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I admit I haven't even thought about it, let alone ordered anything. I'll either be using seeds I bought last year or I'll have to purchase starts from some one....or have to order VERY SOON! Given the weather we have, I still have time for most things, but in a few short weeks I won't.

So, I'm curious, what's everyone planning on growing this year?

I just got my seed order from Johnny's-- you should still have time to order! My daughter and I are planning a butterfly garden-- not many edibles, as I don't trust the lead content of our soil but I am not organized enough to get it tested.

For the butterflies: Milkweed, Butterfly Bush, Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia), Cosmos, Zinnias, Scarlet Runner beans.

I also have an Earth Box full of garlic!! If the garlic didn't rot over the winter, it should be a garlic-o-riffic summer. If the garlic did rot, I am re-planting the EB with pole beans.

Thank you for asking this question-- it is like a (much-needed) hint of spring.

Jen

I've got some perennial herbs, thyme, sage, mint and chives. I've got a couple of rows of garlic over-wintering, and my first attempt at shallots. I will put out my indoor potted rosemary. I've got some seed for basil and arugala, but will need to get some marjoram and parsely. Maybe try some dill, although bugs always seem to get that. I've got peas, lettuce, and a couple types of capsicum. If I manage to get a trellis back up, I'll try some vertical squash vines. Still need to get some leek seed. I grew some "Job's Tears" last year, a maize relative that is sometimes called oriental barley. I haven't tried eating any yet, but kind of doubt I'll be replanting, as it took up quite a bit of space in my small garden. May plant some gherkins instead.

Last years was my first with a cold frame. It was hard to get used to both early and late season planting, but it was really nice to have a bit of fresh arugala and parsley in January.

I'm thinking I might plant some peas on St. Patrick's Day. A neighbor has done it with good luck, but I think luck will play a part in it.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

David -- We've never grown peas in our garden but that sounds like an excellent idea to get the hands dirty sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, we have a lot of prep work to do (ran out of time in the fall to put things in order).

A

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Alle Nerven exzitiert von dem gewürzten Wein -- Anwandlung von Todesahndungen -- Doppeltgänger --
- aus dem Tagebuch E.T.A. Hoffmanns, 6. Januar 1804.
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Na sir is na seachain an cath.

Peas can planted as soon as the soil is workable, which means not too wet with no frozen soil in the top four inches. When that occurs in Chicago is quite variable. Go by soil condition, not the calendar.

I'm relatively new to gardening, but want to get started with herbs and vegetables. What is the best to plant in the fall? I'm guessing now is too cold to really do anything, but I want to get started as early as possible. Thanks!

Edit: Sorry, forgot to mention I'm in Chicago.

My garlic cloves, planted in the Earthbox in the fall and kept in our uninsulated and unheated porch, are SPROUTING!!!! Spring is in the air!! Time to plant some lettuce in pots in this porch!

Can I do peas in the porch, or do they need to be pollinated by insects?

Jen

Hi Simon-- You can start browsing seed catalogs now. Do you plan to start from seeds or purchase plants? Also, you said "plant in the fall"; do you plan to plant anything this spring?

Jen

Oh, duh. I meant spring. I guess it's easy to forget about that season here. I was thinking of buying seeds.

An experienced gardener will no doubt chime in here, but I usually start my seeds indoors around St. Patrick's Day. So you have a couple of weeks to decide what you want (depending on space, light, preferences, etc) and put an order in. Johnny's Selected seeds is my go-to for seeds, but other sources abound. Starting small, or ambitious?

Jen

Pie-love, there is a post around here somewhere that has excellent links in it that will help you identify when to plant things (indoors and out). No, it's not too late for most things.

Buoyed by my success with sweet 100's last year, I'm branching out a bit. I have two earthboxes (bought for half-off at the end of last season) and a few little dirt plots around my patio.
I am planting: black krim tomatoes, sungold tomatoes, delicata squash, blue coco beans, some cute little carrots (can't remember the name) and rosa bianca eggplant. I just planted the seeds this weekend. I'll also have a few herb pots--sage, rosemary, basil and thyme.

Last week, I was ordering seeds and, on a whim, thought I’d get some burdock.

Melissa Graham has recently written about burdock in Local Beet and her recipe is actually the first one I’ve read for this root.

I’m going to plant the seeds and see what kind of crop I get. Then I’ll figure out how to eat it.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

The most memorable dish I had that involved burdock is: yanagawa-nabe <click for pic>

The version I had was made with unagi, but traditionally, they are made with loach. The thin sliver of burdock imparted crunch and ginseng-like flavor to cut through the richness of the egg, dashi, and fatty eel, all of which are soft in texture. One of my favorite all around dish with rice to soak up the yummy sauce.

Should be easy to recreate at home with prepared eel, dashi, burdock, eggs, green onions, soy sauce, mirin or sake, and powered sancho (pepper).

Here are some reference links:
History of loach
Recipe
Recipe with Beef instead of eel or loach

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“Nothing is more agreeable to look at than a gourmande in full battle dress.”
Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)

Black Hungarian Peppers, Hot Portugese Long Pepper, Bulgarian Carrot Pepper, French Fingerling Potato, German Butterball Potato, French Breakfast Radish, Kentecky Wonder Pole Bean, French Climber Bean and Lazy Housewife Pole Bean, True Lemon Cucumber, Double Yield Cucumber, Yugoslavian Finger Fruit Squash ad Golden Zucchini. Pepper seeds have already germinated. First round of Radish goes into SIP's next week.

My garden so far: Seeds on hand or on order from Johnny's:
Beans: Royal Burgundy Bush Beans, Tavera Green Beans
Broccoli Raab, Mokum Early Carrots, Diva Cucumbers, Asian and Fairy Tale Eggplant, Orion Fennel/Finocchio
Greens: Astro Arugula, Spicy Mesclun Mix, Green and Red Lettuce mix
Lincoln Leeks
Sugar Sprint Snap Peas
Peppers: jalapenos, chilis, habaneros and Ancho/Poblanos
Toma Verde Tomatillos
Tomatoes (still have San Marzanos and another heirloom leftover from last year): Yellow Pears, Chiquita "Grape" and Green Zebras
Herbs: Thai Magic Basil, Large leaf basil, Italian Large Leaf Parsley, Cilantro (rosemary still looking good from the winter) Will fill this out with local plants--thyme, chives (hoping these come back up--they usually do), oregano, sage, mint, etc.

Hoping to get seeds into the starter this week.

A little worried about keeping Boudreau out of everything--going to be a challenge since the "garden" is also his play deck! Hoping the screens/fencing will keep him off of everything...not something I had to deal with last summer since he was too small...fingers crossed. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears!

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

Hi Jen,

You've got to get some coneflowers too. They add nice color and good texture to your garden...and butterflies love'em. Plus, once the flowers start dying off in fall the finches go crazy for their seeds. Sometimes they'll hang nearly upside from the flower pulling at the seed.

You may want to give them a thought...especially if you have finches and a thistle feeder out already.

dan

Alrighty all,

1st-timer here & it will be container gardening on back deck thanks to Tyrus. Seed or plants? I want sungold tomatoes for sure. Spinach, lettuce, arugula, collards/chard(gotta have the super greens). possibly zuke, eggplant, & cukes.

Phew!

All thoughts welcome.

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Ava-"If you get down and out, just get in the kitchen and bake a cake."- Jean Strickland

Horto In Urbs- Falling in love with Urban Vegetable Gardening

I'm doing spinach, lettuce and arugula, all from seed; for tomatoes, I always go from plants (which I believe you pretty much have to do unless you're starting them inside or live in California).

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

If there was commercial value in Burdock I would be the Burdock king. Between that and Comfrey they have taken over much of my yard up in Wisconsin. I make comfrey tea and my bone medicine, now I have a use for the Burdock, I sure hope it tastes good.

Years ago, The Wife and I had a property in rural Wisconsin and it was covered with what was called Burdock. By the end of summer, the exposed stalk had dried to a hard stick, but I never looked to see what the roots looked like. I'm guessing there are many types of Burdock, and I'm not sure if what we had was edible. It it was, what a shame we didn't eat it.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

I am pretty sure, from what I have now read up on this plant, that is the same burdock. The first year it more resmbles rhubarb in appearance. The second year it sprouts the stalk and flowers. From what I have now read you should pick it either at the end of the first year or before it flowers in the second. I have a real good patch of year old burdock and will be picking some this May.

Thanks Dan, I have a ton of coneflowers-- they self-seed like crazy every year. And you are right, they are beautiful, vigourous plants and the birds LOVE them. Does anyone need some volunteers?

My daughter and I planted some peas in our enclosed porch a couple of weeks ago-- here they are photographed against the our backyard weather. I give you:

Snow, Peas:


Jen

Earlier this year, as I strolled Whole Foods with TimeOut Chicago Sex Advisor Debbie Herbenick discussing erotic applications of common grocery items, I started thinking about what I might grow in my garden this year.

Dr. Herbenick, telegraphing preferences:



And the winner is…yucca!



I’m going to take a pass on the yucca, but I am planting lots of squash and cucumbers…for eating.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

deleted duplicate post

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

Hit Clarke's Garden Center in Ford Heights this afternoon (no rush to get back to Chicago and excited to have something to enliven the drive back and forth to NWI now that it's spring!). Glad I did because I found something lurking in a far corner that I never would've expected--a real live Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) plant. Actually a bunch of them!!! When I inquired about prices, the very nice guy who was tending to the plants said that those weren't for sale. When I asked why, he said these were the private stash of the son of the owner who was experimenting with some seeds he ordered on line but that next year they might stock them if this batch did well. I wished them luck and reiterated how bummed I was but hoped to try again next year and he smiled and gave me a little one after all. Woohoo!! Pepper sauce, here I come

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“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor

Great haul Saturday at the Dane Co. Farmers Market in Madison, one of my favorite places to buy plants, as 1) the plants sold are all required to have been grown by the individual sellers, and 2), all of them have been pre-hardened off for short-term planting plans. I found several varieties of rosemary, both French and lemon thyme, and sage, plus a couple of Sweet 100 tomato fledglings, all of which will be split with the Customary Dining (Gardening?) Companion next weekend, along with some organically-raised bison and a *HUGE* stash of virtually every brew that the New Glarus Brewery produces (more about the very successful New Glarus trip elsewhere).

I also found him one of those interesting Tiny Tom-type plants, which is well over a foot tall - meaning that it's already approximately half of its mature size. CDC has had a lot of success with his balcony gardening to date, but a problem that we've both had with cherry/grape tomatoes is that the plants become so huge and ungainly, and take over a great deal of premium space. That space won't be so available this summer, as we're experimenting with a large trough-type planter of day-neutral strawberries up there. The Tiny Tom plant is almost a bonsai version of the customary cherry-type, and (supposedly!) stays bushy, rather than vining. Hope it's true, or I've got some 'splainin' to do.

I'm so excited I finally found some ghost peppers this year. I woke up early to head out to the Hyde Park Garden Fair (and I believe I saw at least one other LTHer in attendance there) on the news that last year they had bhut jolokias there. This year, I didn't find any. On the plus side, I found some African blue basil I had never seen before, as well as some scotch bonnets that are not as easy to find as I would have thought. So it was worth the hassle.

On my way back from Romeoville, though, traffic on I-55 made me come up Archer, and I popped into Soukal's greenhouse on Mason, just north of Archer. I remember one of the workers there, Jerry, mentioning last year that they were trying to get some ghost peppers going. I have no idea what became of it last season, but I decided to check it out this year. Success!!! They have about 30 plants, still VERY young. They technically weren't for sale quite yet, but I managed to get a hold of four of them. So, if you're in the market for ghost peppers, give them a shout.


Soukal Floral Co. & Greenhouses
6118 Archer Ave.
Chicago, IL 60638
(773) 767-7055
(800) 397-5632
http://www.soukalfloral.com/

After this week of hot weather I suspect I'm going to be shifting out of spring mode much earlier than I anticipated. Here's a quick rundown of what I've been growing so far.

First of the season is always pea shoots (in late March). I do quite a few rounds of those into early May.

Here's a pic of lettuce, carrots and radishes, etc...
Radishes: French Breakfast, Icicle, Daikon, Crimson Globe Globe
Lettuce: Oakleaf, Cimarron, All Year Round, Little Gem, Quatre Saison
Greens: Arugula, Red Cress, Spinach, Swiss Chard
Beets: Chiogga, Scarlet globe
Carrots: Lunar White, Atomic Red, Red Cored Chantenay



I'm getting 4 - 5 salads a week out of the garden at this point, and I'm hoping the heat doesn't ruin that.

I also have a lot of spices and other things growing as well:
Scallions
Collards
Oregon Sugar Snap Peas
Thyme, Rosemary, Parsley, Dill, Cilantro, Sage, Lavander, Oregano, Mint, and Basil



That's what I've been eating so far, I'm looking forward to a variety of peppers, squash, cucumbers, zuchini, and eggplant in a month or so.

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It is VERY important to be smart when you're doing something stupid

- Chris