Pea Pickin'

 I picked the third and final dish pan full of peas today.  I put 20 pints in the freezer which is not bad considering I only planted half as many as I usually do.  I just had to be careful not to waste any.  Whatever I miss gets collected as dry seed when I pull the plants.  There won't be many this year, but that is OK since I have a little backlog of peas.  I do have to be careful though because these Penelope Peas are getting hard to find.  These have been by far the best peas for me so I don't want to lose the strain.

Acceptable Level of Damage

 For generations, gardeners and farmers have been talking about the "acceptable level of damage".   How much are you willing to share with the pests?  There is even a rhyme.

One for the mouse, one for the crow, one to rot, one to grow

Few of us would mind losing a tomato, or even a few ears of corn here and there.  But Nature has no self control and deer, racoons, squirrels even insects, will destroy an entire plant or crop with no thought for the future or sharing.  It always seemed stupid to me that Asparagus Beetles would work on an Asparagus patch year after year until they killed every last plant thus eliminating their own habitat.  I guess they are a bit like humans in that respect.

Yesterday morning when I came out the door the first thing I saw was some mulch disturbance.  Someone either stepped in the net or got a mouthful and pulled up the staple.  They moved on and the daylilies were safe!

Around the corner I saw hoofprints in the mulch edge and found that some of the Hosta and Coral Bells were trimmed.  The plants were also sprayed so they did not eat them all.  I went ahead and trimmed the rest of them off.  I enjoy the foliage more than the flowers on these anyway.

I took some time to clean up the wild daylilies (Tiger Lilies) along the front fence.  The deer got to these the end of May before I even started spraying.  Usually they don't want the hard, new buds and wait until they are plump and ready to open.  The early stems had time to dry all the way to the base which makes it possible to pull them out easily instead of cutting them.  There are still mid-season stems in there that are still green.

That's a lot of stems, but the border still looks nice.  Just think how nice it would have looked with twice as many blooms.  

I ordered some larger covers on Amazon to try for some of my free standing perennials to reduce the number of plants I have to spray.  It is nice when the plants are small and I can put the wire cloches over them and not worry about them at all for awhile.  These mesh covers are designed like little pup tents.

There are a few plants that they will fit over really slickly, especially the clump of Cheyenne Spirit Echinacea at the corner of the walkway that I pass by dozens of time each day.  It is in a vulnerable spot, and it is something that I enjoy very much.  Being able to set this cover over it each evening will ensure that I get to enjoy every bloom this season.

Cheyenne Spirit 2023

The covers have a front zipper which is meant for you to be able to reach in and harvest from a covered raised bed, but it make is convenient to rearrange taller stems like these Black Eyed Susans.  The covers are pinned down with earth staples and stack neatly on top of each other when removed.

One less thing to spray each night.

Elsewhere in the garden, my cucumbers are blooming.  This little leaf cutter bee arrived in a shipment from Crown Bees this week.  She spent all day with her face buried in a bloom.

Fertilizer Friday

 Every Friday I go through my fertilizer routine.  This does not mean that everything gets fertilizer.  It means that this is the day when I check myself.  I make sure that anything that is newly planted, or setting fruit gets either granular or liquid fertilizer.  I make sure everything gets attention at least every two weeks.  

I use a variety of fertilizers.  The vegetable garden gets either a Espoma granular or Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed liquid.  The Garden-Tone is a good all round and I refresh each bed before planting in the spring, but I end up using the Tomato-Tone more often.  The heavy blooming annuals get Proven Winners Slow Release pellets once a month, and if they can stand watering, then they get the Proven Winners liquid.  Sometimes I have to skip it just because the containers are already too wet which is the case today.  The Dahlias get Alaska Morbloom when they first start putting on growth and then again when the buds begin to form.

One thing I do when I get a new container of fertilizer is write the mixing directions on the bottle with marker.  I also write the dates I am fertilizing so I don't lose track of when I did it last.  I empty any bagged product into another container.  The Tomato-Tone is in an old pretzel jar which holds up to 8#.  Larger bags go into kitty litter pails or square buckets that nails and screws come in.   I cut the label out of the bag and tape it to the container with packing tape.  I always save any good square container because they fit more efficiently on a shelf than round ones do.

Preparing for an Evening of Rain - Deer Control

 Every year I battle the deer for my landscape blooms, especially the Day Lilies.  At this point I am about three weeks into spraying with deer repellent just about every night.  And every night they eat a little something.  We hunt them and ping them with bee bees, and I set trip hazards all over, but they still plague me every night.  Last year I began simply covering the Hosta with squares of bird netting.  This is easy and effective.  I just have to trim the bloom stems when they lift the netting too high to be effective.  This year I decided to try it on the Day Lilies too.  You can't even really see the net, and it also protects the coneflowers and other deer favorites.

You can see it a little better here because I did not cut it, simply laid the roll of triple layer on top for now.

The problem is that the buds are always trying to poke through the net, but it greatly reduces my time and money spraying.  I am looking into adding some inexpensive bamboo hoops next year to alleviate this problem.  In the mean time, it isn't a big deal to go around each day and give them a lift.  As with any system you have to work the kinks out.

So with an evening of rain on our doorstep, and no chance to refresh the deer repellent before bed time, I am glad that I have some barriers set up and I hope that the deer are not out feeding in the rain.

One thing I worry about is my Dahlias.  They are not as yummy as Day Lily buds or Hosta leaves, so it doesn't take as much work to keep the deer off under normal circumstances.  They taste them now and then, usually the fresh young growing tips, which is not any worse to the plant than pinching it back to form a bushier plant.  But as I was going around the garden prepping for the storm, I thought about how angry I would be if the first Dahlia bloom of the season were the one overnight casualty.

So I used a method that seed savers use to isolate blooms and avoid cross pollination:  I bagged it.

Before I was done my one Dahlia bed looked like a garden of lollipops.

I also planted some Marigolds I seeded late, protected them with upturned wire waste baskets and Slug Bait.  While I was working, the mystery of who lives in the hole in the Dahlia bed was solved...

Hello Mr. Toad

Thank you for eating the slugs

Leaf Mulch

 

Yesterday when I was planting the second batch of cucumber plants I was struck by just how nice the soil under the thick leaf mulch is.  Not a weed in sight, moist and still aerated.

As compared to simply adding compost on top which allowed weeds to grow, not to mention all those volunteers.  

I took a better look at them and they are beginning to distinguish themselves.  I have two cucumber plants and the rest are cantaloupes.  Last year I grew only Napoli cantaloupes so all of the seeds in the compost would be from that.  It is an F1 hybrid which will not breed true so there is no telling what I might get.

See the larger jagged leaf?  It has a rougher surface indicative of cucumber.

After planting the cucumbers, I got the old leaf chopper out and sucked up any stray leaf mulch that had escaped and collected in the corners and along the sides of beds.  I dumped this under the zucchini plant.  I feel that leaf mulch helps reduce squash vine borers because the stems do not come into direct contact with the soil.

Vegetable Garden Progress Post HeatWave

 We are reaching the end of our heat wave.  Yesterday around noon the garden thermometer in the shade read 94F.  Then we got the third thunderstorm of the week which was less than a quarter inch, but gave everything a good soaking and delivered nitrogen as only a summer thunderstorm can.  All of the plants are thriving and looking as good as they ever have.  I think the peas, tomatoes and peppers are the best I've ever grown.

Penelope Peas filling out and still blooming like crazy

First planting of Bristol Cucumbers with second planting ready to go in today
Celery on the end.

Pole Beans. Monte Gusto and Seychelles.  Second seeding coming up in the middle of the bed.
I direct sowed Marigolds along each side.  I can't wait for them to fill in and shade out the Purslane weeds which are hard to keep up with in this wonderful growing weather.

Dwarf Tomatoes with Nasturtium along the side.
The thick sturdiness of these tomato stems is amazing.  We'll see how they produce but I am super impressed with the plant structure and growing habit

Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage
The Belstar Broccoli is just about ready to pick.  I don't want to miss its peak and have it bolt in this heat

Indeterminate tomatoes with bell peppers along the side
The Florida Weave support is working well.  Only the bottom two strings are woven.  The third one up needs to be properly woven in today and the plants are just now reaching the fourth string..

Store bought Bell Peppers setting lots of fruit.
I supported them with short bamboo

Havasu Hot Peppers

Below are the Havasu Hot Peppers from June 29 2023.  This year's plants are twice as tall, and covered in little peppers.  The only difference is that this year I added Kelp Meal.  

2023 Peppers

Sweet Potatoes and Herb Bed

Dill Bed, Sweet Potatoes and Carrots

Volunteer Whatsits
These came up from the compost.  It looks like a mixture of cantaloupe and cucumber.  Whatever it is, I am ignoring it.  I haven't watered or fertilized at all.  I thought it might be interesting to see what they are.  They can do what they want unless they become a problem and need to be pulled out.  Sometimes the best production comes from volunteers.

Last Year's Parnsips
These flowers are the most popular thing in the garden right now and every day they are covered in pollinators.

Perhaps I can collect some seed from them

The Hydrangea Bush covered in blooms

So far it has been a wonderful growing year.  Everything is basically on track with past years. (Last Year same time for example)   The Havasu Peppers are way ahead, and the Carrots are behind.  The Pole Beans are also a little behind last year because they had to struggle with very hot dry weather the week they were seeded and many of the first leaves scorched.

I stuck with my decision not to grow sweet corn.  I miss its presence in the garden but I sure don't miss watering it.  

Poison Ivy Progress

 No more berries from these guys.

Purple Clematis

This is the prettiest thing in the garden this week. It is the third place I’ve had it planted and its third year in this location. This is in the evening light.

Like a Heat Wave

 

Nice forecast for June.  We may get a pop up thunderstorm now and then which we really need because it is so dry again.  And with all of the gravel the vegetable garden is up to 10 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature and holds heat over night.  That is very useful during cool spells, but during a heat wave it can be extreme.  

So I broke out the shade cloths.  I usually use these in spring when I am putting out tender transplants.  I know the peas and even the tomatoes could use a break during the hottest part of the day. Especially because they are all flowering now and tomatoes do not set fruit in temperatures exceeding 90F.  I also hope this will conserve some much needed water lost through transpiration as the temperatures heat up.

This lowered the temperature about four degrees.

WE are ready for the heat.  I hope this is not the trend for the whole summer.

Now I'm off to give everything a good soaking to prepare for the day.

**Footnote:  This afternoon cooked up a good summer thunderstorm.  We got half an inch of rain that topped off the rain water tank and dropped the temperature 20 degrees