2020 Gardening Info [and 2021]

Just thought it might be helpful to start a thread on gardening info (supplies, seeds, general thoughts and plans, etc.) since by all accounts, it's going to be a big year for home gardeners.

I'll start it off with a plug for the seedling sale at The Talking Farm (full disclosure, it's a 501(c)3 for which I'm a board member). Prior to joining their board, I purchased a lot of my seedlings from them over the past 3 years. They offer a compact selection but their plants do very well and are propagated by the organization themselves, via an education partnership with Skovanston area high schools (the partnership/education aspect of this was, of course, abridged this year for obvious, unfortunate reasons).

The sale is up as of today, so if anyone is looking for seedlings in support of a great organization, here is the link for the order process (contactless pick up will be available on a variety of dates in mid-late May).

https://the-talking-farm.myshopify.com/collections/organic-seedlings/seedlings?page=1&emci=7f6a38bf-e585-ea11-a94c-00155d03b1e8&emdi=833b329a-4d86-ea11-a94c-00155d03b1e8&ceid=611920

Happy planting!!

Are any of the community gardens open yet? I have a garden across from the Ecology center in Evanston at Mcormick, and the gardens are still closed. I wanted to order some plants from Teresa Brockman who comes to the Evanston market, but I wanted to make sure that the community gardens are going to be open eventually. I emailed our gardening coordinator, and gave her the link to Teresa's plant sale, and it took her two days to get back to me, and it sounds like the gardens will open up eventually, but she does not know when. They are still trying to figure out how to make it safe.

I then decided to order some plants from Teresa, and I was going to order them today, and I got a plant sales are (temporarily?) suspended. They may open back up again in a few days. She has been selling a lot more plants this year to people local to her, and so she warned people to order ASAP. I should have ordered as soon as I got her email a week ago. If I can't order from her I might order from the Talking Farm. She has a lot more plants to choose from though.

Well I have good and bad news. I just found out that the community gardens in Evanston are going to open up on 5/2. We are going to work alternate days. The people with the even numbered gardens are going to be allowed to garden on the even days. We will all have to wear masks. The bad news is that a bunch of employees have been laid off by the city of Evanston, including the gardening coordinator. The person that runs the ecology center will be managing the gardens. Now if Teresa would open up her plant sales again I would be happy.

It was driving me crazy being cooped up in my condo, and now I will be able to get outside to relieve my stress.

I guess gardens are the new sourdough. I was happy to see two of these pop up between the asparagus and rhubarb. Just enough for a small morel and asparagus pizza. Now, if I could just get a few pounds more...

Found a new seed company, Kitazawa, with quick turnaround and a terrific supply of interesting Asian herbs and veg. Very excited to get them into the ground.

Seedlings are selling like hotcakes! The Talking Farm's annual sale has been a combo of pre-order and onsite --this year, due to you-know-what, it will be on-line only, with curbside pickup. And at the rate it's going, it's going to sell out which has never happened.

Here's the info on what's left in case anyone is interested.

https://the-talking-farm.myshopify.com/collections/organic-seedlings/seedlings

This is my first year in a house! I had grand plans for researching heirloom seeds, creating charts comparing the attributes of various tomato varieties, wandering the aisles of Gesthemane discussing options with the gardener-employees, you name it! Then the pandemic arrived, followed not long after by what I knew would be my last trip to Home Depot for a while. We were in the door at about 8 am and were on a mission -- grab and buy. So I did. It was cold and rainy, and I was standing outside picking over their meager herb selection. I grabbed soil and pots and the first seed packets I saw, and as I headed to the check out I saw a cart fully of scraggly tomato plants and I grabbed the first four varieties I saw. Determinate? Indeterminate? Size? Color? Time to harvest? Ha. All of that research went out the window. It was early April and I had no idea when nurseries would open or I'd next step foot in Home Depot.

Fast forward 6 weeks.

I cannot count how many times I've dragged (and wheeled -- I've since bought a dolly) pots into and out of the garage because of an impending freeze or snow. Hopefully this was the last week of that!

My tomatoes -- all indeterminate in pots, 3 large, 1 cherry -- are doing OK. I now have 3 or 4 mixed pots of herbs, but my poor basil is about to be replaced for the 3rd (and final, I hope) time. (Note to self: Don't expect basil to survive before mid-May.) I didn't know what to expect, but of the herbs the prior owner left me, the chives returned in March and the mint appeared in early April (not long after I planted replacement mint). It may be worth investing in indoor grow lights next winter to now that our herb stock (other than basil) is well established in pots.

My radishes, carrots, spinach (Bloomsdale -- the one variety of seed I knew I wanted all along!), scallions, kale and lettuce are all doing well after planting on April 3-6. Just last weekend I planted cilantro, tarragon, cucumber and zucchini seeds, but nothing has sprouted yet.

chgoeditor wrote:This is my first year in a house! I had grand plans for researching heirloom seeds, creating charts comparing the attributes of various tomato varieties, wandering the aisles of Gesthemane discussing options with the gardener-employees, you name it! Then the pandemic arrived, followed not long after by what I knew would be my last trip to Home Depot for a while. We were in the door at about 8 am and were on a mission -- grab and buy. So I did. It was cold and rainy, and I was standing outside picking over their meager herb selection. I grabbed soil and pots and the first seed packets I saw, and as I headed to the check out I saw a cart fully of scraggly tomato plants and I grabbed the first four varieties I saw. Determinate? Indeterminate? Size? Color? Time to harvest? Ha. All of that research went out the window. It was early April and I had no idea when nurseries would open or I'd next step foot in Home Depot.

Fast forward 6 weeks.

I cannot count how many times I've dragged (and wheeled -- I've since bought a dolly) pots into and out of the garage because of an impending freeze or snow. Hopefully this was the last week of that!

My tomatoes -- all indeterminate in pots, 3 large, 1 cherry -- are doing OK. I now have 3 or 4 mixed pots of herbs, but my poor basil is about to be replaced for the 3rd (and final, I hope) time. (Note to self: Don't expect basil to survive before mid-May.) I didn't know what to expect, but of the herbs the prior owner left me, the chives returned in March and the mint appeared in early April (not long after I planted replacement mint). It may be worth investing in indoor grow lights next winter to now that our herb stock (other than basil) is well established in pots.

My radishes, carrots, spinach (Bloomsdale -- the one variety of seed I knew I wanted all along!), scallions, kale and lettuce are all doing well after planting on April 3-6. Just last weekend I planted cilantro, tarragon, cucumber and zucchini seeds, but nothing has sprouted yet.

Congratulations and condolences Welcome to the prettiest and most delicious (hopefully!) of all addictions.

Gardening in Chiberia is frustrating in that our season does NOT start when the commercials do. Unless you have a serious indoor grow light set up, it’s really tough to grow from seed before late April and even then, it’s challenging. And I’ve learned not to plant anything outside—in ground or containers—even the stuff they say is cool weather friendly—until early May. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc, really can’t be planted here until after Mother’s Day. But the good news is, unless we’re super unlucky (hasn’t happened in many years), we can grow almost everything until end of October. so it kind of works out.

Garden stores are open—many with on-line ordering and contact-free pick up. The challenging part is finding veggie inventory. But I’ve planted seeds for most things this late and still gotten fruit. It doesn’t hurt to try. Just don’t take any hot weather seedlings outside unless it’s sunny and over 70 degrees since it will just stress them out. And it’s the perfect time to plant greens, herbs (except basil), peas/beans/root veg/corn in ground.

Most of all, plant flowers (the veggies need them) and enjoy the view. There’s nothing better for relieving stress with everything we have going on right now. Have fun and keep us posted!!

I know this is 2021, butI got an email from Teresa Brockman almost a month ago with a link to her new website where you can order her wonderful plant starts. She still has plenty of plant starts available. I think she has 85 different varieties of tomatoes available. All of her plants are wonderful, and they do really well in my garden. They are all really hardy, and she does not plant them in plastic pots. She uses either peat or coconut coir pots. They are $5 per pot, but if you purchase 10-29 pots you save 10%, and if you purchase 30 or more plants, you save 20%. You order them and pay for them online, and then you pick them up at the Evanston farmer's market in May. She is going to bring the cool weather plants on May 8th, and the warm weather plants such as tomatoes and peppers on May 20th. When you do your order online, you will get charged for sales tax. I ordered 30 plants from her, and I got charged $9.90 in Illinois sales tax. Here is the link to her website.
https://www.teresasunnylanefarm.com/pla ... t-overview

NFriday wrote:I know this is 2021, butI got an email from Teresa Brockman almost a month ago with a link to her new website where you can order her wonderful plant starts. She still has plenty of plant starts available. I think she has 85 different varieties of tomatoes available. All of her plants are wonderful, and they do really well in my garden. They are all really hardy, and she does not plant them in plastic pots. She uses either peat or coconut coir pots. They are $5 per pot, but if you purchase 10-29 pots you save 10%, and if you purchase 30 or more plants, you save 20%. You order them and pay for them online, and then you pick them up at the Evanston farmer's market in May. She is going to bring the cool weather plants on May 8th, and the warm weather plants such as tomatoes and peppers on May 20th. When you do your order online, you will get charged for sales tax. I ordered 30 plants from her, and I got charged $9.90 in Illinois sales tax. Here is the link to her website.
https://www.teresasunnylanefarm.com/pla ... t-overview

Thank you for sharing this! It's so fun to look through all her varieties. I'm adding everything to my cart and then I'll have to pare it down a bit

Hi- I just looked at Teresa's website, and I noticed that she is out of sun gold cherry tomato plants. This is my all time favorite tomato. She is out of a few peppers too. She still has lots of squash, greens, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. I am not sure how long you can save them in your cart until you check out. Last year she posted later in the season, and she ran out in a week. There are still supposed to be a lot of people gardening this summer.

NFriday wrote:Hi- I just looked at Teresa's website, and I noticed that she is out of sun gold cherry tomato plants. This is my all time favorite tomato. She is out of a few peppers too. She still has lots of squash, greens, brussel sprouts, and broccoli. I am not sure how long you can save them in your cart until you check out. Last year she posted later in the season, and she ran out in a week. There are still supposed to be a lot of people gardening this summer.

I'm glad I got a sungold before they sold out!

Pesche's in Des plaines have a broad selection of vegetable seedlings last year. And my cheat for herbs last year was to buy the potted ones at Trader Joe's or Mariano's and transplant outside. Larger and cheaper than at garden centers. My single TJ basil plant took over nearly a quarter of my herb garden last summer (a roughly 3 x 6 plot).

Teresa Brockman still has lots of veggie plants available. You have to order online, and then pick up the cool season ones on 5/8, and the warm season ones on 5/22 at the Evanston farmers market. She is out of Sun Gold tomato plants, but she still has lots of other tomato plants to choose from, and she has tons of greens, broccoli and brussel sprouts to choose from, as well as quite a few eggplant, peppers, herbs and squash. One of the other farmer's that comes to the Evanston market, Jon First usually by the end of June puts his basil on sale ridiculously cheap. The small ones he marks down to $1, and the huge ones are usually $3-$5.

There is going to be a plant swap on 5/15 from 2:00-3:30 taking place at the Evanston Unitarian church at 1330 Ridge in Evanston, but this year it is going to be plants only, and they are going to limit the number of people they allow in the parking lot for the sale, and everybody is going to have to social distance. I have been to that one, and it is mostly tomato plants, and they are all free, but tons of people show up for this, and unless you get there in the first 30 minutes, you are not going to find any good stuff. I've had much better success with Teresa's tomato plants than I have with any of the plants I have gotten at the Unitarian church. The only time I had much success at the church was one year when it was pouring rain, and then I did not spend a lot of time there. I just got a few plants and then took off.

The Talking Farm is also doing another plant sale in May too, with more details to follow.

Here is a link to Teresa's ordering page.
https://www.teresasunnylanefarm.com/pla ... t-overview

Her plants are all organic, and they are super. I always have good luck with her plants.