Why I Oughta...

I have a long history here on the blog talking about Mr. Stripey tomato plants.  Back in 2010, I posted a photo of one of the huge fruits next to a little baby pacifier .  And two years later, I was contacted by a small Quaker school in Minnesota who wanted to use the photo for their plant sale .  This year, we'll be growing this Bonnie Plants variety from Home Depot.   I grow them almost every year and they're just about the easiest tomato to give away/gift to people.   Be it family or neighbors or just putting them out on a table in the front of the house.  They're always pretty to look at and have a slightly exotic feel to them with the yellow/pink/red stripes.  My sister usually comes a looking later in the summer for some of them when she's having a party and wants to make a caprese salad.   They're stunners for that when you slice 'em open.  A bit watery, but you forgive that when the color pops so much.

When I was shopping with the girls, how could I possibly pass up a variety of tomatoes called "Rapunzel"?!?  Just look at that photo:  I've never seen a plant that grows like that at any of the home improvement/gardening stores.  They're cherry-sized which is the preferred size by Nat and the girls.  I have to think these will be a hit this summer. From TomatoGrowers.com : Just like its fairy tale namesake, Rapunzel puts out long, cascading trusses, each with up to 40 sweet, bright red cherry tomatoes that keep coming all summer long. The long stems are quite impressive when picked fully loaded with tomatoes, which can be enjoyed individually as they ripen.

Every year, I grow our beans on a trellis net perched above one of our beds.  You can see a photo of our typical setup here on the blog .  But this year, I was gifted something new for my birthday:   a Bean Tower from Gardener's Supply .   Taking a photo of the Tower without any growth on it is kinda hard, so I took this ratty photo (below) of the instructions/details.     We've already picked out the bean seeds, but because I still have to get a new thin layer of compost on the top of our beds, we still haven't planted them yet.   Here's what it says on the Gardener's site : Grow bushels of beans with our tallest, strongest and sturdiest bean trellis tower yet. The secret is thicker supports coupled with 10" legs that hold the structure securely in the ground. The Bean Tower in our test garden yielded 2,400 beans between mid-July and late September — in just 1-1/2 square feet! Supports are 5 mm thick with 3.5 mm crosspieces. Openings are 7-1/2" s

I picked up a few tomato plants at Angelo Caputo's last weekend that I hadn't ever planted before including this one:  the Mortgage Lifter. The description supplied tells a neat story about "Radiator Charlie" and how he cross-bred four varieties of tomatoes to develop this beefy variety.

A few weeks back, I posted the first photo of the 'changing skyline' of the Elmhurst City Centre from York Street.   But, I recently went down Addison Street and was confronted with a new 'look' of the parking deck from a new angle and had to take this photo you see above.  It certainly is pretty imposing compared to what was there (a parking lot).  The first section here went up really pretty fast as it appears they're mostly a bunch of pre-fab'd sections/panels.  There will be first floor retail/office, so I'm looking forward to seeing that part go up and see what it does to the downtown and in particular what impact it has on other/future growth along Addison Street.

Well...they're using what sounds like someone like Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks singing just  a bit of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" in this really cute promo spot for the upcoming 60th Anniversary of the park .  But it is *still* Dylan.  That's kinda awesome. We came in stationwagons. Campers. On planes. To see what Walt had built. And what we found was a place that was always growing. But never grew old. Gotta get there for the 60th, right?

I have no idea what these are going to turn out like, but I couldn't pass them up.  In this four-pack from Home Depot, they're selling "Hula Berry" plants.  Three white ones, one red one.  The red one produces pollen for the white ones, it seems. They have a Facebook page where they say they're 'going fast' in Chicago , so if you're curious about them like I was and find yourself out and about, head to Home Depot to try to pick up a set. I'm going to plant them out in the garden and see what happens.  I have very little expectations, so if they do, indeed, turn out to taste like pineapple, I'll be pretty amazed.

I took this photo late last week in my office at Aon, so it wasn't the 12th of May but more like the 7th of May that I actually realized I had to turn them over a month. Here's the post from turning them to March .  And here's the post from February where I discussed the perils of wall calendars (the whole forgetting to turn them over and what-have-you...).  Looks like I didn't post a photo of the April calendars. But, back to this month's images:  on the left in the D23 calendar you see the 65th Anniversary of the release of Cinderella in 1960 (and...if you are like me - and Nat - and are a HUGE Disney nerd who listens to Disney Podcasts, you'll know that the success of this movie and the cash it threw off to the company was the biggest driver of the creation of Disneyland!).  On the right, you see a photo of the recently renovated Alma Mater right on Wright/Green Streets.  With Graduation right here, it is a totally appropriate image. "To thy ha

I was cooking pizza for a little dinner party with our friends from the city a few weeks back so I took a trip to Angelo Caputo's for Chellino Scamorza , some hot soppressata , and a few other items.  I usually pick up a little container of basil to top the pies, but they had these containers of potted basil for $0.99, so I figured with the price being less than the container, I couldn't loose. I could use the basil that night for the pies and then plant it and harvest all summer.  I usually buy a basil plant each summer anyway, so why not start early. Well, that plant sat in our kitchen for two weeks, but I finally got around to planting it in a big pot.  One of the lead stalks cracked off during transport home from the store, so we only have one big stalk and a halfie.  I gave it some organic plant food and with a little bit of sunshine and some water, I think we'll be basking in sweet basil glory for all of our KettlePizza adventures all summer .  

Here's a look at one of the masses of Ostrich Ferns that are curling up and through the mulch.  They're finally and firmly established in their new spot in the beds. Here's what they looked like in 2013 .  And this photo from 2012 shows how many of them there were/are when you pull back. These have quickly turned into my favorite plant in the entire yard/garden.  They started out with a leftover fern in the far back corner of our yard that I *think* crept over from our neighbor's yard.  He has some ferns over there, so I'm not sure which sprouted which.  Ours gave him his.  Or his gave us ours? Either way, I took one of the ferns from the back corner and transplanted it in the middle part of our beds.  They've quickly flourished there.  So much so, that I was able to split a few of the heads of these guys and added them to the north side of our yard and even gave a few to my mother-in-law. Here's some of my post from 2012 that talks about what a