May 11 2010 Tuesday photo update of garden

************Big news from the southeast Logan Square garden nook. ***************

I had, about 3 weeks ago, put fresh cuttings of Cabernet Sauvignon grape vine (direct from pruning my parents' vine in St. Louis) in pots to see if they would grow. It was a little of rolling the dice and a whole lotta wishing (8 pots total). After doing so, I put them outside along a fence where it seemed I was placing them in a barren spot. In fact, one pot I put about 4 inches east of a Syrah cutting that I placed in the ground last year. This said Syrah cutting was surrounded by so-called 'Chicken Wire', or more appropriately, Poultry Fencing. There are (2) canines on the property, so I have to protect my investments. Canines will be canines, after all. I can't blame them, but I'll be damned if they they get to my cuttings without an athletic battle of wills.

Regardless, I was last night picking up trash that had been strewn and blown about into our apartment building's territory; it is something that us urban dwelling Chicago-types have to grow accustomed to. In doing so, I noted that, just by chance there appeared to be something growing alongside my Cabernet Sauvignon potted cutting. I felt immediate joy upon determining that it was a small growth with leaves quite similar to the cuttings that are growing in the pots inside my apartment, that is to say I knew instantly it was a grape vine sprout. It didn't make sense to me - it was a growth that was hidden by the pot which was situated on the ground by the fence, AND, it was outside of the poultry fencing (which was used to protect the Syrah cutting that was there in the first place).

You get the point. Upon discovery, the clouds broke open, the choirs sang, a cantata was ringing out in Logan Square. Clenched fists, exclamations, jubilation, bottle of Champagne popped, et al. Another one pulled through the winter. SUCCESS!!!!!!! Let's get to the photos, terrible as they are. (Disclaimer: Again, I am just trying to record successes and to achieve positive growth to garner and gather the experience of growing the vines. The Japanese Beetle will come, I am not even sure if I have enough drainage, maybe even eventual rot, might be a future challenge. But as scrappy as this operation is, and in the face of the strangest of environments and its unlikeliness, this initiative moves on with determination.)


The Garlic is coming along quite nicely. This is courtesy of Rebecca Sometimes.


The almighty Big Bluestem. Looking great.


Mars Seedless grape vine showing healthy growth for its first year in the soil. Beautiful leaves, eh?


Another shot of the Willamette Hops. They are just absolutely crazy and almost nearly caught up to last year's growth. (Remember, it is merely May 11th, 2010 here. Amazing.)


This is my hand underneath a Willamette Hops leaf to provide some perspective.


These are the Roma Tomatoes in the backyard (started inside by my roommate). I predict that by Memorial Day weekend they will have doubled in size. The rains of the past week have been quite incredible and lively. As can be seen in the photos of the soil, there has been plenty of debris spread about as a result of the storms. I walked the grass yesterday in the front and the number of twigs I came across was surely above ten in number.


This is the 1st Syrah that came up this year. What a remarkable leaf. Gorgeous artwork.


Same Syrah, different angle. It gained leaves.


This is one of the returning Clematis vines from last year, it is the 1st to blossom this year. It is quite a marvel.


This is the most robust of the Russian Sage plants. The colours are going to be around for a good 6-8 weeks during this forthcoming summer, once it gets to blooming.


This Russian Sage plant is akin to Scrappy Doo, except we'll call this Scrappy Sage. I had to uproot this particular plant from the other side of the bay window, but it wasn't growing very well, or even at all, for that matter. I actually just kind of took the spade, dug the existing old plant/some roots, and then laid it on top of the soil. I brought it over with its own little patch of soil so as to keep roots intact. Once it went to its new environs, "Voila!". The little scrappy plant began to fight for sunlight.


Joe Pye Weed. Very strong and ready for warmer temps.


White Coneflower coming back after its first winter in the soil in our garden. This batch seems very hardy. It does get quite a bit of sun, perhaps that helps alot. It also gets quite a bit of canine spray, too. Not sure about the benefits of such liquid on White Coneflower.


More Joe Pye Weed out by the street. Very excited about this batch. Everything in this area is growing at a rapid pace. Essentially the plants in front get a water, worms, sunlight, and canine urine kind of diet, sans Miracle Grow. The grass gets the Water, Worms, Sunlight, Canine urine, and Canine dookie kind of diet.



Joe Pye Weed returning after the winter. Photo of the plant behind the barricade. Remember, canines await, they long to crap in the garden.


The second Syrah grape vine to sprout this year. Whammo!!!!!


This is the 'lost' Syrah vine. Terrible photographic documentation, but it is brilliant to realize that this vine pulled through the winter and faced the adversity of being nearly prevented from sprouting by having a pot set upon where it wanted to pop out of the ground. This vine is clearly a fighter. It is a contender, not coulda been. I expect remarkable growth from it and a great summer. It'll go ten rounds. No doubt in my mind now.


Switch Grass growing, growing, and growing.


The two Cabernet Sauvignon grape cuttings. Good growth to report, additional leaves and length from both cuttings. Progress as planned. Delighted, as a result.


Lovely Clematis cutting in a vase. Such a beautiful flower. This reminds me exactly why I love them in the garden.


This is as quotidian as it gets. Clematis from another angle.

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One casualty of the recent weather is that a sprig of Aster broke off from falling tree branches. Nothing major, I just happen to be fond of the colour that Asters bring to the garden. It happens. Just interesting to notice the impact of the weather.

That's all for the week!

May 3 2010 update from the Garden

Spring 2010 in the City of Chicago. Amidst all of the crime and murder lies a vibrant city where all manner of life still thrives and grows and prospers. More updates on the one small, tiny sector of living plants, that I understand to be our garden, tucked away in a corner of Southeast Logan Square.


I think the Honey Bees, the Bumble Bees, and the Butterflies will be pleased with the return of the Joe Pye Weed. I am, too!


Mars Seedless Grape vine


Another sense of how well the returning plants are doing. Asters on the right, Switch Grass in the center, and Astilbe on the left. There are a couple of clusters of the all-green Hosta variety, pretty scientific name, eh? Those Hostas are going to be thinned out really soon. I can't stand how encroaching they are with the other plants.



Second-year Russian Sage coming back after the winter. Beautiful flowers they are. This a 1AM photograph from May 3 2010.


This provides a nice profile of the Syrah Grape vine and its development, laterally. I am a proud parent. This could well be 'the' plant that launches the vineyard in years to come.



Joe Pye Weed.


The Big Bluestem native grass. Lots of growth in just a week. Right behind the grass is a wandering shoot of Willamette Hops.


These are the Willamette Hops vines. This photo is great because the leaves truly pop out. The leaves are enormous, enormous, enormous.


These Willamette Hops vines in the backyard. The photos were taken around 1AM at night after playing a show. But, sometimes a person does what they have to get the photographic update.


This is my only surviving Syrah Grape Vine. Here's to hoping for good things this summer! I just hope this can get established and develop some good hardy vines and a solid root system.


A horrible photo capturing the growth of the Switch Grass as it begins to reach for the sky. I am glad to see this coming around because another patch of Red Fountain Grass didn't make it through the winter. I have been pretty upset about the attrition percentages that I am noticing as Spring 2010 unfolds and it is clearer what is coming back and what is not.

******************News Flash********************

On Friday May 7, 2010 I purchased 5 new vine cuttings. I purchased from Double A Vineyards out of Fredonia, NY. I went ahead and picked up 3 cuttings of LeCrescent and (2) Frontenac. Both are varietals developed by the University of Minnesota specifically crafted to be cold-hardy. In doing some research, I discovered that both varietals have come out of a winter, with a registered low of -33 Fahrenheit, and still produced abundantly the following growing season. Sue Rak from Double A Vineyards was exceptional with any questions, etc. Originally I wanted to go for Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurztraminer cuttings, but she cautioned against it. Later, with a bit of research, I discovered that there is an article from the University of Illinois' Extension referencing the Double A Vineyards' website in the footnotes of the PDF article, I think it was an article regarding Seyval Blanc grapes.

May 1 2010 Saturday update from the garden

This is the Mars Seedless Grape vine. I am going to have to begin putting up the stakes pretty soon. I lifted one of the vines from last year and it is a very durable plant. I love this photo because it captures quite nicely the variegation of the leaves. Interesting how they all started pinkish in colour.


Joe Pye Weed in the backyard. This plant really took off this week. I feel like a successful gardener when things like this happen.

Roma Tomatoes. They are soooooooo very much in need of being transplanted. The job just simply doesn't provide much time to do that. Soon enough, though.

A sample of some of my Fava Beans that I have planted with my roommate. I started them in the pot, she watered them and then she graciously planted them in the backyard garden patch. I hope it sends the nitrogen down into the soil!

I couldn't pass this up, it is my beloved Big Bluestem native prairie grass. I have never seen it come out of dormancy until this year, because this will mark my first year of growing Big Bluestem. So far, so cool.


This Cabernet Franc bud is pregnant. Perhaps in about 4 weeks I'll be able to give a good photo of a growing cutting. Fingers crossed.

This is 'The Dynamic Duo': my two early growers from the cluster of Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings that I brought back from my folks' home in St. Louis, MO.

This was the second cutting to sprout this year. Just the update photo, but it has certainly taken off this past few days. My roommate and I were actually wondering if the vine has sent out fruit, the camera couldn't focus to show what could be seen with the eye. Cabernet Sauvignon. There are actually a couple of round plant objects coming off of the new vine, backdropped by the leaf that is covering part of the rim of the flower pot that this thing is situated in. I just wonder what it is because I didn't see anything of the like last year with the Syrah vines that I grew last year.

This is the view from the top of the second cutting. Simply another angle to reveal the growth. Cabernet Sauvignon.

The weather was 80 degrees yesterday. Then the rains came. I didn't get a photo of the Willamette Hops or my Syrah grape vine because the camera memory needed to be dumped. But those will come. We had two days of strong winds (both Thursday and Friday). In reviewing the garden I noticed that probably my most robust Willamette Hops vine was broken at the top, more than likely because it still had not gotten to a fence wire or other object in order to grow and wrap itself around. It was just out there hanging around in the frontier until the strong wind made its presence known.

April 25 2010 updates

Greetings!

A couple of updates with this blog. I'll try my best to do a weekly snapshot of my favorite plants in the garden. It is clear to me, as my remarkable roommate reminded me, that these very grapevines I am growing now could well be the nexus of what I hope to conceive of and manifest as Conejo Loco Vineyards. As I read more and more from material I have gathered provided by the area University Extension programs - many of them have PDF files on how to grapes (and manage vineyards), most of them are products of the Horticultural Departments of the area universities - it is clear to me that I simply want to document a successful summer with the Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Cabernet Franc. Get them growing, observe and record as much as I am able, then make the adjustments as they are required. I also want to make mistakes from simply trying, and then I hope to garner some growing wisdom from the results and the observations. These vines are all coming up by simply putting cuttings into flower pots and surrounding them with simple soil, and NOT Miracle Grow soil. Just a cheap bag of $2.49 Potting Soil from the local hardware store.

Let's carry on with the photos. Things are growing fast



What I have here is my great hope for growing/starting a Cabernet Franc vine in Chicago, IL. The bud has really risen and changed colours in recent weeks. That seems to reflect that growth is coming as is the holy moment of 'Bud Break'. There is sure to be additional footage of either its success or its failure. Here's to hoping. Nature is so terribly unpredictable.



This is the second Cabernet Sauvignon cutting that sprouted this spring 2010. Putting up a photo here from a different setting than last week's photo. Growth is coming along nicely.



These are the beloved Willamette Hops vines. Apparently canines like them just as well as Homo Sapiens do when the fruit of the vine gets boiled down and integrated into a brew.



This is the first Cabernet Sauvignon plant that I have grown in Chicago. This is the first spring in trying to grow them and the first cutting to indicate growth. This is a particularly vigorous and robust developing vine, although it is still in a pot. Probably the next question to answer is when these need to get in the ground. I consider this an important question because, while I had success with growing cuttings of Syrah last year, I believe I may have put them in the ground too late in the year (September 2009), to be exact. Only one of my (5) Syrah cuttings that I put in the ground last September has indicated any life. But I'll take anything. There will surely be some hits and misses.



The update photo on the Mars Seedless grape vine. The leaves that are unfurling are simply brilliant. It truly is no wonder why humans are so captivated by the vine. It is amazing to see these things come alive.

updates from April 13 2010 - Garden photos

Russian Sage very early spring 2010 April 13


Red Bergamot (Monarda) very early spring April 13 2010. It survived its first winter.


I love this photo of the Willamette beer Hops because the rhizomes are just simply out of control. This is the 3rd spring that I have grown these particular hops. It is going to be a watershed year, I have a hunch.



These are Mars Seedless grapes. This will be the type that I'll use for putting on the table for snacking and sharing with friends, neighbors, etc. I thought this was a decent photo because of the silly little info card providing a white background by which to contrast and grasp the growth of the buds.


I love Big Bluestem grass. This is 'the' grass of the Midwest and Plains states, in my opinion. I would wager that any professor of Horticulture would beg to differ. I really have such a high regard for this type of prairie grass, native to so many states, when it is fully mature. I often think of Dave Scharr, an old boss from when I was a camp counselor in south central Iowa (mid to late 90's in Warren County, Iowa, to be exact). Dave taught me so much about native habitats. I was a young chap from the city of St. Louis who only knew the cutting and manicuring of urban lawns and fending off the pesky dandelion 'weed', as I understood it.

Growth updates from the garden

I wanted to provide a couple of photos from the apartment/pseudo-vineyard. I did look at my Cabernet Franc cuttings that are in the pots inside my apartment, but I didn't have enough time to set up good lighting so that the buds on the cuttings could be seen on the photos. However, there does seem to be ongoing development with the Cab Franc cuttings. As I indicated in the previous posting, these particular cuttings must be adjusting to their new environment still, and coming out of a dormancy.


Syrah Grape vine. This cutting survived the winter. Growth is coming along.


Syrah Grape vine.



A Cabernet Sauvignon grape vine cutting. This is the second ( 2 of 6) to sprout in the apartment, thus far, since planted on March 1, 2010.



This particular specimen is the strongest of the batch I planted on March 1, 2010. It is the first of the lot to have 'bud break'. Very exciting times in the southeast Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, IL at Conejo Loco Vineyards.



All photos for this post were taken on Thursday April 22, 2010.

Time to Pick this Up

Joe Pye Weed popping up out of the ground. (1st success after a winter season)


The bulk of what will be produced within the framework of this blog will center on my own experience, at this early stage and during the beginning entries. There are only a very few weeks before I embark on a career change. Part of me has considerable concern for what lies ahead. My approach to all of this will be quite similar to that of taking a butterfly (fishing net) at various prospective opportunities and simply hoping that I grab a beautiful butterfly, in my case I only hope it is meaningful employment that can pay the bills. Hopefully I can gain some more skills in areas or industries that I am interested in.


Syrah Grape Vine during 'Bud Break'. Click on photo and look at base of vine. Successful after 1st Winter season in ground.

Today I took two hours to make it back to my apartment to get away from work, as it was the case that I was scheduled to work tonight. Rest is more and more necessary with getting older. 35 is coming around the corner. But, whenever I go back to my apartment I immediately dance toward the plants and the cuttings and the seedlings, etc. I am delighted to report that I have two (2) Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings growing. The way to express this is that 'bud break' has occurred. The cuttings are from a Cabernet Sauv grape vine that my parents tend to in their backyard in St. Louis, MO. My parents' grape vine was originally planted back in March 2008. The existing one was one of a pair that I planted as a gift to them.

In addition to the Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings, I planted, last Septmeber 2009 just before the first frost, five (5) Syrah cuttings that I grew in pots beginning in March 2009. So far, only one has experienced 'bud break' after wintering in the soil and facing the weather of Chicago, Illinois and the winters that visit this region by Lake Michigan.

Thirdly, I have six (6) Cabernet Franc cuttings in pots in my apartment. I have not seen 'bud break' yet, but according to the evidence I noted today at the apartment, I am confident that I will be able to successfully grow Cabernet Franc grape vine cuttings this summer. I am delighted because it has seemed that these vines were in a very deep sleep. I had a good deal of worry in recent weeks that my purchase of these vines was for naught.


Willamette beer Hops. 3rd summer in the soil.

The entire garden, as a matter of fact, is simply erupting with life. Joe Pye Weed, Rudebeckias, Switch Grass, Hostas (3 varieties), Willamette Hops, Big Bluestem, Russian Sage, Bergamot, etc., etc. Things are looking up on many levels. I did see the Willamette Hops just rocketing out of the garden, ALREADY!!! This is my 3rd year of growing Willamette Hops in the backyard of the apartment that I live in. The 3rd year must be the charm because these living plants have covered nearly half of the area that they covered last year. AND, it seems that the hops multiplied underground, unbeknownst to me, during last year's growing season.



Willamette beer Hops. 3rd summer in the soil.

I have no idea what cards I am going to draw. What is beginning to become a very solid notion is that this endeavor of growing vines is and has to be part of a 30 to 40-year plan, part of a Master Plan, if you will. Baby steps, but solid steps.