My Chicago Garden

Diary

Winter Weather : Mild - ( Last Frost Apr 28 )

Spring Weather: Wet and cool

Early Summer Weather: Mild and humid

Late Summer Weather: Mild

Fall Weather: Very wet and cool

Garlic - Chesnok Red [ Seeds of Change ]

• Planted in cold frame in late fall
• Snapped off the scapes in late June
• Tops turning brown in early July
• Immediately harvested when we returned home from vacation July 27th. Stalks completely brown. I think it was a little late, but couldn’t help it. In kitchen drying out.
• Oct 13 - have about 30 cloves in the pantry. No issues so far.

Pea - Alaska (Early Maturing) [ Ferry Morse ]

• Tried to transplant and they died
• Planted transplant’s from store but cold spring held them back
• Waited a few weeks and direct sowed seeds between transplants and the seeds over took transplants by early June
• Ended up with 12 to 16 plants…love these peas!
• First harvest was was mid June. Heavy harvest in late June / early July
• Plants dead when we returned home from vacation July 27th. Other plants were doing fine so I don’t think it was lack of water. Just “burn out” from the early and heavy harvests.
• 8/6 - Planted new row of peas
• 9/28 - Harvest of first pea pod
• 10/24 - Last harvest of a few pea pods. First frost expected tomorrow. They needed 2 more weeks for a full harvest. Missed it by…that….much!

Green Bean - Tendergreen Bush [ Seeds of Change ]

• Direct sowed 3 foot by 3 foot area in late april
• Heavy harvest in late June / early July
• Ran out of seeds so planting new variety for late season harvest
• 8/6 - Planted a multi-variety pack
• 9/28 - Beans forming. Beautiful color of flowers
• 10/13 - First real harvest. All three colors are doing well.
• 10/26 - Two more full harvests in the past 10 days. Expecting first frost tomorrow.

Carrot - Sweet Treat Hybrid [ Burpee ]

• Planted one 3 foot row in late April
• Planted another 3 foot row in mid June
• First harvest in early July
• 4 - beautiful 6″ carrots on July 27th. Need to thin mid June plants.
• 8/6 - Thinned mid June plants and put down two more rows in the cold-frame ready bed
• cold-frame rows never sprouted…I think not enough water and too hot

Tomato - Romma [ store transplant ]

• First harvest July 27th. Teagan ate first harvest standing in the garden. She said it was good.

Tomato - Yellow Cherry [ store transplant ]

• First harvest July 27th. Excellent shape and color

Tomato - Better Boy [ store transplant ]

• First harvest July 27th. Excellent shape and color.

Potatoe - Red Cloud [ Fedco ]

• Planted in late April and mulched with straw
• Starting to flower in early July
• Starting to die, first harvest of three fist size potatoes on August 31
• Harvested on September 9th

Potatoe - Kennebec [ Barn Owl Feed and Garden ]

• Planted in late April and mulched with straw
• Starting to flower in mid July
• Harvested on September 28th

Squash - Butternut [ Park Seed ]

• All transplants died
• Direct sowed one plant in potatoe garden in late April
• Damaged by construction workers
• Early July and still no growth, but still alive and struggling
• Showing signs of growth in Late July
• 2 growing. Harvested first one September 20th
• Harvested last one on September 28th.

Pumpkin

• Thought dead when house painters stepped on early growth. 16 foot growth when we returned from 2 weeks vacation in late July
• Eaten by local rodents

Watermelon

• Thought dead when house painters stepped on early growth. 5 foot of growth when we returned from 2 weeks vacation in late july.
• Eaten by local rodents

Cauliflower - Early Snowball A [ Ferry Morse ]

• All transplants died
• Direct sowed in late April
• Ravaged by cabbage white butterflies. No harvest. Pulled.

Cabbage - transplant’s from local store

• Gigantic plants. Covered with bug netting and are beautiful!
• First harvest in Early July (5lb head)
• Despite bug netting, cabbage white butterflies decimated external leaves while on vacation in late July. However, looks like netting allowed the cabbage to grow big enough to survive. Harvested remaining 6 heads with minimal internal damage. Now swimming in cabbage.
• 8/6 - Planted cabbage seeds in cold-frame ready bed
• 10/13 - At true leaf stage and doing fine
• 10/26 - Entering true cold-frame period. Leaves are about the size of a small hand. Doing well.

Cucumber - National [ Barn Owl Feed and Garden ]

• Very very slow start. Not much of a climber. Very disappointed.
• Harvested first cucumber early July
• Pulled remaining plants late July.

Cucumber - Sweet Marketmore

• All transplants died
• Direct sowed 4 more in late June after National variety was an obvious failure
• House sitter harvested 5 very large cucumbers while we were on vacation and I pickled them July 27th when we returned. Prolific growth now.
• Late July/Early August - harvested 10+ cucumbers with plants still growing!
• September - still harvesting, took 10 in early september and 10 more in late september
• October 12 - pulled remainder of plants and harvested about 20 small cucs to give away

Lettuce - Mixed (Iceberg, Bibb, Grand Rapids)

• Direct sowed 5 rows of 3 feet in late April
• Way way way too much lettuce. Mel want’s a “crunchy” variety next year.
• Pulled all lettuce in early July to make room for mid season harvest of something else