PNW: June updates

Hello everyone - we made it to June! Is it safe to say our gardens are really growing now? If you're just getting started, you still have time to plant a productive summer garden. If you've got your beds ready now, here's what you can do:

Direct seed outdoors:

• Arugula
  
• Beans
  
• Beets
  
• Brussel Sprouts
  
• Carrots
  
• Corn
  
• Cucumbers
  
• Green Onions
  
• Melons
  
• Parsnips
  
• Pumpkins
  
• Rutabaga
  
• Summer Squash
  
• Swiss Chard
  
• Turnips
  
• Winter Squash
  

Looks for these starts at the nursery to transplant into your garden (you'll find some duplicates here):

• Artichoke
  
• Brussel Sprouts
  
• Cucumbers
  
• Eggplant (6/15)
  
• Melons
  
• Peppers (6/15)
  
• Pumpkins
  
• Squash (all)
  
• Swiss Chard
  
• Tomatoes
  

Looking ahead, now is a good time to start planning your fall garden. If you've read the book and are thinking about gardening the SFG way - go for it! Get your supplies now and build the beds. Ask questions here and get the help you need so you can be ready to plant your fall crops next month!

this year we are going to plant a fall garden under our hoops.....still trying to figure it out though.....time to get the SFG book out and do some math.....

would love to hear what others are planing on planting for the fall....

what?-when?-how?

hugs

rose

We are eating peas tonight, finally! The Oregon Sugar pods have finally given us enough to eat. The Fall planted garden is nearly ready for seed harvest from the kale, arugula, beets and radish. The parsnips still have a ways to go. I had to pull a Daikon radish since it was trying to go to seed.

FamilyGardening, the Fall/Winter garden I planted last year was spinach, spinach mustard, radish, arugula, chard, bok choi and winter radishes. Out of the mesclun mix I planted, the kale and three heads of radicchio were still going strong through this spring. Hoops and plastic were used. The chard, kale, arugula and winter radishes thrived all winter.

Since some items need to be planted however many weeks before first frost, I planted all of the fall/winter items in the center squares of the beds. This allowed my outer square summer crops to finish growing. By the time I needed to cover the beds for winter, there were not any plants on the outside edges of the beds touching the plastic thus saving them from freezing (lesson learned from 2010). I hope this helps.

Bah! My watermelon radish bolted and I got no bulbs....

I thought I could get away with planting it here in the spring even though its recommend to plant it in the fall as we usually have mild cool springs....but leave it up typical crazy Oregon weather patterns to have a unseasonably warm spring the year I want to try growing a fall/winter crop in the spring..

If I knew we were going to be this warm this soon here in the Willamette Valley I would have planted tomatoes instead!

Well I guess thats what I get for being impatient...I just couldn't help it....I soooooo wanted have those beautiful radishes NOW!

It probably did not help that the seed packet lied to me about the spacing...they recommend the standard European radish spacing....after doing some research online though I found out that watermelon radishes are actually a Chinese heirloom variety not some funky ne cultivar of European radishes I assumed they were.

Asian varieties usually grow much bigger than standard European varieties and I found out the Watermelon Radish aka Shinrimei (Chinese name) is no different....it grows to softball size......I probally had them way overcrowded.

I will have to try again in the fall with more spacing and see If I get any.

Growing "exotic" unfamiliar veggies the first time around is usually a such a learning experience for me. Sigh.

Anyway all is not lost....I harvested the greens even though they had bolted and I ended up with almost nothing in the way of bulbs.....the greens turned out to be not bitter like most leaf veggies get after bolting....in fact they are very tasty....a little sweet and a tad peppery like arugula is.

We sure are a quiet bunch here in the PNW. Wonder how some our newest members are doing? Roll call!

• musicallymotivated - are you harvesting yet? How's the rainfall so far this year?
  
• Warbler - how's the drip system working out for you? Did you manage to get some new peppers and zucchini's?
  
• violentlyserene - how are your pumpkin volunteers coming along?
  
• clswift - Have you been getting any peas? I just started harvesting mine. How are your daughter's daisies coming along? Did you figure out how to post pictures yet?
  
• bencoombes - second year for you, right? Did you get your beds ready for a new year? You said you had mor questions... That's what we're here for. Bring 'em on!
  
• debclements - you were looking at building your beds with the white vinyl fence pieces, just like I did. Are you up and running?
  
• Noie - the weather was crazy for you last spring - how's it been this year?
  
• Wisp - did you find all your composts and get your mix going?
  
• Dr. Bigfoot - baby pictures? Please?
  
• HGL - you said you were taking the leap into SFG this year - are you up and running?
  
• curio - you aren't really MIA - but I still want to see pictures of all your accomplishments!
  
• EatYourVeggies - our resident student! What classes have you been to lately? Are you learning anything we can apply to our SFG's?
  
• LittleGardener - I know you were struggling with some temporary disabilities and were working on building a garden whilst also working on regaining your health. How are things going?
  
• psaltee - how are your blueberries growing?
  
• skskpdx - how did you end up planning your 100 sq. ft. of garden space? Are you up and running?
  
• Momma Pajama - did you and your sis-in-law start tomatoes again this year? Join us in the Tomato Tuesday thread!
  

Did I forget anyone? Some more of our regulars will be along I'm sure. I'll get some pictures up of my garden later today. I'm having some struggles, but the SFG method isn't magic - there's still pests and weather to contend with. I'm focusing on being happy at how great my sugar pods are doing - should have enough for a stir-fry tonight!

family garden's are doing well......

lets see.....in the back to eden-SF- raised beds.....we harvest some broc's...heads were small because of the heat we had last month....but very yummy and we made soup with them....have a few left just starting to head....in hopes with the cool weather we are having now they will have a chance to head up

the cauli's are forming nice size heads about 3 inch across so far.....

the onions, kholorabi (sp?), brossels sprouts and cabbage are all doing great....the cabbage is forming really nice heads now....

corn is coming up.....sowed a few more seeds because it looks like some might not germ.....we have a few empty spots.....we shall see.....they look great though.....

the potatoes are getting flowers and we planted some pumpkins and have a few squash seedlings to still transplant.....we also have some beans, raddish, beets and carrots that seem to be doing well.....we also let our boc choi go to flower so we can collect the seeds....it was a great producer this year....and really good flavor

in our SFG the peas are very tall with lots of flowers, been cutting lots of lettuce... the beets, kale and carrots are not doing well...at all!......the spinach bolted

onions, garlic, scarlet runner beans and turnips seem to be doing good.....

still waiting to find a fava bean....lots of flowers!

tom's are all doing good.....we have two paste and one little ity bity cherry coming along....

we have three green peppers who are doing great in the green house!

sowed some more cilantro seeds because our current one is starting to flower...didnt relize that its a cool weather crop and we have been keeping it in the green house

we have ton's of strawberries, blue berries and rasberries coming!

artichockes are doing great.....but....we are going to transplant them into the ground....soon.....they are huge!

our childrens self water containers are both doing great.....we did have to plant a cucumber in our daughters to replace the carrots that went *poof*.....

our childrens three sisters in wine barrels are doing great so far...the pumpkin is getting its true leaves and one left over scarlet runner bean is up that my son wanted to plant in his.....he seen that we had one bean left that just started to swell up and the thought of us not planting it really bothered him ....their corn is not up yet.....

hugs

rose

happycamper, we've begun harvesting our Oregon Sugar pods also! Love my 4 y.o. being excited to eat pea pods.

daniel, radishes don't take up much room and seeds are cheap - why not sow a few more? I can't seem to grow radishes right now, but I keep trying.

FamilyGardening, I knew I could count on you for an update! Thanks for sharing your progress.

Okay, here's my garden as of June 1st:

First two columns. There's beans, and then my peppers. I took the wall-o-waters off the two pepper plants and my suspicion that I should have taken them off much sooner was confirmed. Pretty sickly looking color and blossoms weren't being pollinated inside there (I did have the tops wide open). I gave them a top dressing of fresh compost and though they looked worse and worse for a couple of days, I think maybe today they may have turned a corner - perhaps they'll recover. Chalk that up to a learning experience.

Then there's broccoli, don't know why it is growing at such different rates. I think the white discoloration on the leaves is hail damage? You can see a row of radishes planted in with the brocc's. Those are some of my better looking ones! Garlic doesn't look like much in this picture, but it's definitely showing growth. Simpson Elite and Red Sails definitely showing some growth.



Next two columns you can see my empty cucumber square next to the brandywine. Ten seeds sowed over the last month, all ten sprouted and subsequently eaten by bugs or destroyed by hail. I could put my orphan brandwine in there now, but I really wanted to try growing cucumbers so will probably sow some more seeds. Carrot box, broccoli (with more sickly radishes), more lettuces. Red iceburg hasn't grown a bit. The lettuce squares all received a top dressing of compost Friday.



Last two columns you can see a very happy pea colony, my attempt at spinach (one has bolted and has since been pulled), much smaller broccoli's (with more wimpy radishes), and behind the broccoli's in these two squares I have arugula. The arugula in the far right square has taken off recently and is showing some growth. The lettuces at the bottom left are Tom Thumb. The bottom right corner is my onion square. One gave up and fell over so it's been pulled. Another has put up a flower stalk so I need to pull it next. Chalk the onions up to learning experience too - furbalsmom posted a link about growing onions that I didn't read until after I'd planted. I picked the biggest looking sets to plant; not understanding the growth pattern and thinking they looked the healthiest. Now I know I should have planted the tiniest ones, so it wouldn't suprise me if they all bolt.



Here's a closer look at my carrot box. My engineering mind loved how they all sprouted and I had these cute little rows all lined up. Not anymore. When I went to take the picture I found that a few had disappeared! On closer inspection, something has munched the tops down.

My beans have begun to reach the trellis and are winding around it. Luckily they grow quickly, so whatever's eating them doesn't seem to be getting the best of them. Doesn't look like slug damage to me, anyone recognize the symptoms?



On a happy note, here's my pea colony. Oregon Sugar Pod II's, planted 16 to a square. We harvested about twenty pods this week and many more are coming on.



Oh, and here's my attempt at filling in unused patio space with an upcoming round foot garden. I was looking for blue ceramic pots to coordinate with my existing strawberry pot (planted last year, giving us strawberries this year). Found them at JoAnn's ($$$ but $$ once you play their coupon/sales game) and Bi-Mart ($). WinCo Foods also has great prices on a selection of ceramic planters, but not the color I was looking for. Still hoping to find one large enough for the ultra dwarf cherry tree and a small japanese maple, both currently in large fiberglass planters from Costco. I haven't been able to drive into Portland yet to check out the nurseries there.

I got my last planting of beans done Saturday, and declared my summer planting done. Then I found a partial package of beans that I figured I might as well finish up; my wife brought home a flat of head lettuce starts that were on end of season clearance at the nursury; and, I couldn't leave the oddball square here and there sit empty, could I? So I had to do more planting yesterday. Now I'm done...maybe!
Have you seen the forecast for the week? I might have to put a heater in my greenhouse; a high of 55° tomorrow. Ugh!

PNW forecast:

Everything is growing like crazy in my greenhouse, including the aphids. They are just terrible on my pepper plants. I've got some kind of leaf curl going on with the tomatoes. But the fruits are way ahead of what is planted outside. Now if I can just keep the plants alive. These are Mortagage Lifters that I grew from seed.


Some decent Packman broccoli. A lot better than last year. I grew some Waltham 29 from seed, but they're not liking our weather.


A total of 19 brassicas in this 4x5 box; it might be a little too crowded! Cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower.


Some more brassicas


I'm trying my gutter experiment again this year.


We've been eating from my mobile SFG for a couple weeks. I'm trying Olympia hybrid spinach; it had no adverse effects from our hot spell a couple weeks ago.


My carrot box is full; the potatoes that over-wintered in the ground have flowers; my beet box is full and the first planting is bulbing. I had one full box of onions go to seed during the hot spell. They are now in the freezer, in onion soup concentrate that I made.

One planting of peas is flowering, but the others were attacked by something using GPS to locate and steal the seeds. It looks like somebody took a one inch drill and drilled straight down to the pea seed. One planting was in a box with plywood bottom and covered with one inch chicken wire. I had to plant that box three different times; it's way behind. I have no idea who got them, but I think my cat better start spending the night out there guarding!

I planted a lot of winter squash, cukes, and beans. Now, it's wait and see what the weather will be.

Gwennifer, I think your gardens look great! All nice, neat, and organized and looking healthy minus a couple of nibblers. Oh well, I've had to share with the bugs this spring too
I went to a different garden center a few days ago and bought some French Breakfast radish seed they have in jars. My radishes have all been bunk and hotter than hell fire this spring (at least the ones that developed)! I planted the new ones on Wednesday evening and by Saturday they had all sprouted, which is leaps and bounds over the others. I think I got old seed...maybe try some new seed.


Boffer, I wish I was half the craftsman you are! As always everything looks great!

It's great seeing action in the PNW Region!

boffer we planted olympia hybrid from territorial co and ed humes smooth leaf spinach last year and it did great!.....this year we tried burpee salad fresh hybrid and it bolted during our hot spell in may.....we didnt get much from it......we are going to plant a bunch of the olympia hybrid for a fall harvest.....miss our fresh spinach!....glad to hear your are doing good!

gwen......your garden looks great! and i think the peppers will be fine once they get some sun light on them i really like your blue containers too!...how pretty they will be when they are filled up!

forgot to mention in our update that we sowed some Quinoa seeds in a container in the greenhouse......second day and they were up!

hugs

rose who would like to see the sun again

@gwennifer......Well now that I have space open I think I will plant a summer veg instead of trying for radishes again.....I am thinking a hot pepper or two.

@Rooster.. I hate when that happens.....Urgh just got a flashback in my mouth of the taste of bitter really sulfury radishes....eck...

Expecting T storms tonight so I am not able to take pictures due the rain.

Peas have flowered...have not seen any flowers on the yukon golds....beets are doing good....lettuce is coming along nicely and I have been harvesting a leaf or two here and there...shallots and carrots are still going.

Boffer - everything is looking great in your garden. Hope the low high's don't slow things down! Your highs are my lows for the coming week.

GG

boffer wrote:
One planting of peas is flowering, but the others were attacked by something using GPS to locate and steal the seeds.

Freaky.

boffer wrote:

This is a fantastic display of lettuces! Did you plant them 9/square? And have they been outside the whole time?

Refresh my memory on your gutter experiment please? Didn't you find before that the lettuces actually didn't do as well as the lettuces planted in your boxes? I can't remember...

I planted Olympia hybrid spinach last fall - from a seed packet I had saved since 2006! 100% germination, and it grew just fine also. This year I bought some brand new Regatta Hybrid spinach seed from Territorial, and I have just had a heck of a time with it. 30% germination and erratic growing. It claims to be a good spinach for continual summer harvest, but maybe it'll fare better in the fall. I sowed some of the old Olympia seed last week just to see what would happen and I see one has germinated already.

Hey Rooster, I have three different types of radish seed I've sowed. Cherry Belle, Champion, and French Breakfast, the latter two purchased new this year. I have no problems getting any of them to germinate in just four days or so. But then they don't do anything, they just sit there like little sprouts. *shrug*

I think my peppers are going to make a comeback. It's too late for most of the existing leaves, but on close inspection I believe I see new growth coming out where old leaves have fallen off. I'd like to hear from curio how she uses her wall-o-waters? And some of my missing carrot tops are growing back, so I'll hold off on re-sowing all the empty spots.

No peas as of yet, planted two plants (one doing very well the other ok) then later derect planted eight more they are doing well!

Got frustrated with trying to post picks. "not the correct file?"

My daughters daisys are ok still small no flowers yet. Her sun flowers are doing great and a two of her bulbs have sprouted.

I have been harvesting radishes and baby lettuce.

I now have 25 diffrent things growing in my raised bed!!

How are things with you?



Chuck

This is our first year of SFG and (touchwood!) everything looks good so far. We've planted tomatoes, cauliflowers, pepper, spinach, zucchini and summer squash. We also have strawberries and mint - though not in SFG style. They're in regular pots/soil. It's been a month since we planted our veggies.

We've been harvesting mint and spinach. The tomatoes plants have grown a lot and have started blooming. So has squash. If all goes well, I think they should bear fruits by the end of the month. Or is it too early for tomatoes? The strawberry plant has lots of berries on it, waiting for them to ripen!

We planted cauliflower in 1 SF and looks like it's too small for it and we might have to move it. I hope the move doesn't damage the plant. Anybody know if it does?

welcome to the forum smriti sounds like your garden is doing very well!!....not sure about it being to early for tomato as we are getting some fruit as well....they may stay green for awhile until it heats up again

today we got hit with very hard wind it was so strong that my husband heard a bang outside.....when we went out to check it out...our smaller green house had tip right over spilling everything inside.... ...all our baby seedlings of acorn squash, crooknecks, heirloom pumpkins, zuchinni and corn all became one huge mess we did the best to replant the ones that we could.....not 100% sure what they are...but the corn....they were just germinaiting and had not pop up yet...but did have their tap roots.....so we may need help when these little seedlings get bigger to try and figue out who is who.....

here is a few pic's of the gardens....everything is doing pretty good....

peppers inside the green house....on one plant we have 7 peppers :drunken: the rest have at least two each



a over winter cauliflower....she surprised us and is getting a nice size head even though she is so small......gave her a nice drink of compost tea and we shall see how she does.....



yukon potatoes



celery above and raddish below



our son's carrots in his self watering container with MM.....they are the best looking carrots we have planted so far....we did add some bone meal this time....maybe thats the secert



SFG box one...beans in the back are almost reaching for trellis



SFG box two....the peas are huge!



hanging basket full of sugar snap peas...thank you to who ever gave me the idea this last spring to plant some in a basket...(Debs??)so far they are doing very well and i think they look cool!



four sunflowers with a crookneck squash in the middle



going to save these seeds....green onions



hugs

rose

clswift wrote:I now have 25 diffrent things growing in my raised bed!!

How are things with you?
Chuck

Wait, how big is your bed again? 25 different things? That's awesome! I have radish and lettuce envy of everyone right now.

Hmmm, I wonder what's going on with your picture thing. Do you know the type of file your picture is that you're trying to upload? I know for sure you can upload .jpg or .png files. Are you following this method for posting pictures?: https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t129-how-to-post-a-picture-located-on-your-computer

Anyway, I'm plugging along here. The garden is growing and while I wait for something to harvest I am working on completing the landscaping in the rest of the back yard. All ornamental stuff since none of the borders get full sun. Did you see my little collection of blue ceramic pots (an earlier post in this thread)? If you see any really large ones that color let me know (23" min. diameter).

smriti wrote:This is our first year of SFG and (touchwood!) everything looks good so far.

...We planted cauliflower in 1 SF and looks like it's too small for it and we might have to move it. I hope the move doesn't damage the plant. Anybody know if it does?

Hi smriti and to the forum! Sounds like you've got all kinds of stuff you're trying out in your SFG. Very cool indeed! Are you new to gardening or just new to SFG?

I just bought some mint for my daughters (it will be in a pot as well). A neighbor gave them each a leaf off his plant when we were visiting and they loved how it smelled so nice.

Oh, and about your cauliflower - you shouldn't need to move it. Members here (myself included) have reported success in trimming off outer leaves of our broccoli and/or cauliflower plants when they outgrow their square or shade a neighbor square too much, and still harvesting a normal sized head when the time comes. And if you want you can eat those leaves you trim off too! People prepare them like they would collard greens or use them to make cabbage rolls.

Thank you gwennifer and FamilyGardening for the welcome!

gwennifer - I wouldn't say we've a lot of experience gardening. We just planted some veggies last year but they didn't do too well. Then I read about SFG and thought we would try that. So I would say we're beginners to gardening as well as SFG . Thanks for the tip to trim the cauliflower leaves! We'll try that and hopefully there'll be no harm done.

FamilyGardening - your veggies look so tempting; especially the peppers. Our peppers have flowered (I guess they got tricked by the weather) but there's no fruit yet. They're out in the open though. I like your hanging basket with peas. Maybe we'll also try that since we don't have a lot of horizontal space.

smriti we have a bunch of hanging baskets most with strawberries..... one with some lavendar and mint growing and another one with some lavendar and basil...the basil though is not doing so well........and really love the peas growing in the basket....they look all crazy in there....lets see how they produce..... ....going to plant more baskets in the future........

we are trying to take avantage of all the sun space we can get....hubby even built some shelves and hung them up on our back fence the ground below was/is getting a small amount of sunlight but enough for our berry plants....the shelves though because they are up higher are more in direct sunlight

hugs

rose

@ gwennifer
Thanks for asking
Still not sure on drip line - it's been raining enough to turn off water! !! I think I may have let the MM dry out a bit too much before, and it was having trouble. This time I'll start watering a bit quicker after the rain stops (July 5 ) and I'm going to try 30 min every other day. I'd like to do less than that. To conserve water, and I have the theory that deeper watering less often is better. But don't know if that works with MM.

The zucchini that looked dead is reviving kind of, and the seeds I planted just in case have also come up.

The green pepper was a goner, but I found replacement transplants at the nursery - plus a jalapeño that tempted me. I have the latter in a corner of a box without a trellis - hope that's okay.

I've harvested a bit of lettuce. Had some "redlicious" leaf lettuce that really did well. But so far the romaine is puny. Ditto with the spinach I planted. And the beets, and carrots all seem so slow. I don't know whether they will ever take off, or if it is too late, or what.

The broccoli transplants have given me virtually nothing. I ate a few small pieces off of one, (where the center piece had bolted). But there is just nothing to see coming up on the others. Nice big leaves, but no head.

So was this spring a wash? Or am I just needing more patience in our cool weather?

I have sugar snap peas that are just now getting to the trellis, and pole beans that are nowhere near it. Also a watermelon that looks puny. The tomatoes (early girl and sweet million) look alive, and well, but not growing. There are a few flowers on the sweet million. I have a celebrity tomato in MM in a pot and it has a little bitty green tomato and more flowers.

I've wondered if the HEAVY rains we had last March washed nutrients out of my new MM and maybe I should fertilize? I saw someone mention putting a top dressing of compost - would that do the same? How thick?

Anyway - still a bit discouraged, but hanging in there. I've used spinosad for cutworms and leaf rollers and leaf miner. But the hose end sprayer sprays such a huge bunch of water that it seems difficult to use. I wish I had just a little pump spray ready to use - anyone know where to get something like that? Have also used BT powder on the soil when the cutworms were really bad.

Thanks for the listing of things to plant now. I have some empty squares and was trying to figure out what to do.

Found a surprise today.....there were a couple of radishes hiding under the potato plants that I missed and I actually did manage to grow a few decent sized bulbs...its not much but I am just happy I now get to finally taste this variety of radish I have been hearing so much about......

[img][/img]

Man are Watermelon Radishes mild....by far the sweetest and mildest flavored radish I have ever had....I really love these even though I am not much of a radish fan.

Its a definite must grow for me now. Will be perfect for the winter/fall garden this year.

Wonderful looking Watermelon radish, I am still waiting for mine. German Giant, Watermelon and Icicle radishes are by far my favorites.

happycamper wrote:Wonderful looking Watermelon radish, I am still waiting for mine. German Giant, Watermelon and Icicle radishes are by far my favorites.

What spacing did you use with watermelon radish and when do you usually plant it?

I did not get much in the way of bulbs and would definitely appreciate some tips for growing it better next time.

Dan those watermelon radish looks huge unless thats a tiny plate they are sitting on.....sweet huh?....might have to try some of those in the fall

Warbler....good to hear from you .....we have had a hard time with our cool weather crops as well....crazy weather!!...neat that you have a baby green tom!

hugs

rose

Daniel9999 wrote:

happycamper wrote:Wonderful looking Watermelon radish, I am still waiting for mine. German Giant, Watermelon and Icicle radishes are by far my favorites.

What spacing did you use with watermelon radish and when do you usually plant it?

I did not get much in the way of bulbs and would definitely appreciate some tips for growing it better next time.

Daniel9999, I use 9 per square for spacing with the watermelon and german giant. I have to snip the extra plants off with scissors if I plant too many because they simply will not grow for me if they are crowded. I plant radish from about Feb to Nov (china rose for winter). During this time of year I have to plant them behind something else to give some shade otherwise they always seem to bolt. Example of full sun: Daikon just went to seed, I have pulled two now and they were about 3 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches around. This year is my first try with the Daikon and they have a very mild taste, it made a very refreshing radish salad.