And then it was June... in New England

I'm beginning to think that slugs are born out of raindrops, nothing keeps them out of my garden. And something took the lids off my slug traps and either spilled or drank all the juice. I'm thinking raccoons...the rotters.

Good news...we may get into the 70's today on old Cape Cod. That'll be a first this year if memory serves. I'm expecting wild growth of existing and newly seeded carrots, beets, chard, spinach, spaghetti squash, pak choi, red leaf lettuce and cucs.

My 2 inch baby cucs have been sitting in there for months it seems with nothing happening, except for a flower on one. Do you think they will even produce anything?

CC

things will move along, including an explosion of insects, as soon as it warms up some. I use small wood planks for slug traps.

Now that it's stopped raining I'll replenish my slug traps - didn't want to waste all that beer. I've been going out there around 7 p.m. and just picking the slugs off the plants and putting them in the "trap" myself. They've been all over the plants around that hour, I don't know what they do when I'm not looking.

So does the netting help with keeping them away? It looks like it would, unless they're coming up thru the soil itself. Or maybe they can get in thru the holes.

My cucumbers never sprouted, I'm going to replant for the 3rd time.

So much to do.

I just wanted to share some garden pictures... The first on 5/24/12 and the second on 6/9/12. Everything is blossoming and I even have some small tomatoes on my Roma!!

@camprn.....As usual, I love seeing your garden. You have such a wealth of bright green and healthy plants. It all looks so good.

@hruten.....Nice start. That's a nice before and after view. Things are lookin' good.

@CapeCoddess.....As for your Romaine, you can wait for it to grow a bit taller if you like, but when one has their own garden, they can harvest early for the tenderest of crops. My Romaine is getting a bit taller and some are ready to harvest. I transplanted them from one square to another to another as they grew larger. They are in great shape as you can see here.



Above: Some larger Romaines with smaller ones transplanted beside the larger ones. I'll harvest the larger ones today.

I also did an experiment with Pak Choi (Bok Choy) this year. Never having grown it before, I tried it two ways; by sowing seed indoors in late March and sowing seed directly outdoors.



Above: Lower left corner is pak choi I started from seeds in the bed. It never formed normally and is already going to seed, as you can see from the bright yellow flowers on it.



Above: Pak Choi transplanted outdoors on 5/6 and harvest size. I harvested one today and these 2 will be harvested in the next day or two. Next year I'll start them all indoors.

Is anyone getting strawberries yet? I have some turning red under the row cover. I should have a harvest by next week. Mmmmm good, can't wait.



Above: A few Sequoias turning red.

OOOOOOOOoooh, beautiful pak choy!!! nummys!

Beautiful garden photos! When I recuperate from the work I did outside today, I'll take photos and post. I built two 1' x 8' boxes for my potato tower and put them on top of my huge potato plants, and filled them with straw, so that's that, I'm not going any higher. Hope they flourish. And I drilled holes for two more 4' x 8' beds which I'll finish and get out there soon. I think I'll start putting my compost straight into those 2 new boxes, and then fill them with MM in the spring.

My strawberry box is looking very nice - I planted sparkles in April. Next year those should be great, and I think I'll plant one more box of them next April. I can't imagine ever having enough strawberries. Maybe the next year I'll plant yet another box, and keep it all rotating.

On another note, I grafted 3 little apple trees (at a class) and they're starting to leaf out - about 12" high. After another year or two I guess you transplant them into their final resting place. Fruit trees are long-term projects but if they take, wow would they be worth it.

I've been eating strawberries for about 2 wks now, Bea. But I bot them at Home Depot about 2 mths ago already big but no flowers yet. It'll be interesting to see what happens next year.

Thanks for the tip on the pak choi. I planted seeds out about 2 and 3 wks ago and they sprouted but I don't know what they will do now. I'll keep ya updated on that. But next yr I'll start them indoors when you do.

We didn't get up to 70 at my house today, but other areas of the Cape did. I'm thinking that leafy greens and sugar peas love love love this weather. I'm having to give peas away to friends now as I'm starting to get a little sick of having to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Harvested the 2 biggest romaines this morning. They are supposed to be dwarf and were at least 7 inches hi. I'll experiment with the next largest and see how big it gets.

How do you know when buttercrunch and cabbage are getting ready to bolt?

CC

CC, freezing peas is easy, if you would like to save some for later...

Pick the peas, wash and take off the stems, boil some water, drop the peas all at once into the boiling water, cook 2 minutes, strain and plunge peas into ice water bath to stop the cooking. Strain, drain and freeze for use in December.

Ah, good idea, Camp. That's blanching, right? I'll do that, but I doubt they will last until Dec.

There are supposed to be more folks here to feed besides me by now but due to health issues they are delayed...maybe by 2 months.

How long will the peas keep producing? Til frost?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:Ah, good idea, Camp. That's blanching, right? I'll do that, but I doubt they will last until Dec.

There are supposed to be more folks here to feed besides me by now but due to health issues they are delayed...maybe by 2 months.

How long will the peas keep producing? Til frost?

CC

If this weather holds, a while... if it gets scorching hot, they will be done soon after that begins.

WOW camprn & quiltbea your gardens are amazing. It's nice to compare where my garden should be but isn't quite there.

My broccoli has 1 idly biddy blossom that I'm hoping will explode in the next few weeks. The other 3 plants have had their leaves desiccated by caterpillars despite being covered since I transplanted them.

Peas, carrots, squash are all doing great! Although I did pull up my remaining salad bowl & black seeded simpson lettuce, again due to caterpillars. This has been my worst year ever with the bugs

How long do chard seeds last? My chard is barely making it. I soaked the seeds & it's in a bed with fresh compost, but they still seem really small to me.

camprn...how long have you been keeping bees? This is my 1st year & I love these girls.I need to go into my hive tomorrow to check on them.

Lolamama wrote:WOW camprn & quiltbea your gardens are amazing. It's nice to compare where my garden should be but isn't quite there.

My broccoli has 1 idly biddy blossom that I'm hoping will explode in the next few weeks. The other 3 plants have had their leaves desiccated by caterpillars despite being covered since I transplanted them.

Peas, carrots, squash are all doing great! Although I did pull up my remaining salad bowl & black seeded simpson lettuce, again due to caterpillars. This has been my worst year ever with the bugs

How long do chard seeds last? My chard is barely making it. I soaked the seeds & it's in a bed with fresh compost, but they still seem really small to me.

camprn...how long have you been keeping bees? This is my 1st year & I love these girls.I need to go into my hive tomorrow to check on them.

Thanks Lola, keep at it and the garden will come along... do you have a compost pile?
I planted 4 year old chard seeds and the germination rate was still pretty good. My plants are coming along, but a little scraggly. I hope they will perk up when it warms up a little.

The caterpillars/worms are pretty tenacious on the lettuces and radishes right now. I went on a hand picking hunt a while ago and many of them met their maker.

I have had the bees for a bit longer than a year. I started with one hive that made it through the winter (I had to emergency feed beginning in January). I made a split off that hive in April and just got a nuc last week. I like having the bees, a lot.

Lola, where are you located?

Thanks camprn! I'm located south of Boston on the coast. I do have 2 compost piles. 1 was used to top dress a couple of my beds & the other one was just started in April, so it's far from usable. I'm realizing that with my 8 beds that my family doesn't make enough compost to cover each one, so I supplemented this year with Coast of Maine. It's already made a huge difference from last year.

Question: when one crop is finished & you've harvested it, do you add more compost, fertilizer, etc. before sowing a new crop? I'm not quite sure how to keep my soil enriched with nutrients for each rotating crop. Perhaps I should look into cover crops?

That's wonderful that your bees made it through the winter. Most of beekeepers in my town lost their hives, so I've been told. Between the gardening & the beekeeping I feel like I have a 2nd & 3rd job.....so much to learn.

@Loloamama......Swiss chard seed keeps 3-5 years if kept in the fridge. Heat can lower the germination rate.

When I start another crop in a square, I put in two scoops of compost before transplanting or sowing seeds in the square. It usually works fine. I just harvested some Pak choi and transplanted eggplants into the spare squares. I had some leftover after transplanting 4 in the A-frame and 3 in pots so I could cover them or bring inside on cooler (less than 60*F) nites. Compost is the best ingredient you can add when reusing a square.

Yesterday I bought 6 tomatoes - 3 Big Boy & 3 Supersonic - and 6 jalapenos, all at half price. It's supposed to rain tonite and I wanted to get them planted before it does.

Soooo...got my new 10" high boxes built today! Started this AM before work, did some more during lunch break, then finished up after work. They seem SO BIG after working with the cupboards all spring.



I didn't have enuff Mel's Mix for a whole new box, but a piece of wood I had laying around fit perfectly diagonally across one so I could use half a box!

TA DAAAAA!


Crazy, right?!?! Now we'd better get that rain tonite is all I can say!

In the fall, once the toms are done, I'll fill up the remaining 1 & 1/2 boxes and remove the divider.

I have hi hopes for these tomatoes. Big Boy and Supersonic - determinate or indeterminate, anyone know?

CC

I just looked online and it seems that both types are determinate.

Oooo...bushy and no work. It's going to be a JUNGLE in that box!

Thanks a bunch, memart!

CC

SO, for some of us in New England it's getting to be close to Strawberry season... here is a trick to foil some of those birds eyeballing the ripening fruit
http://homesteadsurvival.blogspot.com/2012/06/have-you-used-painted-pebbles-to-keep.html

I wonder if little styrofoam peanuts painted blue and strung from blueberry bushes would have the same affect?

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:I wonder if little styrofoam peanuts painted blue and strung from blueberry bushes would have the same affect?

CC

Those may actually pose a danger to the birds. Netting is probably a better choice.

Ooh. Tomato plants for half price? I could use a few replacements.

Today I watered the garden, forgetting it was supposed to rain tonight. Then this evening I hand-picked about 100 slugs off my plants.

What is it with slugs this year? I don't remember a problem last year.

NHG have you tried placing the planks in the garden?

I haven't done that, but definitely should. I have the beer cups out, but they're not heavy duty enough.

Probably a combo of beer cups, planks, and manual picking would really help. I have some small plywood pieces, I'll scatter those around tomorrow.

A friend is getting Indian Runner ducks to help with the slugs. I'm going to see what that's all about. They sure are cute.

I harvested some heads of buttercrunch, romaine & spinach this morning, filled the sink with water and dumped them in. By the end of the soaking/rinsing, there were slugs crawling up the sides of the sink. I was SO GROSSED OUT! I mean, REALLY??? In the house? grrrrrr...
Glad to hear they are more prolific this year than most. But I guess every year will bring it's surprises, right?

I keep forgetting about the planks. So, all we have to do is place little pcs of wood in there and check them every morning?

CC