Mark’s Garden
Backyard vegetable gardening in northern Illinois.
04/11/2023
Before & After first freeze, all the herbs made it!
24/09/2023
First day of Autumn, Saturday…. Lots of melons and round #5 for canning tomatoes 🍅
15/09/2023
4th round of canning tomatoes 🍅
08/09/2023
First cantaloupe this season, yum.
22/08/2023
Today’s harvest and last night’s moon 🌙
August 22, ‘23 Video
15/08/2023
August 15, ’23
Just picking tomatoes 🍅
12/08/2023
August 12, ‘23
07/08/2023
Aug 6th, ‘23
05/08/2023
HUGE Stuffed bell peppers! 🫑 Tomato tart and zucchini (from the neighborhood farm 2 miles over) bread. Next year I will plant more bell pepper plants, one is not enough.
03/08/2023
Hillbilly Tomato Time! 2.6 lbs
August 3rd update.
🍅 🍅 🍅
23/07/2023
Fresh, homemade pasta & homegrown basil PESTO. Thanks Marky T!
23/07/2023
Nice showers today…. 🌈
20/07/2023
Mark & I ate BLT’s tonight; geraniums are popping with summer colors…
18/07/2023
Trellis #1 is up…
July 2/23 Update and Sucker Vine Removal
29/06/2023
Pruned quite a bit today, less vine = more tomatoes. So long suckers…
June 15 Garden Update…
15/06/2023
Mark’s annuals are looking great! Miranda’s heirloom melons are finally transplanted….
05/06/2023
Filling the box is always fun. I scraped the outside of my compost pile for unfinished compost, and was surprised how well it has broken down. I left the good stuff in the pile for tomorrow. Gabriela Jones I found your compostable cell phone cover!
04/06/2023
Last call for radishes, I made these into a taco topping slaw yesterday . 🌮
Raised Bed Construction Video
01/06/2023
French Dressing radishes reached their full potential this year with the mild temps. Mark made “crudités of radish with a compound butter, baguette and salt!!” ❤️
18/05/2023
The youngest San Marzano tomatoes looked a little stressed from the chilly night last night, and the forecast is dipping down to 43° tonight. I brought out the cloches to protect them.
15/05/2023
Brought the unplanted tomato starts in for a warm, dry night. Plenty of extras this year…. 🌱🍅
12/05/2023
New raised bed has been filled and planted with 7 San Marzano tomato starts.
11/04/2023
Spring is here and just transplanted tomato starts into pots. Fingers crossed they are hardened off enough for full day sun after 4 days outside in afternoon sun.
08/10/2022
Who’s placing cloches at midnight tonight for the upcoming freeze? This guy…. you know him, total garden nut.
23/09/2022
Fall equinox finally brings some ripe tomatoes. I’ll be picking all the red ones on Sunday.
Labor Day ‘22
August 3 update: 🍅 🌶 🌿 🍐
23/06/2022
Finally finished the first raised bed, earlier this week, just in time for the solstice. Wacky weather this spring has slowed growth so I’m banking on a big fall harvest.
17/05/2022
Better late than never…. Finally got the peppers and tomatoes transplanted into pots. They are little, starving runts that have hardly grown in two weeks but they are on track now.
Videos (show all)
