Midwest Gardening 2022: Vegetables Success or Fail

Our NE Illinois USA,Vegetable garden is quite big, plus we plant in pots all over the place.

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LETS START WITH

 WINNERS THIS YEAR in the Vegetable Garden

Lettuces in planters were successful. I like the rail or porch planters, which keep lettuce clean and cuts down on pests mixed in with them.

Green Pole beans, we had just enough to eat fresh twice a week and still going strong. Picked two quarts this week.

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Oodles of magnificent Tomatoes. Despite only planting twelve plants this year, we had excellent size and growth, and less disease and failure being spread out. But, two Cherry Tomatoes in pots are not enough...! They  were super sweet this year.

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Zucchini and Yellow Summer Squash were great, we only planted two of each---and I still have some 'baker submarines' in the fridge, but the plants finally gave up three weeks ago. 

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Green and Carnival Peppers have been small but thick, and pretty constant in our pots, and still producing. I will try moving the pots into the greenhouse for an extended crop.

Hot Peppers were super producers in pots on the east side. Next year more dirt though in LARGER pots, so we don't have to water twice a day. We don't need anymore, lol.

Swiss Chard (ruby) is excellent and still growing. Fordhook (white) has had a resurgence this last week, I will get some for freezing.

Best year in the last 10 for Broccoli, and we will be picking from 6 plants until heavy frost. I planted it in an area that gets afternoon shade which I think helped.

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We have FIVE large Pumpkins making it hanging on the fence and on the neighbors shed roof, but we lost any on the ground to Scavengers/Bugs/Critters. 

Parsnips are looking good---and we are still waiting on Carrots for maximum size also.

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Green onions (this is the last) in box planters on the front porch and around the garden rail were successful.   

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Red Potatoes were small but successful. We grew them in a black garbage can and they were a nice batch, and sooooo sweet.while green onions were in box planters. Garden red onions---were so-so---our cold late Spring really hampered some stuff in getting started.

Butternut Squash so far looks fabulous and we have seven of different sizes, very happy hanging on the fence and growing golden. 

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Herbs are all doing very well. I will make pesto of all the Basil with wine vinegar and oil and keep in fridge for fresh flavor. My Rosemary hasn't grown much, I hope it will make it in the house.

I have a bumper crop of Sage--enough to purify the entire neighborhood. Parsley, Marjoram, Thyme, all look great.

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Total Failures--some!

Cucumbers/Pickles---too hot and they dried up early in July. We had a few pickings enough for one bowl of fridge pickles with fresh Dill (*poor crop) and a bit of sugar. I bought a half bushel to make pickle relish, (we did use our own peppers and ground up zucchini, though).

Spinach, we had one spare picking and then it bolted in the heat. Planted in the shadiest part of the garden. I had planted 2 types.

Sugar Snap Peas....2 packages and only 2 pods...that's $2.79 a peapod???? Too cold and wet to start, then too hot and dry. Dang!

Beets (2 pkg) were big, but every single one was eaten below the ground by bugs or critters---we will try some in a raised bed next year, maybe lined with fabric and use compost dirt. It's been years since we planted Beets, now I remember why...sigh.

So, Gardening 2022

was a bit of a tough year! 

Our kids came on weekends and picked 'Mom's Grocery Store' pretty much clean, which was a big help in dealing with it all. I made canned sauce from the excess tomatoes or made spaghetti meat sauce for dinners and froze those. We ate our way through fresh tomatoes in salads and tomato sandwiches...and warm right off the vine---just one of the benefits of organic gardening.

Now in Late September---I'm a dusk gardener---allergic to bees and wasps which are rampant in the garden this time of year. I have to be extra careful---many things are being neglected now until we get a break and get some cooler weather, which started yesterday. I've been bitten three times this last month...and maybe I will have to be midnight gardener.

How Did Your CROPS GROW?

Please share in comments and what part of the world you are? 

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Wednesdays Words and Pics

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 

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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I will post at the following Link Parties, 

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Your the Star

Happiness is Homemade

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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.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Sandi 

Midwest Gardening in June: Community Style

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Hi Midwest gardeners! 

Can you believe it's the first of June?---and just 3 weeks ago we had snow flurries and frost kissing temperatures, followed by 90's --which is when you don't want to transplant anything in the garden.

  What does this mean?

For this home, it meant 2-1/2 weeks of garden work, which normally would take 5-6 weeks. 

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Today I loaded up the truck with a bin full of plants, my yellow tow-cart and some extra tools to help a

 Kiwi-Mate with her first vegetable garden plot in the community garden.

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Roughly 5'x15' these garden plots are made available by the community for a fee: with an access to water, black dirt, and compost. The plots were made available the first week of May, so E planted seeds and plants, some made it and others not.

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E's plot has now reached the weeding stage and we replanted where things have failed with the crazy temps we had last month. I dragged my battery cultivator along, but her plot is too tightly packed with plants to use it in the garden. We tackled the outside edge of the weeds already invading the mulched walkways with the power cultivator, hoe and a cultivator.

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The plots' areas are bordered by a wedge of park along the main highway. A city maintained mounded Perennial bed's really coming into it's own. 

These Poppies were gorgeous. 

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Poppies have so many textures, here the hairy pods are getting ready to explode into orange bloom.

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And the Iris are just really gorgeous. They love rocks around their roots. 

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This is a lovely lavender and purple iris...so elegant.

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Next to the Iris was some Chamomile coming into bloom.

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The large plant in the foreground may be a Echinacea or Black-eyed Susan. Russian sage has nicely matured and adds bluish color. There are lots of other plants I'm not sure of. It will be fun to visit and see what all blooms.

After a thorough weeding of the garden plot, some moving plants around, cages added and some serious cultivating and watering, we headed back to her townhouse to do a bit of planting.

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E has a soft-touch for dogs. This sweet girl came as a Mom with 9 puppies E fostered last year. Puppies always find homes, but Barley is happy now as a member of the household. 

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Willy is E's newest foster/boarder. Willy is a small mixed breed Chihuahua who is looking for a home. He was surrendered by his only 'older' owner who could no longer keep him. He's available to adopt, he's a sweet shy boy with people but manages very well with other dogs. If interested and in the Chicago area, let me know and I'll give you contact info.

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Willie says: Trying to get attention in a four dog home isn't easy!!!

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Pai is E's energetic 1-1/2 year old crazy Corgi. He's adorable but quite the handful. 

Missing because she was under a bush was Vienna, a Dachsund mix...her Majesty to you---who rules the four-footed pack.

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E's trying a new vegetarian meal plan andthis Flat Bread with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh veggies was excellent. The kale salad with veggies, sun-flower seeds (we added some excess beet greens from the garden) and a hot balsamic dressing you let soak in---WAS also excellent. I could only eat two of those hearty slices of Flat bread. 

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Served on vintage Fiesta Ware with mixed cutlery, it was quite a feast to have under the shade of her 

huge Silver Maple tree in the backyard.

After lunch we did a bit of weeding, planting, and back yard clean up. Oh, I forgot we also planted perennials in the front and moved about 30 huge (one at a time) white rocks into the truck to extend the perennial bed that E has been working on. 

Photos for that later...Phew...this was quite the day. 

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E posing in front of her first veggie garden!

Does your community have Community Gardens???

If You enjoyed this post please FOLLOW IT in the upper right hand corner, to get just one email of each AD-Free post.

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.

Your the Star

Happiness is Homemade

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