JUNE 2013 New England

Right now what we're eating from the garden is strawberries, peas, garlic scapes, lettuce & spinach, celery shoots.

If you don't already have them, I recommend Sparkle strawberries which I got as crowns from Johnnys last year. They have spread like wildfire and produce like crazy. Yesterday I made 2 strawberry pies with 12 cups of strawberries, and there are still a ton out there. Breakfast: strawberry banana pancakes.

Last night was beef stir fry with our peas, scapes, celery, spinach and I even threw lettuce in there. :)Store bought carrots tho because I can't get carrots to sprout for the life of me - I even poured a ton of seeds on my carrot bed right before it rained to let them soak in before any maybe birds got to them, but not a one. I have a carrot deficit. Have to work on that, because I love carrots.

On another note, got the first 2 red raspberries from the bushes this morning.

PS - Lyndeeloo, love your use of space for your beds.

Thank you everyone. Its nice to share pictures with other gardeners, they understand all of the blood, sweat and tears that go into the garden.

CC-  I planted the tomatoes and corn in the middle with the trellis and broccoli and cauliflower on one side and romaine on the other in hopes of shading the cooler weather plants. I have been able to keep the lettuce growing and the cauliflower has just taken off and is producing some really beautiful crowns. I can't wait... I have a container of homemade cheese sauce waiting in the freezer for them. My cukes are both seed and transplant. I grow picklers and full size cukes. Our first one was a pickler, but all of the plants are loaded. We will be eating lots of cucumbers by the looks. Not a problem here, I could eat them everyday, I love them so much! The picklers never hang around long enough to turn into pickles. LOL. Perhaps I could mail you a few!

NHGardner- I am very interested in the Sparkle strawberries. How many plants do you have? How close together did you plant them? Are you using a mulch under them? Any additional info on how to grow lots of strawberries would be appreciated. I started strawberries this year and have gotten some nice ones, but not enough to make my jam. Guess I will be buying them again this year.

Lyndeeloo - I bought enough strawberry crowns for one 4x4 box, 4 per square, so that's 64 crowns. I must've ended up with about 12 extras because I put those in a few squares in the box next to it. Over the winter I covered them with straw, and in the spring I pulled the straw off. I covered them once or twice when frosts hit this spring, so they wouldn't freeze.

Between planting them last spring and harvesting them this summer, they were spilling out everywhere. They took over the 2 boxes completely plus the ground in between, and when they shot runners out last year, I transplanted a few into a 3rd box, which is now also 3/4 strawberries. Right now they are shooting runners out everywhere. I don't know what I'm going to do, I feel like I've been taken over by the blob.

If you just planted your crowns this year (were they crowns or plants?) you won't get strawberries until next year. Sparkle are June-bearing strawberries.

After they're done this year, I will trim them back to stubs, and figure out how to control them. I hate throwing runners away, so I may try to put a patch somewhere else, but if it's not fenced, probably the birds or chipmunks will get them. I can't devote any more box space to strawberries. At this rate i think they could grow in cement....

Lyndee....Those sure are nice, neat boxes. Lookin' good.

NHGardener wrote: hate throwing runners away, so I may try to put a patch somewhere else, but if it's not fenced, probably the birds or chipmunks will get them. I can't devote any more box space to strawberries. At this rate i think they could grow in cement....

I'm not even close to being over run yet having started out with only 2 plants last year. I think there are about 9 now. But if that should ever happen, first I could put them out by my street with a FREE sign for a few times...and then we could put the babies up on Craigslist free for pick up.

Spread the wealth...

CC

I heard they also do well around trees, being so shallow-rooted, as long as they get that sunshine.

Thank you NHGardener, Oh, how I'd love to be over run with strawberries (but I understand where you are coming from) Pick your own are $20 a flat here. That's going to cut down on what I make for jam and freezing for later on. Our season is pretty near over according to the farmer.

I'm taking notes from your posts and would like to know if your source was local or mail order. If I got some now do you think I could plant them and they'd be OK? I used plants and crowns, planted them early this spring. I had a few in strawberry pots from years back and I put those in the ground, too. I'm clipping and planting runners as they are ready.

Quiltbea, Thank you for checking out my garden pics

CapeCoddess, How is your garden doing? It's raining here right now, I hope it breaks the humidity. I'm glad tonight's rain is supposed to be more than a 2 minute passing shower, we really need the rain.

Lyndeeloo I know how you feel because it's almost blueberry season and I spend about $150 a season at the pick-your-own blueberry farm, I freeze as many as I can to have over the winter. Wouldn't it be nice to have your own several blueberry bushes.

I ordered my crowns from Johnny's Seeds in Maine, the sparkle variety. I looked today and I see they are out, they only ship in the spring.

How many plants/crowns did you plant in the spring? Did you notice whether they were putting out runners yet? Because it could be that by next summer yours will have spread all over the place too.

One thing I have to say is that it COULD be that this has just been a very good season for berries, because I notice my raspberries are coming in much fuller than they ever have before. Maybe the cool wet, with breaks of super hot, have made the berries really happy.

Tonight I looked at my strawberry patch. I saw lots of red berries and said - oh no. I just can't pick them again... haha. It was starting to rain anyway (getting the deluge tonight) so they'll have to wait. Last night I pulled about 100 slugs out of there and the other garden beds, so I do want to stay ahead of the slugs...

NHGardener, My raspberries are looking good, too. I get plenty of those, thank goodness, because they are obscenely expensive. I think I put in 24 strawberry plants and a dozen crowns. I didn't think the crowns would do anything but some of them have nice leaves. The runners are starting on the plants. I think what I bought are ever bearing. That may account for a lower yield so far. I will keep an eye out for the Sparkle. I have a few blueberry bushes I planted this year but I don't expect to see anything on them at all for a year or two. I would love to have more fruit but my yard is so small. I'm very lucky that my raspberries produce so well. Now if I can just work out the strawberry situation I'll be all set.

We got a nice rain earlier, but its quiet now. Hopefully a bit more overnight. It's been hot and humid with small, heavy showers but no real rain and I've been watering with the hose like crazy. Thankfully haven't seen slugs yet, but they must be out there somewhere. My big problem right now is the turnip roots. Pulled out my first few today and they are all eaten up. Maybe root maggots, sent a picture in at sanderson's request. First try at turnips and they were looking so good.

We finally got rain!!!!   It's been about 20 days of only humid air and everything is turning brown. I've been so jealous watching you guys with all your rain. I actually had to break out the hose to water my SFG last Suncay because 5 gallons per box wasn't even reaching down 1/4 inch. It was crazy.

Meanwhile, the PM is hitting the itsy bitsy squash leaves already. I'm breaking out the baking soda this weekend for them and the cucs...and maybe the maters. There are no bugs in my squash yet, but I did plant radish in those beds so maybe it's working?

Everything else is growing like gang busters. I took down my snow peas and planted watermelon and cucs in those squares. The sugar snaps peas are almost done and the bean seeds planted in front of them sprouted ages ago. I'll plant some more beans once I take those peas out.

We're eating greens like crazy but I still didn't plant enough to freeze or can yet. I'm eating daikon pods and they are so yummy! Waiting on some radish pods now. The onions are all falling over but aren't brown. Isn't it way too early for this to be happening?


I'm harvesting garlic almost every day. The store bought ones that were planted all winter long to keep out critters this spring only grew to one big bulb each, no sections, but they are easy to peel & so delicious. The store bought that I planted last fall expecting to harvest are about the same as their parents w/ lots of cloves, but a bit stronger in flavor. I haven't harvested the elephant or the Bulgarian Purple yet, but soon.  

Still no beet roots or carrots yet. Out of probably 1000 seeds you'd think I could grow a ding dang carrot. If they all ever decide to sprout I'll have carrots all over and in ever box. That would be great for winter.

So, is everyone's garden like a forest after all the rain you've had?

CC

It's only in the 50s where I am, at almost 11 a.m. And still raining. BLEH.

You're harvesting garlic already CC? I don't think ours is ready until late July.

Although the rain is great for plants, we haven't gotten enough sun for anything but grass to grow. That definitely needs a trim!

NHG, yup...got the garlic action going on. Just looked for a photo but I'm shocked to see there isn't one. I'll take one at lunch today.

cpl100, my lawn is about dormant from lack of rain til today. Thank goodness for clover! It's a beautiful carpet out there and the bees are having a field day! I try to leave it up as long a possible. Where do you go on the Cape?

CC

We have had plenty of  rain in my neck of the woods.

Well, we got near 4" of rain in the past 24 hours. Needless to say I didn't get much done in the garden.

We, too, have had rain, rain, rain the last few days.  I went into my flower garden outside my doorway and got my feet soaked in a few minutes.  I hope it dries up a bit so I can pinch off the shattered flower buds later and tie up those spare tomatoes that have grown several inches in the last few days of rain.  This garden is not sunny (only gets some afternoon sun) like my veggie beds, but even if I get only a few tomatoes from each plant, I'll be happy.  I just didn't want to waste them.
As for the veggie garden, I want to check my strawberries.  We've had such hard downpours now and again I'm thinking I might have many smashed fruits under the insect barrier.  I need to check those soon and see how the blueberries are doing.  I also really have to direct sow the bean seeds with the corn that is probably 6" or more tall right now.  
I also need to get myself some 'Wellies' like they have in England (Wellingtons).   Rubber garden boots so you don't get wet nor do you slip and slide on the grass.
Let's hope for a bit of sunshine this weekend New Englanders.

We have about an inch so far and I'm thrilled!  

Was out in mist/rain/sprinkles today planting 25 more FL lettuce babies (called Bijou) and cutting off tom suckers and replanting them since they were so healthy & huge, some w/ flowers on them.  Also harvested 2 more garlics and I see that another one has fallen over so I'll be digging it up shortly.

Garlic harvested over past week hanging up to dry (the ones we haven't eaten yet).  The bottom 2 are grocery store intentionally planted for harvest, the rest above are grocery store not meant to be harvested so are a surprise:


Wet intentional grocery store garlic harvested today and hung in the basement where the dehumidifier is.  They are the size of their parents and do have multiple cloves but it's hard to tell from this pic:


Almost forgot...one of the Sungold, 2nd gen, is turning gold! I'll eat it by July 4th thru hook or crook!  

CC

CapeC....Hooray for you with a Sun Gold ripening.  I'll bet its ripe in time.  Boy, what a difference in flavor from store-bought.  Your palate will love you.
Lucky you with some garlic.  I planted store-bought last fall and none of them came up this spring.  I've done it before and it worked just fine.  I got these at a farm market but they told me last year they bought them from another farmer and didn't know his practices.   I'll be more careful this fall.

Thanks, QB!  I don't think the others will be ready but I can't wait to pop this one baby in my mouth! ('scuse the bird poo...THAT won't be going in my mouth!)


My radish pods are finally ready to eat!  It makes me wonder why I would eat a little red ball when I can get all these yummy pods with more to come from the same seed?

Here are 2 of the heirloom suckers I planted under a radish plant today.  The radish will be coming out soon enough:

My pepper plants have buds!  But I also noticed that the leaves are yellowing so sprinkled a bit of Epsom Salts around them to be washed in by the rain.  I hope that was the correct move...?

I believe this is an onion but I didn't plant an onion here and none of my other onions are doing this.  Anyway, do I pull it or cover it?

My SuperSonics are like tree trunks and one has flat bottom toms and another has pointy bottom toms.  I'd love to know the parentage but can't find it by Googling
'Supersonic parentage' or the like. Any ideas?

CC

I'd cover those onions, but I'm no expert. 

I have a lot of volunteers coming up this year - tomatoes and potatoes mostly - and I'm just letting them do their thing.

Okay, about peppers. I'm thinking it may be because of the cool, rainy weather but my peppers have pretty much all pooped out. Anyone else having bad luck with peppers this year? They seem so finicky I don't even know if I'll plant them next year, altho last year they really did well.

I read that I think the trick is to wait until they have buds before you transplant them. I don't think mine had a good enough nurturing during seedling stage, and then went out too immature to make it.

Peas are doing great right now, and the extras I planted a week ago are sprouting up. Green beans have a long way to go. Couple green cherry tomatoes, and a green biggie. Lettuce finally doing great, and spinach doing well too, I'm picking lots of small salads. Potato plants are really big too, and some are flowering. Next year I'm doing that again: buying a 10 lb. bag of Maine potatoes at the grocery store, neglecting them for a few months until they have nice long sprouts, and using them as seed potatoes.

Also, been putting garlic scapes in everything - omelets, last night chopped on nachos, yum. Tonight I'll put some in the spaghetti sauce maybe, and it also works great chopped for garlic bread.

With the heat the past week my peppers, aubergine, potatoes, tomatoes and volunteers are all taking off. I transplanted my peppers when they were quite small and had no buds. They also looked like they had curly virus symptoms. All that is behind us now, nice straight leaves and buds on all plants, but they (peppers) are only about 8" tall.
I would just leave that onion alone to do its thing. It looks pretty darned happy the way it is.  

Pretty muggy still, but no rain yet today.
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/nerfc/graphics/weekly_precip.html

Rain is in our future today but while the sun is shining I've sowed my Purple Podded Pole Beans with my corn (so they will show up against all that green, corn and bean vines) and put in a few more seeds in the watermelon pot (Golden Midget).  The lone plant is lookin' good so far.
Harvested another Jet Star tomato and many Super Sugar Snap Peas.  These peas are tasty even when they get bigger than normal, as evidenced by all our rain the last few days.  Still nice and crisp and tasty.  I heartily recommend this variety to everyone if you love eating them raw.
While weeding, I accidently pulled a Sweet Georgia onion that's not too large, but looks good just the same.  At least I lopped off all the thorny alder that's been invading my garden paths from the edge of the woods.
Oh, saw lots of teeny variety strawberries from when I had them a few years ago.  They are in the pathways near their former berm home.  And there's blossoms popping up on my peppers today.  I pinched them back when I transplanted them outdoors and they are already sprouting blossoms again.
I even dead-headed all the flowers in my flower garden and the pansy pots in the veggie garden and removed all the suckers on the tomatoes except for the determinates.   I thought I'd better get busy between the forecasted t-storms later today and this week.
I still have other weeding to do, like between the raised beds where, this year, I did NOT put down newspaper and straw as I did last year.  Wow, it sure made a difference.  The straw paths last year were so much simpler with the only weeds being those that crept up the side of the bed frames.  Now I have them starting in the middle of the pathways, too.
I hope everyone is enjoying their gardens this year and getting tasty crops on a daily basis about now.  Seeing the green and the fruits is just wonderful.

Oh my heavens!  The skies opened up and it is a monsoon here----again!  When will my garden get any sun?

This makes me wonder: Are you all doing anything or adding anything to your boxes because of all the rain?

Not me cpl. We are ahead of the curve of the row gardener with the raised beds already. They drain well. I may have to topdress with compost again, but otherwise all my plants and my water bill are loving the rain.