boogaj

First Harvest of the year

We pulled and ate one of the radishes today.  This is the first official harvest of the year, and I'm pretty excited that it is happening early in May.  

And soon we will have strawberries!  Our strawberries apparently liked the wet Spring -- they look amazing this year.

The cherry tomatoes should be ripe before long and since I planted a ridiculous number of them, we will have more than we can handle.

I'm feeling pretty good about the garden this year.  It's taken several years of trial and error to get to the point where I sort of feel like I know what I'm doing and I also know what I like to grow.  

This will definitely be the year of the tomato since I planted a ridiculous number of plants, but it is also the first year I'm planting radishes, beets, tomatillos, watermelons and garlic (which was planted last fall).  Old favorites are back too -- tomatoes (obviously), strawberries, raspberries (which are multiplying like mad!), potatoes, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, herbs (flat leaf parsley, basil, sage, oregano, cilantro and thyme), carrots and lettuce.  And I shouldn't forget the flowers which I grew from seed this year -- petunias, impatiens, marigolds, and sunflowers.

Whew.  I really need to keep a gardening journal to keep all this straight from year to year, but I suppose the blog will suffice.

Lilacs in bloom -- and why I take so many photos

Our lilacs are in full bloom and look gorgeous.  When we moved into our house, the lilacs were stunted and sickly as a result of a big, ugly fence which blocked much of their sunlight, and possibly hot bbq grill ashes which the previous owner appears to have dumped at their base.  In the 8 years we've lived here, we removed the fence and improved the bed in which they reside.  (We used to call it the gravel pit, because it was a nasty, weedy patch filled with gravel and broken up bits of asphalt.) 

I like to look back at photos from previous years so that I can see when things bloomed.  For instance, last year our lilacs were in full bloom on April 7th!  A full month earlier.  Crazy.  

Picasso and some beans ...

Coffee beans from Intelligentsia and The Bean, or Cloud Gate, at Millennium Park.  Then on to the Picasso exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The exhibit was ridiculously inspiring.  If you are in Chicago, get over there now, because it's only here until the 12th of May.

And a bonus!  Lunch with Pete, who works downtown.  (I love this photo because of the look Maddie is giving Pete as he looks on somewhat bemused.  Ha!)

Garlic

I'm all about gardening these last few weeks. The garlic is doing great despite the fact that I've done nothing but remove the thick layer of winter mulch from their bed. I can't remember if I grew a hardneck variety, so I'm not sure if these will produce scapes -- must figure that out.

Since I have a fancy new camera...

... I've been taking a lot of photos.  Be prepared for an onslaught of garden photos.

Tomatoes

My seed starting set up is getting a lot of use -- in fact, three shelves are full.  On the top are the tomatoes that I already transplanted into bigger pots.  They are growing like mad!  The middle row holds more tomatoes on the right and a variety of things on the left -- marigolds, jalapenos, tomatillos & sunflowers.  The bottom shelf holds flowers on the right -- impatiens & petunias -- and on the left there are some cucumbers, watermelons and some pathetic flowers and basil that never got transplanted into larger pots.  

We have uncovered the strawberries in the garden and the garlic is starting to peek up through the earth.  

Can you tell that I'm excited about the garden this year?

We're finally getting a snow "storm" and I'm starting seeds.

Lots of things have been going on around here, including a lot of garden planning.  I love this high radiator in my front hall, because it is perfect for two trays of germinating seeds.  Who needs one of those fancy heating pads when you have one built right into the house?

The plants I started a few weeks ago are looking good -- actually they are much bigger than this, but I don't have a recent photo.  

I am so excited about the garden this year!

Seed Starting

I guess it might seem a little early to be starting seeds, but these are mostly petunias and impatiens which take forever to germinate.  I'm still searching through seed catalogs for my veggies seeds, and looking forward very much to getting those started in my new seed starting tower...

This set up, using some sturdy steel shelving, 4 shop lights and a powerstrip with an automatic timer was our weekend project.  As you can imagine, I'm itching to get more seeds started so I can fill these shelves!