PNW: June 2013

All the planting charts for my area say to plant carrots now. ??? I thought carrots didn't like to grow in the heat? Planting them now will have them growing during the three hottest months of the year. Is that right?

I plant my carrots mid-Mar to mid-May, enough to last the year.

Whenever I've planted later than that, they never get full size before the first frost. As long I keep the MM moist, they handle the heat fine.

Are you predicting that we're going to have a hot summer?!

boffer wrote:
Mostly cool crop boxes

Boffer, your garden is outstanding! Or should I say FOR standing.
Do you have instructions or plans on how to make those raised beds?

CC

boffer wrote:

gwennifer wrote:

That's a good picture for a 'create a caption' contest.

I think the caption is "Waiting, waiting, waiting..."

CC

"I wonder if Mom will notice if I eat just one!"

We pretty much always have hot summers boffer... Just a matter of when they actually get around to starting! I would have responded to your poll earlier about the weather predictions, but I just happened to have watched the weather on the news the night before. They were saying our Septembers are typically warmer than our Junes, so it could be said that three months of summer here means July, August, and September. But they said we also typically have a nice June, it just may not seem like it since we had unusually cold and wet ones just last year and in 2010. Anyway, I've had plenty enough heat already this past week and those first couple of weeks in May. Ugh!

I guess I'll plant some carrots and see what happens.

My new tabletops have thrown me for a loop as far as trellising. I'm going to cage the tomatoes and just trim them if they outgrow their cages (I'm not a tomato fanatic that can't bear not getting as many as possible). I'm assuming I can let cucumbers and mini pumpkins vine down over the edge?

I'm not a tomato fanatic that can't bear not getting as many as possible

Gwennifer... a triple negative sentence... does that mean you cannot bear losing a potential tomato or not?

Doesn't a triple negative equal a positive?

This June is warmer then last years June..... last year I noticed that the kids were not wearing shorts on the last couple of weeks of school like they usually do....because of the weather being cold.....

so.... Im guessing this year will be warmer then last year...so yes HOT summer....

holding out hope that this summer is a TOMATO summer....(by the way our tom's are doing great)

Im sure our three sisters garden would love an indian summer!

hope to get some pic's today.....the gardens are doing well......one thing we decided to do is re sow some of our back garden corn....it has a lot of corn that didnt germ.....we are hoping we have a long summer and the new corn will have a chance to produce.....we will see if we can get a staggered harvest.....

our fall cole crops sprouted today inside the house....

we have been eating strawberries :drunken:

we also have been snacking on the sugar snap pea pods

happy gardening and enjoy our weather PNW friends

rose...who is off to sow more beans

gwennifer wrote:...so it could be said that three months of summer here means July, August, and September...

My new tabletops have thrown me for a loop as far as trellising....I'm assuming I can let cucumbers and mini pumpkins vine down over the edge?

I agree summer starts in July. As for 'hot', well...to your Alaska background, and my mid-west background, it means two different things!

I liked my TT trellises as shown. I don't think ½" pvc will bend nicely for your table width. You could make something similar with 2 45° and a 90° fittings.
June


Late August



This is a trailing squash; I couldn't find a picture of trailing cukes, but they did fine too.

CapeCoddess wrote:..Boffer, your garden is outstanding! Or should I say FOR standing.
Do you have instructions or plans on how to make those raised beds?
CC

It didn't used to be so hard getting up off the ground!

Here's some ideas to get you thinking.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t297-building-a-table-top-sfgsome-ideas

Kay (walshevak) built some that are different, and working well. I can't find the thread where we were talking about them.

In several different threads, we concluded that a 4x4x6" box with saturated MM was in the neighborhood of 250 pounds. My personal criteria is: will a TT hold 2-3 beer drinking men! If so, it will hold a SFG box. (safety factor included)

Try searching on making progress ànd gardens. I am on a cheepie tablet right now and am having trouble just getting à reply typed.

Kay

GWN wrote:

I'm not a tomato fanatic that can't bear not getting as many as possible

Gwennifer... a triple negative sentence... does that mean you cannot bear losing a potential tomato or not?

Kelejan wrote:Doesn't a triple negative equal a positive?

A double negative equals a positive. So the two at the end makes for a positive (someone who has to get as many as possible), which the subject at the beginning is not (me). Makes sense to me anyway! Anyway, I don't cry over giving tomatoes haircuts.

boffer, were your carrot sowing dates only referring to your spring sowings? I thought you told me once you always get a better showing out of your fall carrots... I decided to just do half a square now of a couple varieties. I planted radishes in the other half.

FamilyGardening wrote:...Im sure our three sisters garden would love an indian summer!

hope to get some pic's today.....the gardens are doing well......one thing we decided to do is re sow some of our back garden corn....it has a lot of corn that didnt germ.....we are hoping we have a long summer and the new corn will have a chance to produce.....we will see if we can get a staggered harvest.....

Hi Rose! I planted corn with the girls just this week in the barrels that we did potatoes in last year. So I'm with you hoping it's not too late to have planted corn. I think LavenderDebs was waiting for school to get out to plant her corn too, right?

Also seems like you've done the three sisters thing for a couple of years now - is that in barrels? I was thinking I could plant our mini pumpkins in the corn barrels instead of my raised SFG's. Whaddya think? I planted five corn in a dice pattern - how many pumpkin plants would go in there too? I will definitely need an Indian summer for any of it to pay off though!

will a TT hold 2-3 beer drinking men! If so, it will hold a SFG box. (safety factor included)

lol

Also seems like you've done the three sisters thing for a couple of years now - is that in barrels? I was thinking I could plant our mini pumpkins in the corn barrels instead of my raised SFG's. Whaddya think? I planted five corn in a dice pattern - how many pumpkin plants would go in there too? I will definitely need an Indian summer for any of it to pay off though!

I am just trying the 3 sisters this year as well, have just got the corn a couple of inches up, have not yet planted the beans. Nonna did the 3 sisters in a straw bale garden, I wished I had enough straw for that.

GWEN...yes this is our third year doing a three sisters garden

first year 2011 was in our back garden area ( this was before hubby built the raised beds) it did great!



second year 2012 was in the wine barrels...small tiny harvest on the corn, ( we only had about 4 corn per barrel and I think we should of had at least 6) but the pumpkins did amazing



this year 2013 in our SFG...so far is doing really well



we wanted to try three different methods....in ground, container and SFG to see which would do the best

keep us posted on how yours does...you too GWN...im sure the kids will love it...ours loved having their own three sisters barrels last year

hugs
rose

remember our small, sick stunted cole crops that we though were goners.....

before ( pic is from may 1st ) after being transplanted March 15th...they had been in the ground for at least 6 wks



yesterday ( June 7th ) ONE month of warmer weather



this is the *pixi* cabbage which is suppose to be a smaller cabbage



I think we may get some cole crop harvest soon

side view of our SFG ...its doing well



Potatoes flowering ....cant wait to dig some up :drunken: ...we are starting to get some peppers on the plants that are in the green house still....tomatoes doing great with lots of green fruit and flowers....first plantings of green beans starting to reach....carrots getting tall....

everything is doing great with this warm weather we are having...the plants are very happy

happy gardening
rose

FamilyGardening wrote:GWEN...yes this is our third year doing a three sisters garden

second year 2012 was in the wine barrels...small tiny harvest on the corn, ( we only had about 4 corn per barrel and I think we should of had at least 6) but the pumpkins did amazing

Thanks Rose, but how many pumpkins did you put in there? And when do you do the beans?

GWEN we planted one pumpkin per barrel....only our son had beans in his barrel and he used a pole for them to climb up on.....

if you are going to have the beans climb up the corn then wait until the corn is at least 6 inch high before you plant the beans

a suggestion on planting....I would plant the corn 6 inch apart and use a triangle method to plant them....plant in the corners of the triangle thru out the barrel.....then I would plant one bean per corn ....plant the pumpkin in the middle....thats how I would do it if we planted in a barrel again....

hugs
rose

Corn Update:

(The owl is for comparison; it shows up better than a ruler)





To answer my own earlier question, I think it's been a better than average spring. I'm surprised at the difference between the corn hut and the open box. Yesterday, I bought lumber to make huts on the open boxes.

In another thread, GWN wrote:I am not sure if this is significant, but this bed I covered at night for quite a bit of the last month and only put the covers away 2 days ago, but these squash are looking WAY better than the rest as far as leaves.

My next project will be to make some kind of hut for winter squashes. I'm still trying to figure out how to enclose the trellis for them.

wow Boffer your corn looks awesome!!!

our SFG three sisters corn is doing good...the back garden corn...well.....disappointing..... :scratch:

we started more corn starts that just poked thru yesterday....now the hard part comes....should we pull up ALL the corn in the back garden and start over ....or move the corn that's doing well all into one area of the bed and then plant the new starts....eeeek....

happy gardening
rose

Looks like your corn hut corn is already knee high boffer. I know how much you love corn, so I'm so happy for you! Mine just sprouted today. It has been an amazing spring; I'm going to need an amazing fall.

Help me out with what you mean by the winter squashes. Does your box need to enclose the trellis because you'll be covering it in the fall once the squash has already grown up the trellis?

Rose thanks for the suggestions on the corn barrels. Wish I'd done mine different - a pumpkin in the middle makes the most sense but I have a corn in the middle already. I wonder if they are too delicate to transplant - don't want to lose one.

I'm surprised at how impatient I'm getting waiting for my seeds to sprout! Good thing the corn showed up today or I would have been a little cranky. I've got a couple of squares of mini pumpkins, broccoli, dragon's tongue bush beans, carrots, tom thumb lettuce, and radishes in. Carrots and lettuce I did just because of the Mother Earth News planting charts and this other no-name one I got from my local nursery. The seed packets themselves don't recommend planting these things in June. Decided I'll see for myself what happens - seeds are cheap.

Happy Father's Day all you daddy SFG'ers out there!

gwennifer wrote:... Does your box need to enclose the trellis because you'll be covering it in the fall once the squash has already grown up the trellis?...

Happy Father's Day all you daddy SFG'ers out there!

No, covered in the spring so they can get a good start up the trellis before uncovering them.

Did Chris tell you today was Father's Day so he could get special attention two Sundays in row?

boffer wrote:

gwennifer wrote:... Does your box need to enclose the trellis because you'll be covering it in the fall once the squash has already grown up the trellis?...

Happy Father's Day all you daddy SFG'ers out there!

No, covered in the spring so they can get a good start up the trellis before uncovering them.

Did Chris tell you today was Father's Day so he could get special attention two Sundays in row?

Oh yeah, it's next Sunday. *sigh* Well that explains why my facebook wasn't filled with posts about it.

So squash will grow that fast then huh? Well I'd say make a stack-able trellis then. Four feet tall to start, or however tall your hut is, and you can cover the whole contraption. Then when you uncover, you can stack your next layer on your trellis. Conduit trellis with concrete reinforcing mesh; Don't bend the conduit over the top, just do sides and leave them uncapped. When you open the hut up, you can stack smaller diameter rebar inside until they come up through the legs a decent amount and then you can slide the top of your trellis over the protruding rebar and secure the two separate conduit pieces with those in-line joint connectors.