It has been tough getting to the gardening work. Earlier in the week, we had three days of threats of heavy rain and thunderstorms, but netted less than .1 inches. Wednesday, I picked up Jared and Izabella at the airport as they returned from their 10th-anniversary vacation in the Maldives. Friday, Natalie had surgery on her hand. Today I finally went out and got some work done.

I finished up the container garden. Here’s what I planted. A pot with 2 Serrano peppers, two pots with a large Early Girl II tomato in each, a pot with a Sunsugar and a Sun Gold tomato, another pot with two Grape Tomatoes, a pot with a Black Cherry tomato and a Chocolate Sprinkles Tomato, a potted Jalapeno from Goebbert’s, and a pot that I seeded with Genovese Basil and another pot that will be seeded with basil in early July.

I weeded the peas and broccoli that were infested with Canadian Thistle. I sprayed the thistle behind the trellis with Roundup. I’ll need to keep up with the rest over the summer.

I planted 6 large Summer Dance cucumbers a few days ago. I planted some Burpless cukes from Goebbert’s today. There is no room for any seeds, so if I am going to plant Lemon Cucumbers, I’ll need to find another place.

The Greens are growing well, but we probably need a couple more weeks before we can start harvesting.

I went to Goebbert’s after lunch, just after they had finished paving our street. I got a large jalapeno pepper plant for $34.95. I got a three-pack of Serrano peppers as they didn’t have any large ones. I bought three three-packs of Celeriac and a couple of larger grape tomato plants. I also bought a large pot of basil for $12. Not bad. Goebbert’s likely has the most reasonable pricing.

I came home and got most of the container garden planted. I put the basil in the large pot off the deck, and I’ll plant the seeds in the container garden.

I went to the Jewel in Lake Zurich by Bacchus Nibbles and they were asking $4.95 for geraniums. I wasn’t about to pay that much!. So I went to the other Jewel on Ela. (Why there are two Jewels in Lake Zurich less than 1/4-mile from each other remains a mystery.) They had seed geraniums for $1.99 that looked very nice, but only in red. I bought 50 plants. They only had 52.

I stopped at the Barrington Jewel, just in case they had gotten more in, but all they had was empty shelves. I figured I would give the Jewel on Palatine Rd. by Holy Family a shot and drove over there. They had two tents erected in the parking lot and basically a complete nursery. They had the $1.99 geraniums in red and white, so I bought 20 white ones along with curly parsley and some tomatoes and zucchini plants that were reasonably priced.

I unloaded about half of the geraniums and got all of the pots on the front porch and walk planted. Then I moved on to the back and planted the rest of the geraniums, the parsley, and the rosemary that I had gotten the week before. I planted the two large cherry tomatoes that I had purchased at Countryside in the pots by the patio, I blew off the deck and cleaned up around the deck and took the garbage to the front.

I went to Home Depot for flowers. I bought 4 large hanging baskets of trailing petunias in multiple colors. I paid $30 per basket to get the trailing petunias, a nice-looking gray planter, which also has a water reservoir at the bottom. It was more than I wanted to spend, but maybe they will last the whole summer for a change. I bought two smaller, $12.95 baskets for the garden hooks and some red petunias for the two front railing planters. Total bill $168.62. I got those home and hung and then ate lunch.

I headed up to Countryside around 2:00. It was crowded, but I lucked out and got a place in front of the door. The veggies are still in the back, but they added brick pavers between the two rows of buildings. I was hit with total sticker shock at the price of the plants. Single cucumbers and tiny tomatoes were $4.95 each! No more three packs for $1.95. The larger tomatoes were $17.95, and the medium-sized ones were $12.95.  I bought 3 large Early Girl II tomatoes, 1 large Super Sweet 100 Cherry tomato, and 1 Large Red Cherry Tomato, a medium Early Girl II, and 2 medium Champion II tomatoes. Finally, 1 small Sungold, 1 small Sun Sugar and 1 small Black Cherry at $4.49 each.

They didn’t have any large peppers, so I didn’t get any. I will check Goebbert’s.

I bought 2 small containers of bunching onions and 3 of beets @ $2.49 each.  Then 2 Mexican Tarragon a 5.99 each. (They didn’t have 4 seasons). I also bought 4 Summer Dance Cukes @ $4.95 each. Ouch! Total bill at Countryside is $189.40.

So, here we go again. Last week the temperatures were in the low 80s, and we had dinner on the deck every night. Now we are back to the reality of Spring in Illinois. Thank God I got the peas and spring greens in the ground last week.

Goebbert’s opened today, and unlike last year it was 82° instead of snowing.

My first task was to weed the pea enclosure. I pulled out the trellises and, with a trowel, dug out the Lemon Mint and Canadian Thistle that was growing mostly behind the trellis. I hadn’t done that in a few years.

Actually, my first task was to put a new handle on the trowel. The old handle was cracking apart on the end, and I gave myself a nasty blister on my palm last year from aggressive digging and the rough end of the handle digging into my hand. I replaced the old handle with a new wood and metal file handle. It should outlast me, but it was about a 45-minute job to get it fitted properly.

After the weeding, which took a couple of hours, I had a meeting at SA and then went to Goebbert’s and got my plants. It was a really small selection, but I got mostly what I needed, other than parsley, beets, and spinach. I needed a nap after that. (The first day of gardening after sitting on my butt in front of a computer all winter comes as a shock.) My energy was restored after that, and I took my Ryobi electric stapler and connected the bottom of the fencing to the wood frame around the beds to keep my rabbit friends out of the patch. Then I planted peas and 9 Imperial broccoli plants. Imperial is a new variety for Goebbert’s. They have supplied Green Comet in the past. That finished the bed. I’ll plant pole beans in June when the peas are done.

Then I planted the greens in the first bed and am hoping that the taller sides on that bed will discourage the rabbits. We’ll see. Planting was easy as I had rototilled in the fall, so I just needed to break the surface up with the trowel. I planted 6 Green Romaine and 6 Red Romaine. I really like the Red Romaine, and they didn’t have it last year. Then I put in 6 Red Kale, 5 Mustard Greens, and 3 Chinese cabbage. Somehow I grabbed two packs of Mustard Greens rather than two packs of Chinese cabbage. I really need to check what I buy as this happens every year.

I have Rosemary to plant yet, but that will happen tomorrow.

I did a quick cleanup of the deck and furniture today as the temperature was in the low 70s so that we were able to have our first dinner on the deck. Wonderful – no bugs yet! Hope to get some plants in later this week.

My first “official” act of the gardening season was the arrival of seeds for the garden. Here’s what I bought for the 2023 garden:

Oregon Sugar Pod II Peas (Burpee)
Malabar Spinach Green (Gaia) (Terroir)
Malabar Spinach Red (Gaia)
Cocozelle Zucchini (Sow Right)
Genovese Basil (Ohio Heirloom)
Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans (Sow Right)
Lazy Housewife Pole Beans (Terroir)
Armenian Pale Green Cucumber (Terroir)
Lemon Cucumber  (Sustainable)
Egyptian Spinach (Kitazawa)
Spinach Beet Greens (Terroir)
Bennings Green-Tint Summer Squash

My initial order was from Amazon, as Terroir charges a lot for shipping, but I needed to by stuff there anyway. The Amazon seeds came from everywhere, and some took a couple of weeks to get here. Next year, I’ll order first from Terroir and use Amazon for the seeds I can’t get there.

Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Still green and aromatic even though it is the end of December. I am guessing I’ll still be picking well into January. One of the few great joys of winter is going outside into a snow-covered garden and picking fresh herbs. I should probably check and see if the chives are still good.