Snarkyvegan’s Holiday Gift Guide

I’m sure this won’t be the end of my holiday gift list, I’ll add more as they occur to me or as the sales are announced.

For your favorite gardener:

Ethel® Gloves has launched a Bamboo Glove in time for the holidays. Not only are they made from eco-friendly bamboo fabric, they are VEGAN, containing no latex. Most latex contains casein to ostensibly give it that little extra stretch. Not only do vegans have to seek out vegan condoms, we also have to consider the latex used in clothing items. Ethel has eliminated that worry for us by also converting their regular line of gloves to contain no latex as well. BUT, there may be some of the old model Ethel gloves still in stores. If you want to ensure you get a vegan pair, contact Ethel directly, at least until the retail stores turn over all their merchandise. SPECIAL DEAL: enter BAMBOO in the coupon code box and get 20% off your orders from now until end of December. This includes non-bamboo items.

In case you haven’t heard, gardeners have been all abuzz this year about the latest weeding tool, the CobraHead®. Comes in long and short handled versions. The CobraHead is actually an very ingenious little design and actually looks kinda like a snake. Weeds will cower in its path.

And gift certificates or unusual seeds from favorite seed catalogs are always welcome. After gardens are put to rest in November, gardeners love nothing more than scoping out seed catalogs in preparation for Spring. My favorites are family-owned, small seed companies such as:

• Johnny’s Seeds
• Botanical Interests
• Kitazawa Seed was started by the Kitazawa family prior to WWII. After surviving the relocation camps of the war, Gijiu Kitazawa restarted his company and expanded to ship across the US. Today, they’re a source for dento yasai or traditional heirloom vegetables of Japan.
• Renee’s Garden seed company is owned and operated by Renee who personally selects all seeds, looking for unusual and heirloom varieties.
• Baker Creek also offers many rare heirloom seeds and maintains an old-style working pioneer farm. Can no longer recommend Baker Creek due to the lack of functionality of their shopping cart. If you don’t order by some unspecified amount of time after filling your cart, the cart empties without warning. Even if you’re logged into your account. So, if you choose to risk it, don’t run to the kitchen for a snack or take a break while shopping to water the garden. There’s no way to tell how long you have until the shopping cart dumps it’s load and you have to start over.

Allow your gardener to bring the fragrances of summer indoors this winter with Strawberry Hedgehog’s handmade soaps (vegan of course). Fragrances include pumpkin spice, lavender, spiced tea, tea-tree rosemary, and orange clove.

And finally, for gardeners of wee things, you can’t go wrong with a hand crafted fairy door from Nothin’ But Wood.

Gifts for the cook.

I’ve blogged about this vinegar before and it’s still my favorite: Traditional Balsamic Vinegar from The Olive Mill. This is a small shop in Geneva, Illinois and while they do offer many more items than the traditional balsamic, it’s still my favorite.

Most vegans I know can’t really afford expensive delicacies like Dr. Cow nut cheeses. This is why Dr. Cow’s products make nice gifts (hint hint).

Send your sweet-toothed vegans on a shopping spree with gift certificates from The Bleeding Heart Bakery who make awesome vegan pastries and cakes.

To-Go Ware makes some of the coolest lunch containers and eco-friendly bamboo cutlery. They’re also offering 30% off all purchases from now through Cyber Monday. Just enter THANKS30 into the coupon field when placing your order.

Earth First Farms rents organic apple trees and sells shares in their annual apple CSA. They do have awesome apples and IMHO, make the best organic apple cider, period. For those who don’t know, ciders are special blends that are unique to each orchard. THAT’s why they all taste different and the crap you get at Jewel is, well, crap. Personally, I’d love to have a share in Earth First’s annual CSA because it allows you to taste all the apple varieties they grown AND snag some of their awesome cider.

Make a donation on behalf of your favorite vegan via Farm Sanctuary or adopt a turkey. This is the one time where the recipient will actually appreciate donations made on their behalf. You can also buy t-shirts, buttons and other items in the Farm Sanctuary store, proceeds benefit all critters of course.

It seems like most vegans really have a thing for vampires or zombies.

That said, you might consider giving some twisted and sick artwork from Cuddly Rigor Mortis, specifically, take a look at Lychee Zombie and Peppermint Gimp.

This little Zombie Cupcake charm from Monster Kookies is also a great stocking stuffer for that vegan zombie fanatic.

Perfect kitchen knife system for the zombie in all of us.

And of course, very cool dishware from Folded Pigs.

What the hell are you going to serve the vegan who comes to xmas dinner?

Forget the Tofurky roast and look for Match Meats to win serious points with the vegans of your family. Match is ramping up sales of their holiday roast so check out their website for locations of the roast or order their products from Cosmos or VeganEssentials.

And just in case you’re serving wine with your holiday feast, check it against Barnivore’s list to ensure your vegan guests can drink it.

For XXXtra fun this holiday season:

Babeland.com is offering free shipping on all holiday orders over $50 from now until December 10, midnight PST. Unless of course you live in one of those unfortunate states that infiltrates your bedroom by banning adult toys (guess you can tell how I feel about THAT level of government snooping). Babeland is owned by Claire and Rachel, two real-world gals who are all about empowerment of women and couples—not a sleazy, icky, bigass company hocking cheap junk near truck stops. They also offer educational classes and workshops for women and couples. Claire and Rachel have even written an encyclopedic book on adult toys and um, yes, it is, um rather in-depth. Yeah, I’ve read it, ok I own it. The kind folks at Babeland are here to take the fear and embarrassment out of sex while ensuring you have a safe and friendly source for whatever toys and information you’ve been wanting.

Here’s hoping you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

 

Ooey gooey melty cheese deep-dish and vegan Chicago-style pizza at Delisi’s is really really awesome!

When you walk in the door, Delisi’s Pizzeria and Pub looks like any other neighborhood joint with TV blaring the game at the bar, regulars bellied up with beer and food, a friendly doggie greeter at the door and the addition of a few booths for eatin’.

While the regular menu includes a vegetarian pizza option, there’s another menu (separate but equal I guess—would be easier and make us feel even more included if menus were consolidated) that also lists vegan products in the toppings section. Upton’s Naturals has the sausage, pepperoni and chorizo covered while Chicago Soydiary’s Teese® cheese is available as the vegan cheese option. Delisi’s is also toying with offering Daiya Italian Blend vegan cheese. Now granted, I’ve never had a pizza with Teese done right but all the hoopla over Daiya forced me to try that one first. My next trip will be to try the same pizza but with Teese.

Anyway, I was prepared to order thin-crust like I always do because I don’t like to risk getting a soggy thick crust. If the chef doesn’t know what he/she’s doing, a deep-dish can go horribly wrong, especially the crust. If done well, you can even reheat it in the nukebox and have a decent lunch the next day. It’s all in the dough, the oiling of the pan and parbaking. If not done well, it can be soggy in the middle, ridiculously high and burnt around the edges (traditional Chicago deep-dish crust should be about the same height as the toppings), rubbery and floury tasting.

Also, if you really don’t know your deep-dish, you wouldn’t know that the tomato ‘sauce’ is actually shredded tomatoes rather than a thin saucy liquid pulled from a jar or vat. AND the cheese is the first ingredient to go on the crust, not the topper most often seen at pizzerias outside Chicago trying to emulate our famous pizza.

To test Delisi’s talents I ordered a basic traditional deep dish with:

• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Green peppers
• Italian sausage

Verdict? — 5 happy cows!

Let’s break it down starting with the crust—the foundation of any pizza, deep, thin or stuffed.

Prior to going vegan I’d had many many pizza’s and this was the first time I’d had one with a crust that was flavorful, golden and not burned, and meaty without being chewy/rubbery. I love Delisi’s crust. AND it’s vegan. No whey or butter used but still has a nice buttery crumb. It also seemed to me that the crust was either made from or with a goodly amount of cornmeal which was AWESOME! I loved that it wasn’t all floury tasting. It had major depth.

Upton’s Naturals fake meats with real flavor.

Most vegetarian pizzas simply leave off the meat which leaves a pizza not really tasting traditional which is a real bummer if that’s the experience you want. Delisi’s offers several Upton’s mock meats as optional toppings including sausage, pepperoni and chorizo. I opted for the sausage and it didn’t disappoint. Spicy, correctly textured, chunky and Delisi’s put just the right amount on the pizza. My next pizza will be half sausage/half pepperoni for a good comparison. I’m excited about the pepperoni because to my knowledge, there’s only one other vegan, to-remain-nameless, pepperoni on the market and it is disappointing.

As a side note: it would be interesting to try a bacon and pineapple pizza someday, if mock bacon ever became an option.

Upton’s has been in business only 4 years yet makes one of the widest ranges of interesting and authentic fake meats available. All with ingredient lists that are readable and not scary.

Have a nice Daiya!

Please excuse the crappy photos as I lost my tripod and was shaky from not eating since breakfast and having to drive 2 hours home during rush hour while huffing pizza in the car. In hindsight, I should have been more prepared. I promise better photos next time.

Daiya seems to have figured out the science behind making a gooey melty vegan cheese. Not sure how they did it but as long as I don’t eat Daiya daily, I don’t care. Daiya comes pre-shredded and bagged for food service customers as a flavor labeled ‘Italian Blend’. The owner of Delisi’s is still testing Daiya and is a bit concerned about the flavor. I thought it was fine. At least it HAD flavor (many vegan cheeses taste like cardboard or dirty socks, NOT that I’ve actually tasted a dirty sock), and yes, that flavor may be a teensy bit like 1970’s style processed products but it was still yummy and comforting. I was happy to have something one more leap closer to the real thing without the cruelty and the cholesterol.

Note: I’m refraining from using the word stretchy to describe Daiya because in this instance, it was only mildly stretchy. That MAY have been due to the long 2-hour commute during rush hour and maybe the pizza had cooled down too much by the time I got home. I don’t know but next time, I’m eating while at Delisi’s so as to view this wonderful Daiya stretch I keep hearing about.

Teese vs. Daiya.

As mentioned above, Delisi’s normally uses Teese® cheese from the awesome guys at Chicago Soydairy. While I love love love Teese, I have never had it on a pizza done right. I once ordered it on a pizza at Whole Foods in River Forest but I think those WF folks must be idjits. I know there’s a way to get Teese to be meltier but Whole Foods doesn’t know how to accomplish that — don’t waste your time ordering it at the River Forest store. So for a more formal comparison, my next trip to Delisi’s will be specifically to compare Daiya to Teese. I suspect they will both have their merits and that Teese will taste more authentic while Daiya may be more melty. This is why I’m wondering if blending the two may be worth trying. Just thinking. I’ve always loved Teese buffalo-style mozzarella even served unmelted with fresh tomatoes in a traditional Caprese salad and can’t wait to see what a proper pizzeria like Delisi’s can do with it.

How ‘bout them ‘maters?

The interesting thing about tomato sauce is that a traditional Chicago deep dish has chunky or shredded tomatoes rather than saucy ‘maters. Delisi’s tomatoes were nice and chunky, still looked like tomatoes rather than some pureed watery mess and were appropriately herbed. This means their tomatoes still TASTE like tomatoes. And having been on a losing streak growing my own tomatoes this summer, Delisi’s tomatoes were very comforting.

Final note.

I should mention that Delisi’s is a locally owned pub and pizzeria with open mic on Thursdays. It’s a very unpretentious, unyuppy, non-trendy neighborhood pub on a non-descript strip across from Rosehill Cemetary. Very normal signage for a very normal hole-in-the-wall kinda dive bar/restaurant but with extremely awesome pizza. They reportedly grow their own basil and I did see an AeroGrow® light near the kitchen. They are some of the most friendly people you’ll meet and if you’re looking for a regular haunt, this would be a great one. Delisi’s Pizzeria and Pub has a website but I haven’t been able to get the lower pages to load. They also have Facebook and MySpace pages and here is a link to their Yelp page.

And if you want to be prepared to order only vegan beverages, I recommend checking out Barnivore to get your list of beer, wine and liquor together before going. I have yet to run into a bar that knew about vegan beverages.

Also, if you’re a hard core vegan who won’t go into any establishment that also serves omnivores, Delisi’s isn’t for you. While they keep everything separate in the kitchen, some vegans just don’t swing that way. Delisi’s is focused on being inclusive and serving everyone which means that you can take your meat-eating family from Southern Indiana and y’all will be happy.

Oh, one more note, no matter how hungry you are, how long it takes to drive home, and how good the pizza smells, DO NOT attempt to eat a deep-dish pan pizza while driving. Trust me on this.

Sourcing products used by Delisi’s.

Delisi’s Pizzeria and Pub — also on Facebook, GrubHub*, MySpace and Yelp

*while Delisi’s is listed on GrubHub, I don’t see the vegan items listed as options and am unsure how you’d order vegan via GrubHub. Maybe you’d have to just call Delisi’s?

Upton’s Naturals — also on MySpace and Facebook

• Green Grocer Chicago
• Selected Whole Foods, check the refrigerated fake meat area and the ready to eats

Daiya — and on Facebook (supposedly only food service at the moment but can be had at the following)

• Pangea
• Vegan Essentials
• Cosmo’s
• Karmavore

Teese® by Chicago Soydairy — and on Facebook

• Vegan Essentials
• Cosmo’s
• Food Fight
• Garuda International
• Green Grocer Chicago
• Selected Whole Foods

 

Saving for a rainy day? Let’s hope for more sun next year.

This is really a note to myself: seeds I must remember to save for next year:

• Morris Heading Collards (heirloom): if I can get it to bolt
• Italian Heirloom Kale (heirloom): if I can get it to bolt
• Black Prince Tomato (heirloom)
• Black Krim Tomato (heirloom)
• Persimmon Tomato (heirloom)
• Principe Borghese Tomato
• Italian Costoluto Genovese Tomato (heirloom)
• Brandywine Tomato (heirloom)
• Marvel Stripe Tomato (heirloom)
• Long Keeper Tomato: maybe I’ll save these, depends on how they taste
• Keepsake Tomato: ditto
• Tomato Pepper (heirloom)
• Cherry pepper from Clover’s: mild spicy
• black nasturtiums: if they’ll bloom in time.
• Scarlett runner beans
• Bronze fennel

If anyone is interested in participating in a seed saver’s party at my place, leave me a note. Maybe around Halloween after we’ve all had time to harvest and dry seeds we like and want to share? If there are enough interested folks, we can do this and it would work. Won’t work with just one or two peeps tho.

 

The Big Green Beast

It’s been over a month since my last confession post, and much has happened:

1. tilled corner of back yard for garden
2. stripped 12 layers of paint from front porch and repainted
3. helped launch the Forest Park Community Garden
4. planted my plot at the FPCG
5. dug compost pit in corner of back yard for green manure
6. bought a rain barrel, still not installed

Here's the big green mess as it is today. Hard to tell where things begin and end inside the fence.

This shows the stage in mid-July, just before everything took off.

Three parallel rows: cabbage and kohlrabi, peppers then tomatoes in the back. Oh, and weeds.

Garage trellis with runner beans finally growing upward. Took them forever. There are also purple 'bush beans' in the forground. Bush being a relative term and all.

Finally, a watermelon. Only fist sized for now but I'm hopeful. There are lots of Barbi sized watermelons on the vine. Got my blocks of wood ready for them.

I’ve got over 42 tomato plants and 99.9% of the tomatoes are still green. This summer in Chicago has not been kind to tomatoes: too cool. And tomatoes love heat. I think we may have had about 2 weeks of good heat, at best. I started the tomatoes indoors under lights in March and April and yet, I still didn’t get a jump on things.

I tested several methods for trellising the tomatoes:

• Florida weave, this is by far my favorite method and would have worked better if I’d only put two plants between each post instead of four but I was having budget issues at the time. Next year, this will be the way I go and I’ll just have to buy more posts.
• Square tomato cages, flimsy and not very tall. Only used these in the community garden.
• Planting along the chain-link fence and tying them to the fence, not bad but if they get taller than the fence, that’s a problem. This is working well for the Borgheses that I planted along the fence. They are semi-determinate anyway so they don’t extend above the height of the fence.

The Florida Weave is my favorite method for trellising tomatoes although I should have spaced the poles closer together.

How NOT to trellis tomatoes: don't use a haphazard version of The Florida Weave without the weave part nor the steady post.

The Stupice seedlings I tried failed. They never got over 3 inches tall.

Only about 4 pepper plants grown from seed actually survived. I had to buy pepper plants and many of those were mis-tagged. So rather than having 3 sweet bell plants, I’ve got all long hot skinny things.

Really cool purple peppers. I love purple food. Should have bought more of these.

Herbs are doing well. Some are planted in an old wine crate and others are planted around the crate. Also planted Borage to arract bees.

Sage, chives, thyme, oregano, dill, borage and cilantro in an old wine crate. Not shown are tarragon, rosemary, lavender, curly parsley, flat parsley, arugula, fennel and sorrel planted to the left and right of the wine crate and catnip and lemon verbena planted a few rows over near the squash.

Bought two eggplants, different types, one long term and one short. The short term is failing. It sets fruit too close to the ground and they get infested with fruit flies.

I sure hope nothing eats these, they're so pretty.

The chard is almost completely eaten away by something and yet I’ve found absolutely no Japanese beetles this year. Am told it could be flea beetles.

Chard eaten away by some unseen beast.

The strawberries I bought took hold and rooted well, I just need to make a cover/cage for them so the critters don’t get all the fruit. Or having DH make a cage cover is a more accurate statement. The alpine strawberries I tried to start from seed totally failed.

After the initial sunny spring, before the trees filled in and the sun got higher, we had good sunlight on the fabulous deck planters that DH made. Unfortunately, no sooner than I planted them, the sun moved and nothing grew. We will have to seriously trim the trees to try to get more sun. AND staple chicken wire to the tops so squirrels can’t dig.

My Squirrely Plan

About that chicken wire solution: it works really well but there are tricks. It works best if your container is wood and you can staple the chicken wire to the top edge of the planter. Then trim the wire flush. And I’ve tried two different planting methods, one where I filled the container to the top with dirt so that all I had to do was scatter seeds over the chicken wire and the seedlings grow up through it. The other where I cut holes in the chicken wire for transplanting seedlings worked best if I kept the holes small. I had a few that were too large and the squirrels managed to dig around the seedlings. Trying to affix chicken wire to ceramic or plastic pots was next to impossible. I did it but it’s not very secure and is very messy looking. Also, the wire could spin around and lop off the seedlings if not careful.

More Successes and Failures

I haven’t had a lot of success with spinach, parsnips, carrots, melons or squash. The spinach never sprouted and I tried various methods including refrigerating the seeds, soaking the seeds and sprouting under lights. Not sure what else to do but I’m going to try again this weekend.

The asparagus seems to be taking root. Hopefully, in a few years, I’ll have some great harvest.

Mache never really took off. Had some sprouts but nothing too big. Will try again for Fall this weekend.

Almost all my squash and melon seeds started but most failed when transplanted. I attribute it to the soil difference along the sidewalk versus in the middle of the yard. The neighbor poured a new sidewalk a couple years ago and the soil on my side of it is now hard gray clay. Nothing grew there but weeds. I’ll have to hand till some amendments into it as well because his sewer clean out is on our side of the fence. Can’t really use a tiller in the area I don’t think. So next year, all squash get planted in the main part of the garden.

The corn is doing great at the community garden. I went by today and I now have both tassels and silks. Some silks look like they’ve already been pollinated so I think we may actually get corn.

This photo is from a few weeks ago so the corn actually has tassles and silks now.

Beans, beans, beans, the more you eat, the more they grow. No shortage of beans and they seem to be the best thing for the chain-link or chicken wire fence.

I did plant garlic cloves early in the season to ward off pests from the tomatoes. It seems to be working decently. While there are a few aphids here and there, there’s by no means a major infestation. I will plant more garlic in the fall for spring harvest.

Oh, and nasturtiums are doing well inter planted among the cabbages.

Nasturtiums gettin it on with cabbages.

The parsnips never sprouted when direct seeded. They ONLY sprouted when kept for 1 to 2 months in wet paper towels then transplanted when the little main root appeared. Next year, I’m going to do the paper towel method but start them in February.

Carrots just don’t like me. I’ve planted 2 packets of 2 different types and got 3 to sprout. Not sure what to try next on those. Maybe skip it since they’re cheap at the grocery.

Oh, one more thing that I haven’t had much luck with are spring onions. I’ve planted 3 varieties in May and although they did sprout, they’re still Barbi sized.

I never did plant the straw bales like I wanted. DH was so incredibly grossed out by the idea of vegetables growing in straw bales that I didn’t do it.

Things I’m happiest with:

• Basil: plain basic basil is the only one that grew, I will continue to grow lots of basil.
• Other herbs: sage, lavender, chives, dill, fennel, tarragon, rosemary, parsely have done well.
• Radishes: I was surprised to learn that home-grown don’t suck. They are NOTHING like store-bought radishes.
• I have lots of green tomatoes so the jury is still out on those and their flavors. I have Black Krim, Persimmon, Costoluto, Brandywine, Marvel stripe, Black Prince, Green Zebra, Borghese, Long Keeper and Keepsake. So far, only the Borghese are starting to ripen. Next year, I’ll probably eliminate the Green Zebra and Long Keepers. They both had issues sprouting.

A row of fall radishes along the rabbit fence and also beans and peas climbing same fence.

Lessons Learned for Next Year

1. Start seedlings a few weeks earlier in Feb and March.
2. Transplant seedlings under hoops in April or early May.
3. Save money to buy real mulch for everything, straw is just too messy looking and creates large unwieldy protrusions embedded in the mud on my shoes making it difficult to walk.
4. Save money to cut down those two trees blocking the sun in the back yard. The mulberry is rotting anyway and the buckthorn is just in the wrong place.
5. Create a spell that will take down the neighbor’s two-story garage and the four-story tree to get more than 4 hours of direct sun.
6. Buy taller tomato stakes, 7-foot just doesn’t cut it.
7. Don’t plant so much, everything’s too tight and I suspect that affects the sun’s ability to ripen the tomatoes.
8. Earth Buckets are great but come up with a better trellis structure for tomatoes using them.
9. Adjust flower bed around Buddha so that it’s more shallow and easier to walk around when weeding or harvesting beans.
10. Never believe the seed packet when it says the beans are bush beans. They’ll still try to climb and will fall over without supports.
11. Plant more peas, way way more.
12. Work on lower fence edge to better rabbit proof.
13. Plant Borage earlier to get bees earlier.
14. Create better location for squash, pots too small.
15. Try Kabocha again but this time,transplant in a better location.
16. Start parsnips indoors in wet paper towels before transplanting. NONE started when direct seeded outdoors.
17. Skip the catnip, it annoys the cat anyway. She actually pushes it out of her way so she doesn’t have to deal with it.
18. Plant less kale and collards because DH doesn’t like them so I’m the only one who eats them. Likely more efficient to just plant a full row of spinach.
19. Skip planting cabbage next year, takes up too much room in my tiny area and it’s cheap at the store anyway.

Overall, I’m very happy with the effort this year. BUT next year, must get started earlier and plant less. And maybe install some bigass mirrors to reflect the sun blocked by the trees and my neighbor’s garage onto the garden. Of course the annoyance factor would only be a bonus.

 

Progress. In reverse.

Below are shots of a large part of the back yard showing progress during the month of June, most recent at the top so you don’t have to wait.

You may recall, we had to eliminate a giant weed forest which of course I didn’t get photos of. And now we have a veggie garden with Buddha surrounded by flowers. Click on the photos to enlarge.

At last, Buddha has a new home overlooking the veggie garden, the vegetables are fenced off from the rabbits, and my bean trellises are stained red with a water-based stain that should fade with age. Still need to paint the corner trim on the garage white, install the rain barrel on the same corner and work on the shady nook to the right that I'll call my Shady Rest.

Vegetable garden is planted, mostly.

DH tilling the back quarter.

Weed forest cut down and ready for overhaul.

Close up of Buddha with red trellises. I may have to tone down the red a bit. They day lilies are from Freecycle, the others were on sale.

Now, if only everything would just grow faster! I can’t wait for my scarlet runner beans to climb the trellises.

 

Double, double till and trouble.

I’m going to make this short on words and mostly pics because I’m actually, short of words right now. Knees aching, back aching, zits on my forehead from wearing a hat two days in a row, dirt under my nails that won’t come out, but two great big things accomplished:

1. We got the back quarter, formerly known as the weed forest, tilled and planted (remember this post about the weed forest, sorry I don’t have before shots but trust me, it was a forest).
2. And DH replaced the kitchen sinks old, iron, rusted drain plumbing in the basement, that I broke during the bake sale prep (shavings from six carrots that I was in too much of a hurry to take to the compost bin overloaded the pipe and no amount of snaking would clear it).

So, there, two people and two great big accomplishments, hence the title above. But I’m only showing photos for the gardening segment because our kitchen pipes are not photogenic. And everyone knows what a rusty old pipe vs. a shiny new PVC pipe looks like, eh?

DH going over what I tilled once. This quarter of the back yard got tilled 3 times, with DH apologizing to all the worms along the way. He's such a critter lover.

He's doing this with cracked heels mind you, what a tough guy, eh?

Note about the tiller: The tiller was on loan to me from Jessica at the Forest Park Community Garden, of which I’m also a member. They’re toying with the idea of including the tiller in the Tool Lending Library for garden members. Because this is a pretty big tool, I suggested they require borrowers to have a valid driver’s license and leave their car as collateral ;-] Jessica won the tiller from Troy-Bilt at the Chicago Spring Fling conference for garden bloggers a couple weeks ago (Troy-Bilt was a major sponsor of the conference). Lucky dame!

This tiller does an exceptional job. It’s the Super Bronco model and yes, even a girl can do it, one handed (unless she’s maneuvering a corner or blowing kisses at her DH).

Areas for the 3-foot wide beds and 2-foot wide paths are marked. My next task—because I can't afford to fill raised beds this year—is to rake as much of the tilled soil as I can into mounded beds. Sort of a poor man's raised bed.

The series below shows the frustration that will plague me throughout the summer: shade from the trees. I’m still not sure I have enough direct sun to grow veggies. As you can see, the shade from two trees pans across the area and then the garage starts to cast it’s shadow later in the day. So I think I may actually end up with a snakelike swath of light where I’ll have better luck. As DH says, we’ll learn what works, if anything, this year and be more prepared for next year.

There aren’t any shots prior to 11:22 because sun to this area is blocked by another tree and a house at that time.

Sunlight vs. shadow from trees at 11:22am.

Sunlight vs. shadow from trees at 12:17pm.

Sunlight vs. shadow from garage at 4:19pm. Will there be enough direct sun for veggies?

Everything pretty much planted and seeded. Only one bed free and that's reserved for strawberries if I can get my shit together and pick a type. Straw is the poor man's mulch we're using to keep Chicago rains from dislodging seeds and to try to confuse the robin that was stalking me during this whole venture. I swear that damned robin is the one who crapped in my eye. And those peppers you see are my emergency purchases because 27 of my 28 starts have failed to survive.

I didn't save much room in the beds for herbs other than basil so I planted a mixure in one of my old wine crates collecting dust in the attic. Drilled a few holes in the bottom, filled with mix, two store-bought plants and lots of seeds. It will likely be too small if there's enough sun but what the hell.

Finally, I figured out how to get kohlrabi to start from seed. I just couldn't get these to start in the growlight set up but they started right up in a wine crate in the yard. Now that I have the yard somewhat organized, I can get these started earlier next year. Was especially worried about the late start when I bought HUGE kohlrabi at the Oak Park Farmer's Market this past weekend and mine are less than an inch tall.

Spinach in the bigass planter is surviving despite the squirrels' best efforts to uproot it. Especially that poor plant on the end, he gets the shit kicked outta him every day.

Update on the Earth Buckets: the tomatoes are getting much bigger but I've discovered what look like little black bugs with very long wings. Googling makes me think they are adult aphids. Gonna try the oil/dish soap/water method first to see if that works before considering more extreme measures.

Our next challenge is to make the yard look nicer and not so much like a farm (while adding another anti-rabbit fence around the new beds). Not sure we can do that but I’m hoping some nice, free mulch from the city will help. Hell, maybe we’ll just mulch the whole back yard. It’s not like there’s more grass than weeds there anyway. And neither of us golfs.

I’ve also asked DH to make a couple of trellises for between the windows on the garage. I can grow vining flowers up them if nothing else. And I can always try to move the rhubarb that’s growing in odd places to under the windows of the garage. It must have self-seeded last year or something, it’s cropping up in places it was not planted.

Well, that’s it for today. I’m really beat and have no snarky closing so good night and sweet dreams of fruits and veggies.

 

Just when there seems to be a glimmer of light…

…something else happens, as in, MORE ANTS!

But first, let’s focus on the positive, because I need to.

Both bigass deck planters are finally up and secure and the ‘first portion’ of the rotting wood on the deck has been repaired. Of course, you can’t see the repairs because they’re behind the really wonderful 12-foot bigass planter along the front. Click on the photos below to enlarge and get a better view of DH’s work.

Two bigass planters affixed to the sides of the deck. The 12-foot one is along the front and the 8-foot one is along the side. If you remember from previous posts, there was tacky broken lattice and a smashed roof over the grill on the left side of the deck. DH has now dismantled that area and it will be next up for renovation.

I also wasn’t keen on waiting for seeds to sprout so I uprooted my lettuce grown under lights in the office and plopped bunches of it in the biggest planter. They’re kinda wilting but I think they’ll come around. Also planted in the box are Atomic Red Carrots (we’ll see if they can grow in a 12″-deep planter), French Onions of which the name escapes me (grown from seed in the office), peppers which aren’t doing too well and scallions. I may have to buy bigger pepper plants. The ones I started from seed seem to have stopped growing, like, a month ago.

This is the lettuce planted in the largest planter, it really didn't want to be transplanted but I am ever the optimist (ha ha). Ironically, or not, I used DH's good chisel to pry them apart before transplanting. Straw covers seeds so harsh Chicago rains don't dislodge them.

This is the short box where we have baby spinach, romaine, onions, Japanese bunching onions and mache.

You may also be wondering what kind of wood that is we used for the planters. Well, we’ve done some research and I know this will kick up a fuss but this is MCQ (Micronized Copper Quaternary) which is a different type of treated wood. Supposedly, this one doesn’t leach. We’ll see. If I suddenly stop blogging in 9 months or start blogging in gibberish, then you’ll know it was the wood. Nothing to do with the hooch in the cupboard or the dry erase markers I like to inhale at work. Just the wood.

While I was fussing with all this, DH decided to sharpen his $3 army surplus machete on the lawn mower sharpening wheel and tackle the giant weed forest that had taken over half of the rear of the back yard. I used to think these weeds were sunchokes but after several folks went digging for tubers and found none, we’ve decided they’re invasive aphid magnets and we don’t want them. My motto this year is, if we can’t eat it and it’s taking up sun space, out it goes.

I wish I had a before shot of the weed forest but DH was too fast. He was a machete machine. Here’s a shot of him standing on a pile of freshly cut weed carcasses. You can see there are still more of these weeds trying to sneak up behind him in the photo.

Lord of the Weeds! Let no one come between a man with a machete and a mission. Those weeds sneaking up behind him are relatives to the ones he just slaughtered and they are almost as tall as he. Imagine 1/4 of our back yard filled with a 5-foot forest.

Soon to be rotting corpses for our green manure compost pit.

Here’s a couple of views taken from the deck.

This shows just how invasive these things were. This is a great example of why it's a good idea to create boundaries for plants that can be invasive. Even if you want to keep them.

Almost there. Now I gotta figure out what to do about the odd shape left behind by the forest. Not exactly a graceful curve. I'm thinking of rows of mounded veggie beds. This would provide homes for the poor little seedlings still in paper cups in the foreground. And I think we'll be good on compost for a while, we've got piles and piles of green manure. See if you can find the Buddha. He can see clearly now.

I’m thinking that my best option for that corner this year may be 4 rows of 2-foot mounded veggie beds. Funds are running out for the yard so I can’t really build any raised beds this year or order additional soil delivered. Mounded beds may get me through one year and then next year, I can rethink the whole layout.

So, back to the headline of this post. Where’s the cloud in our otherwise sunny day? Well, when DH dismantled the lattice and framework around the grill, he discovered more ants spilling out of a center hole in the upright posts that are made out of, get this, treated wood. Yes, the ants have nested in treated wood. These are some hardcore ants and that really scares me.

But in the meantime, I’m gonna try to stay positive and focus on getting that corner in shape by tilling the ground really well, mounding my rows, planting the remaining seedings and painting that corner of the garage that we couldn’t reach last year due to the forest. Shoot, I may even plant some flowers around Buddha. Edible ones of course.

 

And yet, STILL, visions of veggies dance in my head despite everything.

This weekend was suppose to be the big one: the one we attach the awesome huge planters DH made to the perimeter of the deck. Two huge ass planters:

• one 8 foot x 12 inch x 12 inch
• one 12 foot x 12 inch x 12 inch

The 8 foot is slated for a romaine and scallions. The 12 foot for spinach, radishes and a huge variety of greens.

We got the 8-foot planter up and in place. It’s about the same height as me so I couldn’t shoot into the box but it’s HUGE! AND heavy! And it will be heavier when it’s filled with potting mix. Here are some photos:

8-foot planter box on short end of deck, hovers above the container garden below. The squash trellis will rest against it. You can see the invasive sunchokes on the left edge of the photo, they are about halfway into the yard from the far edge.

THEN, we tried to attach industrial-strength L-brackets to the longest part of the deck. The L-brackets are used to support the bottom of the boxes while insanely huge bolts attach the backsides to the fascia and joists underneath. We learned of THE PROBLEM while drilling pilot holes for the L-brackets on the deck front. There is a hidden board behind the fascia and it was completely rotted away. AND FILLED WITH BIG BLACK ANTS. This actually explains a lot. We often have issues with black ants attacking Olive’s cat food in the summer time since the kitchen is right off the deck. We never could figure out where they were coming from and assumed they were another gift from the Tree of Hell which hates us. Well, now we know it’s one thing we can’t blame on this tree.

Rot and ants extend across the entire front of the deck and into most of the joists. You can see how anxious my seedlings are getting, they're practically growing off the table.

Close up of the worst part we've found so far.

This event caused DH to go further inspecting all the joists on the entire deck, discovering that 3/4 of them are untreated lumber, rotten and infested with ants. (click on photos to see gory details)

This is why you should never use untreated lumber when building a deck. Not only will you jeopardize your safety but ants will plague you forever. We’re not sure which previous owner did this but it appears to have been done in stages.

When the fascia board fell away from the rot behind, gazillions of big black ants fell and went scurrying incredibly fast.

We’re trying to devise a way to replace the joists incrementally so we don’t have to tear down the entire deck and spend shitloads of money we don’t have.

And I’m getting further behind in my seedling transplants. My 38 extra tomatoes are looking peaked and the squash continue to be impatient. I’ve called all the Subways within a 20-mile radius and they have no more pickle buckets because corporate is switching them all to shrinkwrapped pickles. And I still don’t have any carrots, parsnips, corn, melons, rutabagas or kohlrabi in the ground or planters.

There is good news however, the Japanese spinach and red onions in the whiskey barrel are doing great! I was worried about the onions because they looked mildewy in the bag in the garage and the spinach because is looked so delicate. But I think they’ll be just fine.

 

Update on gardening and deck.

I’m so excited about what DH has done to the deck. He completely trashed the old plastic lattice and built a new privacy wall from scratch. It looks so much more modern. (Here are the before shots.) I’m showing you a photo below but please realize, we’re still not done so it still looks a wee under construction but you get the drift. And on the other side, the lattice by the door will also be gone soon we hope. We’re envisioning a bistro table on the deck for coffee/tea and relaxing in privacy while being outdoors.

Awesome privacy wall DH built over Memorial Day weekend. This will allow us to sit outside without being bothered whilst in our pajamas.

External view of the privacy wall around the corner of the deck. MUCH more modern than the lattice.

Here you can see some of the old plastic lattice still in place around the grill. We hope to get rid of this as soon as funds will allow. Notice what's missing? Yep, the broken roof over the back door. That pretty much fell down as DH was nudging it. He'll replace that with a nicer roof that should withstand tree bombs from the Tree of Hell.

DH also found several bamboo window blinds left in our garbage bin behind the house. Not sure who left them there but I doubt they thought we’d actually use them. As you can see, DH attached them to the side of the deck to hide the lawn tools underneath. I’m still not sure how I feel about them. Maybe it will look better once we get the deck planters in place.

Inside view of DH's handiwork. Quite nice eh? I'd like him to hang some of his junk art on this side of the wall. Perhaps a hubcap sun?

This shows the little L-shaped area that gets the most sun in our yard. Tho today was quite overcast. I plan to extend the mulched garden area around two sides of the deck once we can get more mulch.

The two squash trellises are made from weed trees we cut from the yard a few weeks ago. Just enough branches for two trellises and since DH is the knot king, very fine and sturdy knots holding them together.

This trellis will be home to three zucchini plants although one would likely have been enough. I’m growing Raven, Golden Dawn and Clarimore. The Clarimore looks a little weak but we’ll see how it goes.

This is the triangular trellis I made from branches. You can see the three little zucchini seedlings at the base. I'm growing Raven, Golden Dawn and Clarimore.

The second trellis will be used for Kabocha squash as soon as I can buy more mulch. I’m doing a modified lasagna method at the base of the trellises. Boatloads of newspaper, then a potting mix with organic fertilizer topped off with partially decomposing items from the yard. Mostly peanut shells from under the deck. After 10 years of feeding peanuts to squirrels, DH has amassed quite a lot of shells. Tho not enough for the entire garden area. I’m still going to have to find some free or cheap mulch to cover the rest of the newspaper and bring around to the front of the deck.

Groups of containers and pots. Trying to leave a path to the air conditioning unit between the trellis and the containers, just in case. NEED MORE MULCH.

Group of 3 old pots, one broken, containing scalloped squash, acorn squash and basil. I squeezed nasturtium seeds into most pots in an attempt to keep aphids at bay.

And here are a couple of snapshots of seedlings just transplanted into some containers in an effort to keep out the rabbits. I’ve also used chicken wire to keep the squirrels from digging up the seedlings. Seems to be working so far.

Big whiskey barrel with Japanese spinach, red onions, mustard greens and some nasturtium seeds. Smaller pots contain scalloped squash and red lettuce. Rabbits haven't discovered that they can reach the lettuce yet, I'm holding my breath.

The big whiskey barrel was a garbage find in the alley behind our house. I wish I could find 5 more like this. They’re high enough to keep out rabbits, deep enough for just about any plant and I can staple chicken wire to the rim to keep out squirrels.

Oh, an remember this LED fixture DH put in the deck light?

DH is on an LED bender. He's replaced our deck light with a multi-colored LED gadget.

Well, here it is at night. Cool eh?

Groovy multi-colored LED light on deck.

So once we’re done, we can now host the neighborhood raves!

 

Update: Gardening with a vengeance, sort of.

I know, I’m long overdue on an update of the gardening initiative. In a nutshell, I have lots of seedlings ready for planting, 2 plots in Naperville that were under water until last week and I’m already tired of driving 30 miles each way, no plots yet in Forest Park cuz we’re still fund raising, and the sunny spot in my own back yard is getting smaller as the trees are filling in. Ugh!

For more details, I have below, photos of seedlings, the remodeling effort in our back yard and the tomato Earth Buckets I planted today. Oh, and that damned Tree of Hell that broke our awning over the back doorway and continues to threaten our very existence.

Note: Never buy a house with a tree erroneously named Tree of Heaven, it is actually the Tree of Hell and is highly invasive/impossible to kill even if you just cut it down. AND, it’s brittle, many large branches will rain down upon you yearly costing large sums of money to remove. Also don’t buy a house with a tree growing through the deck, no matter how charming.

Damage done to awning by huge branch from Tree of Hell, seen laughing with glee in upper right hand corner.

Seedlings started in March and then again in April

I started a bevy of seeds in late March and many never sprouted. So I planted again every week until I got enough sprouts of each plant I wanted to grow. So now I have 42 tomato plants of varying ages and a gazillion other little things. Items that resisted all attempts to sprout include kohlrabi, oregano, and a few stubborn zucchini.

Tomatoes desperately seeking a home.

Squash about to give up on finding a home.

Young kabocha and acorn squash growing fast.

BTW, I’m insanely pleased with the kabocha squash seeds I ordered from Kitazawa Seed Co., a Japanese-owned company. Every single seed sprouted! Which is more than I can say for the zucchini seeds I got through a different source. I’m thrilled that I’m going to actually have 10 kabocha squash plants! Lots for storage next fall. I’m told they are sweeter than butternut and work really well in vegan pecan pies as a thickener. I can’t wait to try them.

I also ordered a bunch of different radishes from Kitazawa. They all have different plant dates up to early Fall so I’ll be direct seeding them when the time is right for each.

Baby lettuce greens grown under fluorescent lights in our office.

And just in case the rabbits figure out a way to get all my lettuce in the yard and garden plots, I can always grow greens under lights in the basement or at the office. I can’t believe how easy this is. This is a tray of mixed baby greens planted in one of those shallow seedling trays filled with a 50/50 coir/soil mix.

Tomatoes In 5-Gallon Earth Boxes

For those who don’t know, you can nest 5-gallon buckets, drill holes in the inside bucket, insert a wicking chamber (plastic cup or yogurt container), a PVC pipe for adding water to the reservoir in the bottom, and voila, instant self-watering garden system that can be used on any surface. In my case below, I’ve placed them under the kitchen window on the corner/side of the house with the only sun. The ground here is completely compacted and riddled with weed trees that won’t die so I just set the buckets on them. The far right bucket will need some leveling in order to function correctly. To learn more about this technique, go here.

4 Earth Buckets with 1 tomato plant each. Only 38 more tomato plants to go.

Interior of bucket before filling with NON-soil potting mix, organic fertilizer, lime and tomato plant.

Close up of finished bucket. Actually 2 nested buckets, the interior one with drainage holes and a yogurt container wick, the exterior bucket has two over flow holes (one is circled in red in this photo).

Most websites say to use garbage bags for the ‘lids’ but that wouldn’t deter the squirrels in our yard so I just used the lids that came with the buckets. Hopefully, the squirrels won’t bother with the 3-inch diameter holes for the plants.

The master plan.

Phase 1 is the portion nearest the deck. Phase 2 is the fenced in area opposite with it’s own little gate to keep out the giant rabbits that live in the back yard. I can deter the squirrels from digging in pots by filling them all the way with dirt, covering that with chicken wire and seeding through the wire. But I can’t keep the squirrels out of the fenced in area. So I’m going with what I think will work first. The pots should be tall enough to be out of reach of the rabbits. Especially if I leave pointy chicken wire ends protruding to poke them in the eye. Yeah, I mean it.

The master plan changes every day but this is what it looked like tonight.

Frankenfoto of the back deck, the Tree of Hell, DH's framework for the new privacy wall that's replacing the crappy plastic lattice, and the area where my garden will go, pending continued sun. The red rectangle outlines the current area where I get about 7 hours of sun but the trees are filling in so we'll see how that goes.

DH's framing handiwork for the privacy wall. Pretty soon, no one can spy on us.

The privacy wall with extend around the corner of the deck slightly, providing a private morning coffee.

DH is on an LED bender. He's replaced our deck light with a multi-colored LED gadget.

Well, that just about wraps up this edition of Overly Ambitious Suburban Gardening In A Questionable Amount Of Sun.

Oh wait, one more gem just for you folks:

The Rubbermaid Wheelbarrow Incident

Take this as a warning, never, ever, stand in front of an empty Rubbermaid wheelbarrow and proceed to heave a heavy bag of soil into the wheelbarrow, from the front. The Rubbermaid wheelbarrow is designed to flip rear over front to bonk you in the head and cause great pain and embarrassment. Yes, I did this. I just pray no one was watching.