JUNE 2013 New England

What a beeeeeauuuutiful day today, right? I just got in from being in the gardens all day. Got a 6 ft trellis built for cherry toms. They can go up and then back down, IF they grow that big this year. They have tomatoes on them already, stopped counting a couple days ago at 5.

First peony and Knockout rose bloomed today.

Also, we ate 2 peas today. Just had to 'test' them. And my strawberries are finally blushing:

Now I have to go back and read what ya'll are up to.

OH, almost forgot...my shallots have scapes. I can't remember...I'm supposed to leave them on, right?

CC

A red berry! We can't be far behind...

Wow! Everyone's gardens look fantastic! I love all the photos! Well done I say!

Alot of the same issues in my garden:
My broccoli has yellow flowers also. Since this is my 2nd attempt/failure (first was last fall) I think I'll give up on it. And my 3rd (or could be 4th) planting of carrots still isn't up. Cabbage is still about the same size as the day I put them in about 2 mths ago.

My peppers are just sitting there wondering what they're doing outside in these cold nights.

NHG, do you have wood chips as paths between your beds? Whatever it is, it looks great. Our paths are going to be squash vines this year because the mother has planted starts everywhere without realizing what's going to happen. I'll have to wear knee boots in the SFG.

quiltbea wrote:
I'm trying that new technicque against squash vine borers which I saw on a video to deter them.....wrap a piece of panty hose around the stem and gather it together with a straight pin (common pin) so the creatures can't get to the stem. The hose will stretch as the stem grows wider. We'll see if that really works.

QB, do you have the link for the vid or can you post a photo of how you do this? I'm trying to figure out of the stocking starts at the ground and how much to use. Also, do you do it again where ever the vine later touches the ground?

CC

Cape.....I'll go hunt for that video. I looked last nite but not very hard. I'll try harder tonite.

I cut off about a 4" length of panty hose. Slipped it over the bottom of the new squash transplant and up enuf of the stem so it was about an inch above. Folded over one side and stuck a straight pin in it to hold it snug. Buried it in the ground with a little hose peeking over the top. I figured that would deter any cutworm as well.

In the video, they actually stretched the hose wide and put it down over the leaves and stem so you can do this to one already in the ground. I'll be back if I find any helpful video.

Here's the video. I'm glad I found it because I did mine wrong. You have to put the hose about 4-5" ABOVE the stem, not below it, and pin it. I'll have to add more hose to my transplants tomorrow. Mine are too low to the soil level. I hope this works. The vid also shows how to pollinate your squash fruits, including pumpkins, watermelons, zukes.

Fascinating! Thanks, QB. It also led me to the How to Plant Squash vid with the black pots in the center of the squash. I'll let the mother watch that and maybe we can spread out some of the starts she planted to close together.

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:My peppers are just sitting there wondering what they're doing outside in these cold nights.

Mine are looking like that too. Like - hey. Where's the fluorescents and the 70* weather. It's chilly out here.

My broccoli, which supposedly likes the cold, is giving me the same looks: We're not happy here. Take us back inside.

Oh well. Last year I bought bigger pepper transplants, hopefully these will catch up, and last year's broccoli didn't really go either.

Yes, those are woodchips. There is a town dump nearby that chips all the residents' wood, and anyone is welcome, they have a mountain of chips. It's a lot of work to shovel it into the back of a pickup truck, but it's nice. I've asked the Asplundh guys to leave me chips when they're nearby, but for some reason, that didn't materialize. But that's an option, I've known people who have collared them.

Thanks for the video, QB.

Harvested my first 7 Super Sugar Snap Peas this morning 6-6. I started them indrs on 2-17 then transplanted them into a clay pot 3-21 and left them outside. They were set back from transplanting, but now are doing better. Flowering nicely now and I got these 7 peas this morning. Mmmmm, good.



I'm curious to see how much longer I have to wait for the ones direct sown in the garden on 4-5 and the later peas transplanted out 4-8 (which have blossoms by the way).

Lovely temps here and sunny, its 70 right now which should be the high. Tonite down into the low 50s. Last nite we got 46 so I brought inside my eggplants that I have hardening outdoors. They like nites in the 60s and above. We're expecting some rain tonite but I'm going to check the garden to be sure the seeds are kept moist this afternoon.

Well, seeing as how we're getting more rain and a tropical storm in the next few days. I guess i should plant my tomatoes, aubergine and peppers now.

I'm thinking I might wait for the storm to pass before setting mine out, Camp. I'm concerned about the high winds hurting the stems and the debris from nearby trees and shrubs landing on the new plants and damaging them.

The "old" ones have had more of a chance to establish & have been through some pretty rough winds already, so I think they'll be OK.

Things should be calmer by Sunday, so that's when I'm hoping to get the new plants in the ground.

Mine are all in now. We will get rain, and I would bet that's about it.I would be more worried if they were well established and large plants.

They are predicting gusts to 50 here on the Cape, but that's so close to a normal windy day that I think my plants are used to it. All except the new ones that just sprouted in my new box. They are so cute! I'll thin them after the storm in case some pass out from it.

CC

Since it's scheduled to rain for a couple days, I threw down some more carrot and bean seeds. Figure the animals/birds won't get carrot seeds in this weather, and the beans need a good soaking to sprout. I have a couple carrot seeds that germinated, and several fortex green bean plants, just filling in holes.

Other than that, I just have 3 trees to transplant: chinese chestnut and bee bee tree, and then a few flowering plants, and I have some extra sunflowers, green bean, and corn seedlings in containers to transplant when they're a little bigger.

It will be interesting to see what all this extra rain does to my squash plants with wet feet in the field. Next year, mounded rows for sure.

This weather will bring out the slugs in full force. My ducklings have not arrived yet, and I'm not sure if they will, so I may have to manually pick slugs again this year....

Well, the sun is shining and it's gorgeous out. So different from the stormy weather we woke up to this morning. I just got in from assessing the damage: 3 broken sugar pea branches all loaded with flowers, a downed Egyptian Walking onion piece that was above the bulging thing (delicious in my salad!), some fallen tomato flowers and some HUGE tomato suckers that weren't anything like that yesterday. So I picked off the suckers, planted 2 and accidentally broke off a wee developing Super Sonic tomato in the process. I wanted that tomato so bad, too, to see if it's anything like the hybrid parent that I saved the seeds from. Oh well, there will be more.

Something took up refuge from the storm in this onion leaf. It's still attached to the plant but I guess I could take it off and investigate - ick:


Other than that everything grew like it was on speed since I last saw it. Had to harvest lettuce today out of that first box coz it's overflowing:


The seedlings in the new tulle covered box are just fine and will need thinning soon:


I still haven't thinned my spag squash being a little gun shy from last years thinning when the remaining ones died on me.
How long can I wait?

How'd everyone else's garden fair?

CC

CC, what's under the tulle? Is that spaghetti squash too? Next year I'm planting my carrots like that.

Now that the rain has moved out, everything is looking rain forest-y. You'd think all that rain would be too much, but the plants seemed to have liked it.

I have egyptian onions planted, but I have to figure out how/when to eat them.

NHGardener wrote:CC, what's under the tulle? Is that spaghetti squash too? Next year I'm planting my carrots like that.

Now that the rain has moved out, everything is looking rain forest-y. You'd think all that rain would be too much, but the plants seemed to have liked it.

I have egyptian onions planted, but I have to figure out how/when to eat them.

Under the tulle in the new box I planted seeds of carrots (4th or 5th try), scallions, beets, spinach mustard, collards, cabbage & kale. There's one empty sq for some swiss chard that is currently in a pot and needs dividing whenever I get around to it. (my dad used to hand out 'Round Tuits' whenever anyone said that. )

The spaghetti squash seedlings are on the mound covered with pine needles on the ground, not in a box. I have 2 mounds of them in hopes of getting more than one squash this year.

The Egyptian onions are still confusing to me even tho I've read up & watched vids on them, and seen them in a real life garden. All I know is that the farmer who's bed I saw said he & wife eat the tops all the time except for the flower part (scape?) as well as dig others completely up to eat. When seeds are formed he tosses the seeds over the fence. So outside the fence there's a field of them...much bigger than his plot. That in itself was confusing. :drunken: But eating that broken off 'part' today was delicious so I may be scalping all but the bulging part that is kinda creepy looking right now...like aliens are coming out of it:


So I'm guessing that you can harvest the whole plant and eat it, or leave the bulge to go to flower(?)/seed if you want to plant more, or let it lay over and seed itself. I can't do that where my 3 plants are as I don't have the room. I'm hoping for seed so I can start them in a new spot.

That's all I got.
CC

Ah. Thanks. I'll see if my new carrot seeds I threw - en masse - out there before the rain will emerge.

I read up today on egyptian onions here, this may help you, it helped me.

http://www.egyptianwalkingonion.com/

I got some in a plant swap and I'm really excited about them because they're perennials and plant themselves. But next spring I'm still planning on ordering potato onions, I think those are even better.

Yes, I've seen that website before, NHG, but it sure helped to read it again. Thanks for posting it! I think the more I read it the better I'll understand it. I must have 1 topset each on 2 of my 3 new plants. Better than none. AND I can eat 1 or 2 leaves off each plant. YUM!

I picked 3 strawberries today but haven't eaten them yet. I'm saving them for breakfast. I know this is blurry but so are my eyes...need to go to bed!


All in all I may get 3 dzn or so off the 2 plants I bought last year and their 3 daughters. There are lots of new daughters coming out now so next yr we may have 5 dzn berries. And on it goes...

Good nite, all...
CC

Beautiful berries! Mine are still non-red, can't wait.

I had no idea strawberries were so prolific or I would have ordered fewer plants. They spread everywhere. I have to find a new place to put all my spreaders.

So it seems that we made it through "Andrea" OK-enough. Not much wind up my way at all, but lotsa rain & rather chilly.

I had started hardening-off the toms, peppers & eggplants last week, but with the temps in the low 40s at night, I chickened out on setting them out & have been bringing them in to "sleep" in the enclosed 3-season porch where it's a lot warmer.

Last night I let the toms & peppers have a slumber-party outside but the eggplants called home to say they wanted to come in, so out Mommy went at 10 PM & in they came.

This is what the 5-day forecast is predicting (with either rain or clouds throughout):
Sunday: 75 | 41 °F
Monday: 81 | 54 °F
Tuesday: 68 | 57 °F
Wednesday: 64 | 48 °F
Thursday: 68 | 46 °F
(Keep in mind that I live in a cold-hole of sorts & that the temps in my yard are usually a few degrees cooler than in the surrounding areas).

Am I being over-protective? I'm thinking that the eggplants are going in a pot so I can bring them in as needed, but I'd really like to get the others into the ground soon.

Any thoughts? I could set up some hoops and drape some row covers over them. I have the .5 oz stuff but will it be enough?

OH! And CC, what kind of tulle is that? "Regular" tulle like you get at the fabric store or something special?

Thanks in advance!

Plant 'em Molly. There is no frost in the forecast, which is good enough for our area.

Or you could move them down south, which is a big temptation right now.

Season extenders are probably a must for our area, tho.

I found a fluke red strawberry in my patch just now - something ate a hole in one side, but I munched the other side, and -- mmmmm -- thought I died and went to heaven. Can't wait.

The garden was dry enough to transplant today. And the temps were only in the low 70s and sunny, so a great day for gardening.

I transplanted peppers and eggplants and one more Defiant tomato, weeded the strawberry bed which has some yellow forming berries so I'd better cover that bed before the birds get them, and sowed watermelon seed (Golden Nugget) in a plant pot since I have no more room in my garden for such a space hog. Also transplanted some thyme in a hanging basket to keep near my kitchen. I use a lot of thyme in my cooking.

Happily I harvested some super sugar snap peas from the transplanted square I put in the garden bed on 4-8 this year. The othersm which I direct seeded on 4-7 are gathering blossoms so I should have more peas soon.

My Chinese cabbage bolted so I pulled it out but I see one of my cauliflower, Violet Queen, is forming a head. I hope it makes it.



This is the only one that made it thru the heatwave.

Good stuff going on in NE
bea, that cauliflower is outstanding! I can't wait to see it all grown up