Trying to Grow My Own Food in Chicago, Week 5

We have broccoli! If you've been following my series on growing food in Chicago, in a small yard in the middle of the city, you know that I've been experimenting with various veggies to see what I can grow.

After more than a month, we've got some broccoli sprouting. One of our six broccoli plants is dead, but the other five are all growing, and at least three have actual broccoli popping up in the middle of the plant. Looks like we'll have plenty of vegetables to eat this summer!

We have six red potato plants, and one also died but the other five are going nuts. The above-ground portion continues to thrive. The potatoes are under-ground, and we're not sure exactly when to start digging them up. We were told to do so once the plants start to dry up. That sounds good.

Elsewhere, we've gotten a few strawberries as well. In fact, this was the first food item we were actually able to eat. But they're small strawberries. And since we only have six plants, we're not going to get many strawberries in total. I was hoping for enough to have a few smoothies, but instead it looks like we're just stuck with a few individual strawberries to munch on here and there.

Oh well. I guess if you're going to plant strawberries, you need a lot more plants. Lesson learned!

Our tomato plants continue to grow, though we have no signs of actual fruit yet. Same with the green beans, but at least those are about to flower.

The peppers are struggling. They're towards the back of the yard and aren't getting as much sun, which is probably the problem. We do have one nice jalapeno growing, about 3 inches long. But the other plants aren't producing yet. The green pepper that was growing two weeks ago apparently got stepped on and is gone (ugh.)

We're still waiting for other green peppers to start blossoming. I have one small one so far. It hasn't been as sunny in Chicago as you'd expect, so hopefully that will change over the next few weeks.

So far: We've had mixed success, but I'm excited about the potatoes and broccoli and hopeful that the tomatoes, peppers and beans will come around. Stay tuned for my next update!