Frost is coming! Batten down the hatches!

Lately, Chicagoland has been under some crazy wind storms. Gusts of 60 miles an hour, trash cans strewn throughout the strees, and Lawn chairs all over the backyard are only a snippet of the problems going on. I'm glad I took off the pergola cover one day before all this had happened, or the wind could have ripped the pergola off the deck or at least thrown the cover over the roof (which has been known to happen).

Well, I went out to the backyard to tidy up, while the wind was whipping around everywhere. I made the girls come out and help. We Pulled out the Jerusalem Artichoke, harvested all the green cherry tomatoes, and cleaned up some trellises.

Frost is coming, so we have to tidy up, and be prepared. I also checked on some of my Espaliered trees, and adjusted one.

Momsi: Mommy, what're you doing?

Me: I'm training this tree to grow flat
Momsi: But why!!! Why can't we leave it alone!

Me: Because then it'll take over the neighbor's yard. This way it can grow as Big as it wants, but flatter.

Momsi: Well, can we bring it inside? The apple tree is sad and cold.

Me: [Something about apples and Zone5A and required Chill hours]. It likes it out here, Momsi.

My version of Espalier is very informal. Basically, I'm just training the tree to grow flat. I don't have a particular shape in mind... Just want them to be flat, and not crossing branches. So for the most part, it's just growing on it's own with minor shape adjustments.

So far, we've planted:
4 apple trees
2 asian pears
1 Stanley plum
1 bartlett pear
3 nanking cherry bushes
2 blueberry bushes
2 chestnuts
Strawberries w/runners under the trees.

I have space for 4 more fruit trees on the side fences, so I'll have to give some thought on what I want. I'll ask the kids what they'd like to eat :)

Some interesting reads I've found.

I came across this today:
http://www.for-wild.org/conf/

While it's not edible landscaping, it is a conference for landscapers to attend that focuses on using native plants. I never really gave that much thought, until my friend Natalie (who is more involved in that) mentioned it. Native and prarie grasses. Makes sense, as this is a "plain state". It also doesn't make sense to have your yard bend to the whims and fancies of plants that don't belong here.

I swear sometimes I wonder why people haven't stopped-taken a couple steps back- and thought "wait, what am I doing?".


I do find grasses to have some nice appeal... pampas grass, japanese forest grass. Just wish there was some way I could eat them. Ha, well that's just me :) I do have a few things in my garden that I can't eat. Japanese forest grass, and a japanese maple... but for the most part, I'm asking my plants to earn their keep.

Pumpkin Carving

Had a few of our friends come over tonight, and we all carved pumpkins.
I've always wondered why the smaller pumpkins are pie pumpkins, and the bigger ones are just jackolantern pumpkins.
Most likely it's related to flavor, and sweetness due to size (is it like veal where the younger is more tender?), but when the pilgrims had giant pumpkins, did they only carve them and NOT eat them? I have no idea.

Since I don't know any better, I keep all cut pieces of pumpkin from pumpkin carving, Minus the skins, and liquefy it in the blender. The guys were nice enough to put all the pumpkin seeds in one bowl, and the pulp into another.
I ended up with about 8 cups of pumpkin mush for future breads, or pies.

Once in the past, I froze a gallon size ziplock of mush, and BOY WAS THAT EVER A MISTAKE! chiseling out pumpkin ice to make 1 loaf of pumpkin bread... ugh.
Now I've been freezing them in sandwhich size bags... 2 cups at a time.

The seeds were rinsed, salted, and roasted at 200 degrees for an hour or so.
Every so often, I took a spoon and scraped the seeds around the pan, so they wouldn't get stuck to it. In the past, I've used recipes that say 350 degrees, and have burned them. This year, I just put it on 200, and kept tasting them until they were the correct mouthfeel. I like to eat the shells, so it needs to be exceptionally crispy! :)

OH you know what else I've learned in the last few months. I've been saving the Dessacant (sp?) Packets from some other food bags and putting them in with my dried foods (nuts, seeds, and nori). Wow that stuff is magical! It keeps them crispy, and not a chance of mold anywhere! Why didn't anyone ever tell me this secret?!?!

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Chrysanthemums - Fall mums, and flower tea.

The mums blooming in my front yard reminded me that we are completely out of Chrysanthemum tea. I never knew such a thing existed, until I met my husband. He is the chinese version of Kenny Chesney. He tells me stories of his childhood barefoot, on the back of a cow, or herding the ducks in at night... The stories of the first person in the village to have a TV, and how all the kids would come and peek through the windows to watch tv. Some stories of how they lived without electricity. WHAT?! Who would believe the guy is 33. Sounds like a story out of the 1900s in America.

Well, all that to say, we had a pot of chrysanthemum tea at his great aunt's birthday and I thought to myself "Chrysanthemums? Isn't that what we have growing in the front yard?" I googled to find that the white or yellow flowers are used for tea, and my flowers were purple and red/orange. Did it really make that much of a difference? Are the lighter colored mums ok, and the darker ones poisinous? No idea, but I went to Home Depot last night in search of mums. There are so many varieties of white and yellow mums!!! AAARG!
White with yellow center, white with white center, white/yellow with no center, white/purple with a center/with no center. I resorted to tasting the petals of the flowers.
Tasted the white ones, Bleh. Tasted the Yellow ones, BLEAUGH.

The cute home depot guy comes over "can I help you miss?"::He sees me with petals sticking out of my mouth:: Uhmmm... yeah Uh. I'm looking for the mums you use to make tea?

Him: ........
Me: ....
Him: well..uh..
Me: Here Taste this.
Him: He actually eats it
Me: Tastes like flowers, right?
Him: Yeah.
::he shifty eyes like he's wondering if he's going to die::

I tasted quite a few flowers there last night, and out of them all, there was 1 that tasted the best. Unfortunately, it wasn't 1.99 Dangit ...it was like a 10.99 big pot.
And it was full of teeny white fluffly flowers that had a pollen middle.

I'll probably cave in and go buy it. Hopefully they'll have some kind of sale. I'd definitely plant it in the ground to have it come back as a perennial tea garden-next to my mint.

Will take a picture when I go get it!! I promise!

Piggy banks: Received!!!

A couple posts ago, I was talking about teaching my children about money, and mentioned these 4 compartment pigs that were 16.99... I was talking to my Edward Jones guy about the pigs, and he was like

Tony: Did I not give you these pigs?!
Me: Huh??
Tony: Don't you worry, because Edward Jones has got what you need!

Tony stopped by my workplace to drop off the piglets! Here they are on my desk. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Can't wait for the kids to start putting money in them! We have change lying all around the house, because I was waiting for these piglets to arrive :)!!! Ha and they even say Edward Jones on the box and the body... cute.



In Gardening news, I've been contemplating the location for chestnut tree seedlings.

When we went chestnut picking, I received 4 seedlings from Roy, the owner of the orchard.
He said if I can get them to grow, he'd give me more. Wow. With that said, I am overwintering two of them in their pots which I've put into the ground, and covered with leaves. The other two, I am trying to plant in my backyard somewhere. I am not exactly sure where to put it so it doesn't affect all my fruit trees I've planted, or the neighbors. I can just Imagine them cursing me under their breath because of the burrs, or the fact that Chestnut tree pollen smells like semen in the spring(that'll be fun to look forward to).


I've decided to experiment with "High density Planting", and I will plant 2 seedlings in the same hole. Hopefully this makes 2 trees in the space of 1 with almost guaranteed wind pollination.
Here's a little video on the same topic w/the same layout.. 2 stems in the same hole.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo3_u08CwdY


The only spot suitable seems to be where the children's swing set is. I asked the kids if I could plant the trees right in lieu of the (what is that called???) trapeze bar, and they very reasonably said yes, because the trapeze bar is cracking, and they'd rather have chestnuts. My theory is that by the time the tree is old enough to have burrs, that the kids wont find the swing set that interesting. We'll see...

Another option is to put one tree on one side of the swing set, and one on the other side 10' away, so the kids can enjoy more of their swing set, and double the production and growth of the trees. This will produce even more chestnuts, but that also includes double the spring smell, double the burrs, and double the shady space in my backyard. I'll think about it for a few more days. It's at times like this I wish I had a panel of experts tell me what's better :)

In the next month, I will be getting the 5 hazelnut trees I ordered. 2 of those will stay here, and 3 will go to Barrington (My parent's house). the Barrington house has rampant Deer, so I will probably overwinter the hazelnuts at my house (outside in pots, and under leaves). Once it's warm enough, and the deer have other things to eat, I'll move the 2 chestnut seedlings, and the 3hazelnut seedlings over there.

Lately, I've noticed a chipmunk running around my back and front yard. Hrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm
that is an arch nemesis if I e'er did see one. Must find some way to trap that guy. He also successfully chewwed through the rubber bottom of our garage door. Not only does that make my garage a huge chipmunk mansion, but allows his mousey friends to come in and party down. WTF! Mental note: Gotta fix that up, and put out traps in the garage to catch him. Chipmunk stew?

Fall Cleanup

I just realized I wrote a whole thing on here, and forgot to post it, yesterday!!! Yarrrg.

Lately it's been a lot of fall cleanup in little snippets of time. My neighbors get the advantage of watching me do yardwork in small amounts. They'll see a wheelbarrow and a shovel sit in the backyard for a week, before I finish what I was doing. Chickenwire on the ground for a week before I pick that projectup again... Eventually, it all gets done, but since I'm not a farmer, it's a balance of working all day, being involved in organizations, the kids stuff, and lastly my landscaping :\

I've been cleaning out my garden in the past week. I don't want to yank out my tomatos, because there are still baby tomatos growing on there, but ALAAAS if I do not, it's worse once the frost comes. The garden looks like plant zombies complete with skin sloughing off, and oooooozie things. In case you haven't noticed by now, I don't take many pictures (compared to many awesome blogs I've seen out there). It never occurs to me to go "Hey honey, snap a photo of me cleaning out the garden!", but I'll use my best MS_Paint skills to draw you a dramatazation of the sunflower yanking.

Ha ha! Awesome... that's me yanking the sunflowers out of the garden. I've also yanked out all the popcorn we grew, and tied them up to a basketball hoop that is on the side of the driveway. Not the hoop itself, but the big metal pole that holds the hoop up (is there a name for that?). It makes an excellent, and free autumn decoration for the house :)

In other news, My husband and his coworker (Groogalino as I call him) acquired some oak logs, so they will try growing shiitake mushrooms at Groogalino's house as well. Awesome. Apparently, Groogalino's dad has grown shiitakes out of logs before, so he is very familiar with mushroom growing.

I'll chart his logs process on here as well as my logs. It'll be cool to see when they start popping up - Most likely this coming spring.