Parking lot Farm

Every once in a while I come across an unusual planting in Chicago and in most of those instances I never have a camera with me to document it. I always get a kick out of the weird places that people will grow a plant- be it edible or ornamental. Last summer I often would pass by a house where the home owner had converted his front stoop into a chili pepper farm of sorts. All ten steps were covered in old buckets growing many varieties of peppers. It was a sight to behold, if not a safety hazard. I never managed to take a picture no matter how many mental notes I made. I've been trying to do better at documenting these "extreme" instances of gardening this year. So far my record is not that great but here's one weird place for veggies that I noticed in Chicago.

Daylily proliferation

If you've grown a daylily chances are that you've noticed a new plant forming along the scape (flower stem) of one of your plants. The other day I came across one growing on a browning stem of one of my Daylilies. Hemerocallis growers call these plantlets that sprout from the stems "proliferations." Sometimes a proliferation can grow enough during a growing season to actually flower, most of the time they'll grow just enough for them to be harvested and planted. Proliferations are exact clones of the plant they are growing from and they're a great source of free plants.