Here come the sunflowers. This morning we were greeted by the first blooms of sunflowers in our garden. Back in June we planted the dwarf sunflower seeds, which were only supposed to reach two to three feet in height.

During Jeanne Nolan’s visit to our garden last week, we harvested a number of crops, including an oversized, overripe zucchini. Chicago Tonight correspondent Eddie Arruza offered to take the vegetable and make zucchini bread for staff. Today, he brought in the finished product. Read the recipe he used.

Despite our best efforts to keep the leaves of our plants dry, the zucchini plant has developed powdery mildew. The fungal disease occurs in a variety of plants, and a powdery white mildew covers the surface of the leaves, causing the leaves to yellow and dry out.

Insects in a garden are unavoidable, and over the past two months, I’ve dealt with several different insects in the garden. While I expected to come across bugs, especially cabbage worms and loopers, I didn’t expect to see a grasshopper in the garden because this pest never came up in conversations with Jeanne Nolan or members of The Organic Gardener crew.

When we planted our organic vegetable garden two months ago, we had high hopes for the garden to be prolific. We have not been disappointed; our garden has flourished despite the unseasonable weather we’ve had. Take a look at all of the crops we’ve been able to harvest so far.

Peering into our organic vegetable garden yesterday, I spotted a couple of plants that don’t belong. Nestled alongside the mainline irrigation tubing were two mushrooms. We didn’t plant mushrooms, and they weren’t there last Friday. How did they get in the garden?

Jeanne Nolan spends time in Chicago Tonight’s organic vegetable garden with Phil Ponce harvesting three types of tomatoes, Haricot Vert, a monstrous zucchini and more. On Chicago Tonight, Nolan talks harvesting tips and more. 

We’ve kept the pruning of tomato plants to a minimum this summer due to the unseasonably cool temperatures and heavy rains. During The Organic Gardener’s visit last week, Jeanne Nolan and Dani Hollis, The Organic Gardener maintenance crew member, cleaned up our four tomato plants.

Earlier this week I spotted hidden Haricot Vert of varying sizes, with some of the French Filet beans appearing to be ready for harvest. During Jeanne Nolan’s visit on Wednesday, we harvested a handful.

As Jeanne Nolan tended to our organic vegetable garden, she harvested a gourd-shaped crop. But we didn’t plant any squash or gourds. What happened to this vegetable?

The nasturtiums we planted in our garden have been the most prolific plant, requiring lots of pruning. Recently the nasturtiums in the south bed of our garden started looking unhealthy, but the ones planted in the north bed continued to flourish. What happened?

For most of the gardening it season it seemed as though the Haricot Vert (French filet beans) we planted were struggling.  But today as I was tending to the garden, I saw several hidden Haricot Vert.

Summer has been unseasonably cold and wet, causing trouble for many tomato plants in the Chicagoland area. But the weather hasn’t slowed the growth of our tomato plants—many of which are more than six feet tall.

This summer has been unseasonably wet, and it looks like a shower or two could pass through the area this weekend. Too much water can devastate plants. While we can’t control the weather, we can control how much we water our plants.

Beets are ready for harvest approximately 60 days after planting. While the beets we planted weren’t quite ready for harvest, we were able to thin them.

Our organic vegetable garden looks great. Upon closer inspection, though, you’ll find some damage being done by insects even though the crops themselves are healthy.