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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.
author unknown
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.
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.
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.
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.
I planted quite early in the long fence boxes and in larger single pots.
I started seedlings in the house in early February..while we started flower seeds, peas, bulbs, and onions in the greenhouse in late March.
Inside on the kitchen table. Mini bulbs and Ranunculus...
Our tray setup in my kitchen--with Peppers started first.
Moving into the greenhouse with a little heat help...the pots with trellis were snowpeas.
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.
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.
Dahlias...really went crazy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I planted an extensive area with asparagus, carrots, beets, chard and spinach in semi- shade.
Beets and Carrot sprout quickly---and need to be thinned.
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.
Some parsnips in the mix here as well as white, orange and red carrots.
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.
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.
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.
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.
oldnewgreenredo
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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