Lmst

Winter Wonderland

#SilentSunday #MidwestUS #NorthernIllinois

A view of my backyard (garden) covered with almost a foot of snow from the previous day. The bare trees that border the rear of the yard are covered in snow, as is the shed. The sky is a white gray color, the clouds cover it entirely.

Snow keeps falling... so quiet and peaceful.

#NorthernIllinois #MidwestUS #Winter

Snow covered bushes, evergreens, bare trees and a vehicle.

First major snowfall of 25/26 Winter... and it's just getting started.

#NorthernIllinois #MidwestUS

A view of a backyard (garden), bordered by bare trees, and freshly covered in snow. There is a garden shed with the roof looking white from the snow. There are dog tracks in the snow as well.

Last harvest of 2025!

They say to leave parsnips in for awhile after the frosts. We've had a few frosty mornings, so I thought mid-November was a good time to go get them.

A good haul! Much better than I've done in the past. I think my soil-regeneration efforts - cover crops, rotation and compost - are helping!

Now on to blanching and freezing these lovelies.

#Gardening #Harvest #Preserving #NorthernIllinois #MidwestUS #Zone5a

The community garden plot that I tend to - covered in dying cover crops (oats and field peas) with a single row of parsnips about to be harvested.

A blue plastic tote with freshly-harvested parsnips (root vegetable similar to carrots) still covered in some dirt.

A man holds three large parsnips, still covered in dirt. The picture is taken in a garage. A pale blue plastic tote is on the ground with parsnips in it. Nearby, a small golden spaniel/beagle dog smells the "green things" - she's not impressed.

A man holds a plastic tray holding over a dozen washed parsnips of various sizes.

@redcrew One of the nice things about the increasing #NativePlants market is having a selection of spring plants available at the end of the season. I added some marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) and nodding onions (Allium cernuum).

For the leaves, I also use them to mulch. A lot of it gets stored in various ways to feed the #compost through the next year. #gardening #NorthernIllinois

Activity from an almost-70F mid-November Saturday: emptied and spread the rest of the finish compost, finally put the tulips and final garlics in, finished planting the clearance #NativePlants...

Talked to north neighbor about using leaves from that side (already getting leaves from south neighbor), harvested the fallen leaves from the front yard. I don't clear the back so I really need all the leaves I can get. #gardening #NorthernIllinois

Now it is a mid-40F Sunday. Time to head outside and put the tools away.

#SilentSunday #DeerHunting #PublicLand #NorthernIllinois #Driftless

A view of a snow-covered field from adjoining woods. At the other side of the field is a large tree with brown leaves, bordered by other trees that have already dropped their leaves.

Welp, there's the first snow of the season!

#MidwestUS #Midwest #NorthernIllinois #Driftless

Closed up the 2025 veggie season this weekend. Here's my final harvest basket. Plus half of the garlics are in. #gardening #NorthernIllinois

A garden bed with 40 spade dug holes into the bare soil in a 4 by 10 grid. They are mostly not visible, but each hole contains a garlic clove destined to be a garlic bulb next year.

A black plastic harvest basket with orange handles. The last of the garden grown vegetables are inside in all variations of ripeness. There are larger tomatoes, mostly green but some with a faint blush of color. There are a tangle of radishes with wilted green tops. Some jalapeños with one green bell pepper. Lots of cherry tomatoes and green beans.

@freedomcompost7676 There are still more out there but I cleared some areas for garlic. Intake pic from this weekend. #gardening #NorthernIllinois

A clear plastic rectangual rub and a round red bowl on top of a table with some quilted placemats visible. The red bowl has cherry tomatoes in various states of ripening. The plastic tub has larger reddening and green tomatoes. Plus a small bunch of green beans.

The selections are few out there. The hoverflies are finally resorting to the unpopular pink mums. #pollinators #BloomScrolling #gardening #NorthernIllinois

A yellow and brown striped hoverfly in the yellow center of a pink chrysanthemum flower. Other mum blooms dot through the sunny photo. The green scalloped leaves are still green on the plant.

I'm finding out these cooler-temperature grown beans are more tender than the summer ones. Really delicious! The fall radish was also a welcome peppery hit. #gardening #NorthernIllinois #GrowYourOwn

A black three-compartment plastic harvest basket holding three big handfulls of cherry tomatoes, two larger tomatoes, one radish with greens still attached, one reddened sweet pepper, and about three pounds of green beans.

We're not quite done yet. Harvest basket from this weekend. #gardening #NorthernIllinois

A black plastic three-compartment harvest basket holding two-handfulls of cherry tomatoes, two larger full-sized tomatoes, four carrots with soil still on them, and about three hand-fulls of green beans.

@freedomcompost7676 I believe the perennial mums get labeled "hardy" or the tag will note the temps. Reliably available at the end-of-season clearances happening soon for me. Even if they don't look great when I buy them, things go well the following year. 🙂 #gardening #NorthernIllinois

@freedomcompost7676 Yes, the mums are perrenial where I am. They're great ground cover in the spring, and then they flower after the goldenrods are done.

Not all are good #pollinator helpers though. I knew the orange/yellow ones would be because the bees were on them at the nursery, but the purple ones, while pretty, are not being visited. #gardening #BloomScrolling #NorthernIllinois

A patch of yellow and orange mums with two bumblebees on two of the flowers.

A cluster of purple-ish mums in various stages of flowering. It sits in a flower bed with some purple-leaved coral bells and a small green-leaved hosta.

Morning view.

#Driftless #NorthernIllinois

Wild fields and woods against a dawn sky

Northern Illinois University Gymnastics

https://ncaapeaches.com/savannah-west-of-northern-illinois-gymnastics/

#NCAAGym #Gymnastics #NorthernIllinois #GoHuskies

One wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) flowering stalk deciding to bloom with the mums. #gardening #NativePlants #NorthernIllinois

A vertical photo with one small, purple flower of a wild geranium plant at the bottom. Two other flower buds are waiting to develop and open. It is backed by some wood pieces separating the plant bed from the wood chip path. The rest of the photo is filled with yellow and orange chrysanthemum flowers in different stages of opening, along with the green of the plant.

Life's been busy. A quick catch-up post with harvest basket pics. (Right, this past weekend. Left, two weekends ago.) Thus ends the yellow squashes. Still cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, and peppers out there.

This year, I went through the experiment of just going with the volunteer cherry tomatoes as they show up. I'm happy to say it was a success. No effort or cost on my end. #gardening #NorthernIllinois

A three-sectioned black and orange plastic Fiskers harvest basket filled with tomatoes of different sizes, a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes, green beans, two cucumbers, and a yellow squash.

A three-sectioned black and orange plastic Friskers harvest basket filled with tomatoes of different sizes, lots of cherry tomatoes, green beans, two cucumbers, some red sweet peppers, and a yellow squash.

Spent the weekend camping with Scouts along the Sugar River in north-central IL. My son was the only person out of the 12 of us to catch any fish on Saturday. And he caught at least 10! Mostly sunfish and bluegill but a small bass as well. The rest of us caught about 8 million mosquito bites each. But the storms avoided us for the most part so all in all, a good weekend.
#camping #scouts #fishing #northernIllinois

#NorthernIllinois

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