I drove up to Countryside in Crystal Lake and started shopping my list. They didn’t have any Mexican tarragon, and there were no large Jalapeños. The single plants were priced at $4.50, three times the $1.50 that I paid at Woldhuis. I spent about $145. I’ll do better with substituting varieties next year and do my shopping at Woldhuis.

So, the only thing is need is the Mexican Tarragon and the two large Jalapeños. I’ll get the Jalapenos at Goebberts. I need to get thyme and Rosemary when the herb garden is done. Also, I’ll get the geraniums from Jewel whenever they come in. My garden plant bill was about $1200 last year; I should be less than half that this year. Long live Woldhuis!

I went back into the garden when I got home and planted all the tomatoes and peppers, except for the container garden. I put cages on all of the tomatoes and watered the whole garden. I worked until almost 7:30 and made good progress. If I can get out early tomorrow, I can get the container garden done before the rain comes. I am happy with my progress and ahead of last year.

I uncovered all of the plants on Friday, there was a little minor damage, but basically everything survived. I tightened the screws on the 8x3x2 bed and then dug around it to lower it into the ground by 4 or 5 inches. That was a good bit of work, but it is done.

Today, on Saturday, I removed the chicken wire fence and posts from the old pea bed. and tightened the screws on the two 6x3x2 beds and then set them in place. Noe is supposed to come and move the soil into them on Tuesday, but rain is predicted, so that likely won’t happen.

There was no frost on the grass when I woke up this morning. It was too cold to work outside, and there was intermittent light rain. I went out around 4:00 with the radar showing a storm over me and reporting a thunderstorm. The sun was shining, and the sky was blue. I moved some of the old wood from the planters to the curb. I was going to uncover the plants, but around 5:00, “patchy frost” was added to the forecast with a low of 38°. Tomorrow is sunny and warmer, and I’ll leave everything covered until then. The ten-day forecast shows the lows above 40°. Hopefully, frost is gone until October.

When I planted the past couple of days, the weather indicated a slight chance of patchy frost for Wednesday night. This morning, the frost was out of the forecast, which I expected. I checked again this afternoon before I went out to finish my planting, and this appeared:

Chilly Temps May Affect Sensitive Plants Tonight

Unseasonably chilly temperatures and potential frost tonight into early Thursday may affect sensitive outdoor plants, especially in locations near and north of I-80, away from the Chicago urban core. Take steps to protect tender plants from the cold!

So, I went out and spent the afternoon covering all of the plants.

Tomorrow will tell if this worked…

Monday, May 4 – I went outside around noon to start planting and found that I had somehow purchased Tabasco Peppers instead of Shishito Peppers. I thought I had double-checked everything I bought, but in the chaos of Woldhuis, I messed up. Off to Goebbert’s.

I needed a couple of other plants there anyway. I ran into Greg by the tomato building, and we talked for a while and then went on with our plant acquisitions. I got the Shishitos, two Serranos, and a couple more Gypsy peppers. I also bought two larger Husky Cherry tomatoes for the planters by the deck. I hoped they had them, as they weren’t listed on the website, but they performed very well for me last year.

I headed back home and started planting. I got the Shishitos and Banana Peppers planted and staked. Then I went in and made a pitcher of iced tea. Yes, I am in summer mode. I moved the four cucumber towers over to “Bed 3” and planted and staked the Gypsy Peppers. I’ll plant the cucumber seeds later.

I weeded several of the beds in the back garden. I pulled out the Canadian Thistle from “Bed 13” and the roots were at least 20 inches long! I thought the soil in the bins would smother the weeds underneath. Wrong! The paths need Roundup.

I planted and staked the 4 California Wonder Peppers, 4 Big Red Bell Peppers, 4 Better Belle IV Peppers in bed 13. Then I planted and staked the 8 Jalapenos in “Bed 7”. Thunder had started and I heard one of the lightning sirens go off. I quickly finished up and got in the porch as the rain started. I organized my next three trays to plant and put then on the outside table to get watered. Then it began to pour and I was done for the day. It is going to be cooler tomorrow, but rain is out of the forecast, so I’ll pick up then.

Tuesday, May 5 – Today, I planted and staked the 11 San Marzano tomatoes, along with one Big Mama Roma plant that crept into my purchase.

Then I went and weeded all the other beds except the tomatillo beds. A couple of the beds were loaded with deep-rooted weeds. The weeding took longer than I thought it would.

After that, I planted and staked the Poblano peppers and the four eggplants. They were all supposed to be Classic eggplants, but it looks like one of them might have been a Japanese eggplant. It looks like I need to check each plant, even though I think they are all the same.

I had avoided planting anything but the pansies this week as there was a prediction of frost Early Saturday morning. The temperature dipped overnight to 29°.

Friday afternoon, I brought all of the vegetable plants onto the back porch and brought in the hanging baskets as well. Everything survived. We have a busy weekend, and I will plant on Monday. The 14-day forecast shows no frost, so we should be safe.

Last Saturday, we made a road trip to Woldhuis Sunrise Nurseries in Grant Park, Illinois. It was a three-hour round trip, but given the pricing and selection, we thought it would be worth it. It was. The pricing is 50% to 75% off what I would pay for plants at our local nurseries. Given how many spring plants I buy, that discount is a big deal.

The nursery has about 9 acres under glass, and the selection is enormous. It was cold outside in the wind, but the nursery is inside. I have seen nothing quite like it. The downside is that all the plants are on a concrete floor rather than on tables. The customers were mostly our age, so it was fun to get plants up and into a cart. The aisles aren’t much wider than a cart, which slows things down. It took us a couple of hours to load up our carts, mostly because we weren’t used to the greenhouse’s organization.

Acquiring these plants is likely going to be way more work than planting them. I did pretty well with my list, but there are some varieties I will need to get at Countryside and Goebbert’s. In addition to the vegetable plants, we bought four hanging baskets and a flat of pansies. I filled up the car; nothing else would have fit in. It was definitely worth the trip.

I was dragging this week with a bad cold, but on Tuesday, I finally got outside around 3:00 and planted the pansies, then spinach and onions. I turned on the front yard water and watered the pansies and hanging baskets. Then I watered everything in the back yard. That little bit of work took everything out of me.

Frost is predicted for Friday night, so I will hold off an any planting until Monday. The weekend is too packed with other commitments and Monday will be in the 70s.

My plan for this week was to move the two planter boxes being replaced by a new steel bin. I hoped to use them to replace the two worst wooden planters. I emptied and moved one of them yesterday, Wednesday, and it fell apart during the move. One of the existing planters was leaning, so I tried to straighten it, but the bottom collapsed, and all the dirt spilled onto the ground. The remaining planters are in poor condition, with rotted dovetail joints at all corners. I went in, checked Amazon, and found steel planters of the same size for $60 each. I ordered four, and they will be here on Friday. The old planters are beyond repair.

Today, on Thursday, I emptied five of the planters and disassembled them. So, my space is clear for the new planters.

I got one of the new planters built on Friday and went to Goebbert’s opening day! I bought Romaine lettuce, Pak Choi, Broccoli, and Red and White Onions. This year, I remembered to check all of the labels.

Saturday was a little on the cool side, but I built another planter and set 12×12 concrete pads to put the four new planters on. I built another planter and got two planters installed, filled with soil, and planted. I worked for about six hours straight and made good progress.

I’ve got a good start on the garden and am on schedule. It is supposed to rain tonight which will be good as I don’t have the water hooked up yet. I am hoping I can get the last two planters built tomorrow. I can do that on the back porch if it is raining.

There is rain in the forecast for most of the week, but we’ll be in the 70s. I haven’t seen RT yet, but they usually start the third week of April. The big job will be getting the three new beds built and installed and filled with dirt.

Sunday was much warmer, with the temperature almost hitting 80°. The rain held off until I put the last shovelful of dirt into the fourth planter. Benedicamus Domino! We had an extremely large wind gust this afternoon. One took the roof off my SunCast shed. I set it back on and am praying for no more wind until I can repair it. In any case, I reached my goal of assembling and installing the last two planters.

I cut my first Garlic Chives today for our salad. and for the Ravioli Lemon-Butter sauce I made. I rarely use these chives as I have found a bit of an unpleasant cabbage flavor. These were wonderful and did not have that unpleasantness. Maybe that develops later in the season. Maybe I need to cut them down more often.

The temperature was 70° today, so I took a walk through the garden to start my planning. The garden is really ready for cleanup, but the ground is a little wet. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time today as I need to run over to exercise.

I will probably only be able to get two trellises in a raised bed as they are three feet wide. The pea bed is twelve feet long. So I need to go to plan “B”. I don’t think I can get the new beds in and filled with dirt in time to plant peas. The ground will likely be too wet to move dirt over. I could put the new beds in and just plant inside them without the extra dirt. Planting might be tough, though. I could plant in the existing bed, though. I don’t think I want to use two beds for peas. I need to check the harvest date from last year………….

I was picking peas at the end of June last year after planting them on April 30.

The chives are about three or four inches tall. If the weather warms back up after the coming cold snap, we could be cutting in a few weeks. The rabbits chewed the bark on some of the blackberries, but it doesn’t seem as bad as last year.