Growing My Own Food in Chicago, Week 8

It's been about two months now since I planted some fruits and veggies in Chicago soil in a small yard in a newbie attempt to see what I could grow. In the last article, I noted that we finally had broccoli growing. Now, the broccoli is going nuts.

We actually waited too long to cut the first batch, because it started flowering. But we saved most of it and enjoyed it as a side dish, along with some macaroni and cheese with jalapeno bits mixed in. The jalapeno also came from the garden! So far, it's our first and only pepper that has grown.

It turns out that we should've switched the broccoli and peppers around, because the spot in the yard where the peppers are isn't getting enough sun, and the broccoli is getting too much. Lesson learned -- next year, I'll know exactly where to plant each one.

Green beans growing in the Chicago food garden!
The big news this week is that we finally have green beans! The beans are in a square planter and the vines have been growing, but we didn't even realize that we had beans growing amongst all the leaves. About a week ago, there was just one small bean starting to grow. By the time we checked again this week, there were about a dozen full-size beans ready to pick.

I've now picked two batches of green beans, about a dozen beans in each group. They're in the fridge waiting for a few more friends before we cook them up and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

So far, then, we've actually gotten to eat the following items from our garden: Lots of broccoli, a couple of strawberries, one jalapeno, and several green beans.

Plants we're still waiting on in the Chicago food garden
We're still waiting on more strawberries, as well as tomatoes and potatoes. The red potato plants are growing like wild - they're now about 3-4 feet tall. So we're assuming the potatoes are growing underground, but we have no way of knowing. The trick here will be to know when the right time is to start digging them up.

The tomato plants have struggled, especially after a huge hailstorm last week that destroyed many of their flowers. They're still hanging in there, but no fruit has developed yet. I'm still hopeful.

So far, after two months, I'm pleased that we've been able to develop a modest amount of food. I hope the broccoli and green beans keep coming. With a few potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, this will be a very successful grow.

New additions to the Chicago food garden
With two of our potato plants and one broccoli plant dying, we had room for more, so this week we purchased cucumber and watermelon. It may be too late, but we'll see if those plants produce anything. One more article will be coming in this series - stay tuned for the final recap in a couple weeks.