What’s In My Garden Week of June 21

Yeah, I’m here with another series. Hopefully this time I’ll keep up. Since this is something that I’m loving, I think that I might be able to. 

I’m not exactly sure when I started the garden, but I can go back and check. I’m just lazy. So far, we have quite a bit of greenery back there, and good ol’ Dennis the Menace keeps squirrels and raccoons from eating our bounty. Although he has already helped himself to a crown of broccoli and half of a cabbage, he’s a decent guard dog. He also barks at the lawn mower but that’s another story. 

In my little portion of land I have zucchini, butternut squash, tomatoes (indigo rose, mr. stripey, purple cherokee, german queens, patio, roma, mortgage lifters, and sun sugars) corn, lettuce, kale, blue lake bush beans, watermelon, straight 8 cucumbers, okra, brussels sprouts, sugar snap peas, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, mustard greens, turnip greens, carrots, strawberries (four different kinds) bell peppers (four kinds) sage, pickle cucumbers, oregano, rosemary, and parsley. 

That’s a lot in our little plot of land. If you forget, here’s how the area looked before we planted anything: 

 

Now, it looks like this: 

I love how pretty and green it is! We’ve been harvesting some things little by little. We’ve gotten several handfuls of sugar snap peas, and strawberries, and finally pulled up a cabbage and some mustard and turnip greens. Baby bell peppers are starting to form (we have red, orange, purple and yellow peppers) and I love seeing them peek out from behind the flower buds. My pickling cucumbers are coming out too! The kids love watching those and keep talking about how they are going to help me make the pickles from them. 

 

We also harvest broccoli earlier this month, but I didn’t take photos of it, BUT I have photos of the offshoots since picking the first crowns. I love that we’ll be able to get at least two more sides for dinner this summer from them. I’m hoping to get some land across the street from our home, so that I can have an entire bed of broccoli next summer. I’m learning so much, and thankful that there are SEVERAL Instagrammers that answer my questions. I also have to shout out the Peggy Notebaert Nature museum who helped me identify two caterpillars for sure in a photo. I had other friends suggest the same kind, but they weren’t quite sure. We have Swallowtail caterpillars in our backyard. That’s pretty exciting! 

 

I’ll try to keep you all up to date with the progress of the garden, as I am usually in it daily to see what new progress has happened. Our little bit of earth seems to really love when it rains, and I love seeing the growth from it as well. So much so that I’m attempting to get rain barrels from the city. That actually happens to be a bit more difficult than it should be, but hey, it’s Chicago. Would it be my city if things weren’t difficult? Until next week!