Hey good people! Batavia here from B Betta Garden! I am an URBAN GARDNER GROWING a TON in the middle of a BIG CITY!
2024 is the 17th growing season in Zone 6, Chicago, IL, USA. My *average* last frost date is Apr 17th and my *average* first frost date is Nov 1st. My Front yard garden & Backyard garden include 16 raised beds (different sizes and material) + dozens of containers! It is my hope that by sharing my garden with you, you can see what's possible for you and your family through gardening.
I use netting for most of my tomatoes to keep the squirrels away. I definitely have 🐿️ 🦅 🦝 that are around the area..Somehow I think I've just lucked out with the corn..
Wow that looks like a big one! Do you us the uv light at night to hunt them? That has helped me a lot this year. So now I'm mainly battling chipmunks for my tomatoes.
He was definitely chunky. I've used uv light in the past and it's worked but I'm a bit nervous out in the garden at night 🥹 (raccoon-gate) so I have been hunting for them during the day. Wishing you luck with the chipmunks! Or maybe it's luck with the tomatoes 🍅💚
Very well organized and meticulous garden, I’m so impressed! One day I hope to have an efficient garden like yours! My second year gardening, and I love it and love learning! My green thumb 👍🏽 is growing! 😅😂❤
Thanks so much for watching and commenting and I'm convinced our green thumbs grow each year with us💚😊. Happy gardening and hope to see you in the comments! ~Batavia
I give them to my frogs! I tear the horn off first because I don't know what that thing will do when my frogs chomp on it. You know some petstores will sell them for 10 dollars for 4 small ones. I say if ya just grew a tomato plant, you'd have all ya need.
I grow a lot of tomatoes so these guys are my worst enemies. I haven't seen any signs of them yet this year, but this video is a good reminder I need to stay vigilant!
Arent you worried about cross pollination? I read somewhere that onions are bad to plant wiht other things cause they will cross pollinate and your tomatos will taste like onions. Has that happened to you?
This year all I have is some flowers, green onions, tomatoes and green peppers, since my heart attack its a bit harder for me to get out in the Georgia heat. But I did buy a soaker hose system so we will see how it works with the fall and winter garden! (fingers crossed for me please)
Heyyy! How are you?🥰That was a nice view you of the garden you gave us. Things are growing so well. You know I love to see your greens every year, looks like they're doing their thing.🥬I'm still on break, but I'll start planting again sometime in August.
Heya Sis! I'm doing pretty good. How about you? I need to dig into my collard greens bed, Ive had quite a bit of pest pressure in there so I've been putting it off. The greens seem unbothered but it's gonna take a bit more elbow grease to clean them up (I've been spoiled with pretty clean greens coming out of my garden 😊). Your hiatus wraps up around September, when the weather breaks, right? 💚 ~B
@@BBettaGarden Yeah, I'm starting to think about what I'll be growing. I'm not rushing though. But happy growing and harvesting to you. Everything looks great.😊
Thank you so much for this content. I am a beginner gardener and in the process of building out my raised beds. I recently had a privacy fence installed around my property and a few trees removed to keep pests out of my yard. Now I'm building two beds that will have an arched trellis connecting the two beds. I am also in Chicago 6B and find it so difficult to find gardening content in this area. You have a beautiful garden. I hope to get where you are one day. Thanks for the inspiration.
Heya Chicago neighbor! So glad that you found your way to my channel. It's really great to be able to check out other gardeners growing near us. Happy gardening! 💚 ~B
@@BBettaGarden Hi neighbor, as I continue to prepare my backyard for my raised beds in hopes of planting some fall crops, can you please advise where in Chicago can I purchase some good seeds? I did a google search for local seed companies in Chicago and nothing really came up. I'd love to support a local nursery vs going to a big box store. Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated. Thanks neighbor.
Heya Chicago neighbor! Now is a good time to get some things ready for Fall. 💚 the rain just ran me inside but I'm going to be direct sowing some kale and green peas in the next couple of days and some collards and maybe cauliflower and broccoli in the next week. I'm waiting a bit for things like mustards and turnips. Here's to a great fall garden! 💚 ~B
I’m in Colorado, zone 5b, but my zone doesn’t matter. My first average first frost is September 27th. I have planted a fall garden before, not a lot of veggies, but I think I’ll try and plant up all of my beds this year, however I’m a little burnt out with gardening right now, but I hope I will get a second wind. Fingers crossed. I love planting lettuce. It’s so easy and inexpensive to grow. I hate buying it from the grocery store when I know I can grow it so cheap. I also love growing cilantro, peas, carrots, kale, dandelion greens, and all of the cool flowers. Btw, I love your garden.🌻
Heya! Same here..it's been hard each year to get in gear for Fall each year after a long season. Maybe I'm hoping that the more I talk about it the more likely I am to get it planted 😊. Lettuce does so well for me and I eat it all year so I'm eager to grow it for the cheap 😊. Sending you the extra energy to get over the garden fatigue hump and plant for Fall💚. ~Batavia
WOW! At 5:56, rose-of-sharon/hibiscus: this is salivating-with-envy gorgeous! Please, Batavia, what is the name of this one, and I'm begging, don't say you've forgotten. This one, I've got to find locally and get into both the front garden (which isn't very productive of food) and the back one, which is. Jaw-dropping, breath-stealing, almost heart-stoppingly fabulously beautiful! I'm a total sucker for any red-throated, white-blossomed rose-of-sharon but with that deep purple-y foliage, just WOW! Whether you want to start seed indoors and then transplant the seedlings out, or direct-sow, it can help, with seeds large enough to handle easily (this might leave out carrots seeds!), a soak in some leftover plain tea (nothing but the tea which you might dilute with water, but no sugar, no other sweeteners, no milk or cream or artificial creamers) for an hour or several or, in the case of larger seeds, overnight. When a gardening friend told me about this I was skeptical: why should tea work better than plain water, if the objective is to hydrate the seed? But it seems to make a difference. Do you by any chance have seeds for komatsuna or any of the mustards, especially the Japanese (or Oriental) mustard varieties? Mizuna, mibuna, giant red mustard greens, others? I *LOVE* the idea of using your Green Stalk (R) for growing different varieties of kale! (Sorry for cyber-shouting; you know how I can get, though, and this garden tour has me thoroughly engaged; it's very exciting!) Had no hope of acquiring one for the garden this year which is a real disappointment since the sale price was so terrific, but I can see this working *brilliantly* in the future and paying for itself in gardening dividends even if I were never to grow anything except different varieties of kale. An absolutely brilliant idea and one I may just steal. I'll be sure to give you full credit for it, though, I promise! End of season...not very different from what you'll be putting in: kale, as many varieties as are in the seed stash except for the Walking Stick kale; early-maturing cabbages, even if they don't head up in time to be harvested as heads, I can use the leaves; mustardy things and peppery things, such as arugula and mizuna; more snapdragons and cosmos, "just because;" and although it's madness to do this given our winters, I'm going to give fava beans a shot, to see how they fare under a thick layer of mulch applied right before that expected first frost date. Oh, and one or two varieties of bunching onions, and I'll be reducing the space occupied by chives which are making their bid for world domination. Much gardening love to you from Northeast Ohio, 6b! 😊💚💚💚💚💚😊
Heya Friend! Thanks for the tip for beans and peas! 🙌🏽 That beauty is a Starry Starry Night hibiscus and I got it from Lowe's back in 2019 (I took a pic of the tag 😊). I feel like the Holy Grail that sits in the center gets so much attention and while it's gorgeous the Starry Starry Night is just so unique with the foliage and the multi-colored blossoms. I'm excited about the kale GreenStalk :-). It's my hope to harvest the leaves very young which will make for some tasty salads :-). I also enjoy kale that's a little more mature in smoothies or cooked. Thanks for the reminder to check my cabbage seeds as I most have a variety or two that is set to mature earlier. I can picture a Komatsuna seed package and I definitely have some giant red mustards. I have been thinking about fall flowers (I just never found the inspiration to plant many annual flowers this Spring or Summer.) Have you sowed snapdragons for Fall before? I would love to have some for Fall but I was thinking it was too late to start them. Good luck with the fava beans and all that will be going into your garden in the coming weeks 💚. Take care! 💚😊 Batavia
@@BBettaGarden About pre-soaking peas and beans, a slight revision: probably not less than four hours and no longer than six to eight for the beans, no longer than six for the peas, if that. If they're starting to *lose* their wrinkles, they're getting hydrated. It's important not to over-soak. The purpose is to help the seeds and to shorten the germination time. This, if we didn't talk about it before, is called "priming" and can be done with quite a lot of types of vegetable (and melon) seeds, and after priming you can dry those same seeds and store them for a while. Joe Lamp'l, of "Growing A Greener World," is supposed to have a RU-vid video about this and if I recall correctly, he talks specifically about *spinach* seeds but the principle's the same and any differences are, doncherknow, the details. Unless you want only young kale leaves for use in salads, you're aware you can massage mature kale leaves to soften them (I'd still recommend taking out the tough center rib, though!) If you're going to do that, it's probably most pleasant to do this before adding any dressing to the salad. Probably even before tearing the leaves into smaller bits. It's in my mind that if you sow Napa/Chinese cabbage *right now,* you can just squeak that one in before first frost, and if it doesn't head up you can still use the leaves. Some of the earlier-maturing cabbages I can name are Early Jersey Wakefield (60-75 days, I assume from transplant); Golden Acre (60-65 days); Copenhagen Market (65 days); Napa cabbage/s of which there are many varieties (60 days); Tête Noire (about 65 days); Red Acre (65 days.) And remember to add a week to two weeks to the maturation times given or harvest dates because we've passed the equinox, are sowing after the equinox, and with the diminishing hours of daylight as well as the somewhat more oblique angle of the sun's rays, growth will be slowed by that much. About the snapdragons.... I didn't do the sowing, the snapdragons themselves did that earlier in the season by however long they needed to drop their seeds and for the seeds to germinate and then the plants to get to flowering. One day late in the season after all the other flowers had sort of begged off for the year, I went out to the garden and was surprised by a splash of brilliant red: the self-sown snapdragons! If you're able to give them warm enough soil I imagine they'll be fine. Er...until the frosts get them. Do you already have snapdragon seeds? Which ones do you like? Do you need some snapdragon seeds? I used to have a P.O. Box for you; I still have the Box #; do you still have and use that address? I adore tall snapdragons and I like clear, cheerful colors; some breeder or vendor offers seeds for snapdragons which look like too-old uncooked liver, and I can't get excited about those. I don't know whether I have any "dwarf" snapdragons. Love the shirt-dress; it reflects your joyfulness. From Northeast Ohio, 😊💚💚💚💚💚😊
@@BBettaGarden Oh! And I did mean to say Thank You for the info on the Starry Starry Night hibiscus! I'm going to have a look for it around here; maybe one of the nurseries.... Thanks so very much!😊💚
@@BBettaGarden If you like violas, meaning pansies, they're absolute champions when it comes to cooler temperatures. Since I was usually buying starts of them in the spring, they'd just hang on, struggling through summer heat (I have not so fond memories of watering twice daily to keep them going through the summer) but once we were past the worst of it.... Well, actually once we were past the worst of it those flowers still wanted to be watered daily until the second half of October. But they did fine under a blanket of snow and showed their cheerful faces every time the snow melted or was blown away by the winter breezes. You *definitely* have time to sow seeds for these and a number of vendors offer them. Er...if you like violas. Much gardening love from Northeast Ohio! 😊💚💚💚😊
Oh wow your garden looks so nice! Here in Southern California (Burbank) we're getting a bit hot even for my summer plants. I had foot surgery this spring and so I wasn't able to get some of my seedlings out before I was out of commission. I lost some but also we're having an increase in the rat population and I've been struggling to keep them out of my unprotected areas. As far as fall, early to mid fall is when my summer plants get a second wind as the temperatures slowly go down. And I'll start my cool weather crops maybe in mid September. Like everyone else, though, things grow much more slowly even though we don't get a real winter here because the sun is so low in the sky and there are several days that are overcast. So I will plant greens, lettuces, kale, collards, Swiss chard, arugula and maybe start my beets and carrots. Peas don't really start growing well until the spring. Also, I have successfully interplanted peas and tomatoes. Take care and I send you garden blessings!!
Heya! I hope you're recovering well from your foot surgery 💚. Glad to hear your summer plantings get a second chance to produce 😊. Are you harvesting from your Fall plantings all through winter? Curious how mild your winters are. Take care! ~Batavia
@@BBettaGarden Thanks, I am healing well and have started physical therapy. Been working fully remotely, but should be able to go back to my hybrid schedule sometime around early or mid September. I am able to harvest fall plantings even through the spring. Admittedly, I don't do particularly well with broccoli and cauliflower, but have had some success with cabbage and certainly lots of success with lettuce, arugula, Swiss chard, kale and collards. So my greens are more successful. I do also get some strawberries through late Fall. But when it cools down, things to grow slowly. Add in the low level of sunlight in my growing space, even things like carrots and beets don't really perk up until the warmth of spring which can start temperature-wise here as early as late February, early March. This year I'm going to see if I can get some late season peas and beans started. One nice thing though is that I can overwinter tomato and pepper plants so that when the temperatures warm up in the spring, I already have a head start with mature plants ready to start flowering and fruiting.
@@jwilli7434 glad to hear on the recovery. September is right around the corner! There is something about heading crops that gives me a challenge..cabbage do pretty well but the others, I feel like I'm rolling the dice every year. I've toyed around with overwintering peppers but each Fall the garden fatigue sets in and getting garlic planted and putting the garden to bed is about all I can get done. Now that said..I've had dreams of having a structure that would allow me to harvest the light the winter, even here in Chicago (seen it done by another gardener 😊). Anywho, happy growing! 💚
No tips since I have never done a fall garden...but...wait for it...I'm going to try a bit of a fall garden for the first time! Granted, I'm in central Texas, so...fall isn't exactly a clearly defined season...it's mostly like "less hot summer" until Christmas. But I'm gonna go for it! Loving your garden updates, and thanks for the inspiration to get out there and experiment!
So funny! If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I wrote this comment. This is exactly how I talk about things like this. Go for it! I'm rooting for you! 💚 ~B
I’m in Mississippi zone 8. My fall garden is always full of brassicas and carrots. Most southern gardner’s like to plant mustard, turnips, collards and squash in the summer but I find waiting until fall is best. I find it’s less pests pressure.
Thanks so much Sammy! The most important thing is that your garden produces, right 😊💚. Having a neat and organized is a bonus but is secondary. Thanks for watching and commenting! ~B
I am in zone 9b Phoenix. Armenian cucumbers are about all that is handling the heat right now. Tomatoes and eggplants are starting indoors next month. A tip for my area, shade screens!
I love listening to your thought process as you plan for fall planting. I am in south/central Indiana, and will be starting some leaf lettuce, spinach, kale and more bush beans soon. I have found that the first 3 do not do well for me as spring crops. It gets too warm too fast, and they either bolt or are eaten by insects. I have also had issues with beans this year-poor germination and low productivity being the main ones. I also have an overabundance of chipmunks who like to eat the seeds or wait until they have sprouted and eat those, so I do transplants for my beans now. They do not bother the plants once they are a few inches tall.
Heya Darla! The last few years, most of my cool weather crops are planted in the Spring (in April) or this year as late as May.. I don't have a bunch of turns at the wheel planting for Fall so I'm trying to put what I know is logical to practice. And I'm hoping that some things that have struggled (ex. cauliflower, brussel sprouts) when planted in the Spring do better in the Fall. Oh and last season I had some volunteer beans come up and I moved them and they did really well..I still think direct sowing will lead to a stronger plant but that doesn't matter if the plant doesn't survive, right.. Thanks so much for watching and leaving such a rich and helpful comment 🙌🏽💚. ~B
I just discovered you and Ben a couple of months ago and I am hooked! You two are hilarious together 🤣. I am in Chicago as well, it's helpful to follow someone in my garden zone and city. It seems everyone is somewhere that doesn't get a real winter 🤣
Heya Chicago neighbor! lol at not having a real winter..that really changes everything for gardening, right?!?! Glad you found our podcast, we do have a good time 😂😂. And glad that you were able to check me out here! happy gardening!💚🛎️
Your Summer garden is glorious! I'm in 9b Sacramento CA area and am pleasantly surprised as most of my tomato varieties are represented in your selections. Water retention and heat mitigation are the worst parts of summer gardening for me- fall offers a respite from both, as the days shorten and temps drop. I love your physical protection from pests and plan to follow your examples with the fruit cages when we redo our beds. Thanks for the detailed tour today <3
Heya!! I marvel at gardeners who face heat like you experience I summer 💚. I've been fortunate that the physical protections I've put together have been effective for the critters that visit my space 😊. Wishing you great success with your fruit cages!💚 thanks for watching and commenting 😊💚. ~B
Zone 7a - this is my first year with my garden. Didn’t do too well in the spring, doing a little better this summer. For fall, I plan on trying broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, spinach, arugula, bok choy, and peas. Wish me luck!
Heya Trisha!! ✋🏽So happy to hear you've joined the garden world this year 💚. Getting out of the starting gate in the Spring has been hard for me each year but it's getting a better each year (this year, not so much though 😊). You have a great line up for Fall! 'm rooting for you! 💚
Hi Batavia, I just started listening to the podcast and following along here. What is your favorite kale(s)? I find I really enjoy red Russian as opposed to curly blue. I’d like to find a couple varieties that we love. They do so well in my fall garden, along with chard. (Zone 6 SWPa) And lettuce of course. Nothing beats a homegrown salad. Happy to say goodbye to the cabbage butterflies once the temperatures drop.
Heya!! ✋🏽😊 once I have lettuce growing again, I'll still have some tomatoes so I'm looking forward to a homegrown salad this Fall😊. I would say the traditional curly kale (not sure I have a fav variety for it yet) is my favorite but I've come to enjoy Dinosaur (or Lacinto) kale..maybe in part because it grows so nicely and isn't a pain to clean like the curly variety. I grew Red Russian kale a few years ago. I can't put my finger on it but it reminds me of another green. I'll be sure to share some of the varieties I'm growing this fall and I'll make a note to share if any rise to the top as a fav. P.S. for fun--I direct sowed this plant in the Fall..it was shaded by some other plants but it came back the following Spring 😊ru-vid.comqY-8-TdZng8?si=dyvEGPGj0CFXYR4S Thanks for watching and commenting!😊💚
I’m in zone 5b, about 65 miles west of Chicago, so my first frost is about 2 weeks earlier than yours. Last year we had about 6 inches of snow on Halloween. 😂 In the past, I haven’t grown a fall garden because all of my summer vegetables are still going strong and I don’t want to remove them. This year I just got 2 more Greenstalks, so the plan is to do a fall garden in them. I’m going to plant Swiss chard, Kale, beets, sprouting broccoli, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, and radishes. I’ll go through my seeds and see if I’ve got any other fast growing greens or brassicas. I’m also planning on some bush beans too. I’ll be interested to see what other people are growing too for any more ideas. I do have a frost cover for my Greenstalks, but that would typically only buy me a little time, especially if we get an early frost and then some warm weather. I’d also like to figure out some kind of cold frame for some of my raised beds to extend my growing season, but that will probably be on next year’s To Do list.
Heya Susan! Same here when it comes to my summer plants are doing so well around this time of year so it's hard to imagine pulling any out. Since I've started to grow more in the Spring, it's opened up some spaces naturally so that's been a help. That's a nice lineup for Fall and going through seeds for quick growers is a great idea! 🙌🏽😁. I had some herbs and celery ins greenstalk last year and used the frost cover. I'm not sure if the veggies would have been fine without it. I am thinking I'll use it for that tan GreenStalk that I'll be planting kale in..although Kale is super super harder. Thanks so much for commenting 🙌🏽😁💚.
Also in 5b (or is it now 6a?) 40 or so miles Northwest of Chicago! Pretty much almost Wisconsin, but basing it on zipcode alone, I have 2 weeks longer season than my parents do, and they're just a few miles south of me! Microclimates are wierd lol 😂 For fall garden I'd like to try garlic again, and of course leafy greens. I'm no good at cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, or beet, but I try every year anyway! Maybe I dont have the best soil, who knows!
Thanks for video Love your dark leaf hybriscus where did you find them? Looking to plant more in my front yard. Decided drop seeds pumpkin ( small variety) since they did not do well in the space I had. Love how you utilize every inch space for veggie. Decide go with small variety of sunflower ( torch/mexican sunflower), just love the color orange. By the way used idea with poles ( pipe tubing make more overhead room for plants, due to animals. Have protect my babies. Squirrels chewed my irrigation hose. Say no more. Now ,what I plan in the fall green of course grow well into winter and stay until spring. Still have some cabbage fine by me. More roots veggie ( carrots), Lots Kale and different kinds. Eat that more than lettuce, but grow some of that as well. Try onions again, did well but need produce more these will go into spring. Garlic. As far as space I pull out grow bag in a minute. Some grow bags items will die out. Space where have tomatoes look like on their last leg. Already planted more tomato from suckers and doing well. Sorry to go on so. Thanks for all you do. Hope listen to your podcast soon. Take care and enjoy the moment, it goes fast. I be glad have little cooler weather. Take care.
Heya! Thanks! The hibiscus with the dark purple leaves and light pink flowers is a Starry Starry Night and I picked it up from Lowe's. The other with the dark leaves and the dark red flower blooms is a Proven Winners Holy Grail hibiscus. I think I've seen them at Lowe's and I think I got mine from a local store, Fasel & Sons Garden Center. the Mexican sunflowers are so pretty! I have some small sunflowers, Incredible that are supposed to grow about 20 in tall. Glad to hear the poles/pipe tubbing worked! 😊 I think I remember you being in Maryland. Love to hear that you're growing into winter! Thanks for watching and commenting and happy gardening!💚
