Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

So... after almost a solid week of rain, we were finally able to get out to the garden today for approximately 30 minutes before it started raining again. Everything is really taking off growing... the side bed is beautiful, the edamame, black-eyed peas, and nasturtium are up, the peas and clematis are trellising nicely, the roses are growing like crazy, and the potatoes have gone absolutely mad. So, today, we built up the next level of our potato box and added more compost and potting soil (see photo on left). There's still not enough dirt on them, though, so we'll have to come back this weekend and add more.

Squirrels continue to be a problem. We've now rung the garden in onions, marigold, wormwood and castor bean plants, but we noticed that several edamame have been chomped. I'm looking to invest in an air rifle. Earlier this week, we put some sweet potatoes in a large container. We're going to try growing them that way this year, hopefully that will protect them from the squirrels/voles/whatever.

This afternoon, I hope to work on digging up grass (if it ever stops raining) or completing the cedar obelisk for the kitchen garden (if not).

Bi-polar weather

Welcome to spring in northern Illinois! In the last week, we've had near-record highs and near-record lows. Last Tuesday, the "official" high was 93°, but my thermometer said 95° mid-afternoon. Then this Tuesday, we had an overnight low of 37°. Crazy!

Anyway, in spite of the weather, we've made a lot of progress on the gardens. In the vegetable garden, we've planted:

• All tomatoes
• All peppers (sweet and hot)
• Eggplant
• Sweet, Thai, and Purple Basil
• Cilantro
• Anise
• Edamame
• Zinnia
• Marigolds
• Nasturtium

We finished the flower beds around the two crabapple trees, got impatiens planted in the back beds, pulled out all hosta and coral bell from around the soon-to-be-chopped-down ash tree, put up a quick pea trellis, and have begun stripping out sod from around the shed for Anna's garden. And, last night, we pulled out the last of the bush stumps from the kitchen garden. Whew! That's a busy week!

Busy, busy, busy

It's been a busy week at work, so I haven't had as much time to spend in the garden as I wanted, but still made some progress this week. Over the weekend, in addition to putting up that potato box, we also made a run out to the Davenport Compost Facility and picked up some dirt and mulch. Cole finished the beautiful side (sun-loving) bed early this week, and began digging out the grass around our trees, creating surrounding flower beds and mulching them in. It's looking really nice!

Monday, I planted our broccoli romanesco, cauliflower, and Spanish yellow onions. Thursday, I planted our "Big Daddy" yellow onions, and today, I put in some Bells of Ireland flowers in the upper garden and by the potato box, and sweet alyssum in a few borders of the veggie garden. Hopefully, that alyssum will create a border that will deter the invasive Creeping Charlie from invading.

Finally, in the best bit of landscaping good news thus far this season, we got a bid to take down our three problematic silver maple trees by the road for about the price we thought we were going to have to pay for one. So, we're going to have that done in the next couple of weeks, too. Hooray for more sunlight in our yard!!

Hot Potatoes

Our potatoes have hit the ground! In order to conserve space and (hopefully) increase harvest, we decided this year to build a "build-as-you-grow" potato box on the south side of our garden this year. The concept is simple: put down four uprights with one 2x6 around the bottom in a square. Place potatoes in bottom, and top with soil. As the potato vines grow, instead of hilling dirt around them, you just add another 2x6 level to the box and top with soil. At the end of the season, you remove one side of the box, and all the dirt and potatoes should just fall right out. That's the theory, anyway. We'll see how it goes!