So this is urban farming - (with a yard)

I am seeing more people starting blogs again. And I also see them updating them. So I think I should start doing the same!
I will figure out this pictures and blog thing soon... 

This urban gardening thing actually came true after we thought we killed everything. And I thought stuff that was growing was just very organized weeds.

We planted lettuce, tomatoes, arugala, cucumbers and peas. Also onions from bulbs and 2 just starting blueberry and blackberry bushes.

 You can see leafy lettuce on the bottom, arugula on top, potential growth of cucumbers and peas to the right of that and below are onions and right most corner, carrots that didn't come up for more then a month.

Eggplant- first ever!

And then there was freaky hail! I guess mother nature was pissed at something!
Hail was size of golf balls and broke many windshields. The next morning it was fun to drive by the local auto-glass repair shop and see a huge line of cars.

Our garden didn't escape the wrath. When we came home, the yard was covered in icy balls. It was almost surreal - it was humid just during the day and coming home to ice on the green grass was just... weird....
The weather damaged a few things in our garden. The leaves on tomato plants were damaged. The peas suffered the most and had the very bottom portion ruined and dried up. Both peas and cucumbers were knocked off their climbing posts. Eggplants had their flowers knocked off - but the big one above survived!!

This is the size of hail.
Keep in mind - this is after the hail fell and we came home - so it was already melting on the grass for about an hour...
Mother nature was sure pissed.


We thought our whole garden was gone - this is after hard work of planting, building and securing our garden.... But we got lucky. Cucumbers were knocked off but lived and recovered quickly. Tomatoes recovered as well. Peas were the biggest hit. Onions were not doing that great either so hail wacking them didn't help.

The Recovery -
Peas are back! We planted them because the package said they are easy to grow... They were right for the most part. Peas like to climb - they have little tenacles that attach to posts - kinda cool and it makes peas! I like the ones that you can eat in a salad so I eat them whole and I don't think any actually made it to the salad bowl... They were all eaten in the garden!

Our garden is recovering... You can tell that most of the climbing plants were knocked off the posts. Arugula flowered and stopped making leaves as much - but the ones that were there had a more intense flavor.





TO RECAP SOME STUFF - AND SOME LESSONS

Once we found out that tomato plants can go up to 6 feet in height we built this enclosure. The green poles hold up the leaves of tomato plants especially when they have heavy tomatoes on them. We planted big beefstakes, roma and grape tomatoes. Only 3 out of 12 survived that we grew inside so the other 3 we just bought pre-grown at Home Depot.
Growing the saplings inside was a cute idea but it took more work, and didn't really deliver when we replanted them. In Chicago, weather is weird. And so when the frost hit it
probably killed them or made them weaker. But only tomatoes, other stuff just kept on growing!

It took a while for cucumbers to pop up and look like cucumbers...
View of our garden. Home Depot had special climbing contraptions that just go into the ground. We planted peas and cucumbers near them. I could have sworn I have seen cukes climb but it was also when I was very little... so I hope I remembered correctly.


 It was a happy day when we finally saw a tiny tomato!

I have never in my life seen tiny cucumbers, or knew how they come to be. They come from cute little yellow flowers and are very pointy!

We will have a whole salad growing in our garden after all!






Since only a couple of the cucumber plants survived they were replaced by eggplant - one Italian plant and one Japanese.

Well we thought we killed them all since "awesome" Chicago weather turned from 70s to 50s and 60. In MAY!
I was filled with doom - well it's our first garden... we can't really expect much. Neither of us grew had lawns much less gardens in recent past, so hey we gave it a good try. BUT - things survived! Maybe not all of them, but we watched in amazement as lettuce grew, arugula grew. Peas made their shoots and their tenticles to hold on to climbing posts and fighting with cucumbers, which we also attached to climbing posts.
I think over all the 'frost' made all the veggies stronger. Everything grew like weeds! Tasty, delicious weeds!
More updates, pictures and lessons to be posted soon... For now, I need to learn how to place images where I want them :)