Happy New Year!

So, the new year is upon us.  Time for thought, reflection, and resolutions.  Boy, do I have some for my gardens this year! 

• Start more flowers from seed.  I always think that I will have these wonderful plans and know just what flowers that I want to put in which containers.  Well...ummm...that never happens.  I tend to be a great veggie seed person and the flowers get put to the side.
• Start reasonable numbers of vegetables from seed.  I need to not feel that I am feeding the masses when I seed.  :)  I always over plan for seed failure, which leads me to the next bullet...
• Rethink how I start my seeds.  I usually start my seeds in small dixie drinking cups.  I know that this is not environmentally friendly which goes against most of what I believe, but I continue to do it.  It reminds me of my great grandma.  She started seeds this way.  I need to be better about starting in small containers and pot up frequently. 
• Better planning of my family's needs.  What veggies do I need and how many.  I have been bitten by the raw food bug and hope to increase my vegetable juicing this year.  That will mean more beets, carrots, spinach and adding some kale perhaps.  Celery would be good, but I am not sure about how to grow it.  Not that I couldn't try and learn.
• Move my raspberry patch from the main garden area.  My husband told me in the beginning that putting the raspberries in the garden was not a good idea.  Being my hard headed, stubborn self, I persisted that I wanted them in the garden.  Now I tell him that he was right.  :)  They have become invasive with their runners.  I think that having them in raised beds in the yard where I can go around with the lawnmower will help keep those runners in check. 
• Redo my south facing flower bed.  I had torn this bed apart when we first moved to this house nearly 11 years ago as well as expanded it.  I accepted a gift of a sunflower type flower from my neighbor that she promised was only a couple feet tall.  Needless to say, my dirt must have radioactive properties.  Those darn things grow to well over 5 feet tall and are as invasive as any plant I have grown.  They have overtaken the bed.  The bed is getting everything removed and replanted in the spring.
• Last but not least, weeding.  Ugh.  The bane of my existence.  What can I say, my blog is aptly named.  Spring always starts with the best of intentions and energy.  Along comes the Illinois heat and humidity which I do not like, throw in a summer vacation or two, and you no longer have a neat and tidy garden, but a rambling plot of opportunistic weeds!  This year's plan is to be a better weeder.  How will I accomplish this goal?  The basics of more frequent weeding.  Weeds in general brings me to the last bullet which I need help with from my gardening friends.
• How to control the weeds between my raised beds.  How do others accomplish this?  I don't want to use a pesticide at all.  We have used straw with some success.  Any suggestions?

Reclaiming the garden

We had a beautiful weekend, and I was able to get a lot of work done in the vegetable garden.  A busy work season, combined with busy kid's activities, and the horrible biting gnats had made it a challenge to get outdoors.  Weeds were the prevailing crop, but I was determined to regain control.  With the help of my dear husband, we got the garden back to where we could feel proud of our accomplishment....as well as tell that veggies were being grown there!  There were a few things that I had not gotten in the ground yet, so I was able to get that done.  I planted eight okra plants, one hill of crookneck yellow squash from my aunt in Alabama (I love heirlooms....especially ones from my own family!) and a hill of zucchini.  I still need to plant cucumbers, beans, and black eyed peas.  It is getting late, but better late than never!

On the left is some of my volunteer dill that I have let grow. Dill is one of those plants that if you don't keep ahead of it, it becomes invasive. I don't think I have ever seen it labeled as such, but my garden in spring is proof of the fact. On the right is my sage. I severely cut it back in the spring since it was becoming very woody, and it came back very nicely.

Another view of the veggie garden. I planted seeds for more Bachelor Buttons, Zinnas, Sweet William, Stock and Wildflower mix along the right side of the fence. A couple of my poppies have come back this year which made me happy. I thought that they had died out. I would like to also get some Larkspur growing there again. I love flowers mixed in the garden. 

My stand of Roma tomatoes.  Far from the regular garden.  Hoping to have our strawberry patch in here next year.

A Roma tomato in the making....

Some funky fungi that I found while weeding.  A lot of different shelf type fungi seem to grow on the wood of the raised beds, but this was something I had not seen before.  While I was weeding, I encountered lots of different spiders, centipede looking creatures that were quick to get back underground when disturbed, and found that lightning bugs seemed to like my beet bed.  The rabbits must like beets too.  Many of my plants had the green tops munched off. 

Some sort of weed.  The flower was pretty though.  I have never seen it before.

Red raspberries.  There do not seem to be nearly the bees around them this year.  I have seen more wasps than anything.  I don't think I have seen a single honeybee.

I have no idea what this is.  Some sort of dried fungus from last year?  Nest from some sort of insect?



Weeds

Today was supposed to be a cooler day, and I was hoping to get some weeding done.  Amazing how weeds profilerate at such a rate....gone yesterday here today...in multi generations!  God had other plans.  We have a severe thunderstorm watch until noon and are getting nice showers with thunderstorms.  No weeding right now.  The plants did need some water and rain is so much better than a sprinkler.

My tomato plants and peppers seem to have been stunted.  Not much growth.  My broccoli seems to be doing well as with the carrots, beets, and peas.  Too much cooler weather overall. 

This has been such a weird year in terms of weather.  I have said that for several years now.  I don't buy into global warming, but think that weather changes happen and have done so throughout history.  Don't get me wrong, I do think that what we are doing to the environment has to cause some sort of change, but I don't blame everything on it.  No hate mail please!  :)

This has not only been a crazy year for weather, but for just trying to get gardening in at all!  I always thought that when the girls got older that there would be so much more time for other activities....wrong.  It seems that just the opposite has happened.  I still have beans, blackeyed peas, squash and okra to get in the ground.  Perhaps not getting the warm weather crops in yet hasn't been such a bad thing since the weather is wacky anyway.....

Mid-May frost??

The forecast tonight is for clear skies and a low of 35* with patchy frost.  Our average last frost is usually the end of April and planting tomatoes after Mother's Day is generally safe.  Key words here....average, usually, and generally.  I cannot remember ever having to cover my tomato plants in all the years I have been gardening.  Today will be a first.  All of those milk jugs that I have saved and cut the bottoms out of and stacked...okay, so some weren't stacked so nicely....in my potting shed are being put to use.  I hope that it works!  I kind of wonder if it didn't get a bit chilly last night because the leaves on the tomatoes were a bit spotty today.  Almost as if they had been wind burned although they have been hardened off and out in the sun for awhile.  We have had some pretty fierce and chilly winds though....more like March.

 It rained steadily all weekend, so I wasn't able to plant my marigolds around my tomatoes.  The bunnies seem to find them tasty though.  It isn't very well seen in this picture, but my husband has brought out the fake owl.  I have some extra plants of the Roma tomatoes that I can replace with, but hate for them just to become an extra snack.  Cat hair and cayenne pepper are coming out soon...

 My other tomato beds.  These two raised beds are outside my main garden as well.  Anyone that feels insecure about posting pics with weeds?  Feel insecure no more...I have weeds for all!  We haven't gotten around to papering and strawing our pathways this year....and it shows.  Oh well, if I had a perfect garden, something else in my life would have to give.  It's all about balance, right?  :)



Finally, no rain!

Spring in Illinois this year has been atypical. Usually we go straight from heat to A/C. This spring has been exceptionally wet and cool. We have had flood warnings every day for as long as I can remember and last night it got down to 38 degrees. It has been consistently in the 40's at night. It is very hard to plant under these conditions.

Today was nice, so Bill and I got 48 tomato plants and 15 pepper plants planted as well as my very late onions. I had been potting up the tomatoes and peppers along the way, so they look very healthy. I am disappointed to get the onions in so late, but better late than never. As usual, I have tons of tomato and pepper plants left over. I would plant them, but I am running out of room. Darn!!

We did a lot of weed control with newspaper and straw between the beds. We are hoping for a much less weedy garden this year. With all that we do outside of gardening, it is amazing how quickly the weeds can overtake the garden! We speak from experience.