June - Finally on Track for Summer

June is in full swing and the weather has stabilized, and although we have had some cooler weather, things are beginning to grow by leaps and bounds.  My Garden Sweet Peas, which I was beginning to be a little disappointed in, grew quite a bit and I think will rival last years results.  If they were on the normal pea trellis, at this point they would have reached the top.  They began to bloom the middle of last week and I have been keeping them watered to encourage this growth spurt.

the final planting of Penelope peas with the old lettuce seed used as ground cover

The first blossoms are always encouraging

Below is one of my large, self watering, containers of eggplants.  On Thursday afternoon the flea beetles arrived so I began using Neem Oil and so far the damage has been minimal.  The few beetles I find I remove.  I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but one of the plants is more pale than the others.  The center growth is not as dark purple, and the leaves are a lime green with no purple veining.  This puzzled me for a couple of days then I realized what happened.

I seeded the Eggplants in March the same time as my Cauliflower.  I used one pack of old seed which had a mixture of varieties (two of the varieties are Rosa Bianca and Beatrice, both lavender) and a new pack of seeds that was Barbarella (a deep purple but rounded fruit).  None of the old seeds came up, which wasn't a big deal, so I transplanted all of the Barbarella seedlings into pots and used the same seed tray for my tomato seeds.  Several weeks after I transplanted the tomato seeds, I realized that one of the "potato leafed' varieties looked an awful lot like an eggplant.  Well, apparently, one of those old seeds finally germinated and hitched a ride with the tomatoes and has now caught up with the Barbarella and is doing great.  I'm looking forward to seeing which variety it turns out to be.

Brussel's Sprouts
(some Cauliflower on one end, and Broccoli on the other)

I'm pretty impressed with the progress of all of my cole crops.  They are large, deep green, and growing fast.  The Brussels Sprouts are HUGE.  I ended up losing about a dozen Cauliflower transplants which I pulled out and replaced with eight Broccoli plants from the local nursery.  They are smaller but catching up. I'm also very happy with having kept the little green worms out so far.

Cauliflower

I thought for sure I was going to kill all of my tomato plants.  Every last one. There are three that now are beginning to look normal to me, and there have been days when I wouldn't have put even their chances very high.  They have not gotten tall, but are finally deepening in color and widening out into robust plants. I even picked up one nursery plant as insurance and planted one plant that I had completely snapped off in April (which therefore spent all of the rotten weather in May recovering under grow lights).  It is now tucked into the end of a raised bed which it will have to share with some other stuff.  Tomatoes are remarkably resilient when they are not pouting.  I have three more in the ground elsewhere but they are still pouting.

Black Brandywine

They are even beginning to bud.

Black Brandywine

I may move the tomato containers to the other side of the garden.  They are currently on the north side of fence posts where they get full morning and full evening sun, but diverted or dappled sun from about 11am to 3pm.  I think that is what saved them.  They were sunburning faster than they were acclimating for awhile.  Even though they were slowly hardened off, when the hot temperatures and clear days finally arrived (abruptly), they were mostly accustomed to clouds and coolness.  Now they are ready for full sun.

First Flower on the Barlow Jap

There is a lot going on in the Pole Bean bed.

In the center I have just transplanted pickling Cucumbers which I seeded in the cold frame.  I've had poor luck direct seeding cucumbers so I've stopped trying.  In the shade of the cucumbers I transplanted some of the direct seeded lettuce.  My older lettuce was sort of boring with mostly romaine lettuces so I grabbed some of the fancier varieties out of the crowd.  Any way you look at it, I have a lot of lettuce.

The Pole Beans have their first true leaves.  I have been filling in with more seeds because some seedlings did get snipped off.  No worries though.  I have enough seeds.

I transplanted my summer squash in and around the weed potatoes.  I seeded a couple more and plan to put at least one more Cue Ball plant where there is currently a nice bushy potato plant.  It never hurts to have some later plantings waiting in the wings.

The Summer Squash are under the wire cloches

I have thinned the first planting of Sweet Corn (Gotta Have It).  The germination rate was super so I had to snip off quite a few.  The second planting of a different variety ( SS3778R Hybrid) had poorer germination so I'm having to replant a dozen or so but again, I had leftover seeds so no problem.

Gotta Have It Sweet Corn

The Cabbages I got from the nursery transplanted well and are taking off.

Cabbages

The Lima Beans (Butterbeans) are out from under their protective cover.

Lima Beans

My Surecrop Strawberries are setting and looking pretty good for first year plants.  "They" say to pinch off the first year flowers to let the plants get established, but I've never done that.  I do discourage runners the first year.  I usually have more than enough berries anyway.  I just want a few for salads.  I can easily be over run with berries!

Other gardening activities:  I've gotten all of my herbs planted.  The Potatoes were put into grow-bags yesterday.  I have leftovers.  I'm thinking about ordering some more grow-bags, but I only want a few, not a dozen, and it looks like a lot of a dozen is the most cost effective.  I don't really want that many grow-bags hanging about.  Should I or shouldn't I?  Maybe I'll spend too much money on some pretty colored ones...

There are Okra seedlings hardening off.  Those will go in patio pots.  I've been through the landscaping a second time weeding and fertilizing.  A few things still need to be done with the perennials.   We got the front porch washed and opened up yesterday.   I'm ready to sit in the shade and watch things grow.

1st of June

Its the first of June and still chilly out.  But the sky is blue and the sun is shining and its not snowing.  So we'll take it.  In the garden I've been making use of frost covers over night because it is still getting down into the 40s and tomatoes don't like that.

My Cauliflowers (and Brussels Sprouts and fill-in Broccoli) are doing great.  For comparison, here is a picture of my crop last May 28th.  Photo Link  This weekend I weeded them well and fertilized them for the first time and buttoned them back up.

So far I am happy with the mesh mostly because it does not float and therefore is easier to keep secured.  I have only the top clips fastened, and the ends gathered and clipped but not pinned down. 

 

The beans have begun to sprout.  These are the Lima Beans below. The very first sprout broke off, and I couldn't really tell if it was just the weight of the large cotyledons or bird activity, so I've covered them until they develop their first leaves.  Birds just love bean sprouts.  They can't leave them alone.  I have enough extra seeds to fill in Pole Beans, but these are all of my Limas and I want to keep them all!

Lima Bean sprouts

I have these heavy plastic coated wire coat hangers that I cut the hooks out of and bent to form rafters to keep the row cover up off my sprouts.

It makes for a tidy little greenhouse.

Pole Beans and Lettuce

The Pole Beans are sprouting and the transplanted lettuce in the middle all survived and took root.  

The direct seeded lettuce I took them from is now thick enough to cut for micro-greens.

The first bed of Sweet Corn came up all at once.  I double planted so soon I will have to get down and snip off the smaller sprouts to keep from crowding the stronger ones.

The Cucumbers are sprouting in the cold frame and by next weekend should be ready to set out in the beds I have waiting for them.

My peas are back in the game.  The bed above was showing a couple of buds this morning so I expect that by the time I get home this evening they will have begun to flower.  But they haven't grown as well as I would have hoped because of the cold weather.  This is a photo of the same variety (Garden Sweet) last June 7th, over 4 feet tall.  I really don't expect them to double in size this week but we'll see.

All four of the Penelope Peas staged plantings are doing well.

The lettuce I direct seeded along the edge of the
bed to the left are now ready to harvest as micro-greens.

The Barbarella Eggplants are doing the best of all.

The next door neighbor reports that the flea beetles have found her Eggplants, but so far they have not made it to my patio pots.

Below is my Summer Squash bed with my "weed potatoes".  These are sprouting from forgotten spuds from last year's harvest.  I always leave these, unkempt as they may look, because they produce really nice new potatoes which I can dig before the Summer Squash plants get too big. (Here is a photo of the same bed with potatoes and squash 06-14-2013)  Right now the summer squash are still in the cotyledon stage so it will be about 10 days before I even think of transplanting them into this bed.  This year the potatoes are going into grow bags.

And last but not least, the Carrots.  They are also a little sluggish, but starting to come in nicely now.  The container I seeded two weeks ago is going to catch up pretty quick.

Bed #1: Sweet Corn came up in 4 days with excellent germination rate

Bed #2: Pole Beans sprouting, transplanted Lettuce growing

Bed #3: Prepared for Cucumbers and Lettuce transplanted

Bed #4: Prepared for Cucumbers, Lettuce growing

Bed #5: Peas growing - Bush Beans later

Bed #6: Peas growing - Bush Beans later

Bed #7: Cauliflowers and Broccoli growing

Bed #8: Cauliflowers Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts growing

Bed #9: Peas growing - Buckwheat to follow

Bed #10: Sweet Corn seeded 05/30

Bed #11:Peas and Lettuce growing

Bed #12:Cabbages transplanted, Lima Beans sprouting

Bed #13: Strawberries blooming and sending out runners

Bed #14: Prepared for Summer Squash

Containers: Carrots, Tomatoes and Sweet Potatoes planted

Cold Frame: Cucumbers and Summer Squash sprouting

Basement: Herbs and Okra under grow lights

Potatoes chitting for Grow Bags

Herbs transplanted

May Progress

After a really nice start to an early spring, the month of May turned on us.  The first week of May the high temperatures were in the low 50s (that's like 10 degrees Celsius for you all in Canada/UK) with frost or freeze every night.  May 13th I woke up to 24 degrees in the garden (-4 C)!  My cold frame is usually good for about 10 degrees, which, if the nighttime temps are in the 40s, is more than adequate. But the first two weeks of May it was nowhere near suitable for tender vegetables.  My Tomato plants had already been potted up into gallon pots in the mild temperatures of April and were not prepared for the Polar Vortex.  They all survived with some minor frostbite on their older leaves but of course they did not grow at all.

The garden Peas, Carrots and Lettuce were snowed on many times and endured a lot of frost with no losses.  However, they too refused to grow until things were looking up.  This past weekend with rain and sun and heat they have doubled in size and you can almost sit and watch them grow.

My Cauliflowers, Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts were also out in this horrible weather, protected by floating row covers.  To me they did not look like they were making any progress either.  I did lose a couple to either frost or high winds, despite their being somewhat sheltered.  The winds still get in under and can twist off a weakened plant and we had a lot of all day high winds to contend with.  This past weekend I switched to a mesh cover, and I can see that most of the plants are comparable to this time last year. 

Most of the row covers available in the US are "garden fleece" and not an insect mesh.  It seems they were created for frost protection and now double as insect protection.  But I think we can do a little better for just insect protection if we try.  In the UK, they have a product called Enviromesh which is similar to polyester tulle fabric, but made of UV-stabilized polyethelene.  I have found only one retailer in the US that carries it and they are always out of stock.  So I found what looks like a very similar product to try instead.  The main downside is that it is heavier when wet, but on the plus side you can see your plants.  And your weeds :).  

Brussels Sprouts

I bought a pack of Castle Dome Broccoli to fill in the empty spots in the Cauliflower beds, and then I could not resist the Cabbages.  I'm in the mood for homemade cole slaw.  So I bought a pack of Red Acre and Golden Acre cabbages to share the same bed as the Fordhook Lima Beans.

Cabbages with a few Calendula seedlings left at the very edge.

I am using my frost frame and a scrap of summer weight floating row cover to protect them from the Cabbage Moths.  I have this set up so I can pick the whole cover off easily and set aside to check on my plants.  That's not something I can do with the large hoop system.

Cabbage and Lima Beans

Elsewhere in the garden, I have lettuce transplanted.  I have seeded cucumbers in the cold frame to go in this bed as well.

I have Carminat and Monte Gusto pole beans seeded and I'm looking forward to trying them.  Tucked in between the bean poles are a few Pickling Cucumbers since I need to make Dill pickles again this year.  Lettuce is planted in the shade of the cucumber frame.  These are seedlings I picked out of direct seeded Lettuce in one of the Pea beds.

Bean poles and cucumber trellis

After my frustrating experience with direct seeding cukes last year, all of my Cucumbers and Summer Squash are being seeded in the cold frame.  Here is a trick I learned on Facebook.  Sometimes I like to use plastic wrap to cover a seed tray and hold the moisture in.  But wet plastic wrap is miserable stuff.  So instead, I'm using sheets of bubble wrap.  It is easier to handle, and clips easily to the sides of pots with clothes pins.

Cucumber and Summer Squash seed trays

To warm the soil enough for the Sweet Corn to germinate, I put polycarbonate greenhouse panels on the bed for a few days.  This bed has been seeded now and the panels moved to the next bed. 

A couple of times in the past I have tried Sweet Potatoes with moderate success.  I am in the mood again so I've put some Sweet Potato slips into grow bags.  Since the seed companies always send me more slips than I could ever want, I have also put them into the three whiskey barrels that I usually plant with annuals.  Why waste that large volume of good soil?  They sure don't look like much at first, but is a few weeks ought to be off and running.

a Grow Bag of Sweet Potatoes

Due to last year's success with tomatoes in large containers, my best tomato plants are in containers again this year.  I do not can tomatoes, and only use them for sandwiches so I don't need a lot of plants.  I used to plant dozens of plants every year (hence the name of this blog) but I have learnt my lesson!  I may have a few extra transplants that are worth saving (despite the abuse they've taken) and those will get tucked in with the Dill along the Strawberries.  The three best plants, two Barlow Japs and one Black Brandywine, look very good and are beginning to grow again already.

This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend.  It is as early as it can possibly be this year so gardeners who use it as their benchmark for planting must keep that in mind.  We really have one more week to go to get everything in on time.  But this week is going to be gorgeous growing weather.  

This past weekend was a mixed bag.  Friday started out cloudy and I made my sight-seeing visit of the big Amish greenhouse in the morning.  That was a disappointment.  I did get the hard to find items on my list, and they were good quality plants, but overall the place was picked over and everything looked like July leftovers.  Usually when I go in early to mid-May, everything is just at its peak and it is a pleasure just to be surrounded by it all.  This year everything is over grown and anemic looking.  This is probably because we got great weather with sunshine in late April and then endured two weeks of cold and clouds. 

Friday afternoon I dodged rain showers and got a few things done, but the weather was supposed to break late Saturday morning.  We went out to work, and the cloudy drizz turned to pretty steady rain showers.  We kept on going because once you're wet, you're wet.  One plus was that there was no breeze at all so I got my row covers changed out to the garden mesh without having to fight the wind.  It did take all day for them to dry though. The rain gave out around 2pm, and we were able to get cleaned up and enjoy a sunny late afternoon, knowing that we had accomplished a lot in spite of the weather.

Sunday all day was beautiful weather.  Mid-80s and sunny with high clouds and a light breeze. Again I got a lot done, mulching in the strawberry bed and moving some big planters around.   The lawn got mowed. I was able to get down in the soil and plant seeds without dealing with soggy soil.  By Monday afternoon we were in the middle of a heat wave.  Afternoon temperatures were 88 in the shade, and 93 in the garden.

The strawberries are blooming

As I knelt on the scorching walkway, hovering over damp, steaming mulch, I reached the end of my gardening rope.  It was time to go in and take a cool shower and put Memorial Day 2020 in the books.  Next weekend is again supposed to be sunny and clear, but 20 degrees cooler which will be welcomed.

Dinner Plate Dahlias mulched in
This is the last of the spring mulching!

I have made a final assessment of the Chilly Pear Tree.  Its going to live.  You can see a few leaf tips got burned by frost but not bad for several days of snow, high winds, and freezing temperatures.  When it arrived it did have a few tiny pears set but not surprisingly it dropped those mid-blizzard.  Maybe we'll have good luck with it next year.  It is grafted with Bartlett, Bosc, Seckel and Summercrisp pears.

The cold frame only moderates about 10 degrees of cold temperatures, but it magnifies hot temperatures.  On an 80 degree day, wide open, it will get to about 110 on the gravel.  As long as its open, that isn't the actual air temperature, but if you misjudge, you can cook things pretty quick.  So for this coming hot week the rest of my transplants have been moved to the east side of the garden shed where they get half a day of sun.  I have my eggplant babies transplanted into patio pots.  There are a dozen spare tomato plants, only one or two of them look tempting to save.  The rest are just average and won't be difficult to toss.  The other plants are herbs to be planted into the end of the large area where the pear tree is which I will get done some evening this week.  My husband keeps asking me if I'm done yet.  Once I get the herbs planted I can say "Yes.  For Now" and start round one of weeding and fertilizing.

Bed #1: Sweet Corn seeded 05/24

Bed #2: Pole Beans seeded 05/24, Lettuce transplanted

Bed #3: Prepared for Cucumbers and Lettuce

Bed #4: Prepared for Cucumbers, Lettuce growing

Bed #5: Peas growing (seeded 03/15 & 04/05) - Bush Beans later

Bed #6: Peas growing  (seeded 03/15 & 04/05)- Bush Beans later

Bed #7: Cauliflowers and Broccoli growing

Bed #8: Cauliflowers Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts growing

Bed #9: Peas growing (seeded 04/12) - Buckwheat to follow

Bed #10: Prepared for Sweet Corn

Bed #11:Peas (seeded 04/19) and Lettuce growing

Bed #12:Cabbages transplanted, Lima Beans seeded 05/24

Bed #13: Strawberries blooming

Bed #14: Waiting for Summer Squash

Containers: Carrots, Tomatoes and Sweet Potatoes planted

Cold Frame: Cucumbers and Summer Squash seeded

Basement: Herbs and Okra under grow lights

Potatoes chitting for Grow Bags