MgoGardeners, How Does Your Garden Grow + Adult Beverage Time

Mostly hostas, some day lilies (although they attract tons of wasps) and sedums. I have a few rose bushes as well.

it all this year. I have tomatoes, (mostly yellow pear and cherry), peppers, kohlrabi, cilantro, beets, daikons, radishes, chard and lots of gooseberries and strawberries. And a neighbor who brings over lots of things I don't grow. He more than makes up for what the rabbits take.

Sweet corn, squash and some wild chives and blackberries. Been keeping my eye out for wild leeks and morels out back but I think our soil is too acidic for the shrooms. Been scooping up six packs of Saugatuck's blueberry maple stout whenever I see it.

My wife handles all the growing. Lots of flowers and herbs. We live surrounded by forest so it’s miraculous what she achieves.

Since we're talking about gardening, I have a question for those of you who live in places other than suburban Chicago. Are any of you familiar with the giant and terrifying cicada killer wasp? I have always been afraid of wasps, but when I saw one for the first time when we moved to Evanston, I nearly died. Now the months of July and August are spent scanning the grass every time I go out. I don't relax until the beginning of fall.

Chimay Grande Reserve in my chalice. Always good.

Our garden is usually quite successful, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins, zucchini, corn, etc. It's something we look forward to every year.

Planted new citrus trees last week - my favorite to grow.  Have navel and valencia orange trees, plus eureka lemon.  It's a pleasure.

Last summer I visited the childhood home of my wife’s mom. I showed up with a $25 pizza gift card and the request to pick the seed pods from the poppies that my wife’s Grandmother planted 50 years ago. Came away with a ton of seeds that I shared with the wife, mother in law, her sisters, and my wife’s sisters. The poppies are just starting to open up and I am now the favorite son in law. Is this a humblebrag?

Cucumbers, tomatoes, zuchini, carrots, chard, spinach, beets, radishes, several varieties of one cut lettuce, two cut and come again romaine varieties, watermelon, canteloupe, popcorn, cabbage, brocolli, pretty much every herb.

I have apple, peach, pear, plum and apricot trees.  Blue, black, ras, straw, and jastaberries. 

I have a lot of flowers.

 

Put up 60 foot of greenhouse to get lettuce about 9 months out of the year.  I hope to be fully food sustainable in about 3 years. 

 

I went a little crazy haha

buying and planting flowers. We have 5 flower beds and also do about 18 planters on our patio and front porch. I am switching one of the beds to perennials this year. We also do a couple of pots of herbs and four pots of tomatoes. I am doubling the tomatoes this year because I tried growing some from seeds from last year’s tomatoes. I think I started them too late (planted the seeds in late March) and I don’t think they got enough sunlight. I bought a couple of plants from the nursery as insurance.

My most recent addition was a surprise to me, an herbal tea garden. Lemongrass, chamomile flowers, chocolate mint, lavender, verbena, the works. I'm used to the salad garden, going outside with a bowl and scissors to cut a salad for dinner, but I find hanging herbs in the kitchen to be extremely cool, and the tisanne I brew has never been better. Only veg in growing is bell pepper and bush cherry tomatoes.

Hops and tomatoes growing on the deck in Chicago. Urban "gardening" at it's finest.

I have my asparagus crowns that are going on 5 years old. Grape vines, blackberry and blueberry bushes. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash and peppers--jalapeno, habanero and a Carolina reaper.

This is my personal challenge right now.  For Mother's Day, my family completely ripped out everything in an overgrown, problematic flowerbed.  It was a lot of work and I appreciate it.  But now I have this blank plot of land, 9' by 20' on a steep slope that I have to turn into something.   Something attractive, erosion-resistant, and neglect-tolerant.  That's because every year I start the season with hope and ambition and by mid-July I'm tired of it.

We seem to be paralyzed by options.

Down here in South Florida everything grows well. Planted a 300lb pumpkin hybrid which is going nuts. Jalapeños, eggplant, tomatoes, corn, watermelon, green onion, and artichokes. Full vertical herb garden as well. We’ve had about 16 days of straight rain. Literally - the sun has been out for 2 hours in 16 days, so it’s been a growing fest. Good for the bamboo in my backyard!

I've actually frown vegetables for many years. The past few years I haven't bc I work a few days a week for a vegetable farm and get all the free fruits and veggies thay I want. I probably will grow a garden in the future because it's relaxing and yields a bunch of cheap food. But in the past I've grown lots of tomatoes, greens, summer squash, peppers, root vegetables, eggplants and herbs. I have to say my favorite vegetables to grow are tomatoes. M favorite tomatoes are green zebra, San Marzano, Paul Roberson and black krim. Japanese eggplants are really great too and makes some delicious baba ganoush.

One for a small variety of herbs (a couple cinnamon basil leaves in your bourbon is a delicious summer treat!).  A second larger plot where we do tomatoes, zukes,cukes for pickling, radishes lettuce, kale, and this year I've box watermelons.  Everything but the masters are grown from seed.  Gardening is an incredibly satisfying way to spend a couple hours after work.

I have a nice plot of northern lights growing in a small corner...