Year 2

This season, we added a new skinny, long raised bed in the front of the hill. We added a long arch trellis made with cattle panel along the whole bed.

We picked a TON of green tomatoes! (Our indeterminate tomato plants completely took over the large upper bed)

December 2021

This winter, we enjoyed making our own pasta (fresh and dry).

Jacob made fresh mozzarella this season, learned to distill his own vinegars. Including red wine vinegar and a lot of innovative ones, like banana, rasin, strawberry, blueberry, mango, and many more.

Hydroponics Update

So, we decided to let the aerogarden go wild with the cherry tomatoes. We also wanted to try growing root vegetables in the hydroponic system, but the roots did not have enough room. The basement PVC hydroponic system was made with 2-inch tubing, so we decided to try and give the roots more room by using a 4-inch PVC pipe. This 4-inch system ended up leaking, so it did not last long.

We also really like to use our aerogardens to grow bok choy and mini bok choy indoors, to avoid pest pressure. (Shown in the next carousel)

Following the 4-inch PVC system fail, we decided to turn a GreenStalk into a hydroponic system for our year-round indoor lettuce supply.

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Our indoor & outdoor Greenstalk journey!

March 2022 - May 2022

The garden expansion plans continue, and we are growing lettuce in our outdoor greenstalk, but inside the greenhouse so I can start other types of plants that are more frost tender.

Our obsession with mushrooms is just beginning... First time growing our own mushrooms. We used an easy all-inclusive kit that just needed to be kept hydrated.

Building the pergola, planting the new driveway flower boxes, sanding & painting a new outdoor table, & finally painting the wrought iron circular accent I found last year! Our deck is overflowing with plants that want to go in the ground... My parents gave us a giant, waist height garden bed this year that we are hoping to use for brassicas because it came with a bug netting cover.

Jacob worked hard getting the pergola (mostly) built. It may look complete, but it is not. We still need to add a roof and a gutter so we can use it as another surface for water collection.

I painted the large antique metal circle red, because we finally came up with a plan of where to hang it.

Once again, our deck is full of plants that need to be planted! We have to build more garden space quickly!

The table and bench look amazing all freshly painted. We also painted the pergola. Still lots to paint, but lots of progress made. :)

June 2022

Basil Tea

Radish & Kale Harvest

Carrot Harvest

Berry Harvest

Kale Chips

Garlic Scapes

Ground Cherries
(Aunt Molly's)
These are easiest for me to grow and harvest when they are in a container on my deck. when they are ripe and they fall to the ground, it's very easy to find them!

Ginger
Growing in a storage bin

Herbs & Kale

Water Collection

Adding a water collection barrel with a first flush system to one of our downspouts.

Pest Control

Purchased carnivorous plants to help with the fruit fly/fungus gnat problem. Sundew plants are from Etsy, which arrived like this.

We learned it's better to order the substrate along with the plants instead of mixing our own. (It ended up costing us more money in the long run)

Orchard Beginnings & Adding a Berry Area

The orchard is going to be in our side yard. The berry area is at the far right side of the garden, we extended the garden fencing to the edge of the hill. We are eventually planning on fully enclosing the berry area with netting.

Planted 2 cherry trees to start our orchard.

Two-tier strawberry bed. Both tiers planted with everbearing strawberries.

Fig Tree

2 Blueberry Bushes

Modest berry harvest. We have wild black raspberries growing all over the backyard hill.

Squash City

This year, we werent able to get trellising up in time for growing. We added one temporary trellis for our watermelon plant, to see how vertical growing would go. The rest of the plants will trail out of the grow bags.

Main Garden

Eggplant & Tomatoes

Tomato, Peppers, & Garlic

Flowering Onion

Beans

Potatoes

I highly recommend growing potatoes in grow bags... So easy to harvest!

Just dump them into a wheelbarrow (or onto a tarp). Once you run your hands through the soil (or sift it) to get the potatoes out, pour the soil back into the bag.

Cucumbers

None of our cucumber plants made it this year. We planted them in 2 different raised beds, and trellised them. These are the first pictures of them sprouting, but we battled disease AND groundhogs.
(Baby cucumbers along the Left side of both photos)

Full Backyard Photo

June 8, 2022

July 2022

Overview

Early July

Mid-July

Late July

Harvest

Growing

Noodle Beans & Royal Burgundy Beans

Eggplants

Casper Eggplant

Long Purple Eggplant

Tomatoes

Baby Banana Melon

Melons

Banana Melon Plant

Vertically Growing Moon & Stars Watermelon

Baby Moon & Stars Watermelon

Peppers

Banana Peppers

Yellow Biquhino

Carolina Reaper

Purple Murasaki

Bell Pepper

5 Color Pepper

Red Burgundy Okra

Swiss Chard

Pickling Cucumbers

Thyme

Unripe Wild Blackberries

Fig Tree

The Chicago Hardy Fig has more than doubled already!

Flowers

Zinnia,
California Giant

Black Pansy

Hibiscus

Groundhog Troubles

We have been battling a family of groundhogs getting into the garden this year.

We tried the sonic noise style repellers, and they continued to dig under the fence. We ended up removing those, (because the noise was annoying and the groundhogs ignored them anyways) lining the wall with rock, and making sure the outer edge of the garden (and all ground within the fence) was covered in landscaping fabric. In addition to taking precautions & reinforcing the fence, we also trapped them and relocated them.

They ate our carrot tops numerous times, and we end up not having a carrot harvest this year. They also ate the cucumber plants after we got them established, multiple times.

August

Overview

Beginning of August

End of August

Harvest

Full Backyard Photo

August 31, 2022