xan's journal
Member since: Jul 08 | Last seen: May 13 | Years gardening: 27 | Organic gardener
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19 May 2013Lily of the Valley Blooming, Daisy (Ox-eye) Budding, Ajuga Blooming, Columbine-mixed Blooming, Iris, rebloo...
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Mostly Cloudy 30°C / 86°FLife has its moments One blooms while one fades away Petals on the ground
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19 May 2013Carrots- Nantes Starica Sprouting, Carrot- Tri Color Circus Circus mix Sprouting, Luo Bok Sprouting, Seed s...
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Scattered Clouds 30°C / 86°FIt was supposed to be all the “p’s”— porch, pots, patio chairs— but I ended up planting (another p!) and weeding. Got all the tomato starts out onto the porch in my “poor man’s greenhouses” (plastic storage bins— they work great). Several days...
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06 May 2013Savory Walk garden , SoPo garden , Bill's Pond garden , Iris, dwarf Blooming, Magnolia , Tulips- "Dordogne"...
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Mostly Cloudy 18°C / 64°FAll garden beds are now cleaned and prepped, annual flowers planted, and all seedlings ready for my poor-man’s greenhouses in a week (i.e. large clear storage bins). Next up— bringing out the furniture and the hoses (I’ve been watering from the rain barrels), filling the flower...
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01 May 2013Narnia garden and Strawberry- Ozark Beauty Dividing
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Clear 19°C / 66°FGot two more beds prepped— my “Narnia” area (largely natives), and the Berry Patch. But it’s very difficult this year. It has to be done, but all I can think about while I’m doing it is how I’m doing it for someone else. Someone who might just take this garden...
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28 Apr 2013Luo Bok , Serpentine garden , Carrot- Tri Color Circus Circus mix , Carrots- Nantes Starica , Brussels Spr...
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Mostly Cloudy 17°C / 63°FFinished the edible beds (not counting the berry patch), more or less on time. The serpentine got the soil raked and amended (pics 1 & 2 are before and after); redid the path— I had to raise it with leveling sand because it had sunk so much it was a lake after a rain. Rebuilt the little...
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26 Apr 2013Keyhole garden , Wagon Wheel garden , Napa Cabbage Planting Out, Onion- Highball Hybrid Planting Out, Onio...
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Mostly Cloudy 14°C / 57°FEvening planting time Leeks, onions, chard, and bok choy. Tulips for pretty
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25 Apr 2013Tomato- Aunt Ruby's German Green , Tomato- Goldman's Italian American , Tomato- Black Krim , Tomato- Rio Gr...
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Mostly Cloudy 6°C / 43°FThe local gardening and sustainability radio broadcast last week had the “energy doctor” from Com Ed on, who made the very interesting observation that electric rates are cheaper at night, so you should run appliances after business hours. She was thinking about laundry, dishwasher, e...
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23 Apr 2013
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Digging in the (potting) soil on a rainy day
Tomato- Aunt Ruby's German Green Potting Up, Tomato- Goldman's Italian American Potting Up, and Tomato- Bla...Light Rain 8°C / 46°FMay flowers, May flowers, May flowers, May flowers. Just keep repeating it. Repotted three of the tomato types into 4" pots. Eventually I’ll plant out 16 plants, and then sell the rest at a garage and plant sell the first week of June. I should have about 80 plants, which should be a...
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21 Apr 2013Keyhole garden
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Mostly Cloudy 2°C / 36°FGarden beds that is. The house still has the entire upstairs to be rehabbed, and the downstairs hallway and ugh, the basement. Got the living room painted and cleaned, and prepped the Keyhole plot. Keyhole will have several successions of beans, Parsnips, turnips, napa cabbage and probably carro...
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19 Apr 2013Chard- Rainbow , Pepper- California Wonder , Pepper- Southwestern Chili Trio , Pepper- Early Jalapeno , Nap...
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Light Snow 3°C / 37°FWatching the snow fall Bitter wind blows right through you What’s the date again?
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14 Apr 2013Magnolia Breaking Dormancy, Creeping Phlox Breaking Dormancy, Black eyed Susan Sprouting, Hyssop Breaking D...
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All the berries are budding! Here’s how I’m hoping to order the clean up, to get beds ready in time for their respective planting weeks: April 14- Wagon Wheel (done) April 21- Narnia and patio April 28-29 Keyhole and Serpentine May 4-5: working all weekend, won’t be able to gard...Mostly Cloudy 19°C / 66°F -
14 Apr 2013Wagon Wheel garden
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Mostly Cloudy 19°C / 66°FI’m doing the garden bed by bed this year, moving counterclockwise around the garden; I should be able to get them all prepped by mid May, with one early planting day in there for snowpeas, broccoli, lettuce and carrots. It was strange prepping it this year. I kept thinking “will thi...
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12 Apr 2013
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Starting seeds on a chilly day
Seed starting 2013 gardenWe had a tiny hint of sun around 1:30 today, but that’s all we’ve seen of her for days. They’re promising 60s on Sunday; here’s hoping as I need to start prepping beds. Tried to turn the compost today, but it’s still frozen. Unheard of for the second week of April. S...Overcast 5°C / 41°F -
09 Apr 2013Siberian Bugloss Sprouting, Sedum Sprouting, Chives Sprouting, Columbine, black and pink Sprouting, Herb- o...
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but it’s kinda doing it without me. Two months ago, my husband dropped a bombshell, announcing, apropos of nothing, that he was moving out. Barely 5 weeks later he was gone. Where normally at this time of year I would be prepping the garden and starting seeds, I’ve had, instead, to r...Overcast 6°C / 43°F -
27 Feb 2013Celery- Giant pascal , Onion- Highball Hybrid , Onions- Cipollini , and Onions- red
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Light Snow 1°C / 34°FThe magical peekaboo moment with the amaryllis, and a hairy pot of onions!
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14 Feb 2013
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Overcast 3°C / 37°FUnder melting snow Summer flowers are waiting You have to believe.
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10 Feb 2013Leeks- French Baby Sprouting, Onions- red Sprouting, Onion- Highball Hybrid Sprouting, and Onions- Cipollin...
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Just in time for the Year of the Snake- gung hay fat choy! Four of the five allium have sprouted. Still waiting for the celery, although my experience with celery is that it can take a month to sprout. I’m thinking about trying the plant-a-celery-stump method if the seeds don’t work ...Overcast 3°C / 37°F -
03 Feb 2013
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Who else in Zone 5 is starting seeds?
Seed starting 2013 gardenI did my first seed starting of the season today— celery, leeks and onions. We haven’t had much of a winter in Chicago this year— wildly fluctuating temps, and almost no snow. Yesterday was the first snow near the lakefront that measured more than an inch. We have some actual wi...Mostly Cloudy -6°C / 21°F -
20 Oct 2012Northern Sea Oats
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Scattered Clouds 8°C / 46°FI got 4 canna plants from the greenhouse at local high school, where I volunteer on the school garden. They kind of died in the spring, because I put them in during a warm spell, and then we got another freeze. Lo and behold, they did not care, and took over the corner where I had them. Next year...
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20 Oct 2012Onion- White bunching Harvesting, Leeks- French Baby Primor Harvesting, Tomatillo Harvesting, Turnip- purpl...
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Scattered Clouds 8°C / 46°F -
20 Oct 2012Wagon Wheel garden and SoPo garden
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Scattered Clouds 8°C / 46°FI’ve learned the hard way that as obnoxious as the fall clean up is, it’s far preferable to leaving it until spring. This year I was determined not to have to do it all by myself like I usually do, because it’s a boatload of work. DD, DH and I got a good start today, but unfortu...
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15 Oct 2012
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Finally remembered to post Bloom Day ON Bloom Day
Cleome Blooming, Marigold- Signet Starfire Blooming, Boltonia or Fleabane? Blooming, and Chrsanthemum, fall...Mostly Cloudy 8°C / 46°F -
05 Oct 2012Tomatillo Harvesting, Tomato- Goldman's Italian American Harvesting, Tomato- Black Krim Harvesting, Tomato-...
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Mostly Cloudy 7°C / 45°FThe air this morning has the mild crispness that I remember from my east coast childhood. This phenomenon— which we used to call “sweater weather” is something almost entirely unknown to Midwest autumns. Midwesterners think they have it; we certainly get cold sunny autumn days. ...
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28 Sep 2012Tuberose (?) Blooming
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Scattered Clouds 15°C / 59°FA foxtail lily Blooming unexpectedly in the cool fall air
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28 Sep 2012
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Taking the garden down, little by little
Serpentine garden , Cabbage- Baby Choy , Beans- 3 Sisters , and Corn- Golden Bantam SeedingScattered Clouds 15°C / 59°FI’m planning a big work day for October 14, but in the meantime, I’ve been slowly removing the garden, in 10 minute tasks here and there throughout the day and the week. It’s a nice break from the computer, and gets me out of my freezing house and into the gorgeous warm sunshine...
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18 Sep 2012Tomato- Plum Lemon Harvesting, Blue Mist "Janietta" Blooming, Tomato- Golden Queen Harvesting, Tomato- Gree...
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First, an apology: I so miss being able to keep up on Folia. This community remains the best garden community on- or off-line (and I’m involved with several different gardening forums and groups—believe me, this one is special). Blame it on my suddenly, oddly successful consulting bus...
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03 Sep 2012Beans- 3 Sisters Harvesting, Corn- Golden Bantam Harvesting, Tomato- Black Krim Harvesting, Tomato- San Mar...
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Some stuff came out, some stuff went in, some stuff got pruned. Here’s a little tutorial on fall planting in Zone 5(ish): What to keep The first thing to think about when preparing for the fall garden, is what do you have that will keep producing until the frost (between October 10 and Nov...
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19 Aug 2012Zinnia Blooming, Creeping jenny , Marigold- Signet Starfire Blooming, Annuals, 2012 (Larkspur, Zinnia, Trit...
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The Canterbury Bells are done, and the coneflowers. The Black-eyed Susans are taking over, and the sunflowers are 10 feet tall, at least until the squirrels knock them over. The sedum is budding, ready for its long interesting bloom.
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19 Aug 2012Bean- Lina Sisco's Bird Egg , Brussels Sprouts Setting Fruit, Onion- White bunching , Concord Grape , Cucum...
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Storms 24°C / 75°FMajor cosmetic clean up— weeded and trimmed every bed. Took about 4 hours, looks really nice, although at this time of year it’s really hard to keep up. The plants seem to know that things are about to wind down, and they start going into overdrive. Here are the veggies
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05 Aug 2012Turnip- purple top white globe Harvesting, Ground cherries Harvesting, Potatoes- Austrian Crescent Harvesti...
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Filling the basket Tomatoes, Potatoes Beans Thyme scenting the airCloudy 26°C / 79°F -
08 Jul 2012
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You're invited to a garden party
Compost pile RepottedCloudy 26°C / 79°FI’ll be back later to post the pix. We’re getting ready for our annual garden party— any Folians in Chicago on the 15th are invited—DM me for details). The picture is from last year’s. Aside from just it’s nice to have a party, the garden party makes you take a...
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08 Jul 2012
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You're invited to a garden party
Cloudy 26°C / 79°F -
30 Jun 2012
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Just because it's edible, doesn't mean I have to eat it
Ground cherries Setting Fruit, Herb- creeping thyme (berry path) Moved, Raspberries Pruning, Garlic- Asian ...Storms 31°C / 88°FSubtitle: Tales from Purslane Farms, or Too Much Thyme On My Hands I have never seen so many weeds in my beds. I blame it on a combination of uncooked compost, weird rainfall pattern, and not enough TLC. Then there’s the creeping thyme in the strawberry path, which was supposed to be a R...
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27 Jun 2012Tomatillo Flowering, Berry Patch garden , Serpentine garden , Keyhole garden , Wagon Wheel garden , Savor...
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Cloudy 33°C / 91°FI was going to do a photo update, but for some reason the milestones aren’t loading this morning, which, sadly means I’ll have to go back and add them all in later, which is a pain, because I have the time right now. ANyway. Still no rain. We’ve had less than an inch of rain in ...
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27 Jun 2012Coneflower "White Swan" Blooming
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Cloudy 33°C / 91°FThe blowing flowers Like girls in summer dresses dancing with the breeze
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27 Jun 2012
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A child's treasury of baby vegetables
Tomato- Black Krim Setting Fruit, Tomato- Goldman's Italian American Under Attack, Bean- Golden Wax Fruitin...Cloudy 33°C / 91°FMain- Emerald Giant 1- Orange bell 2- Golden wax beans 3- Goldman’s Italian American 4- Black Krim
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21 Jun 2012Pepper- Thai Chilis Flowering, Peppers- Bell, Crimson, Orange (divided) Flowering, Peppers- Emerald Giant F...
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I pulled the peas and the snowpeas. Not so much because they were really done as because the rabbit keeps eating the new growth, so they’re going to stop bearing. I’m glad (ish) that I finally did regular English peas, but I think I won’t do them again. In order to really get a ...Storms 29°C / 84°F -
21 Jun 2012Herb- Borage, volunteer Blooming, Lavender Blooming, Coneflower Blooming, Day lilies Blooming, Veronica Blo...
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It’s that time of year when you could update every single day and still have a list the next day as long as your arm. Despite all my fencing, we have a baby rabbit. I’m hoping he found his way in through the alley, and will not be followed by any buddies, because if we end up with a f...Storms 29°C / 84°F -
16 Jun 2012Bean- Hutterite Soup , Beans- Golden Wax , Eggplant- Orient Express F1 , Cabbage- Napa Little Jade Harvesti...
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Storms 33°C / 91°FI’ve been puttering in my own garden; the real work has been going on for The Peterson Garden Project, where I’ve spent the last two weeks finishing the Grow2Give beds, including the massive “demo garden” at our “Global Gardens” site. If you’re in Chicago...
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30 May 2012Lynn's garden
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Cloudy 18°C / 64°FA devastating diagnosis Deserves a garden of its own Thyme for time Red tomatoes for joy Peppers and basil because life needs spice Hen-and-chicks tell her story; the chicks she tries to fledge regularly stumble back Lots of thyme, because she needs it Sunflowers to lift their faces to the life-g...
