June gardens

[Faith-manor]

We have recently harvested our first broccoli. I have learned a lot! I didn't have the right fertilizer for them, and didn't fertilize enough so the crowns are small maybe 2" at most 3" in diameter. We have finally gotten some heat, which is causing the tomatoes to begin to act like they want to live, and that is causing some, not all, of the crowns to loosen up, and a bud here or there to begin opening. I know if we don't harvest them, they will bolt. So we ate our first garden produced broccoli, a serving a piece. So yummy! I have plans for how to improve the beds for them next year. But I also am going to get them in the ground sooner, and Mark built a frame and covered with heavy dity, clear plastic sheeting for the largest broccoli bed so we can have them in the ground 3 weeks before the end of frost season, and keep them safe.

We harvest snow peas just about every other day, usually about five a piece, and eat them on salads. These plants are so beautiful, and they make me very happy. Mark is planning on a bed three times the size of what we have them in now (a raised bed planter with a shelf underneath that is about 28" wide, 24" wide, and 12" deep.) We are going to triple production and have it planted half to snow peas for salads and stir fry, and half to sugar peas for steaming or freezing for winter soups. I have no idea how many we will get from that space.

We also harvested our second radish and our first carrot. Now the carrot was not actually ready. I was working in the carrot bed, and found two carrot plants where I had not properly thinned, and so all I was going to get was two, teeny carrots unless I sacrificed one of them. So I gently pulled one. It was this little 1" white/purple carrot, recognizable as a carrot, but we are talking maybe a mm wide. Itty bitty. Mark ate it. His response, "Tastes like a carrot. These things are going to be yummy someday." 😂

I have decided not to pinch anymore blossoms off the cucumber plants. I think they are just big enough now to support fruiting. Hopefully I am not wrong. The celery looks great. Really great. Happy. I consulted my gardening book to see when I can harvest it, and hoped it would be soon. Bwahahahahaha! Nope. End of August, early September for this zone. Hilarious. Mark bought the celery transplants. It was not a crop I had researched at all, and have NOT done a darn thing to baby. My two best crops, the peas and celery, are the two things that had not been on my horizon and I knew less than nothing about! The universe has a rich sense of humor.

The bell peppers have finally grown. Phew. The chili peppers never did. And they are blossoming like crazy, but I figure there just is no point in continuing to pinch blossoms of them. Eggplant look great. No signs of blossom, but definitely growing and filling out nicely, finally.

Scallions sprouted, and are growing. Not quite tall enough to thin yet, but getting there. I suspect that some of the blossoms on the tomato plants, which have grown a lot recently, will turn into baby tomatoes this week now that heat has arrived. 

I am going to have a LOT of basil. A ton. Dehydrating it turned out to be crazy. 48 hrs, and it is strawberry season and I need to dry strawberries for the grandboys. So I have decided to harvest as needed, and fill half pint jelly jars (I have about 36 of these things and never use them) with leaves, and stack them in the freezer. Since I cook my own pasta and pizza sauce, I think it will work to thaw leaves and toss them in the pan to wilt just like fresh when I am carmelizing onions and garlic. Have any of you ever done that? What about oregano? I also need to do a harvest of that.

 

[SHP]

We have more flowers! I am marking the ones I will be moving in the fall. I am planning to start spraying the bindweed next week. I will also be spraying the weed area that is a thin strip between us and the neighbor and planting irises that we will be digging up from another friend's. 

[popmom]

On 6/18/2023 at 10:50 AM, Faith-manor said:

We have recently harvested our first broccoli. I have learned a lot! I didn't have the right fertilizer for them, and didn't fertilize enough so the crowns are small maybe 2" at most 3" in diameter. We have finally gotten some heat, which is causing the tomatoes to begin to act like they want to live, and that is causing some, not all, of the crowns to loosen up, and a bud here or there to begin opening. I know if we don't harvest them, they will bolt. So we ate our first garden produced broccoli, a serving a piece. So yummy! I have plans for how to improve the beds for them next year. But I also am going to get them in the ground sooner, and Mark built a frame and covered with heavy dity, clear plastic sheeting for the largest broccoli bed so we can have them in the ground 3 weeks before the end of frost season, and keep them safe.

We harvest snow peas just about every other day, usually about five a piece, and eat them on salads. These plants are so beautiful, and they make me very happy. Mark is planning on a bed three times the size of what we have them in now (a raised bed planter with a shelf underneath that is about 28" wide, 24" wide, and 12" deep.) We are going to triple production and have it planted half to snow peas for salads and stir fry, and half to sugar peas for steaming or freezing for winter soups. I have no idea how many we will get from that space.

We also harvested our second radish and our first carrot. Now the carrot was not actually ready. I was working in the carrot bed, and found two carrot plants where I had not properly thinned, and so all I was going to get was two, teeny carrots unless I sacrificed one of them. So I gently pulled one. It was this little 1" white/purple carrot, recognizable as a carrot, but we are talking maybe a mm wide. Itty bitty. Mark ate it. His response, "Tastes like a carrot. These things are going to be yummy someday." 😂

I have decided not to pinch anymore blossoms off the cucumber plants. I think they are just big enough now to support fruiting. Hopefully I am not wrong. The celery looks great. Really great. Happy. I consulted my gardening book to see when I can harvest it, and hoped it would be soon. Bwahahahahaha! Nope. End of August, early September for this zone. Hilarious. Mark bought the celery transplants. It was not a crop I had researched at all, and have NOT done a darn thing to baby. My two best crops, the peas and celery, are the two things that had not been on my horizon and I knew less than nothing about! The universe has a rich sense of humor.

The bell peppers have finally grown. Phew. The chili peppers never did. And they are blossoming like crazy, but I figure there just is no point in continuing to pinch blossoms of them. Eggplant look great. No signs of blossom, but definitely growing and filling out nicely, finally.

Scallions sprouted, and are growing. Not quite tall enough to thin yet, but getting there. I suspect that some of the blossoms on the tomato plants, which have grown a lot recently, will turn into baby tomatoes this week now that heat has arrived. 

I am going to have a LOT of basil. A ton. Dehydrating it turned out to be crazy. 48 hrs, and it is strawberry season and I need to dry strawberries for the grandboys. So I have decided to harvest as needed, and fill half pint jelly jars (I have about 36 of these things and never use them) with leaves, and stack them in the freezer. Since I cook my own pasta and pizza sauce, I think it will work to thaw leaves and toss them in the pan to wilt just like fresh when I am carmelizing onions and garlic. Have any of you ever done that? What about oregano? I also need to do a harvest of that.

 

Interested in your broccoli experience. I am growing exactly one broccoli plant in my hydroponics set up. I don't expect much, but it's a fun experiment. Much too hot here to try outdoors.

I'm a little envious of your mild, cool summer climate--that you can grow so many cool weather crops. Those are some of the most nutritious. All the greens and peas and root veggies. I'm still trying to figure out the timing for those things here. 

It's weird. I grew cabbage in San Antonio. I guess it was beginner's luck. I got big beautiful heads of cabbage. I've tried to grow it several times here in central Alabama with zero luck. San Antonio is hot. Even winter is hot there. I don't get it.

I have had 3 good sized ripe tomatoes. That has been nice. Pretty decent tasting, too. They are Better Boy hybrids. I am most excited about the heirlooms coming along. My Amish paste are doing really well. I have a good many small greens on those plants. My heirloom oxhearts have some rather large green tomatoes. I am watching them very closely for signs of ripening. 

I'm getting some pole beans--enough for my family but not enough to can or freeze. I do have some bush beans planted, but they're still small. 

Okra is still small. This must be a bad year for Clemson Spineless. I am not the only one who has had terrible germination rates. I'm about to sow a different variety-Alabama Red and maybe a dwarf variety. I only have 17 Clemson Spineless growing. That's not enough for a family of four. I need about double that. 

Edited June 20, 2023 by popmom

[cjzimmer1]

6 hours ago, popmom said:

Okra is still small. This must be a bad year for Clemson Spineless. I am not the only one who has had terrible germination rates. I'm about to sow a different variety-Alabama Red and maybe a dwarf variety. I only have 17 Clemson Spineless growing. That's not enough for a family of four. I need about double that. 

Having the same issue with Okra here.  Failed to germinate well, grew impossibly slow in the greenhouse, so many damped off and the rest just sat there stunted.  Once I got them outside, they grew a bit more and now are sitting there again.  Hoping it's due to lots of root growth that I can't see but time will tell.

[fairfarmhand]

6 hours ago, popmom said:

 

I

Okra is still small. This must be a bad year for Clemson Spineless. I am not the only one who has had terrible germination rates. I'm about to sow a different variety-Alabama Red and maybe a dwarf variety. I only have 17 Clemson Spineless growing. That's not enough for a family of four. I need about double that. 

I’m in middle tn and I had a hard time getting my okra to sprout too! Finally got most of a row going but they’re all different sizes.

[Faith-manor]

6 hours ago, popmom said:

Interested in your broccoli experience. I am growing exactly one broccoli plant in my hydroponics set up. I don't expect much, but it's a fun experiment. Much too hot here to try outdoors.

I'm a little envious of your mild, cool summer climate--that you can grow so many cool weather crops. Those are some of the most nutritious. All the greens and peas and root veggies. I'm still trying to figure out the timing for those things here. 

 

I am still figuring out th cool weather crop thing. My broccoli got into the ground WAY too late so the only reason I am harvesting anything big enough to eat is that we had a very weird, unseasonably cool late May and early June. Normally, by June 1 we are using consistently 75° days, at least in years past. Schools let out soon after because most of local districts do not have air conditioning so once it is 80 out, Michigander kids who are so used to long winter, are feeling pretty hot when cooped up inside. I had forgotten that my grandparents would plant broccoli the 2nd week of April, and then cover it every single night for weeks in case of a surprise frost.

We had two May frosts. One was while we were gone. My mom came down, found a tarp, and covered my tomatoes and peppers. She didn't know where we kept the other tarps and covers. So I lost the green bean plants that were already up and doing nicely. I seeded again, and now have 20 young plants. The peas did not care one little bit about that frost. I think they very much do not like this week though. They have been so pretty, green, growing, producing, very happy plants. They really are a beautiful botanical. But now we have this 80+° weather and despite being nicely watered at night since we aren't getting rain, and despite being off to the side where they are not in the blazing sun, their leaves on the bottom are turning brown and curling. It makes me so sad. I have those four little plants in this pretty planter box with a shelf that Mark picked up on clearance sale and put together. It is made of cedar and has a natural, varnish/finish. I put some very decorative looking branches in them for the peas to climb on, and it has been fun watching their tendrils choose which way to go. It is one of those little stunning edible landscape kind of set ups, and now I fear this will be the last week we get any pea pods for our salads because they really do not like the change in weather. 😥 I like them so well that I am trying to track down seeds - these were transplants from a local nursery - so I can sow them again in August and maybe a have a few weeks of fall harvest before it gets too cold.

Next year the broccoli and peas are going in April 15. Mark loves them so much he committed to making hoop houses for them so we can keep them happy if we get nasty weather. I want to try my hand at some salad greens, buttercrunch and romaine (I don't like romaine but he just loves it),  maybe even some spinach. I thought that since these are cool weather, maybe so could harvest them in late May and early June, then pull all the plants and sow green beans in part of the beds, carrots in the other part, and then in August, start again with cool weather crops. I have NO ideas what I am doing, but I figure since seeds are not expensive that if I do not buy transplants, I am not out much for playing mad botanist! 😂

I am so disgusted with the tomatoes, and this is an ongoing battle year after year with everything except cherry tomatoes, that I am not going to devote a 3 ftx16ft bed to the jerks next year. Instead, I am just putting in the cherry tomatoes to dehydrate, trying other things with that space, and ordering a couple of bushels of paste tomatoes from my favorite farmer. I am picking up strawberries from him today, and he said we would discuss tomatoes and whine about them together. Of course, he has a greenhouse for starting his plants, and long hoophouses for his many rows of tomatoes, so he does just fine. He has the science down. But he says they are still such a finicky plant for Michigan that he spends a lot of his time shaking his head at them, meanwhile all his other veggies flourish without much babying. So we are going to smack talk tomato plants this morning.

Oops, speaking of that. I need to finish my coffee and get in the car or I will be late for my strawberries and mutual plant bashing session!

[Sneezyone]

14 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I am still figuring out th cool weather crop thing. My broccoli got into the ground WAY too late so the only reason I am harvesting anything big enough to eat is that we had a very weird, unseasonably cool late May and early June. Normally, by June 1 we are using consistently 75° days, at least in years past. Schools let out soon after because most of local districts do not have air conditioning so once it is 80 out, Michigander kids who are so used to long winter, are feeling pretty hot when cooped up inside. I had forgotten that my grandparents would plant broccoli the 2nd week of April, and then cover it every single night for weeks in case of a surprise frost.

We had two May frosts. One was while we were gone. My mom came down, found a tarp, and covered my tomatoes and peppers. She didn't know where we kept the other tarps and covers. So I lost the green bean plants that were already up and doing nicely. I seeded again, and now have 20 young plants. The peas did not care one little bit about that frost. I think they very much do not like this week though. They have been so pretty, green, growing, producing, very happy plants. They really are a beautiful botanical. But now we have this 80+° weather and despite being nicely watered at night since we aren't getting rain, and despite being off to the side where they are not in the blazing sun, their leaves on the bottom are turning brown and curling. It makes me so sad. I have those four little plants in this pretty planter box with a shelf that Mark picked up on clearance sale and put together. It is made of cedar and has a natural, varnish/finish. I put some very decorative looking branches in them for the peas to climb on, and it has been fun watching their tendrils choose which way to go. It is one of those little stunning edible landscape kind of set ups, and now I fear this will be the last week we get any pea pods for our salads because they really do not like the change in weather. 😥 I like them so well that I am trying to track down seeds - these were transplants from a local nursery - so I can sow them again in August and maybe a have a few weeks of fall harvest before it gets too cold.

Next year the broccoli and peas are going in April 15. Mark loves them so much he committed to making hoop houses for them so we can keep them happy if we get nasty weather. I want to try my hand at some salad greens, buttercrunch and romaine (I don't like romaine but he just loves it),  maybe even some spinach. I thought that since these are cool weather, maybe so could harvest them in late May and early June, then pull all the plants and sow green beans in part of the beds, carrots in the other part, and then in August, start again with cool weather crops. I have NO ideas what I am doing, but I figure since seeds are not expensive that if I do not buy transplants, I am not out much for playing mad botanist! 😂

I am so disgusted with the tomatoes, and this is an ongoing battle year after year with everything except cherry tomatoes, that I am not going to devote a 3 ftx16ft bed to the jerks next year. Instead, I am just putting in the cherry tomatoes to dehydrate, trying other things with that space, and ordering a couple of bushels of paste tomatoes from my favorite farmer. I am picking up strawberries from him today, and he said we would discuss tomatoes and whine about them together. Of course, he has a greenhouse for starting his plants, and long hoophouses for his many rows of tomatoes, so he does just fine. He has the science down. But he says they are still such a finicky plant for Michigan that he spends a lot of his time shaking his head at them, meanwhile all his other veggies flourish without much babying. So we are going to smack talk tomato plants this morning.

Oops, speaking of that. I need to finish my coffee and get in the car or I will be late for my strawberries and mutual plant bashing session!

Can we trade? I can’t grow grapes and brassicas thanks to heat and beetles. The hornworms are thankfully still at bay thanks to BT but the moths are present and BOLD. Sigh. My tomatoes are plentiful and plump and green…one good heat spell, that’s all I need. (Said in my best Navin Johnson voice).

[Faith-manor]

4 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

Can we trade? I can’t grow grapes and brassicas thanks to heat and beetles. The hornworms are thankfully still at bay thanks to BT but the moths are present and BOLD. Sigh. My tomatoes are plentiful and plump and green…one good heat spell, that’s all I need. (Said in my best Navin Johnson voice).

Where do you live? Next year, I grow your broccoli, grapes, and salad greens, you grow my stupid freaking tomatoes, and peppers, and we meet somewhere in the middle! 😁

[Sneezyone]

1 minute ago, Faith-manor said:

Where do you live? Next year, I grow your broccoli, grapes, and salad greens, you grow my stupid freaking tomatoes, and peppers, and we meet somewhere in the middle! 😁

Indeed!! In 7b, peppers and tomatoes and herbs THRIVE. My lettuce bolts too fast but I found the perfect cut-come again arugula so I might be stuck buying leaf lettuce and supplementing with my heartier, spicier greens. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere. 🤣

Edited June 21, 2023 by Sneezyone

[Faith-manor]

1 minute ago, Sneezyone said:

Indeed!! In 7b, peppers and tomatoes and herbs THRIVE.

I am in 4b. Road trip!!!! 😀

[SHP]

I have put in hours and hours and hours of research to find plants that fit our space, city limits on height, comon sense limits on root systems and are plants we actually like and want to live with. I have dedicated my spare time and income to making a beautiful garden sanctuary. It is unrecognizable from just 18 months ago and I am only about half way done. 

Then I look at the cesspool of weeds from near neighbors, weeds that are taller than the privacy fences, highly invasive noxious plants. And I nearly cry. 

[fairfarmhand]

We’ve had some seriously good rain here in the last week and I’m so thankful. I have one zucchini that will be ready in a few days. The green beans are blooming and I bet I’ll be able to pick next week. Tiny tomatoes are making. Tons of blueberries to be picked. And the corn. Y’all I just can’t describe to you all how much I enjoy watching corn grow. The zinnias and sunflower i edge the garden with are also growing and I bet I get a picking of cukes next week too. 
i went to tsc yesterday and found a whole table of annuals marked 75% off so I bought a bunch for my flower beds near the house. Also my glads are doing well.

[Sneezyone]

I cannot believe how mild this summer has been so far. This time last year, I had no peas to speak of. This year, not so much. I'm giving peas and zucchini away. My Ronde de Nice are bigger, typically 6" across, before we're ready to eat 'em. My tomatoes are still green as all get out. I've only harvested two German Johnsons (tasty but not my favorite varietal; won't grow them again). I feel like I'm racing the clock, spraying between every rainstorm with BT to keep the hornworms at bay.

Meanwhile, I've determined that coneflowers are less resilient and more troublesome than I was led to believe. Aster yellows have infected some of my purple magnus in the front yard so I've been yanking out plants in the affected area in between deluges. Sigh. I intend to interplant plant mint or thyme (which supposedly discourage leafhoppers) in the residual spaces.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Sneezyone

[Faith-manor]

We finally got some rain. We really need more, but we do have a chance of some this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

I am harvesting a ton of basil. The basil is just insanely happy. They make me feel like a successful gardener! I am going to freeze little snack size battles of my harvest today. Dehydrating it has been taking WAY too long. I am going to have plenty of basil to share with my family, and this makes me happy. 

I have some more broccoli to cut, and then I think it is done. It has become so hot out all of a sudden that it is not trying to form any side shoots for small buds. I have numerous green cherry tomatoes, and three beefsteak tomatoes growing nicely. Once they are the proper size, Mark will make green fried tomatoes. We have just one beef steak plant. But out of the eight Amish Paste plants? Two, just two baby tomatoes on one plant. That's it. Blossoms forming all the time, no tomatoes developing. I have seen bumblebees on the plants so I don't think pollinators are the issue. On Wednesday, they were fertilized with an organic plant food specifically for tomatoes. They are literally just being twits about it. Nothing more. 

I thinned the baby scallions. It was sad. My heart did not like pulling little plants. I hate thinning. I hope they do well. It is just one row as an experiment in the same mini raised bed as the peas. I will have about 20 of them if they all grow nicely. But my great unhappiness is that the blossoms on my pea plants are wilting. The pea plants themselves definitely look a little stressed. They don't like the 80-85 (26.6-29.4C) degree weather we have been experiencing. This coming week it is supposed to be only in the mid-70's (21.1C) and does an into the 60's (15.5C) at night so maybe they will perk up?? Probably not. I don't know. And I am sure my stupid Amish pastes will use the drop in temperature to curl up into fetal positions, suck their thumbs, and threaten to die because that is the kind of jerk plants they are.

Sneezy, I read that diatomaceous earth works on horn worms because it dehydrates them to death, but the stuff doesn't hurt the plants. Maybe you could try that.

I am contemplating pulling the broccoli plants now that the heat has come. It makes me sad. But I also think I could seed more carrots and radishes in that bed which seems like a good idea, maybe even another row of scallions. What would all of you do?

[Serenade]

46 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

 

I thinned the baby scallions. It was sad. My heart did not like pulling little plants. I hate thinning.

I am contemplating pulling the broccoli plants now that the heat has come. It makes me sad. But I also think I could seed more carrots and radishes in that bed which seems like a good idea, maybe even another row of scallions. What would all of you do?

I hate thinning, too.  It is so painful.  Sometimes when I thin, if the roots come up intact, I stick the thinned plants in the ground and try to make another plant.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Depends on the type of plant, I guess.  I have a lot of luck with chard and lettuces.  It would probably work with scallions, although it would probably be more effort than it would be worth. 

I'm also trying to be better about pulling out plants that are "done", and replanting with something else. It's amazing how fast that some plants decline -- I was picking peas a week ago, and we left on vacation for a week, and when we came back, the plants were so done.  There are a few peas still on the plant, but since they are past their prime for fresh eating, I think I'm going to let them dry on the plant for another day or two, and then I'll try to pick and dry them for soup.  Maybe...  Anyhow, when I pull up the peas, I'm either going to put a few straggler tomato plants in, or maybe try some cukes or quick growing summer squash.  Where I live in central NC, I should still have at least 3 months of non-freezing weather.

[Faith-manor]

2 hours ago, Serenade said:

I hate thinning, too.  It is so painful.  Sometimes when I thin, if the roots come up intact, I stick the thinned plants in the ground and try to make another plant.  Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Depends on the type of plant, I guess.  I have a lot of luck with chard and lettuces.  It would probably work with scallions, although it would probably be more effort than it would be worth. 

I'm also trying to be better about pulling out plants that are "done", and replanting with something else. It's amazing how fast that some plants decline -- I was picking peas a week ago, and we left on vacation for a week, and when we came back, the plants were so done.  There are a few peas still on the plant, but since they are past their prime for fresh eating, I think I'm going to let them dry on the plant for another day or two, and then I'll try to pick and dry them for soup.  Maybe...  Anyhow, when I pull up the peas, I'm either going to put a few straggler tomato plants in, or maybe try some cukes or quick growing summer squash.  Where I live in central NC, I should still have at least 3 months of non-freezing weather.

I have three months yet as well IF I cover plants starting in Mid-September. For full sun, need really warm soil plants, they are very much done after Labor Day. Mark is so happy with the garden, and loving eating fresh picked things, that he has been making some hoop houses, and I have 12, 5 gallon buckets so I can cover a lot of plants this fall which is making me feel like I should be considering a 2nd harvest/planting of peas, broccoli, green beans, carrots, and radishes. It is really hard for me to consider pulling those broccoli plants right now, but I truly do not think they are going to produce anything worth harvesting between now and fall. So this part of me keeps nagging to get them out, and then devote the bed to something that will develop. But they are so healthy and pretty looking!

I have got to go make a trellis out of sticks for that cucumber. Henrietta has decided to take over the universe! She is like a veggie tale Rumor Weed.

[SHP]

My dailies have started blooming and I have a new Azalea bush that is just incredible to see. I found some Peruvian Lilies finally, I have been looking for months. They are not my preferred color but I am thrilled with how fast they are growing and filling in space. 

Does anyone go on garden tours to get ideas? I have started and wow, it is amazing what some people have done

[popmom]

16 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I have three months yet as well IF I cover plants starting in Mid-September. For full sun, need really warm soil plants, they are very much done after Labor Day. Mark is so happy with the garden, and loving eating fresh picked things, that he has been making some hoop houses, and I have 12, 5 gallon buckets so I can cover a lot of plants this fall which is making me feel like I should be considering a 2nd harvest/planting of peas, broccoli, green beans, carrots, and radishes. It is really hard for me to consider pulling those broccoli plants right now, but I truly do not think they are going to produce anything worth harvesting between now and fall. So this part of me keeps nagging to get them out, and then devote the bed to something that will develop. But they are so healthy and pretty looking!

I have got to go make a trellis out of sticks for that cucumber. Henrietta has decided to take over the universe! She is like a veggie tale Rumor Weed.

I wouldn’t pull the broccoli. If I could grow beautiful cabbage in San Antonio, I would think you could grow broccoli year round where you are! Consider it an experiment. 🙂 

I definitely don’t go by my state’s recommendations on planting anymore. I mean—generally, yes, but I take a lot of liberties that—sometimes—pay off very well. 

[popmom]

16 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I have three months yet as well IF I cover plants starting in Mid-September. For full sun, need really warm soil plants, they are very much done after Labor Day. Mark is so happy with the garden, and loving eating fresh picked things, that he has been making some hoop houses, and I have 12, 5 gallon buckets so I can cover a lot of plants this fall which is making me feel like I should be considering a 2nd harvest/planting of peas, broccoli, green beans, carrots, and radishes. It is really hard for me to consider pulling those broccoli plants right now, but I truly do not think they are going to produce anything worth harvesting between now and fall. So this part of me keeps nagging to get them out, and then devote the bed to something that will develop. But they are so healthy and pretty looking!

I have got to go make a trellis out of sticks for that cucumber. Henrietta has decided to take over the universe! She is like a veggie tale Rumor Weed.

Quoting you again because…

it’s interesting to me your temperatures vs daylight hours or day length. You should have more day light than me in September. Is that correct? I don’t know. I’m wondering about that. I never really thought about it until I started looking into growing onions. 

[popmom]

17 minutes ago, SHP said:

My dailies have started blooming and I have a new Azalea bush that is just incredible to see. I found some Peruvian Lilies finally, I have been looking for months. They are not my preferred color but I am thrilled with how fast they are growing and filling in space. 

Does anyone go on garden tours to get ideas? I have started and wow, it is amazing what some people have done

I actually am planning on visiting my botanical gardens again soon. And also when I visit Denver in July—I’m hoping to see their botanical garden—for inspiration. But mostly to “bathe” in the beauty. 🙂

[Faith-manor]

9 hours ago, popmom said:

Quoting you again because…

it’s interesting to me your temperatures vs daylight hours or day length. You should have more day light than me in September. Is that correct? I don’t know. I’m wondering about that. I never really thought about it until I started looking into growing onions. 

The issue isn't daylight hours, but the sheer amount of fully cloudy skies and rain. We don't get that many sunny days. It is a kind of middle of the Great Lakes region phenomenon than related to latitude. Same latitude in say North Dakota will have far more sunny days/days without full cloud cover. We lose 11-12 degrees on average from Sept 1- Sept 20, a 10% drop in percentage of available sunshine, often end up with waterlogged plants from numerous drenching storms, in addition to losing 1.5 hrs of sunlight per day from beginning to end. It tends to happen rapidly. As a general rule, we can count on pleasant weather for Labor Day weekend, and then suddenly just start going down hill rapidly. It is better on the west side of the state than where I am. Our local climate has some oddities due to several unique factors. Our county will have cool weather crops that will still do okay so long as the plants matured back in August while the sunlight was great and the percentage of available sunlight was decent. So I could, if I cover at night, have a second round of broccoli, peas, and salad greens. (I have never done this, but I know it is possible, and am going to try it for the first time.) But often the tomato plants go from healthy and producing to falling over and dropping leaves in less than two weeks. We tend to bring tomatoes inside to ripen.

So technically, we are zone 4B with some places even assuming insulation from Lake Huron makes us Zone 5. But, master gardeners locally often say we should plan like we are 4A. The wild card is spring. Oh. Good. Grief. The usual, the predicted is last hard freeze date of April 30, and last frost May 15. Bwahahahahahaha. 😂😂😂😂

This year it was 85-87 (29.4-30) the entire second week of April. Then more temperate but flooding for days and days and days of torrential downpours which are not normal, then hot, 75-80 everyday for the first week of May, followed by a frost. Then we had a HARD freeze around May 20. Climate change might make me nuts! Mark is loving the garden veggies and says he wants a small greenhouse so he can just climate control it, and wants to make it solar powered so he can even cool it if necessary. "Honey, how hot are you expecting this part of Michigan to get? Plants are not human Michiganders who think they are going to melt and die if it is 90°/32.2C.They do not need A/C and unless you are trying to grow tomatoes in the dead of winter, I don't think it needs heating either!" 

[Faith-manor]

9 hours ago, popmom said:

I wouldn’t pull the broccoli. If I could grow beautiful cabbage in San Antonio, I would think you could grow broccoli year round where you are! Consider it an experiment. 🙂 

I definitely don’t go by my state’s recommendations on planting anymore. I mean—generally, yes, but I take a lot of liberties that—sometimes—pay off very well. 

Well, I ended up pulling them because Mark has gone bananas for the homegrown radishes, and wants to use the bed for that. I got 12 small, beautiful crowns off them plus a bunch of small buds, all of which were pretty nice. So I am glad for the crop. I want to figure out what to do next year, fertilizer wise, to get larger crowns. These were all 3-4" across. The first two I harvested were 4-5". 

So Mark won, and that bed has some new rows of radish seeds, and carrots too. 

[kbutton]

On 6/4/2023 at 9:09 PM, Rosie_0801 said:

I bought two asparagus crowns. They sound like such finicky things I don't know if I have the charm to make them comfortable, but I have wanted some for so long I am going to try!

We haven't found them finicky, but we have a different climate. 

We had a TONS of asparagus last month, and it was delicious. DH planted more plants than I thought might be wise at the time, but I am so glad he did.

We are getting impressive amounts of red raspberries (we'll have black raspberries later). The plants themselves are pushing out babies all over the place, so the patch keeps getting bigger. 

Most of our garden was planted a bit late (some on purpose--we find that if we plant beans just a little later than typical, we get fewer beetles), but things are coming along. 

@Sneezyone, we have a tiny serviceberry, but I don't think we'll get fruit anytime soon. Thanks for the description of the berries! They sound amazing!

[popmom]

12 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

 

Mark is loving the garden veggies and says he wants a small greenhouse so he can just climate control it, and wants to make it solar powered so he can even cool it if necessary. "Honey, how hot are you expecting this part of Michigan to get? Plants are not human Michiganders who think they are going to melt and die if it is 90°/32.2C.They do not need A/C and unless you are trying to grow tomatoes in the dead of winter, I don't think it needs heating either!" 

This is hilarious! Heat, maybe, but never AC lol. Just open a vent. Mark and I could talk all day about greenhouses, I'm sure. That's something I could geek out over. I'd add some really good plant lights to extend your daylight hours and overwinter tomatoes or peppers or something. I'm mean as long as you've got the solar...Sounds like a fun experiment. 🙂

I didn't realize that part of the country got that much cloud cover. And it totally makes sense to me now that the daylight hours would drop off quickly in fall. It's more gradual here.

[popmom]

Today I went to move a random bush bean plant that is in a container. When I lifted it out of the drainage saucer, I found the cutest little Dekays brown snake! Very small guy. Bless his heart—we disturbed his nap. 😉 They are very beneficial to have around a garden. They’ll keep the slugs and bugs away. 🙂

Edited June 27, 2023 by popmom