Progress Update It’s been another mostly aquatic week on the homestead. Pumpkinseed launched into phase 1 fully with the arrival of several new strains. I’ve also started thinking about some dry goods to add as well when I’m ready for e-commerce. Around the rest of the Homestead, most of the effort flits between weeding, attempting …
The side garden, despite some epic weeds is the star this week. The first peony has opened in an intense magenta that matches the blooming mountain laurel that arches over from next door. Front Garden Update In the front bed, the bleeding hearts threw out another spray. But the columbine from last week are no …
There’s a lot of chaos this weekend, It’s countrywide, but today it hit my ordinarily quiet corner of Chicago. Racial unrest isn’t a regular topic for this blog, but I feel a need to express sympathy for everyone suffering both from historical mistreatment and recent events. The sirens tonight are a minor inconvenience for me, …
What’s Blooming When Laika and I walked out the door this morning, I didn’t have the highest hopes that I’d have anything worth photographing on the homestead. I figured I might find some violets or creeping charlie if I got lucky. Right in the center of the front bed was a sole bleeding heart blossom …
The big story this week was the flooding and cleaning up from the flooding. The basement took on several inches of water when the city shut down the sewers as an emergency measure during heavy rains. It bubbled up through the floor drains. This setback made it difficult for me to do anything with the …
Neighborhood Blooms Not much in bloom on the homestead grounds this week. A few straggly tulips and the bleeding hearts. But yarrow, dogwoods and Johnny jump ups are blooming in the neighborhood. Blooming Inside The House Much more interesting are all the blooms in the house. Violets started from seed have erupted in bloom, anthuriums …
I’ve learned to think ahead with my garden this year. I planned most of 2020 between November and February of this year. I got first dibs on all the seeds I wanted, but even then, I was late to the party getting a lot of the permaculture plants I was hoping to add. Last weekend, …
Garden Update Old fence removed, new fence incomplete. It’s been an exceedingly wet week. We’re currently under a flood warning from yesterday (Sat) until Thursday. It’s wet, there’s standing water in the yard that has me slightly concerned for the state of the shrubs. A bigger headache right now is the lack of fencing. I’m …
The tulips are going out in a blaze of glory with these towering yellow sentinels. Bleeding hearts bloom strongly, but I don’t quite see what’ll come next. Neighborhood Blooms Things are starting to thin out a bit in my beds, but the neighborhood is still going strong. The grape hyacinth in particular might be a …
I got lucky this weekend. We had a “polar vortex” sweep through the midwest, and lows well below freezing were predicted for my region overnight on Friday. Unfortunately, I don’t have any frost blankets, and my plants have almost all started leafing out, so I was extremely nervous. Luckily, Saturday morning, I woke up to …