Picture Thread

I wanted to start a picture thread where we can post pictures of our garden and the progress throughout the season.

I would love to see what everyone is doing. For now, I have some seedling pictures. These are actually from a few weeks ago, and everything is bigger and I also started cukes, basil, nasties, and some other herbs and flowers.

Tomatoes & peppers

Chard, kale, spinach, & lettuce

Thyme, romanesco (fractal broccoli !), and onions

...& my baby chicks, Enya, Ke$ha, and Tesla.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Duppie on June 21, 2011 at 12:53pm

I'm glad to see that Belmont feed jumped into the urban chicken market. When we started with our chickens they were mainly focused on racing pigeons and had a limited selection of chicken related goods.

We now get our feed, scratch,straw, etc. from a guy that does home delivery: http://www.backyardchickenrun.com/bcr/Welcome.html

He is also the only source (that I know) of organic chicken feed at reasonable prices.

Todd Allen said:

Ginger most definitely turned out to be a rooster. We were contemplating just such a solution and had renamed him Ginger Baker, but the store we got our chicks from, Belmont Feed & Seed, offered to exchange two 5 week old pullets, another easter egger and a golden laced wyandotte for our 4 month old rooster.

Duppie said:

If Ginger turns out to be a rooster, a live butcher (I know there is one on Lawrence near the river) will turn Ginger into a nice fryer for around 2 bucks.

Permalink Reply by Todd Allen on June 21, 2011 at 1:32pm

It seems chickens have become a significant portion of Belmont Feed & Seed's business. They carry an organic feed line, Nature's Grown. I think the grower was $22 for 50 lbs and the layer was $23 for 50 lbs. I don't have anything to compare it too price or quality wise, but my impression is it's only fair in quality as it contains some chaff/stem bits, etc. and the chickens don't eat it all, leaving perhaps 10% behind in the bottom of the feeder or scattered on the ground.

Duppie said:

I'm glad to see that Belmont feed jumped into the urban chicken market. When we started with our chickens they were mainly focused on racing pigeons and had a limited selection of chicken related goods.

We now get our feed, scratch,straw, etc. from a guy that does home delivery: http://www.backyardchickenrun.com/bcr/Welcome.html

He is also the only source (that I know) of organic chicken feed at reasonable prices.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 2, 2011 at 11:11pm

They say misery loves company . . .

Anne Alt said:

Beautiful grouping.

H3N3 said:

Hosta "Blue Mammoth" flanked by Hosta "Golden Waffles" on either side.

I picked up all 3 as babies on a bike trip in Wisconsin.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 12, 2011 at 12:33pm

My Hosta will not regain any glory this year, but almost everything else has come back--pics soon.

Anyone have any recent pics?

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 13, 2011 at 9:27pm

2 months later:

h333 said:

Cardinal Climbers, Coleus, Petunias

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 13, 2011 at 9:32pm

2 months later (all but one grew back after the hail):

h333 said:

Tomatoes

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 13, 2011 at 9:35pm

I finally unprocrastinated and got a new container built last Saturday . . .

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 13, 2011 at 9:37pm

The surviving cuke:

Permalink Reply by Duppie on July 22, 2011 at 1:49pm

By request, here are some recent pictures:

Hydrangea. It is supposed to be blue, but only a few flowers are blue, despite mulitple applications of sulfur to make the soil more acid. Beautiful neverthelessA closeup from a rose. Some unknown old English variety. They smell very niceRed tiger lily. Anne Alt has one of their off-shoots now

Perennial hollyhock.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 22, 2011 at 11:10pm

Beautiful, Duppie, thanks!

One of my patients asked me what to do about the faded hydrangea problem . . . I did find some hydrangea-color specific commercial fertilizer at Menard's.

I gotta get outside with my real camera tomorrow-- all of my flowers have been opening this past week.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on July 23, 2011 at 11:01am

Here's what the vegetable beds looked like this morning. They are going gangbusters

Duppie said:

Finally got around to take some pictures.
Three vegetable beds. Bottom left: Pole beans, peas, onions, and garlic. Top left: pattipan squash, lettuces (gone), radishes, spinach (gone), soon more radish, cilantro, and parsley.

Large bed: Tomatoes (roma, yugo, and cherry), shallots, and my personal favorite: celeriac. Can't wait to make split pea soup with it this winter.

Permalink Reply by Duppie on July 23, 2011 at 11:17am

Some more pictures.

Blazing Prairiestar (but we call it Muppet fur)

Echinacea

Hibiscus. Started blooming on Thursday, but got beaten up by the rain over the last 24 hours. It has tons of flowers that are up to a foot wide and last for a few days each. I will take a better picture once the plant has recovered a bit.

We bought it years ago on a whim, but it seems to survive well in Chicago winters. I am thinking of splitting it for next year, so if you are interested, let me know. It's about 6 feet tall and works best against a fence, so you can tie it together and prevent it from flopping over.