Gardening – Page 5 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Bricks and mulch and backache, oh my!

It’s been a busy pair of weeks here between the shed removal and preparing the garden for winter. When we demolished the shed, we found a stacks bricks hidden behind it. I couldn’t tell how many bricks there were, since the stacks were at an angle, partially because the dirt there is uneven. Some stacks were higher than others, and some bricks were fairly solidly sunk into the dirt. I hoped there would be enough to brick around the star-shaped bed in the front yard; with a solidly defined line, I’ll be able to tell when the grass and weeds begin encroaching on the mulch (as opposed to when the mulch has spilled out onto the grass).

Mission accomplished! And then some… the star used about 80 bricks, the mulberry bush another 60, and I’m now working on ringing other garden areas, such as the hibiscus plants. By the time we finished those, there may be enough bricks left to ring the peonies.

Top left: star-shaped bed with old mulch and partial circle of bricks; top right: star-shaped bed with new mulch and full circle of bricks; bottom left: mulberry bush with a small circle of mulch and weeds; bottom right: mulberry bush with new mulch and a circle of bricks

Once the bricks were in place, it was clear something else was needed… fresh mulch! Most mulched areas need refreshing at least once a year, both for look and weed suppression. I frequently stop at the city’s mulch pile for a couple buckets at a time, but I knew I needed more for this project. I had several yards of mulch delivered and am quickly distributing it across the yard, with a goal of clearing the entire pile in under two weeks. After all, it’s technically fall, and we have no way of knowing when the temperature will drop.

Guess where the backache comes in…. Hauling bricks and mulch around the yard is not light work. Fortunately, the bricks are right by the raspberries, so we can stop in-between for snacks.

How does my back garden grow (2019 edition)?

Well, that’s an interesting question. You may recall that I mentioned some critters in my yard when I posted about the garden back in June. As you can see from my squash plants, the critters are well fed. Their growth was stunted by having all their leaves chewed off earlier in the season; the spattering of flowers was late and did not produce any fruit.

In fact, this is about what they looked like back in June; they’ve regrown back to this from being woodchuck food. Meanwhile, the woodchucks have discovered the bird feeder, along with the birds, squirrels, a pair of young skunks, and an opossum. We’re doing a fine job of keeping the neighborhood fed.

But that’s a bit disappointing from a gardening perspective. I recently discovered that there are hibiscus plants that are hardy enough to survive in our planting zone (5), so I decided to repurpose the back vegetable beds for some pretty flowers. Of course, this type of gardening isn’t instantaneous; in face, I don’t expect to see flowers until next year, assuming the hibiscus survive the critters and the winter. But just in case, I picked a couple different types, and hopefully we’ll have a variety of flowers.

If not… well, garden planning resets in the winter anyways.

How does my garden grow (2019 edition)?

Summer is, theoretically, upon us in Chicagoland. It’s somewhat hard to believe given that the high today is 68, but we’re supposed to see 80 again over the weekend. Even though it’s in fits and starts, my garden is growing.

Garden tower with herbs and flowers, rose bush in bloom, star bed with cilantro and chives in the foreground Starting in the front, the small rose bush I transplanted my first summer in the house has finally bloomed. I trimmed it back early spring because it was sticking out into the grass – a spiky hazard for mowing – and that seems to have been exactly what it needed. The mint, chives, and cilantro have returned to the star bed in full force, including the need to weed mint and cilantro out of the other sections and the surrounding mulch. It’s totally worth it on the days I want fresh mint tea or for the cilantro that will undoubtedly be used in salsa and other tasty dishes. I planted basil (again) in one section, and added a parsley plant to another. The center is generally a flower bed, though I haven’t seen any of the sunflowers sprouting yet; the weird weather fluctuations probably aren’t helping them. I decided the garden tower should also be an herb and flower bed, so it has a mix of random pretties and herbs I thought I would cook with, including two kinds of sage, thyme, rosemary, and a purple basil.

Keyhole bed with peas and some squash in the composter, peonies in bloom, and a large catnip plant growing near strawberries The side garden is just strawberries, which are starting to bear fruit, and some catnip that was already there. Yes, the catnip is huge. The keyhole bed is mostly peas, so I added cages for them to climb. There were some squash plants (pumpkin? acorn squash? who knows?) that sprouted in the composter, so I moved those to the back beds. Photos of those beds will come later in the season, I’m sure, as the squash plants sprawl and we hopefully discover what kind of fruit they bear. There’s a bonus photo of peonies, which have bloomed with their pretty pink flowers (every yard around here seems to have a different color of peonies) and are almost done for the season. There may be a family of rabbits living under them; they certainly like spending time there. Additionally, I’m learning which birds eat mulberries, as the mulberry bush is adjacent to the bird feeder. The mulberries are a bit small and underripe for me at this point, but I’ve watched robins eat them straight off the tree. I’m looking forward to a mulberry crumble once they’re larger.

Of course, all of this assumes that any of my tasty treats are left in the garden, between the birds, the squirrels, and the woodchuck that’s digging into my lawn at the moment. From past experience, I know woodchucks will go after peas and corn (though I didn’t plant corn this year), so I’ll have to see what survives the local wildlife.

Signs of spring continue

I’m thoroughly enjoying the warmer weather and the time I get to spend outside as a result. It’s not doing much for my Pokémon Go tendencies – there’s so much work to do in the garden, I don’t have time to walk to the nearby gyms and stops. Once everything is planted and at a maintenance level for the season, I’m sure I’ll get more walking in.

That said, I’ve continued mulching all around the garden, both as a weed suppressant and because it looks nice. I’m expecting to have my strawberry plants in the ground by the end of the week, with all of the pavers set so I can reach every part of the garden bed. Most of last year’s mint has been trimmed back, and the dried ends pulled off the chives to see (and taste) the new growth in the spring. I have a couple more plant remnants to pull out before I can start putting seeds in the ground for the early plantings, like salad greens.

The yard has been brimming with wildlife as the robins and other birds return. It’s hard to keep the bird feeders filled, not only because the neighborhood squirrels keep visiting, but also the abundance of birds that perch in the nearby trees. The squirrels do tend to knock all the seed onto the ground, which makes it more accessible to the gathered birds.

Squirrel on a hanging bird feeder — This squirrel is a regular visitor

Given the variable weather in Chicagoland, I’m never quite sure when the first grilling of the season will be. I’m pleased to say that I lit of the grill already… on the last day of March. Well, technically, I cooked on it; Cassandra lit it. I’m looking forward to continued grilling throughout the warm months.

Spring is here.

Spring is here. Life is skittles and life is beer.*

Gardenzilla and wood paver tiles in the new garden bed, eagerly awaiting strawberry plants

It’s gardening season! It warmed up a bit, so I was out at the hardware store last weekend buying dirt for the new garden bed. This is by far my easiest garden bed setup since I moved in – I’m repurposing an existing area that had rocks and the occasional weed. I started working on it in the fall, piling leaves there instead of paying to have them removed, then weighing them down with free mulch from the city. Early last week, as it warmed up, I stopped for some more city mulch, and was thrilled to find pine trees mulched into the pile. After several buckets, I was ready to add dirt, followed by some paving tiles down the center. I’ll need another set of paving tiles, so I can reach all of the strawberry plants I intend to add to the bed, but it’s off to a good start.

Garden storage cabinet and a yard cart — New outdoor storage

Also on Saturday, with some fairly significant assistance, my garden storage cabinet was assembled. The shed that came with the house was in questionable condition when I moved in, and is getting progressively worse: the roof that shows wear and tear on the outside, leaks and is growing mushrooms on the inside. On top of that, somebody created a smaller, secondary door in the hidden side of the shed during the winter. One of my goals for this year is to remove that shed, but in order to do that, I need someplace for my gardening tools to live. With the storage cabinet assembled and populated, the project is off to a good start.

*No pigeons were harmed while writing this blog post. Also, I don’t like beer.

As winter ends…

gardening season begins. We’ve hit 60 degrees already – though it’s about to drop again – and you’d better believe that I’ve been outside tending to my garden. I started with the new solar path lanterns that I picked up at Costco with my annual rebate, a perk that comes with having a Costco-branded credit card. They were actually a filler, my big rebate purchase was an outside storage cabinet that still needs to be assembled. I think the box doesn’t do the lights justice; they are way cooler when lit than I expected.

Solar lights with a sun pattern — Check out the cool sun pattern.

Then I set up the long overdue rain barrel in my back yard. I could have placed it by a gutter and installed a rain diverter, but realistically, I need it by my back garden beds, which are the furthest from the hose. It would collect more water attached to a gutter, but it wouldn’t be as useful. I started it off with a bit of water from the hose to weigh it down, to prevent it from blowing into the neighbor’s yard before it rains again. Conveniently enough, it rained on and off for the rest of the day, so it has some additional water supplementing what I started with.

As long as I was out there, I found myself pulling a few weeds and some plant remnants from last year’s garden. Soon, I’ll be out there regularly, trimming off the old dry mint to let the new growth peek through, and getting seeds into the ground. Spring is just around the corner, and not too long after the start of gardening season, we get grilling season.

New year, old me.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. The concept, at least as presented in our culture, tends to be too abstract – take a look at Wikipedia’s list of popular resolutions. They also list the results of a small (3,000 people) study: 88% of the people who study participants who set New Year’s resolutions failed to accomplish their resolutions.

Instead, I set goals, both for the year and on a weekly basis. These are both achievable and measurable; I can definitively say when I’ve completed each one. Of the eleven goals I set for myself last year (I didn’t post all of them here), I completed nine. Of the two I didn’t complete, one carried over for this year and the other has been removed from the list. Starting this year, I’ve added categories to the goals – those include personal, professional, fitness, house, and garden, among others – which I include on both the weekly and annual goals. I have a Google Doc listing the annual goals with a spot for a completion date, and a separate one for the weekly goals.

Here are some of my 2019 goals:

Test for my hapkido black belt – this is my carryover from last year.
Develop a garden plan for the year – the plan is different each year, as I look at what seeds I have (leftovers or harvested from last year’s vegetables) and determine how the crops should rotate.
Add a new garden bed – this is already a work in progress; I have mulch and leaves down in the appropriate area and will add dirt as we get closer to spring. I suspect there will be strawberries planted there.
Complete my next project management course – also already in progress.
Organizing around the house – I actually have three different goals around organizing at home.

Do you approach the new year with goals or resolutions?

My poor confused garden.

It’s now late September, and my garden isn’t quite sure what to do. The temperature has dropped and given us nights in the 50s and 60s, and I have harvested at least a dozen pumpkins, which being changing color when the temperature approximates fall.

One pumpkin ripe and ready to pick, one just formed.

But this week, we’ve had highs in the high-80s, and are expecting a drop to just below 70 by Saturday. There are flowers open on my pumpkin because of the heat, with new fruit having formed in the last week, while other pumpkins are ripe and ready to pick. The newly formed fruit will probably not survive, though it may be that a neighborhood squirrel or raccoon gets to them before the weather does… they’re quite soft at this stage.

My tomatoes are going through similar waves of ripening or over-ripening. On the extremely hot days, they split before they’re fully ripe, which means they go bad before I get to them. If they’ve split and haven’t gone bad, they frequently get eaten in the picking process, to avoid losing them. (Not to be confused with other tomatoes that get eaten in the picking process.)

I can’t really complain, as it extends my harvest. But I was swatting away mosquitoes this week, and I’m fairly sure none of us appreciate them having an extended season.

How does my garden grow?

As a project manager, gardening is my second best reminder that I can’t control all of the variables in a project. (Parenting is the first.) I can do all the planning and prep that I want, but I have no control over the weather, and realize that the germination rate for seeds varies. So while I’m sad that the okra didn’t germinate – it did so well the first summer in this garden – the next step is to fill that space. I love being able to say that I picked my salad the morning I’m eating it, so I went ahead and planted some salad greens there.

It’s not like the rest of the garden is struggling. Starting in the top left, there’s my star garden out front, my low beds in the far back, my keyhole bed out back, and the garden tower by the driveway.

Starting in the top level, there's my star garden out front, my low beds in the far back, my keyhole bed out back, and the garden tower by the driveway. — Herbs and sunflowers; tomatoes and flowers; carrots, pumpkins, and peas; tomatoes, marigolds, and salad greens.

The star is mainly an herb bed, with an overwhelming amount of mint and cilantro (they’re both spreading), chives, and some basil, along with a huge number of sunflowers. At this point, the low beds will be all tomatoes and salad greens this year, along with flowers in some corners. The keyhole bed is being overwhelmed by pumpkins – I had to search for the Brussels sprouts this morning – and a couple of the flowers are already forming pie pumpkins. There are also carrots and peas in there, though the pea harvest will be done well before the pumpkins are ready. The garden tower has bite-sized tomatoes at the top, salad greens in the bottom rows, and marigolds filling in the rest.

Gardens, like rebellions, are built on hope.

Garden planning is one of my annual goals. Planning generally starts in January or February, since some indoor planting can start as early as mid-February, depending on what I’m growing that particular year. This year was a late start for me, I didn’t plant anything until almost mid-March.

I try to use up my old seeds first, so I sort through them when I begin garden planning, and then see what I need to fill in my planting gaps. This year, I have a lot of leftover seeds, so all I bought was a couple varieties of large tomatoes. This is where hope starts kicking in… I hope the old seeds will still germinate. This was the last year for the pepper seeds, none of them sprouted.

Seed starts, from planting (top half) to seedlings (bottom half). With luck, many tomatoes will be produced and consumed. — Seed starts, from planting to seedlings. With luck, many tomatoes will be produced and consumed.

As they sprout, I hope I remember to open the curtains, to get some sun in on the new growth. I’m actually fairly good at that. As it warms up, I hope the forecast is accurate… I check it each morning and decide whether to put the pots (well, yogurt cups) all the way outside, just outside the front door (where they’re partially covered), or leave them in the house. Every day they’re in the house, I hope the kitten doesn’t decide to knock any of them down or destroy any of the seedlings. Especially the tomato plants, since the leaves have a nice bounce to them. And I hope I pick the right days to put them out, and the right nights to leave them out to harden as it cools, but hopefully not too much. Here in Illinois, the nights can vary wildly – we may see a 10 degree drop one night, and a 30 degree drop the next – so I have to choose carefully.

They don’t all survive. You can see in the photo that I started with more cups than I have now. Some sprouted and then faded while still tiny. I planted at least 3 cups of basil; I have one left. And while there’s an overwhelming number of tomatoes, half of those are cherry tomatoes that are more likely to make it into the mouth than the house when harvested.

At some point soon, I hope I pick the right time to move them outside. As you can see, they’re getting a bit tall for those little yogurt cups, but we’ve had a couple nights where the temperature was still in the 40s. Once they’re big enough, they’ll probably be OK with a night or two that gets that low, so it’s entirely possible they relocate to a couple different spots this upcoming weekend. I think it’s safe… I took a gamble and planted peas about 10 days ago, and those are coming up nicely.