have purple lights on here, oh, and the NEW planter---the other one disintegrated from the sun and leaked like a sieve.

Walking up the walk....you see a lone Iris standing tall in the front flower bed. Our Iris were all trampled in Spring with the Roofers...so we really missed their blooms. But, these sometimes bloom twice, once in Fall. Hopefully some of the other colors will try. Odd to see the Fall Red Sedum and blooming Iris in the same shot!

Up the stairs to the front porch---the couch is a REDO covered in a thrift store table cloth-New tag still on it,....perfect for the season. I'll leave it out until Thanksgiving. Tablecloths are a wonderful source for covering outdoor furniture.

On the potting bench the the 'old' pumpkins were bought at thrift stores and rewired if necessary. One PUMPKIN is real from the garden. The Skelly heads scream and laugh and their eyes glow----really kinda spooky, when anyone makes a sharp sound. The door always sets them off cackling!  

The plants are still hanging on and are being sacrificed to the temps. They will be composted...a GREEN 

thing to Do!

Well, How's your 

OLD, NEW, GREEN, REDO Halloween Going ??

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Thank you for your cooperation,

 Sandi Magle

OldNewGreenRedo

Midwest Garden falling into Fall?

Normally, my blog is full of gorgeous summer photos of a garden to be proud of, but with the cold/late spring and the drowning two months of record rains, 

Chicagoland weather has been inhospitable to gardening.

My flowers are sad---everywhere, too much greenery to sustain through the season. I leave the blossoms on these to dry for the birds to feed.

Foliage was abundant, while roots were shallow and nonexistent on some of the tallest plants. A few days without water and tomatoes plants simply wilted instantly and refused to revive. Our tomatoes have been small, falling off the vines and way below normal production.

My Zinnias are 5 feet tall, but the flowers are very small and tight. 

No bouquets in the house this year each week. Never enough flowers to snitch from the yard.

I spent most of the summer dumping out saucers under plants and drilling holes in others for more drainage.

The Marigold on the right is growing through a crack in the sidewalk, just to show you what the dirt underneath is holding for water. I have watered it three times all summer.

But Fall is creeping up on us, and the sedum is small---but just opening.

These bees were absolutely burying themselves in the blossoms.

They never even blinked at me sticking a camera near them.

My back stairs---peeling from all the rain and we redid them last year, the green tinge is mold which covers everything. We bleached the stairs because they were scary slippery.

The birdhouse pole rotted, this year. Crazy!

Hollyhocks seed pods are still tightly wrapped. When they open, I will spread them out along the fence.

Strangely we have a few huge pumpkins. This one is at least 15" long.

Pie pumpkins are nowhere near ripening though.

Another large pumpkin on our antique cultivator. The leaves are starting to dry up, or mildew up--not sure which.

We have a few spaghetti squash, still hanging. Soon to be picked. They are very hard, not really ripe yet.

And Butternut squash, my personal favorite.

Another spaghetti squash, this one hides in the bean trellis, beans, we have finally had two pickings---so late.

Here's my dill---but there are no cucumbers to use it with. We had fresh cukes a couple at a time, not enough for making pickles.

Squash leaves looked like ancient tattered petticoats, and yet they try to blossom? 

Plants are confused, so am I.

And it's dropping into the low 50's tonight. Trees are thinking about turning, our Maple in front---with its edges starting to lemon out before either drying up or maybe turning salmon orange. 

Crossing my fingers. 

How is your Fall yard doing?

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

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Sandi