Garden Tour (5/10/08)
10 05 2008What a wonderful day to play in the garden! The temperature was wonderful and prospects of rain tomorrow. So I took the opportunity to do a quick look around the garden to see how things were doing.
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My wife and I hit the the Native Plant Sale in Wheaton a weekend or two ago and used what the girls picked out to replace the scraggly plants out by the big rock in the front yard. It is now our Native Plant garden. We have no idea what the girls picked out but who cares!!! It’s native. |
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The plants Melissa planted down the the driveway garden are all coming back and we’ve added several blueberry plants. I’m taking a bit of a risk with acid soil loving blueberries since I didn’t do a soil test, but I never have done soil tests so why start now? There’s a little bit of room left (where I’m standing to take the picture) but we don’t know what to do with it yet. |
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The perennial plants from last year are all coming up fine and I added a bird bath and bird feeder in the “screening garden” between the vegetable garden and the street/fence. You can see the edge of the vegetable garden in the left of the picture, and the fence to the right is the back of the fence in the first picture. |
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Tom Miller (our wonderful do-it-all contractor who has done the roof, the kitchen remodel and window, the master closet remodel and plumbing) has started the work of removing 50 year old cedar siding, soffits and windows and replacing them with completely brand new everything including windows and doors. By the time he is done the house will probably need to be called the Tom Miller house. You can see some of his work in the background of the new front yard sitting garden. We plan on doing some extensive landscaping in this area a couple years from now (not enough money!!), but for now it’s just a container or two and some chairs. We saw an oil lantern at the Wheaton French Market this morning that would be really neat to have in the early evenings in summer. |
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The vegetable garden is coming along nicely.
The FedCo potatoe has started to sprout, but not the potatoe from the local nursery. Hurm…. |
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Since I didn’t have sun flowers in the raised beds this year, I threw a couple down in a bare patch in the “screening garden”. I have no idea how it will look. |
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  I purchased some row covers for the cabbage and broccoli. I had pretty bad damage last year. Hopefully this will help. I had not expected to plant broccoli this year but I had some open ground in the raised beds and there was a sad looking 8 pack at HD that needed a home  |
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I’ve already had to make one harvest of the oregano. I had a paint bucket full of oregano when I was done. All from my pyscho oregano. I’m having to cut it back heavily to keep it from over growing the box and shading out the new tomatoe plant. Those are the garlic to the right that are growing like gang busters. |
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I’ve never really tried growing lettuce so this is my first year to give it a go. I’m trying to maximize space by having the cucumber run up and over in a shading arch to try and keep the lettuce cool during the high heat of the summer. I have several varieties all starting to peak out. There is also a row of spinach popping down in the bottom of the picture. |
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Here’s the last of the three raised beds. Peas are heading up the trellis and green beans are starting to fill out the grid pattern. You can also make out a bit of carrot tops and some more cabbage I’m trying to start from direct sow seed. It will go unprotected to see what happens. Oh yeah…and a couple basil up by the tomatoe. Can’t have tomatoe without basil in our house! |
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Looking forward to seeing how the native garden grows. It’s always so small to begin with. And I like the cedar siding photo - nice job.
Gardening with natives makes natural sense.
Five years ago there was a nasty scratch of land outside of the Blue Line Logan Square CTA station in Chicago’s north west side. It was hard packed dirt filled with litter and danger. Over the past five years several local community groups and over 400 volunteers have worked to transform this area into the Paseo Native Prarie Garden. Although this garden is in the midst of the city, it is not a city park and doesn’t recieve any city funds or maintenance. It grows from the concern and contribution of those who care and those who volunteer.
An annual plant sale to benefit the Paseo Praire Garden will take place this Sunday May 18 from 1 pm to 4 pm at the garden located on Kedzie Avenue between Wrightwood and Milwaukee Avenues. all proceeds go to purchse dirt, new plants, and mulch.
Last year a platform and benches were added to the garden and the first innaugral public performance of a play will take place following the sale at 4pm.
Come and join us, purchase plants to support our efforts, walk through the garden, and visit us often to keep up with the natural growth and changes from season to season.
i’ve been working on learning more about soil tests, and i’d suggest a simple pH test for the soil on the blueberries, as they do much better in acid soil.
i like the idea of the cucumbers arching over the lettuce to keep it cooler in the heat of the summer. thx, eric.
What do you use/recommend for the pH test? I’ve seen the various gadgets at the big box store and a few nurseries but I haven’t tried one…for fear it will read completely wrong. And I’m too lazy to get a full blown IL extension office soil test.
Meh… the blueberries will tell you soon enough if they’re not happy with your soil, right? And if they’re NOT, and they’re little enough (which they should be even next year, since you just put them in) you can just dig them out, amend the heck out of the soil then, and replant them. Or move them to pots.
Such is the way my (lazy–er, efficient, I mean!) mind works about these things… and I was lucky enough that the blueberries liked me without any extra messing.
Btw I found your blog via Gina at My Skinny Garden. Yay! Another urban gardening blog, and a good one–I’ll be back.