N&C Midwest June Garden - What's Happenin'?

Well, here in the N part of the N&C Midwest, things are growing and the weather has been good enough to attempt additional projects. Thought I would only do one new project this year, but so far, just completed my third.

Before (mowed the day before so looks better than the pile of weeds it really is.



Boards layed out to mark where to start digging and weeding.



Finished and a few plants moved in. Notice hollyhock headed west!



Tired Mints! These are the fragments I found after mowing them down yesterday. I thought they had been crowded out by the phlox, but when I mowed I definitely smelled MINT! 3 little scraps of Iced Hazelnut Mint and one tiny Chocolate Mint. Before I mow next time I will check better, because somewhere back there I should have a Berry Mint!



GG

I love mint, but I know it can be very invasive. Will the tire keep it from crowding out the rest of the area?

That is the plan. Mint tends to have a fairly shallow root system, but it spreads like sniffles in daycare. Also, anywhere a stem comes into contact with the ground it will put down roots. The tire is at least 8 inches thick, so it is very unlikely that the mint will dig down below it to come up on the other side. A friend of mine gave me the Chocolate Mint, and she is also the one that gave me the tip on the tires. She has at least 6 kinds of mint and she has put them all in tires to keep them contained. So far it is working, but they do fill up nicely and have to be thinned and given to friends! She is the same one that gave me the Lizard Sedum I listed on the Garden Gift thread.

GG

Thanks! Some of the junkyards in my area sell large truck tires with one side cut into points. They are often painted white and actually look pretty attractive in the yard. I might look into getting one of those. My mother always made me peppermint tea if I had a belly ache when I was young. (Now the belly ache has spread to my whole body -- LOL)

I love those star tire planters!

GG

Speaking of mint, has anyone tried to grow it from seed? I tried it (spearmint), and wound up with one sickly-looking plant that after several months is only about 3 in high. The rest of the seed packet didn't germinate. A friend has some spearmint and offered to give me some of hers.

Goosegirl, I really like your little triangle garden. It's fun to see where you can tuck garden beds without taking much space away from the yard! We built a box between our side fence and the sidewalk that runs from the patio to the parking area. It fills in space that is never used but still had to be mowed....2 feet wide at one end and only a foot at the other. The box is over 20 feet long! It currently has masses of beautifully blooming potato plants in it.

I wish I had pictures of my mother's yard. Back in the 70's while I was taking some college courses, I wrote an essay about a backyard in the city. It was about her yard. Her property, including a home with 6 large rooms, was about 50' x 150'. She had tomatoes, corn cucumbers, two apple trees, a cherry tree, a peach tree, radishes, carrots, and two kinds of grapes. She also had an 8' x 10' tool shed, a 24' diameter swimming pool, a basketball court, a cookout area, and a two-seater swing under the cherry tree. SFG works best, but often we can find little spaces to tuck a plant or two. Luckily I have four acres of which about 2-1/2 are cleared, and I am slowly cleaning out more.

laurainwinona wrote:Speaking of mint, has anyone tried to grow it from seed? I tried it (spearmint), and wound up with one sickly-looking plant that after several months is only about 3 in high. The rest of the seed packet didn't germinate. A friend has some spearmint and offered to give me some of hers.

I have never grown mint from seed, however if you get even the tiniest part of a stem or root you have the makings of a takeover!

GG

GG i really like what you have done there at the coner too!!

hugs

rose...

Mabel - sounds like a great project you have going! When I am working in my yard I quite often find myself thinking about being in my dad's garden in the '70's as well. I think the whole lot (house and all) was only 1/4 acre, but he had apple trees, plum trees, a HUGE row garden (half the back yard), along with 2 concrete raised beds and a patio that I got to help him pour (I was about 10 and it was all QUITE exciting!). Good garden memories!

Rose - I am slowly working on the back yard and hope to have it visually appealing from all angles sometime in the near future!

Here's what's up in the veggie beds:



Sweet Richness Melons



Taters & Beans

GG

memart1, the yard you describe sounds beautiful. Our property (including the house and parking area) is about 25' x 140'. We have no trees on our property, though there are trees near us. We have a sand box, a swing set, a flower bed, and 4 SFG boxes. I hope to turn it into a place of beauty someday!

laurainwinona wrote:memart1, the yard you describe sounds beautiful. Our property (including the house and parking area) is about 25' x 140'. We have no trees on our property, though there are trees near us. We have a sand box, a swing set, a flower bed, and 4 SFG boxes. I hope to turn it into a place of beauty someday!

1 square foot at a time and it will get there!

GG

When my Mom bought her home in 1955, you could not even see the first floor of the house from the street because it was overgrown with grapevines and hedges in front. Almost every day after work Mom would cut some overgrowth out, then fix dinner, then go back out to clear more. I did not want to move there because it was "the haunted house". But she cleared, dug up roots, tore down dilapidated outbuildings, cut down trees, dug out the roots of the trees enough to cut them off with an axe, etc. And when she got a small area cleared, she made it nice. Twenty eight years later it was one of the nicest yards on the street. She kept a large black cherry tree and a two foot high peach tree that had grown from peaches from a larger tree that was too rotted to save. Everything else went in time. She put in three poles 10 feet apart and 6 feet high., then stretched some 3 foot wide welded wire fencing at the top of the poles. She planted three grapevines by the poles and they grew up into the fencing. This was about 2 feet inside the property line, and gave her privacy on one side of the pool area. Underneath these grapevines was where she planted cucumbers and pole beans. They used the grapevines as trellises.

Sounds beautiful! I love the idea of trellising the cukes and such up the grape vines.

GG

Well, summer is here! I have my first potato blossoms, bean blossoms, 1" long zukes, and today I will officially quit removing the blossoms from my tomatoes and just let them go crazy. My peppers are finally starting to grow now that it is in the 90's every day, and my Rich Sweetness melon plants are going to take over the world!

GG

Almost 24 hours since yesterdays 82 mph rain/windstorm came through, thankful for the generator that kept our lives and the llama barn comfortable till the power co. could restore power a few minutes ago. Two trellises and all plants survived. Had to help plants stand up that were leaning over, just one tomato branch snapped off. Another round of personal applause to 5 critter cages that only moved several inches but clearly helped to contain the tallest plants from flattening out. Thanks Mel!

Goosegirl wrote:...today I will officially quit removing the blossoms from my tomatoes and just let them go crazy....GG

This is the first year I've ever removed tomato blossoms. I'm wondering exactly why I'm doing it, what's the right way, and when should I stop!



Thanks in advance!

Windsor - I usually do not remove blossoms but it got hot so fast that my little indeterminates were barely 12" tall when they got their first blooms (I know some of these varieties will top my 5 ft trellis). I wanted to give them time to send up some better, stronger vines before I let them use energy to fruit. They are still only 18-24" tall, but they have thick, stong healthy stems so as of July 1 they get to keep their blossoms!

GG

Drought and heat, but I have harvested some cukes and zuchinni. Still getting cabbages. Furry critters are eating my peppers. Taters died - I may have put some contaminated compost on them.

Built my shade box this evening and started my broccoli seeds indoors. I love Mel's instructions - if you have the stuff on hand you can build a box in less than 10 minutes! I put it next to my old compost pile and forked some of the compost pile into the box. We are supposed to get thunderstorms tonight, so hopefully that will cause it to settle a bit, then I will fork some more in. Then I will build my next box and move the rest of the compost pile into it. I am getting rid of the huge compost pile and putting all my scraps into the tumbler I built last month. By the time I need more compost space at the end of the season I hope to have my 2nd tumbler built.

GG