Full Garden Tour: Growing in Every Inch! 

Heya Chicago neighbor! I just love the diversity of what you're growing! Figs, blueberries and grapes, oh my 😊💚. Thanks so much for watching and for commenting. Its super helpful to see what grows well in certain areas, especially Chicago of course 😊😊 ~Batavia

"I love seeing how your garden changes and becomes more like you every season." real tears 🥹 thanks so much caleigh33 for joining me in my garden each season and thank you for your kind comment. It's such a joy to see my garden through others eyes 💚. ~B

Heya Sis! Your comment really resonated with me, thank you again (oh and I mentioned it on an episode of the podcast). And the only thing better than picking the mature veggies and eating them is catching a glimpse of their first appearance of the season. It never gets old. I saw my first eggplant and cucumber (the latter on a volunteer plant of all things) this week and I was beaming from ear to ear!😊💚

Thanks Steph! It's really taking off! 💚

It really is taking off!

Growing black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes, okra, zucchini, peppers, pumpkin, and watermelon. My YT channel is JUST kicking off but I have a tour on there.

Thanks so much Karen! ~Batavia

Heya Lisa! So glad you enjoyed the tour and thanks so much for commenting. And thanks for the reminder that folks want to see the good and not so good 💚. Take care! ~B

Thanks so much Risa 💚!

Heya Lana! That's so funny. I did a half marathon in Batavia IL years ago and it was something seeing my name on all kinds of things as we went through the city 🤣🤣

Thanks so much!❤️💚❤️

I've looked at it as a strain on the garden but you may be on to something...the garden just might be enjoying it😊.

Heya! Welcome back😊💚. It's my hope that each year in growing (figuratively and literally 😊). Thanks for watching and commenting! ~Batavia

Heya Laura 🛎️! Defined a love fest 😊💚. ~Batavia

Thank you and it's my absolute pleasure Michele! 💚 ~Batavia

Hi again! I heard you mention protection from the squirrels, but we recently had street workers who dug up the street and a hoard of rodents were released! Yuck! What are some preventative measures have you been using, if any? Thanks again!

Heya!! I can feel your excitement in your comment. 🙌🏽🙌🏽 I just loved reading that you're proud of you (as you should be!). And I love hearing your grandbabies are excited about the apple and pear seeds. I haven't actively done anything to manage mice or rats. I think the stray cats that are in my neighborhood keep them at bay.. sorry I can't be more helpful there. Wishing you even more garden joy!💚 ~Batavia

Heya Alice! Thanks! I saw another garden use them a bunch of years ago. They are fire pits 😊😊 that I picked up from Menards and maybe Home Depot. Oh and I'm going to try Nevada lettuce which I was able to grow in the summer a couple of years ago. The other lettuce I planted has bolted which is pretty normal for me. Happy growing! ~Batavia

Heya Darla! Thanks so much for watching and commenting and joining me on FB💚 ~Batavia

Thanks Denise! Thanks for the recommendations. I'm trying jade beans for the first time in the pink greenstalk. I also need to decide if I want to plant another round of bush beans or if I want to try green peas for Fall in the space 🤔😊. Thanks for watching and commenting! 💚Batavia

😊😊 I was looking for some green painters tape which would look nice in the garden, lol.

I just love it. Put it on a t-shirt! 😂🤣😂🤣

Thank you so much 😊💚💚💚

Thanks so much Toya!💚~Batavia

It's my absolute pleasure, Grandma Sandy!💚

It will definitely help. I've been looking and the tomatoes are trying to bogart there way in again 😊. Good luck! ~Batavia

Thank you so much Latasha 💚💚!

Me too!!!

Thanks so much Ms. Judi!💚

Greetings! Thanks for stopping in from Florida 😊💚 blessings to you! ~Batavia

Happy Friday Friend! Thanks so much! While I love the greenness of the garden primarily because it's a sign of plant health, after months of greenness want more color. I have said this at this point in the season the last couple of years but I am always tempted to start with flowers and then move to veggies but I know it's better to do things the way I do them (veggies first followed by flowers). I just don't have the capacity to mix flowers in while I am planting veggies so it's kinda all or nothing. Can't have it all I guess:-). I've seen some YT videos of deer jumping into folks gardens and I don't know much about deer so I thought that's what they always did. It's interesting to know that they prefer an easier route :-). I am trying to be easier on my self. So far I have succession sowed corn and potatoes which I believe will work out well. Beans have been a struggle since the beans for that second trellis inside of the cage baby came up and were eaten or didn't come up at all. My plan now is to sow peas to try for a Fall pea harvest (I've tried it once or twice before without success, but I'm still hopeful). As I reading your list of melons, I was excited to share that I tried the Minnesota Midget and thought it was a fine cantaloupe but I see you've tried that one too. I haven't grown the others or really any other smaller melons. I read about cantaloupe continuing to ripen off the vine a couple of years ago and it made sense when I thought back to my family buying melons and them sitting on the counter or table until they were "ready." I don't recall coming across many if any others that do. The forecast has a few days in the 90's next week which always makes me a bit nervous :-). I think I'll pull my sprinklers out..we'll see. I hope you are enjoying summer and the garden :-)💚 Sending you love from my littler corner of the garden world, here in Chicago!💚😍💚

@@BBettaGarden For a while earlier this year (before we could do any actual planting or transplanting), my "scheme" was to plant flowers, flowers, and more flowers, in drifts, banks, and blooming bushes, and tucking in my household's vegetable plants among them so the vegetables wouldn't be so obvious, nor so much a temptation to whoever it is who climbs in, steals entire veggie *plants,* then smooths the soil over so you'd never guess there had been, say, a squash plant in that spot. "Animals" suggested one neighbor. Right. Sure. Animals eat things right down to the soil or pull or dig them out [I'm looking at you, white-tail deer, *and* the raccoons but raccoons generally just swipe the fruits] but they don't "reverse engineer" the appearance of the soil, and animals don't remove the identification label I used to have with young plants so I could tell golden zucchini from Fordhook zucchini from early crookneck squash from very young winter squash like Marina di Chioggia. "Animals" my auntie Grizelda's backside! At any rate, I'm transplanting flowers, and direct-sowing some, too, into the vegetable beds around the veggies. Working on some perennial flowers; I've read Black-Eyed Susan is one such, and so is lavender, and as my beds are in-ground, it's not too difficult to work in some more shrubs at the perimeter. The property came with plenty of rose-of-sharon in various color combo's, and I had planted daylilies (neighbor killed them off, maybe accidentally, or maybe gave their SO the plants to transplant) and some irises both Siberian and Japanese. I'd like to have stronger pops of color than I have, though. You know: truly intense splashes of red, or orange, or yellow, and maybe purple or blue. Deep, intense pink. (H'mm. Maybe some full-size bearded irises are in order... Ooh! Snapdragons! I do love me some snapdragons! And there are some intensely claret-hued cosmos, too.) For you, what about big hanging baskets of flowers, ideally a few with a trailing habit like some of the nasturtiums? Or morning glories which, I'll grant you, want to climb. (I love the look of Grandpa Ott, and I have Moonflower to sow; it's supposed to be oh, so amazing by moonlight! ) Corners or the long edges of your backyard garden raised bed without regard for "Does this do anything for my vegetables?" as long as the flowers do no harm? I know they're usually annuals, or perhaps *have to be annuals* for your purposes, just as most of mine do, too. Huw Richards plants flowers in the corners of his kitchen garden raised beds so that they can "spill over" those corners, provide color for the gardener and food for pollinators. A deer can hop a six-foot tall fence from a standstill and almost without thinking about it. Eight feet isn't much more effort but might require a moving start. What deer want and need isn't "easier" but safer. In another comment or reply I'll tell you about a doe who used to get into a friend's garden "through" the gate in the fence. Er, if you want to hear/read. I've sown and grown Minnesota Midget, but I didn't get a harvest from Minnesota Midget; it might be time to try again. Now that you've brought up that matter of letting melons sit on the kitchen counter until they're ready, I'm reminded that cucumbers for sure, and maybe melons, too (?), need additional post-harvesting waiting time for the seeds within them to mature enough to ensure a next generation of that melon. Cukes, if you want the seed, I seem to recall having read, require harvesting at the point they're hyper-mature, and then to be allowed to sit around for another two weeks before you take the seeds to continue maturing off the vine (at which point I'm not sure what you're supposed to use the flesh for, but it sticks in my mind there's a German pickle made from very mature cucumbers. Haven't tried the recipe/s, so can't comment on that.) Weather-wise, we're a day or two behind you, but we've had mid-80's today, high 80's forecast for tomorrow, and then 90-ish for roughly the next week. Makes me nervous, too. A little. Love from a little corner of the garden world in Chicago is much appreciated! As always, much gardening love from Northeast Ohio! 😊💚💚💚💚💚😊

Thanks for watching and commenting! One day I hope to have a garden space that I can open to the public. Until then, I hope that you and others can gather inspiration from what I share here on RU-vid 💚💚.

Heya! Each year it feels like for the first couple of weeks, I either get male flowers or female flowers, but not both at the same time. I've had female flowers and the little yellow squash but no male flowers for germination..so the itty bitty squash dry up and die. But it's never too long before they start to catch up and both are produced. That said, what you're describing sounds pretty normal as far as what I experience. 💛💚 ~Batavia

@@BBettaGarden I have had some luck with hand pollinating squash.

I seen peaches grown here. My mom would love if I grew bananas 😊😊

Heya garden neighbor! I've not had trouble with earwigs but the steps to manage some of them are the same. Treating them DE sounds like a sound plan. The next bit may be details you already know or are doing but..be sure to follow the frequency schedule for it and apply it when it dry. I know we got quite a bit of rain earlier in the week so if you haven't already, you'll need to apply it again. The trouble with earwigs and the like is that they like damp dark places. If you're using mulch which I recommend, you may want to consider removing some or all of it until you get it under control. Good luck! 💚~Batavia

Heya! This sounds vaguely familiar. It hadn't happened to me though 🤞🏽.

Heya Jazzyd! I'd say it depends on where you are gardening and more specifically, your weather going into Fall. In Chicago or somewhere with similar temps, I'd say, if you have the pepper plants, go ahead and transplant them. Smaller peppers will absolutely produce (you just may not get a ton). You'll even get to harvest larger peppers like bell peppers but you may not get many. If you are somewhere that has 70-80+ (F) temps, going into October and November, you can definitely get the transplanted! ~Batavia

@BBettaGarden I'm in Evanston...right up the road

Heya garden neighbor! I'd try to get them in this weekend. 😊😊

Thanks so much! 💚