My Chicago Garden » The Old Garden

Starting a Podcast

tyler — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:14:11 +0000

I've decided to take a shot at doing a podcast on building a new garden at our new house in Chicago.

An episode or two will be up shortly at www.mychicagogarden.com

U-Pick Apples

tyler — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 02:14:21 +0000

Saturday we drove south near Lexington, KY to a U-Pick Apple farm. Great fun was had by all. We listened to a banjo player, watched a chainsaw wood carver, took a ride on a hay wagon and feed some corn to some lambs and a donkey. Oh yeah…we picked Golden Delicious apples and I [...]

Fall Harvest

tyler — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:21:01 +0000

We harvested our one and only pumpkin today. I also sowed some more Winter Rye into the garden boxes as some of the earlier sowing either didn't germinate or I had them too deep in the soil. It also may have been that I opted for the low end of the seed per acre ratio when maybe I should have [...]

Fresh raspberries

tyler — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 02:26:31 +0000

We took a family outing to a local U-Pick farm and had fun picking raspberries. Later in the evening we made home made raspberry jam! Yum. This definately clinches it. We have to have berries in the garden next year

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And one survives!

tyler — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 23:55:52 +0000

Looks like a single sun flower survived the weather and grew to maturity.

Also the new canner arrived today. Oh wow…now I know why it's built by a steel foundry. It's built like a tank.

First attempt at canning

tyler — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:37:59 +0000

I couldn't wait for our pressure canner to arrive so I went and purchased about 5 pounds of cucumbers to make into bread and butter pickles. After canning they are suppose to sit for 7 weeks before eating. Argh!! I actually wanted to figure out how much 5 pounds (about 12 medium size) would [...]

Animal Planet

tyler — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 03:35:42 +0000

For the last week my wife and I have been watching a particularly large spider (in our mind) build his web and eat his catch right before our eyes. About a week ago my wife noticed that a spider was building a web below the light above the sliding glass door to our deck/backyard. [...]

Garden Trashed by Thunderstorm

tyler — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:59:08 +0000

Oooh man! My garden got trashed last night during a storm. Well part of it anyway.

I lost my big beautiful bell pepper plant that I had not even had a harvest from, my mostly harvested bush beans, the onion crop is in jeopardy, one of the pole been plants was hit and the [...]

Garden is looking great!

tyler — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:29:29 +0000

Just got back from vacation out in California and the garden has taken off like crazy. Corn is growing great, beans are ready for harvest and tomatoes are showing promise. I even had to cut back my basil plant by 50% so the other herbs would have room to grow.

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2006

tyler — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 23:49:16 +0000

In 2006 I plan on pulling up at least 500 square feet of grass and nearly doubling the size of the garden to 1000 square feet. We may also pull up another 920 feet of grass for a non-food garden. All depends how much it costs to rent a grass stripper and how much [...]

2005

tyler — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 23:00:17 +0000

In 2005 I added an 8×8 raised bed and 4 rows of corn. The 8×8 bed was intended for squash but mismanagement this year has caused the squash to overgrow the box. I am re-evaluating the use of the new bed for next year. I believe the box may be better used for poll [...]