The Scullery Maid's Garden

April Flowers!

2010-04-03T17:54:00.001-05:00

Spring has sprung! Here are some cheerful daffodils. They got rained on all morning, and they still look perky. I am bummed, because this last week was the first warm week of spring, and I was down with a bad, bad cold. Oh well, there's plenty of beautiful weather coming up............

My Email to Dan on a rainy Friday morning

2009-10-23T14:30:00.000-05:00

Hi Honey, I am back home. Dismal walk to the train. Grab a kleenex for this very sad tale.

It was pouring buckets of rain, and the wind was blowing. I was crossing Addison at the light at whatever side street that is (Byron?). As usual, I pressed the button and waited for the walk signal. There was a car waiting to turn left and head east on Addison, and I could tell that he was in a hurry because he was sticking way out. I got the walk sign and started to cross, and he came out like he wanted to go first, but I can be stubborn so I kept walking. He kept coming fast, and missed me by about 2 inches. He came behind me, I'm surprised that he didn't get the back of my shoe with his rear tires, he came that close. He actually swerved to come closer to me to scare me, and he did scare me. Scared the ___ out of me. There was a van stopped there at the light heading west, and I could see the driver shake his head like he couldn't believe what he saw. I was so upset that I started crying (big baby). I swear, things like this make me lose faith in the whole human race.

I kept walking (tearfully) down Addison, and I was getting absolutely soaked because the wind was blowing the rain right at me. You are so lucky you had your rain pants and poncho on for your walk, my legs and feet were as wet as if I had been wading in a river up to my thighs. I turned on Kilbourn, and I knew that I didn't want to sit on the train all soaked (and weepy), and then face that 20-minute walk to the office on the other end. So I turned around and came back home, thoroughly wetting the back of me in the process.

I thought I would change clothes, grab the car and drive to the station and catch the next train, but I just could not stand the thought of going back out there into a world where very mean people try to run very nice people down, just so they can go first, or just for the fun of it. Plus, I have a headache, which I think is sinus related because I am all stuffed up. So I called in.

And that's my sad story.

A Camping We Will Go

2009-09-29T14:53:00.011-05:00

Dan and I enjoyed a short camping trip to Ergang Lake, our woodsy oasis near Whitehall, Michigan. A good time was had. The weather was mild, but it did get a little chilly overnight in the tent. I don't like a sleeping bag, I don't like to be "enclosed", I like to have at least one foot sticking out. When we went to bed, I started out with the bag mostly unzipped, but at around 2 a.m. I woke up freezing. A quick zip of the bag and I was toasty.

Dan and I squeezed a lot of camping fun into our short day and a half trip. We did a bit of fishing, a bit of biking, a bit of campfire burning, a bit of Smore making (my favorite!). We took some walks and relaxed in lawn chairs with campstove coffee. Because we live and work in Chicago, the peace and quiet of the woods soothes our souls like nothing else can.

We were all by ourselves on this trip, and even though I have been camping in these private woods for 30 years now, I still get creeped out at night. I can't forget that 20 or so years ago we had a few bits of trouble with drunk locals, who liked to amuse themselves by riding through our campsites in the middle of the night on their motorcycles and in their pick-up trucks, terrorizing us city folk. They never did anything to us, they just drove through. But I remember being so afraid of them! Fast forward to 2009, and as I lay in my tent in the middle of the dark woods, I remind myself that these drunk locals are now in their 50's, and are probably home snoozing on their sofas, bathed in the light of the t.v. The new generation of drunk locals is hanging out in the local bar, drinking cosmos and appletinis and texting their buddies. No interest in a terrorizing jaunt through the chilly woods!

My friends and I have owned this little bit of paradise since 1984. It's just woods and a small lake, very primitive and private. No running water, no bathrooms, no problem. I love it, it's one of my favorite places on Earth. Only a handful of the 25 owners camp there at all these days. Dan and I usually go camping there once a year, at the beginning of fall. Maybe next year I'll be brave and camp in the middle of summer, and be happy while the deer flies circle my head. I used to be so carefree about swimming through the weeds to get out to the middle of the lake -- now the thought of it freaks me out. When did I get so old and timid?

I used to camp with my Norwegian Elkhound, her name was Lucy. She was the best dog I've ever had, beautiful and smart as a whip. Her mouth was shaped so that she always looked like she was smiling when she was panting. Lucy loved the freedom of Ergang Lake, and would often disappear for hours, sometimes overnight. The first time she stayed away overnight I cried in my tent until morning. I thought I had lost her forever. But she came back -- draped in deer shit and looking very, very proud of herself. This is my favorite memory of camping with Lucy -- I walked into the woods to relieve myself. Lucy, followed me, as she always did. I squatted to pee, and Lucy squatted a few feet away from me. I looked over at her, and she was smiling at me. She was probably thinking "Here we are, my human and me, peeing in the woods together!"
Here is a shot of Dan, standing on the beach fishing with crickets and grasshoppers that he caught himself. We don't need to buy no stinkin' bait!

What a gorgeous bluegill -- call the taxidermist!

Our little Kia Sportage looks right at home in the woods.

Ah. Crunchy campstove coffee. One of life's little pleasures!

It was a great trip, although too short. See you next year, Ergang Lake!

Summer is Over

2009-09-23T19:43:00.003-05:00

I get melancholy this time of year. Fall is beautiful, and I do appreciate that, but it means one thing to me -- winter is coming. I dislike winter. I live in Chicago where winters can be ug-ly. Dan and I walk in our commutes and we face a lot of unshoveled sidewalks on our way. The city plows pile the snow and sleet on the street corners so that we have to climb a few hills to get to the train. Once we get downtown it's pretty easy to get to our offices, as most of the buildings in the Chicago loop are well maintained. There are no snowy sidewalks, but there are lakes of sleet to be jumped over at most of the street corners. Ugh.

One morning last winter I made it a point to thank every maintenance worker I saw shoveling and clearing snow in front of the skyscrapers I pass on my way to the office. They all seemed to appreciate it (who wouldn't!) so I'm going to do it again this year. Everybody likes to be thanked for what they do.

And now, I better keep a stiff upper lip and enjoy the beautiful sunsets and blue asters and crisp sweater weather and orange pumpkins and golden trees blazing. I'll try.

I Heart Weight Watchers

2009-09-02T19:44:00.005-05:00

Today marks 4 months on Weight Watchers! I started one gorgeous spring day, May 2, 2009. I remember walking home from my first meeting, thinking "this will be a new healthy beginning for me." And it really has been. I've lost 31 lbs and I feel soooo much better.
I like counting points; it makes a lot of sense to me. I can eat whatever I want, nothing is off limits. I have really not denied myself anything these last 4 months -- I have just adjusted how much of or how often I have a particular goody, like a gin martini, for instance! I could never follow a "diet" that restricted something like carbs. I have always eaten healthy food, and I have always liked to cook, so it may be easier for me to do this point thing than it may be for others. My problem is portions! If one big bowl of Greek salad is good, why not 3 big bowls? Everything I ate had to be in huge, lumberjack portions. I always wanted more. WW has taught me what a proper portion looks like, and if I want to be slender I will have to keep track of my food intake every day for the rest of my life. It's worth it!! I can actually tie my shoes without asphyxiating myself. That's a good, good thing.

Pretty Peppers

2009-08-30T17:30:00.013-05:00

Hoppin' jalapenos!!

My pepper plants have done ok this summer. I've been rewarded with a few nice sweet peppers and some very pretty (but wimpy) jalapenos.

These pepper plants are very obliging -- because they sure haven't had any help from the weather. It has been a carpy summer for heat-loving vegetables.

I made a delicious chicken dish with the pictured peppers -- oven-roasted chicken legs with lime juice, onions, garlic, sliced plum tomatoes and jalapenos. The jalapenos added nice flavor to the dish, but there was no heat. :(

Here is the first harvest of compost from my worm bin! I really need to get a life because it's ridiculous how excited I got to finally use this crumbly rich goodness in my garden. I added some of it to the planting holes for 3 'Husker Red' penstemon, and then added the rest as a top-dress for my viburnum sargenti 'Oonondaga'. It's been so much fun having the worm bin. So far I have been composing about half of my kitchen waste. Once the bin gets cranking and the worms start reproducing, I'll have several drawers going at a time. My bin has 3 drawers. According to the Urban Worm Girl, the worms do their lovemaking in the roof of the bin. Sure enough, when I take the roof off and look inside, there are teeny baby worms running around in there. There's a little orgy going on in the corner of my kitchen!

In other garden news, here is an amaranthus 'Love Lies Bleeding". It's about 5 feet tall, but is bent over so that it resembles some kind of strange fluffy red animal -- like a red wooly mammoth or a big, fancy rooster. It had been laying prostrate all over its neighbor, that nice sedum 'Autumn Joy'. You couldn't even see the poor sedum. Dan brought me a handy-dandy bungee cord from the garage and I tied the amaranthus up to the fence. It's very important to have at least 3,476 bungee cords laying around, because you never know when you will need one to restrain a red wooly mammoth or a big fancy rooster.

Dog Day Evenings

2009-08-13T20:10:00.018-05:00

Now that mid-August is here and it's a bit shady in my yard by 7:00 p.m, I can manage to get some weeding done after work. When I get home from work in early summer, it's way too sunny and hot in my yard to do anything resembling labor. I'm a wimp in the heat. I guess I could garden in a skimpy bathing suit, being refreshed by the sprinkler, but if anyone saw me my property values would plummet.

Anyway, I have been pulling weeds these past three nights, and I can actually glance at certain portions of my garden without screaming. Progress!

Here is my beautiful little euonymous fortunei, Green and Gold. It's 2 years old, and thriving.

The Earthboxes have been amazing -- lots of vegetative growth, and the tomatoes and peppers are finally coming ripe. They don't taste that good, though, very bland -- like the ones you buy at Dominicks over the winter. This summer of 2009 was just too cool for the 'maters. We hardly had any hot, sunny days. This summer has been very comfy for humans -- we have used air conditioning twice in 3 months -- but the vegetables aren't happy unless they are basking in the hot hot sun.

Notice the cayenne pepper thrown about with complete abandon. It seems to be working keeping the squirrels at bay a bit -- I have been able to leave some red tomatoes on the vine to fully ripen! But the squirrels will probably grow immune to the cayenne, once they realize that it will not kill them. And I say "too bad it won't kill them!" Don't tell PETA where I live........

Note to self for next year -- squirrels don't bother pepper plants! No more tomatoes for me, I'm afraid. :( I'll have to look for something else to plant in my Earthboxes. What else do squirrels spurn?

Worm News Update! Time For a New Working Tray

2009-08-09T12:10:00.011-05:00

It's been a little over two months since I got my worm bin, and the worms have been busy munching away. They have just about finished their labors on the current working tray. There is a little bit of bedding left, but the tray is now mostly castings (worm poop). It's time to make a new working tray for them, and to harvest the rich compost that they will leave behind when they move to their new digs. The worms can't live in their castings, because it is toxic for them. I think I can hear 1,000 little voices cheering.......
I have assembled all the materials that I will use to create the new bedding for the working tray. I have newspapers, corrugated cardboard, twine, an egg carton, and lots of clean paper towels that I have used for things like blotting excess moisture from lettuce. Such an exciting life I lead!

Everything gets cut up in to small pieces. The Urban Worm Girl told me that the worms love to hide in the ridges of corrugated cardboard, so I will throw a bunch of that in, along with the twine which I have cut into little pieces.

Next, the newspaper is cut into strips and added to the tray.

Add some torn paper towels and give everything a good spritz with water. The bedding should be as moist as a wrung-out sponge.

In goes some cut-up egg carton, and everything gets mixed together. The tray should be about 2/3 full of moist bedding.

Now I'll add a few handfuls of topsoil and give it a few squirts of water. Later on when I boil some eggs, I will add crushed, dried eggshells. It's important to give the worms a bit of grit to help their tiny digestive tracts. Keeps 'em regular!

I've saved some vegetable scraps, and I will chop them into smaller pieces to help the worms ingest them. Looks pretty tasty!

Bury the food in one corner, and cover it up with the bedding. This step is important to prevent unpleasant odors or fruit flies. The worm bin should smell fresh and clean, and it will if the food scraps are properly buried under the bedding. Mine has smelled great so far when I take the roof off -- very woodsy.

Now the new tray is ready to go on top of the old tray, and I have placed it on top and put the little roof back on.

In about 2 weeks, most of the worms should have migrated up to the fresh food and bedding in the new tray, and I will be able to collect my reward. At the end of 2 weeks, if there are still a lot of worms down in the old tray, then I will take that tray and move it to the top, take the lid off and shine a light on it. The worms can't live in light, so they will hopefully migrate down into the new tray.
This has been a fun and interesting hobby so far, and I feel like I am doing a little more of my share to help the environment. My garden will thank me, too!

Squirrel Warfare

2009-08-05T20:38:00.008-05:00

Warning -- the following post may not be suitable for younger and more sensitive readers -- not to mention the squeamish, the faint of heart, or members of PETA.

We have an over-abundance of squirrels in the vicinity of our house and garden. There is a small office building right across the alley that has a large garbage dumpster. Squirrels hang out there, get plenty to eat, and nest in the 2 trees at the back of my house. There are many, many, many, way too many squirrels living within a few feet of my garden. Dan and I are getting ever more defensive and bloodthirsty on behalf of our slowly-ripening tomatoes. Squirrels, heed my warning and stay away if you know what's good for you.

The tomatoes have not liked our cool summer, and are turning red very, very s-l-o-w-l-y. As we are downtown at work all day, the squirrels have a field day with my Earthboxes. They watch from the trees until they see us leave for the train, and then they scamper down the fence and snatch the only ripening tomatoes off the vine. Then -- and this is the worst part -- they take ONE BITE and leave the tomatoes on the fence. It's heartbreaking! My hate for those little furry bastards burns with the heat of a thousand suns! This is war!!!

As my first line of defense, I tried cayenne pepper in order to make my tomatoes unpleasant to their little furry noses. Dan's mom, Ann, got us a huge plastic jar of it at her neighborhood fruit market, and I've been liberally sprinkling the cayenne on the black plastic mulch of the Earthboxes and also a little on the tomatoes. It seems to help a bit, and I was able to pick a few puny orange tomatoes before the squirrels got 'em. A paltry victory.

Anyway, like I said, we are growing increasingly bloodthirsty. I know I will probably shock and dismay a few folks, but here goes. We have been using our Have-a-Heart trap (which is quite ironic), and when we trap a squirrel we drown it in a trash can full of water. There, I said it! When I say "we" do this, I am speaking quite loosely. Ok, I'm lying through my teeth. Dan, of course, does all the trapping, drowning and disposing. I hide in the house, with my fingers in my ears, going "la la la la la", pretending that he is not out in the backyard murdering the local fauna right before my neighbors' eyes. We have helped 3 squirrels pass into the great beyond this week, but I don't think it will do anything toward putting a dent in our over-abundant squirrel population. We'd probably have to trap and drown 10 squirrels a day to make a noticeable difference.

However, we are discontinuing our squirrel executions. We just don't have the heart for it any more, not after what happened this morning. It was around 7 a.m., and Dan went to check the trap. There was a squirrel in the trap, and he looked mighty nervous, as well he should. Dan fetched the garbage can from the alley and filled it with water from the hose. I was, of course, hiding in the kitchen, being lots of help. All of a sudden I heard Dan yell, and I looked out the back porch window to see him slamming the plastic garbage can's hinged lid down on the squirrel, who had somehow gotten out of the trap while it was in the water and had climbed up the inside of the garbage can, attempting to make a break for it. It was now half in and half out of the can, squirming mightily. Dan was holding the lid down on the squirrel, and yelling for something to whack it with. I ran to give him the garden spade, purposely looking away from the squirrel. He took the spade and told me to hold the garbage can lid tightly down on the squirrel while he clunked it on the head. I did NOT like this idea one bit, but what could I do. I got behind the garbage can, as far away from the squirrel as I could get. Twisting my head away, and with my eyes tightly shut, I pushed down on the top of the lid while Dan swung the shovel. WHAM! I immediately felt a bit of something hit the side of my head, and I screamed bloody murder as I ran a few quick circles around the yard. As it turns out, it was only dried dirt that had been caked on my garden spade, not flying bits of squirrel. It took about a half hour before my heart rate returned to normal.

In the meantime, Dan was calmly making sure that the squirrel was out of its misery, bagging it up and disposing of it in another of our garbage cans. After this very harrowing experience -- admittedly much more harrowing for the squirrel -- we are putting the trap away and giving up the fight. To any squirrels that may be reading this, go ahead and steal my tomatoes. Mock me from your leafy nests. After all, I can get plenty of nice, ripe tomatoes from the farmer's market, with a lot less violence.

Me and my Worms

2009-07-19T17:16:00.011-05:00

Vermicomposting! I love my worm bin. I have had it working in a corner of my kitchen since June 6, and in a couple of weeks I'll be able to harvest my first batch of rich, crumbly compost. I have 1,000 worms, and I have named them, in alphabetical order. Every morning I say hello to them. "Hi Aaron, hi Abel, hi Barry, hi Cindy...etc.

Here's a picture of the inside of the worm bin. A bunch of seedlings have sprouted from the vegetable scraps, they are probably green pepper seeds.

I feed my brood twice a week with a couple of handfuls of fruit and vegetable scraps. I bury the food under the bedding in a corner, and the next feeding I move to another corner. When I lift the lid off the bin to feed them, it smells fantastic -- like the forest after a good rain.

The hardest part of this worm composting business will be deciding where the precious castings will go. I keep changing my mind! I'll decide to put them up in the front under the center window, to beef up that poor, alkaline foundation garden. But then I'll walk through my back yard and decide that I want to help the soil in the native plant border right off the back deck. What to do! I think I need a few more worm bins...........

Garlic Extravaganza!

2009-07-19T10:54:00.003-05:00

My enclosed porch smells like garlic! Ahhhhh, I love that smell. Yesterday I dug up about 20 heads, and I left about 10 heads in the ground to mature a little more. Some of the heads were nice and big, but most were on the smallish side. That doesn't surprise me, because we have had a really cold and rainy summer. Not much sunshine and heat, so I'm sure my tomatoes will take their sweet time getting ripe, too. It's only the middle of July, and we do have almost 90 days until frost, so we have some time to get some warmth and sunshine in. Mother Nature, do you hear me?

With all the rain, a lot of my perennials have gotten twice as tall as they usually do. So, they are flopping all over their neighbors -- especially the yarrow and butterfly bush. This year would have been a great year to prune a bunch of stuff for height control.

I have been grilling up a storm, I just love it. No pots and pans to clean up! Yesterday I made turkey burgers and skewers of zuchinni and onion. The grilled vegetables are fantastic, they get very sweet -- especially the onions. I love summer!!

Earthbox Heaven

2009-07-06T19:34:00.005-05:00

Look at how much my Earthbox vegetables have grown! I'm very happy with the Earthboxes, it's been very easy to just squirt the hose once a day to keep the water reservoir filled. It's amazing how much water the tomatoes go through -- 2 tomato plants use twice as much water as 6 pepper plants.

I started these tomatoes from seed under lights. No matter how many years I have gardened, it always amazes me when a teeny seed turns into something like this! Now to keep the squirrels from stealing my harvest. My mother-in-law bought me a huge container of cayenne pepper, and I'm going to sprinkle it liberally all over the tomatoes. I just hope she squirrels aren't Cajun squirrels!

In other gardening news, check out my garlic, keeping company with my Clematis Jackmanii. It's almost ready to harvest, and after I dig it up I will hang the garlic from my bookcase in the dining room to dry. I'll also harvest a bunch of dill and hang it in the hallway, and then my whole house will smell like a Kosher dill pickle.

My Munstead lavender is in full bloom, the smell is wonderful. I felt very sorry for the lavender during our heavy rains, because the poor thing likes it dry and gritty, and it was really looking bedraggled. But once the constant rains stopped and the sun came out for a few days, it bounced back and is blooming like crazy.

Handome and Handy, Part Deux

2009-05-31T20:28:00.008-05:00

Here's Handsome and Handy Dan, beginning the process of putting together our new gas grill. Look -- he's reading the instructions! I told you he was smart.

This thing came in a large box with 14,569 little pieces, all neatly shrink-wrapped, along with a 49,046 page book of instructions. Engineering degree not included.

The first thing Dan did was put a tarp down on the deck so that all of the precious little bits of hardware didn't disappear between the deck boards. See, I told you he was smart.

I was standing by, serving as "Lovely Assistant." Our conversation would go something like this:

Dan: Will you hand me that screwdriver with the yellow handle?

Me: What do you say?

Dan: Please, Lovely Assistant, will you hand me that screwdriver with the yellow handle?

Me: No.

But of course, I kid. I am a very good Lovely Assistant. I am especially good at standing by, wringing my hands and looking worried when things aren't going well. But with Handsome, Handy Dan in charge, things usually go very well.

It's starting to look like a grill!

I'm very happy to say that we had delicious grilled chicken breasts on this baby several hours after this picture was taken. Life is grand!

Handsome and Handy

2009-05-25T13:54:00.009-05:00

Red Green says "If women don't find you handsome, they can always find you handy." With Dan, I have the best of both worlds! Here he is, using odds and ends found in our basement constructing some nifty supports for my Earthbox tomatoes. If we don't have a tornado or gale-force winds, they should support the thousands of tomatoes the Earthbox folks have promised me! :)

My vegetable seedlings are thriving in the Earthboxes. So far, so good.

In other garden news, my violet clematis is blooming. It is so beautiful it just about brings tears to my eyes! I have had this little clematis for over 15 years. It only gets partial sun, so it never gets very big. Some years it looks pretty pathetic, with only one or two blooms. But with our record-breaking rainy Spring, everything is putting on a show this year.

Earthbox Setup Day

2009-05-17T17:30:00.013-05:00

Last Sunday was Earthbox day in my backyard. It was perfect weather for gardening, 60 degrees and sunny. I set up 2 Earthboxes -- 1 box with 2 tomato plants and 1 box with 6 peppers -- 4 sweet peppers, 1 jalapeno and 1 Thai dragon. I like to make dried red pepper flakes out of the Thai dragon peppers. Here's the empty Earthbox. It has a screen in the bottom, and a tube for watering.

It was very easy to set up, but the huge bags of Bacto potting medium were heavy!

First I filled a bucket with the potting medium. Moistening that potting soil took more water than I could ever have imagined! I thought I would be able to moisten it with the green watering can, but I soon resorted to the hose.

I filled up the Earthbox until the soil was level, then added 2 cups of fertilizer in a strip.

Then I mounded soil until it was 2 inches above the level of the box. Then I put on its little "shower cap".

The seedlings are planted by cutting an "X" through the plastic cover and stuffing the plant into the soil. Note to self for next year: use smaller seedlings! The tomato plants that I started from seed in my basement were fine, it was easy to stuff them through the little hole. But the pepper seedlings I bought at the farmer's market had a much larger rootball. It was a violent episode to stuff them through and get them planted! Here are the peppers, awaiting their fate:

Here are the two little tomato seedlings nestled in their Earthbox house.

And here are the 6 pepper plants, all tucked in and enjoying some sunshine. They seemed to have survived their unmerciful lynching! Three days later, they still look fine.

Now, according to the Earthbox folks, all I have to do is keep the water reservoir full by adding water down the tube. Easy peasey!

I'm looking forward to a bountiful harvest of tomatoes and peppers. Now I have to figure out a way to stake the tomatoes without paying a million dollars for Earthbox's fancy-schmancy staking system. I have a few ideas rolling around in my brain, and plenty of junk rolling around my basement that I'm sure I can put to good use.

The Babies are Getting Big!

2009-05-10T10:37:00.008-05:00

On this Mother's Day, I am celebrating my little seedlings. In this picture are tomatoes, zinnias, stocks and sunflowers. I figure I am their surrogate mother! They are almost ready to be planted outside, I just have to harden them off. Instructions always say to place the plants outside for an hour or two the first day, and to increase the time by an hour or two every day for at least a week. Well that's hard to accomplish when you are away from home from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every weekday. I wish I could train them to get themselves from the backyard back into the basement by themselves. Every year I do some half-ass hardening off, and the seedlings always seem to thrive. I guess they just want to grow up and be beautiful!

The sweet peas that I started from seed have already graduated to the border in a pot with an obelisk. They seem to be doing fine, and even held up to the very windy day we had yesterday. Every so often I check on them and try to train them to climb up the obelisk. This is the first time I have planted sweet peas like this, and I hope I have success. Sweet peas are so adorable.

Reseeding Hell!!

2009-05-02T11:14:00.005-05:00

Last season I started a packet of Amaranthus caudatus "Love Lies Bleeding" under lights in my basement. I had always wanted these large, beautiful annuals in my garden -- and at last I was going to have them. Boy howdy, was I!! Every seed in the packet sprouted, and I couldn't bear to part with any. My garden was covered with the beautiful, large green plants with long red dredlocks draping down. They were gorgeous, and they were everywhere. I think I planted 15 or 20 of 'em. When the season was over, I chopped the plants down, but draped the beautiful red tresses all over the ground. I used them like little blankets to cover perennials for the winter. My garden went to sleep, cozy under a layer of red.

Some time during that winter, I was reading an article in a garden magazine. The article mentioned the beautiful 'Love Lies Bleeding,' and these two words struck terror in my soul...."reseeds readily". Yikes!! I had no idea! I thought to myself, how bad can it be? I always want for more poppy reseeds and nigella reseeds, I never have enough. I'm sure it will be the same with the Amaranthus. Every seedling that I get will be welcome. Ha!

As I walked down my back sidewalk the other morning, I thought to myself "what is that patch of reddish-looking stuff on the dirt over there?" Amaranthus seedlings. By the millions. I have truly never seen anything like it!

These patches of seedlings are ALL OVER MY GARDEN. I am going to feel like the worst murderer in the world when I hoe them up. Of course, I will save one or two.......and the cycle will repeat itself.

Sweet Peas, et al.

2009-04-29T19:56:00.004-05:00

Lettuce gone wild! I had some old, old, old mesclun lettuce seed, which I half-heartedly tossed into some dirt and set outside on my deck. I never thought it would germinate. After several weeks of rainy days, look at this! I'm going to have some major thinning to do here, but at least I can add the thinnings to my salad.

I started sweet peas from seed, and tonight they were big enough to transplant into a container with an obelisk. I'm going to have a sweet pea tower! They look so puny today, it will be fun to take another picture when they are full grown -- in all their fragrant, sweet pea glory.

A Sad Chore

2009-04-11T14:05:00.004-05:00

Today I had to thin out my seedlings. I hate doing this! I feel like a murderer. In the past, I would carefully thin the seedlings and re-plant every single one, because I couldn't bear to destroy what I had so tenderly raised. At least I'm not that crazy any more -- but I do save a few of them. I potted up about 6 extra stocks and one extra tomato. Here is a picture of my infants. Aren't they cute? I can't wait until they grow up and leave the basement!

Seed Starting!

2009-03-28T11:50:00.008-05:00

I love this time of year. Of course, I bought too many seeds, but what else is new. I seem to forget that I actually don't have a 40-acre farm back there! But I love to give seedlings away to friends, so it's all good.

For now, I started 4 annuals -- tomatoes, sweet peas, stocks and a couple of cosmos. The cosmos, of course, germinated practically overnight and are now already gangly and reaching toward the light. The stocks have all germinated and are doing nicely. I'm still holding the tomatoes and sweet peas in my kitchen on a luke-warm radiator. No sign of life from them yet, but it's only been a week.

I have a nice set-up in my basement for seedlings. I have a baker's rack with light fixtures attached to the top of each shelf. The light fixtures are on chains so that I can raise and lower them. I like to keep them about 4 inches above the seedlings. I have the lights on a timer, they go on at 6 a.m. and off at 9 p.m. I often wonder what the Chicago Police think when they drive by and see the glow of the grow lights shining out my basement windows.........lol

I'm very annoyed at my choice of stocks, which I have never grown before. I was enticed by the picture and the description in a seed catalog -- which failed to mention that they are cool-weather annuals, similar to pansies. Bummer. I found this out only after I had started the seeds. I wanted them for my summer front porch pots, near my chair, because they are supposed to be very fragrant. We'll see what happens, I hope they don't faint at the first 80 degree day! They will only get morning sun on the front porch, so that should help.

I am going to erect bamboo teepees for my sweet peas, and also for some pole beans. I have never grown pole beans, but I love the way they look climbing up their supports.

It's going to be a lousy weekend, we're expecting a few inches of snow. I hate early spring snow storms. I better enjoy the daffodils around the neighborhood while I can!

Spring is just about here.......

2009-02-16T08:51:00.003-06:00

I have a pile of seed catalogs on my dining room table, at least a foot high. I love this time of year. My garden notebook is full of my scrawls -- all of my wishes and dreams for my 2009 garden. I will be starting some seeds in my basement under grow lights, but I am going to try to keep it down to just a few flats. It's so hard to decide what to grow! I want everything in every pretty picture that I see!!

I think I am going to buy two Earth Boxes this year to grow vegetables on my deck. I only want a couple of vegetable plants, maybe 2 tomatoes and 2 peppers. There are only 2 of us in the house, so I don't need bushels of vegetables. I don't have too much room to plant tomatoes and peppers in my flower beds, since we removed the vegetable plot that was right in the middle of the back lawn. I had a square plot, with a small wooden fence around it. My brother said it looked like Boot Hill. lol Dan complained about mowing the lawn around it, so it is back to grass this year. I hope I can find some used Earth Boxes on Craigslist or Ebay. I don't feel like spending almost $80 to have two new ones shipped to me.

Happy garden planning, everyone!

Fall Has Arrived

2008-09-27T17:53:00.003-05:00

Summer is still holding on! It has been gorgeous, warm and sunny for over a week. Tom Skilling says that's about to change, though, and I'm looking forward to crisp and cool conditions -- sweater weather. My Amaranthus "Love Lies Bleeding" is draping itself all over the place. Since the heavy, heavy rains of a few weeks ago, the plants are mostly laying on their neighbors.

I actually managed to wrestle a few ripe tomatoes away from the squirrels this year. But for the most part, I had to pick them days before they were fully ripe, to let them ripen on my kitchen windowsill. Dang squirrels!

I drew a diagram of my main backyard border yesterday, and also took pictures, to help with garden planning and design (of which I have little!) I have been known to throw plants in wherever there is a space, with no regard to color, etc. The great thing about perennials, though, is that they are movable! It seems like the mistake I make most often is planting shorter things in the back of the border. I always think a plant is going to be taller than it is, I guess.

August Border

2008-08-26T20:43:00.006-05:00

My backyard border usually looks beautiful in late summer and fall -- it comes into its own. My two large perovskia bloom their bright periwinkle blue, and sprawl all over their neighbors like they own the place. I love this combination of grass, amaranth and echinacea.

Today was a beautiful day -- blue skies, cool and dry. High of 70. I scrounged and found a perfectly ripe tomato deep inside the tomato plant. We'll have BLT's for dinner.... I love summer.

My front shade garden

2008-08-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

I love my front shade garden. It is peaceful and of course, shady. I am not a sun worshiper, and since my back yard faces full west with very little shade, I spend a lot of my time on my front porch. After work I sit there, sipping a martini (gin, of course!) and planning my future gardens with the help of magazines and seed catalogs. I usually have lush, colorful containers on my porch, but this year I had a big problem with spider mites. I bought some annuals from my neighborhood Jewel grocery store, and I think those were the culprits. I had to destroy one container, and cut back several other containers in the beginning of the season. They look OK now, but I will never by plants from Jewel again. I'm sticking to the Farmer's Market in downtown Chicago, every Thursday, right down the street from where I work. Growers come in from Michigan and Wisconsin. They have gorgeous plants at very reasonable prices. I'm just going to have to tote them on my trek across the loop and home from the train, but that's OK.

I love my caladiums and my hakone grass. I have them in containers, because the soil is not the greatest in my front garden, I really need to work on amending it. My lamium groundcover looks good most of the season, but my poor old violet clematis really struggles. It doesn't get enough sun, and I only get 3 or 4 blooms. I really should move it, but it has been there, doing it's best, for about 15 years. It's a trooper!

Love Lies Bleeding

2008-08-20T09:45:00.000-05:00

I have long wanted this annual Amaranth in my garden, but never got around to planting it. Culpepper called it "flower gentle," and it does add a gentle feeling to the border. I started seeds in my basement under grow-lights, so I consider these plants to be my babies. I love to smooth tangles out the long flowers, they are like red dreadlocks. They look very cool in a vase, too, but I had to find a high shelf so that the red fronds could hang down. I think I will not ever be able to live without them in my garden!

A Great Summer, So Far

2008-07-13T11:29:00.002-05:00

Here in the City of Chicago, the Summer of 2008 has been a lovely one, so far. Plenty of rain, with warm sunny days and cool nights. A thunderstorm or two, but nothing serious. A few days of heat with high stupidity -- I mean humidity -- but only a handful of them, and only one at a time. Nothing like the endless stretch of 95+ degree days we had here about 10 years ago, killer heat that caused the deaths of many homeless and elderly. The morgue was overflowing, so the bodies were held in refrigerated trucks in hospital parking lots. The nightly news was gruesome. But I digress........

I am a grump when the weather does not cooperate -- when Mother Nature sticks her tongue out at me and all the rain storms pass right over my house, usually heading south. And then I have to go to work and listen to my co-workers from Indiana brag about lovely, soaking rains. Bah!

Last August, during the rather evil Summer of 2007, an horrific storm blew down my ancient stockade fence (I'm reading lots of Jane Austen lately, so I wrote "an horrific storm" instead of "a horrific storm". So cultured!) The day my fence blew down, August 23, 2007, was the 23rd anniversary of my mom's death. She died on a Thursday, and it was also a Thursday that my stockade fence blew down, along with the huge grapevine that had draped it for many years. I was secretly glad to lose the grapevine because for all its beauty, it was a maintenance nightmare. Here's a picture of a portion of the old stockade fence, all dressed up in its grapevine:

After the fence blew down and the grapevine was history, a new, maintenance-free white privacy fence was installed. I was then left with what seemed to be miles of pristine, white fence. A very white fence. White, White, White. Here's a picture, along with my new Viburnum Onondaga. Pray that the Viburnum, and the other shrubs I have planted, grow quickly -- before I succumb to snowblindness: