2021 Garden

We had such a great garden this year! This doesn’t even show the squash and pumpkin!

HAWAIIAN SKIES DAFFODIL4.9.21 Last fall I bought some bulbs and planted them. These were some of them. My first flowers to bloom.

KINDRED SPIRIT OAK4.16.21 We requested a parkway tree before we even moved into our house and it took more than 2 years for the city to plant it. We got a Kindred Spirit Oak in the fall of 2020. I was so anxious for it to start to bud this spring and finally it did. I’m hearing that oaks bud late.

5.3.21 Getting some leaves going now.

5.16.21

5.25.21

LILAC WONDER TULIP4.24.21 I loved these tulips last spring and did research to find out that they are Lilac Wonder tulips. I planted the bulbs in the fall and they are finally blooming!

4.27.21

STRAWBERRY4.26.21: Last year the strawberries grew and spread, but did not produce any fruit. Looks like this year will be different!

6.3.21 YES! FRUIT!

6.5.21 Makai said the strawberries are SO sweet!

NIGELLA DAMASCEANA [LOVE-IN-A-MIST]5.4.21: Dad was going to pull these weeds out, but I stopped him, literally a second before he was about to do it. I’d remembered sprinkling some seeds around that I’d gotten for free in the neighborhood gardening group. It was late last summer or early fall. I wanted to see what this turned out to be. I posted in a couple gardening groups and some people had hunches, but no one was for sure. Some thought dill even!

5.26.21 – Finally blooms!

HERB GARDEN5.4.21 I’ve planted the herb garden. Back row is parsley, chives, cilantro and basil. In the front is oregano, dill, thyme and rosemary. The thyme keeps coming up every year. I dug out all the mint and literally threw it away! We never use it and it is hard to manage. The problem is that KC thinks its fun to jump into the raised bed and dig. I’ve replanted the chives 2-3 times now.

I got these fence pieces from Home Depot and put them around the herb garden. KC looked at them and jumped right over the top!

I ended up putting the fence pieces around the front flower garden. I think they look nice and give it a more polished look. I need to get a few more to complete the area.

9.5.21 Front Garden

For now, this is the best way to keep KC out of the garden!

5.25.21

7.4.21

7.9.21

8.14.21

COLEUS FLAMETHROWER – SPICED CURRY5.2.21: Makai did not want flowers in the turtle!

6.1.21

7.4.21

8.6.21

10.10.21

10.26.21

PANSY 5.14.21 Planted in the front garden near the bird feeder.

LILACS5.17.21

IRIS 5.19.21 The irises have grown so tall!

PUMPKIN5.20.21 I started these from seeds that Makai picked out at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

6.6.21 bloom!

6.17.21 Squash on the left, pumpkin on the right.

6.17.21 The pumpkin leaves are HUGE!

HIBISCUS5.21.21

7.7.21

7.13.21

7.15.21

8.4.21

BROCCOLI5.22.21 Starting to see some growth.

6.6.21

6.8.21

6.14.21 Roasted it

SPAGHETTI SQUASH5.25.21 Makai came home from gardening class with a spaghetti plant (and a very large onion)

6.7.21 bloom!

6.17.21

7.1.21 Squash + Pumpkin

7.9.21

LILY OF THE VALLEY5.31.21 Makai’s preschool friend Sam’s mom gave me some Lily of the Valley. I planted it around the oak on the parkway in front of our house.

RASPBERRY6.1.21 Picked this up at Home Depot randomly.

7.3.21 raspberries!

MOSS ROSE 6.2.21 I love these moss roses.

6.15.21

DAISY6.3.21 The daisies are in bloom! They’ve grown and spread so much since last year!

6.14.21 I have so many daisies, I cut some for my office.

6.21.21 I can’t believe these are so big compared to when I planted them!

BLACK SWALLOWTAIL CATERPILLAR 6.6.21 I discovered my dill is filled with caterpillers!

6.8.21 It loves the dill!

6.9.21 – spotted a butterfly!

“CATALINA GILDED GRAPE” WISHBONE FLOWER6.10.21

6.21.21

OTHER CRITTERS6.17.21 Someone thought maybe a mayfly?

7.8.21 gorgeous gold bug!

8.29.21 Grasshoppers!

9.1.21 Slug

9.4.21 Cicada

CALIBRACHOA6.21.21 I have these in three planters on the front steps!

7.4.21

CONE FLOWERS
6.23.21 I planted these at the end of last year. So pretty.

GREEN BEANS6.28.21 First green bean harvest.

DAYLILY
7.1.21

MARIGOLD7.3.21 Dad and I added a planter to the back of the Little Free LIbrary. I planted marigold seeds in there and they are blooming now!

7.4.21

8.29.21

RED AMARANTH6.14.21 Someone was giving this away on Facebook, so I grabbed 2.

 7.6.21 Growing very big!

9.6.21 I can’t believe how huge these got!

SUNFLOWER7.13.21 Sunflowers will bloom soon!

8.4.21

8.7.21

8.14.21

Storm! 8.24.21

8.26.21 Cut some of the sunflowers that were on downed branches.

8.28.21

9.4.21. I gave some of the sunflower heads to a little girl for her preschool. They were going to dry them and pick the seeds out.

CUCUMBER8.3.21 – Back from Hawaii!! Cucumbers, beans, squash! Not eating the squash!

PHLOX8.4.21

BELL PEPPER8.6.21

8.23.21

 

JALAPENO8.6.21

8.14.21

8.21.21

9.4.21

CARROTS8.7.21

9.12.21

10.25.21 Finally pulled them all. All tiny but very sweet.

COLEUS 8.29.21 Somehow this coleus just started growing in my indoor palm!?!?

 

 

Adventures in Gardening

Some of our gardening memories this summer!  May: I spoiled my own Mother’s Day by talking about going to the garden center that weekend and planting everything. This was in the middle of the quarantine during the pandemic. My gift was a whole gardening bag filled with tools. Dallas gave it to me early because he was afraid 1. I would buy some of these things and 2. that I’d need them to do the gardening.

At the Farmer’s Market Garden Center. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t been to a store during quarantine. This was my socially distanced X to stand on to wait to go inside to pay for the things I picked out outside. Everyone was masked and keeping their distance and being very friendly as we all try to figure out how to navigate this.

Getting my gardening on!

Dallas and Makai got in on the yard work too!

Cucumbers, basil, rosemary, mint, chives, thyme. The mint and the thyme came back from last year. We had so much mint that I gave a ton away to Rachel, Jess and Kristin.

Marigolds and strawberries. The strawberries took over and I replanted the marigold somewhere else!

The snake plant got fried! Not good outdoors in the sun!

Marigolds and spikes.

Too sunny for the coleus here, but I put it there anyway. Loved the colors.

Dad sent a ton of canna bulbs and I planted 15 along the garage and 10 more on our fence line in the front yard.

Since the cucumbers climb, I got some supports.

We moved the garden from the yard to the rocks, which was wayyyy better. The grass didn’t die under it and we didn’t have to move it to mow.

I wanted to go back to the Farmer’s Market Garden Center, support local at this hard time, etc, but even before it opened the line was down the block. I ended up going to the Home Depot garden center. It was huge. They really expanded it.

I love the smell of lilacs in the spring SO much, I finally got one and planted my own!

June: Added some peppers that a neighbor was giving away. They just said they were “hot”. They turned out to be jalapenos.

Also planted a free tomato a neighbor was giving away.

Marigolds are not fancy but I love them!

Added stakes for the tomatoes. They’re really taking off!

July: I picked up a small hibiscus (not hearty) and planted it in a pot on the patio table. In July it finally bloomed!

I found this plant in the rocks and planted it in a planter. According to my Facebook gardening group, it is a snapdragon.

I got a birdbath and added it to the flowers along the garage.

Mid-June – starting to get some vegetables growing!

Unfortunately, my tomatoes had a soggy bottom! According to the internet and my dad, this is either because of inconsistent watering or not enough calcium. I bought some dried milk and added it while watering.

I waited until Makai came home from WI to let him pick the first cucumber.

Phlox and canna. I remember both of these growing in the back yard when I was young.

I attempted to dig out some of the grass in this strip and did not get far at all. My dad managed to dig it all out, put down wood chips and transplant some flowers I picked out. We also moved the birdbath from the back to the front.

August – We found a katydid!

Cannas are blooming

Tomatoes

Front Garden

Strawberries and tomatoes.

HERBS!

So many cucumbers!

Grasshopper!

These tomatoes I grew were DELICIOUS!!

Canna

Dad gave me a stonecrop plant and it was blooming in September.


Hibiscus Watch 2020
We planted the hibiscus last summer when we returned from Hawaii. Will they grow back this year?4.4.20 – They look very dead

5.17.20 – My Facebook gardening group told me to trim the hibiscus branches back, so I did that a while back. I’m starting to see the smallest nubs of growth.

5.24.20 Within a week, the little nubs are getting bigger.

5.26 Way bigger!

5.28 Really growing fast.

6.1 With Makai for perspective.

6.3

6.23 – taking a Makai photo before he goes to WI for a while.

7.9 Hibiscus grasshopper.

7.15 There are so many buds! It’s going to be quite a show.

07.23 – AND WE HAVE A BLOOM! A big one.

7.30 – a week later. SO MANY BLOOMS!

August – Found this pretty bug on the hibiscus!

Coronavirus Quarantine Week 8: May 3 – 9

Dallas got Makai a tough 300 piece puzzle.

We thought it would take several days or a week. He finished it in less than 24 hours.

We’re continuing to spend a lot of time outside on our new patio set. Love it. Our next investment needs to be a deck umbrella.

I really cannot understand these anti-mask people.

Makai liked all these “yellow flowers.” !!

I really like this tulip!!! I’d never seen a tulip with this coloring before! Makai and I have been taking so many walks and really getting to know our neighborhood in a way that we hadn’t over the last couple years. We’re starting to learn every house and every plant!

I don’t know why I got this ad sent to me, but this is for sure a “salad” I could get behind. There are so many ads for restaurants closed, doing curbside, doing delivery, whatever their policies are..

Pizza Hut is stressing taking breaks and offering Mental Health Recharge days. I definitely took advantage!

Makai is learning his kindergarten lessons easily. He’s ahead on some things. He could probably skip the whole rest of the year and still be ok. Yet, I’d been SO incredibly stressed out EVERY SINGLE DAY. I don’t know why seeing this in writing really helped my brain a lot.

In the middle of everything, we refinanced. It was strange, but really easy. The closing officer came to our door (mask and gloves) and handed us the papers to sign. She then went and sat in her car and if we had any questions, we texted. Then when we were done, she came back to the door and took the papers, went back to her car to review them.

When the 100 pc puzzle came, it was done at super speed. I have a couple 500 pc puzzles on order.

Taco Tuesday + Cinco de Mayo. Makai was BEYOND excited to have a homemade taco bar at home.

Cross stitching some Christmas ornaments.

Dallas made pork chops with mushroom gravy and rice.

Homework: What’s your favorite letter?

Sometimes it feels like freedom just to get in your car and drive for 5 minutes with the radio on and the windows down. Our car was dead in the garage for several weeks and maybe I didn’t realize that it was taking a psychological toll too. Junebug Cafe opened just before quarantine. I saw recently that they’re selling growlers of my favorite cold brew, Dark Matter’s Chocolate City, so I went and picked one up. I hope they survive this strange time. My craving for iced coffee has increased as we’ve had warmer days. It’s only 55 outside today but I managed to get sunburned while taking a call on the deck.

Breakfast.
  Math class.

Important work going on here.

For the musicians..

I started talking about gardening on Friday and accidentally made Dallas give me my gift early because it was a gardening tool and tote set!

My Mother’s Day gift is 6 gardening tools, gloves, and a squirt bottle that all fit into this utility tote. So cool! I used it all day yesterday.

I shopped at Farmers Market Garden Center. They all wore masks and required customers to. It was easy to stay away from people in the lot. To get inside and browse and pay you needed to stand in a socially distanced line. They had a security guard to enforce it. He told me he used to work at nightclubs downtown and was just happy to have a job.

Makeshift workbench.
Raking the dead grass out in the back yard.
So much dead grass. Dallas went over it 3 times.
Planted marigolds and spikes on the front steps.
Weed whacking.
  The raised bed was overgrown with mint from last year. I ripped a ton of it out and delivered it to Jessica, Kristin, and Rachel. We also had thyme come back from last year, but not a ton. I also planted cucumbers, basil, rosemary and chives in the raised bed.
Makai wanted strawberries so I planted them here along with one extra marigold plant.
Makai acting like he’s watering something so he can play in the water!
    I got this print for my office. Who run the world (girls!)
Makai said he needed to air his butt out while he was doing the puzzle.
  I got dressed up for a special event. I put on makeup for the first time since March. I used my special Malie Hawaiian shampoo, conditioner and body wash.
I even set the table nicely.
It was Sara’s 40th birthday!
Sara, Jessica, Stacy and I all ordered dinner from Elske. Stacy went and picked it up and dropped it off at my house. Jess delivered Sara’s to her.
We ate dinner “together” and talked and drank wine. The dinner was delicious!
    When it was time for desert, we had Sara light her candles, blow them out, and make a wish!
Even though we couldn’t be together, it was fun!

This was the gift I sent to Sara for her birthday!

Makai’s WI Vacation

We were barely home from our 3-week trip to Hawaii, when Makai went to Wisconsin for 10 days! He had off a few days for Fourth of July and Dallas and I each only had one day off. So we asked my parents if he could go to their house. But the timing for pickup and drop off really extended the visit. He loved it, of course! He didn’t even miss us! He did so many things in those 10 days:

Party at a nearby park and a nighttime parade.

Lakehouse day with my brother and Jill.

Helping grandpa wash his truck.

Crashed my cousin Skyonna’s wedding.

Celebrating Fourth of July with my cousin Kelly’s family – Jeff, Tessa, Margo, Charlotte.

Visiting a park on the Fox River.

Hanging out at home!