CANADIAN REGION - What are you doing in JUNE 2015

Strawberries are continuing to be quite prolific and I am managing to keep my friends sweet.

Harvested the last of the garlic scapes.

Digging up the tulip and daffodil bulbs for fall planting.

Haven't done much else  lately, a bit too hot for me to work comfortably.

I am watering my friend's plants as she has scooted off to Calgary to visit her sister for two weeks: I am hoping it will not turn out to be two months.

Luckily the lawn growth is slowing so I don't have to mow as frequently. The grass is still green even though I never water it, unlike my neighbours who have their sprinklers on every day. We now have water meters and  they will be put in service next year.

Hope everyone else is OK.

Hello Everyone,

Its been a while since I have been online.  Sounds like things are progressing fairly well.  As for the lawn talk, we just had our backyard leveled and laid all fresh sod, it is looking good but have to keep the kids off it until it takes, lol.  I also need to get a roller and give it a good rolling.

My garden is coming along quite well.  I feel most proud that everything I have grown has been from seed!  There is one spot left in the back row for a tomato plant.  I haven't had must luck getting another one to germinate.  I have 2 seeds inside trying again, but this late I may just go buy a transplant to put in that spot.  Maybe a cherry tomato because I don't have one of those yet.

TT- The garlic is growing extremely well!!  So far so good, I have no doubt I will be harvesting some nice bulbs in the fall!

As for my strawberry plant, I have had 3 strawberries ready but seems a squirrel is getting back there and nibbling on it before I can harvest, lol. 

Here is my gardens progress thus far!  Week 4!

Tomatos, peppers, carrots and radish!



Squash, cucumbers, carrots, beans, garlic, lettuce.  I need to put more romaine seeds in, only 1 head is coming up.



Acorn squash and zuchinni

Good to hear from you, Shrimpsey, and your beds are looking good.

There's me trying to decrease the amount of lawn I have and you laying down new sod.   Actually, the parts of the  lawn I am trying to decrease are what I call the fiddly bits where one has to push and pull the mower to get at it.  My ambition is to have a circular lawn with all the beds arranged around it so that I can start from the outside and gradually mow in a decreasing circle.  Then as it gets more difficult to mow, I will have a circular bed in the middle.

On the other hand I will probably make it a square lawn and just mow back and forth.

As the season is passing I suggest you get a tomato transplant and try to make sure it is a short season one otherwise you will end up with green tomatoes. You can take green tomatoes off the plant before frost and take them indoors to finish ripening.
I always had to do that before I cut down some trees and found I have increased my growing season and finally had red toms.

This morning I saw on the weather report the rainfall figures for British Columbia for May and June and they look really bad.

I can't remember the actual figures but May was something like 5 inches whereas the normal was over 50 inches and June was in a very similar trend. In addition we did not have the normal snowfall that we rely on for the summer months.

I'm some parts of the continent would be happy with those figures but here in British Columbia we have taken for granted that we get bountiful rain and snowfall.

So glad that last year I decided to  begin mulching  with wood chips and anything else I can lay my hands on. As I did a couple fo inches below the surface I come to the damp layer where there are worms  wiggling through the moist earth, happy as .....worms.

Kelejan wrote:
As the season is passing I suggest you get a tomato transplant and try to make sure it is a short season one otherwise you will end up with green tomatoes. You can take green tomatoes off the plant before frost and take them indoors to finish ripening.
I always had to do that before I cut down some trees and found I have increased my growing season and finally had red toms.

I've gotten tons of mileage out of my green tomatoes by cooking them down into green tomato chutney. I've done some with just green tomatoes, some with green tomatoes and tomatillos, ripe and unripe, and some with green tomatoes and green apples. All came out really well and people loved them. My mother used to astonish me by eating it by the bowlful just as-is. You just can't tell them it's chutney before they try it, or half of them won't even try it. Makes for a wonderful condiment with pork or chicken or fish, though.

So to anyone who "only" gets green tomatoes, don't despair! You can make something delicious with a very long fridge life that would cost you an obscene amount if you bought it in a store.

Marc:
"So to anyone who "only" gets green tomatoes, don't despair! You can make something delicious with a very long fridge life that would cost you an obscene amount if you bought it in a store."



Great advice, Marc.  Make the best of what you can grow.

Still getting promises of rain showers but so far they have by-passed us here.

Today's forecast is overcast again, current temp. 22C/71F then going up to 40C/104F by Sunday.

Looks like I will have to get up with the Sun to be able to do anything physical.

At least my strawberries are being productive and I am getting about 30 berries a day.  I am freezing about half of them each day so as to have a supply for the winter, to keep the blueberries company that I will buy from the Farmers' Market as my own bushes are only on to their first year of production.

The lettuce patch is still going strong and I need to look at the garlic so see if it is ready to  harvest. There is still plenty of green on the stalks and I have picked all the scapes. I had better go over to the garlic thread to see what I should be doing.

Thanks for the update Shrimpsey! You'll have to let me know how the garlic tastes with a fall harvest. My existing beds are full now but I'll sneak some garlic cloves in around the herbs later in the season. 

I've been appreciating the heavy rains this past week after such a dry May. Our dirt is basically sand so the grass just comes and goes with the rain and I don't mind. But I did purchase an automatic timer for the SFG irrigation when we are away later in August - right now I just have it set up for every 3 days and bypass when there is rain. 

I've been harvesting snow peas all week - yum! They are so sweet and snappy. Very happy with those - will have to grow more than 2 squares next year. Looks like I can grab some lettuce and green onion tomorrow to make a salad as well. And Fred - I tried my first Nasturtium - a little spicy but very good!

Sadly, my radishes that did grow are black and rotten? Ideas? I've also got big black and yellow caterpillars gnawing on one of my dill plants, and some kind of disease on my beet leaves...This is the first year for two everbearing strawberry plants so probably nothing to say there (got a flat from the market and mmm made myself a delicious birthday cake).

I'll take some pics tomorrow!

Looking forward to seeing your picks, TT.

Our expected rain did not materialize so I will have to carry on watering instead of having a day off.

Marc Iverson wrote: You just can't tell them it's chutney before they try it, or half of them won't even try it.  

This is so true. I won't eat anything called chutney. And now that I know some may have green tomatoes in them....yikes.

CC

Have you ever had green salsa? Not so far from that, which is made from green tomatillos. Just that it's sweeter and cooks down creamier, more like jam. Green tomatoes/tomatillos/apples plus golden raisins and apple cider vinegar, cooked down nice and slow ... it's all good stuff and nobody has not liked it quite a bit. But a few have refused to try it!

Really, it won't kill a person to try it. It's not like being asked to suck a raw goat's eyeball out of its head or something...

Marc, really, I'll try it, I'll try it!  Anything but the dreaded goat's eyeball.

Here is what my garden looks like today. Taking pictures really highlights the need to do more weeding with this hot/humid weather.

Lettuce came up nicely on the deck with some dill



Morning glories are in bloom (every evening when they close up I temporarily think they're dying and then am reminded that it is normal!)


Squash and nasturtium are blooming


Artichoke (2 globe and 2 start) surprisingly took well to transplanting and little celery are in there too


Green Onion and Chives (just beginning to flower - gonna harvest some gr. onion today!)


Six healthy tomato plants just starting to flower (mixed blend? seeds from a friend)


This hot mess has 2 cherry tomato plants 3 paste tomato plants, dill, basil, cucumber (slow growing - planted a little late) and a few radishes to keep the pests away.


Carrots!


Beets


Pepper and eggplants


Snow peas and pole beans (I've been enjoying the snow peas for about a week now)


Herb garden - I'll harvest and dry that parsley on Sunday...


Catnip and Zucchini


Finally, Kohlrabi!


Phew. I was feeling like my garden wasn't doing so well until I took these pics - so much green! Very exciting for a first-time green thumb

TT, Looking good! thanks for sharing the photos.

Turnip, it all looks great! The color in your morning glories is spectacular. I'm jealous you can grow lettuce so close at hand and relatively unprotected ... just too hot around here for that. Your kohlrabi leaves look a lot like kale. I wonder if they'd be worth eating once the kohlrabi is harvested.

Anyway, everything looks so healthy and beautiful. Whatever you're doing, there must be something right about it!

Looks really nice and yummy, Tasty Turnip. Keep it up.


Saturday forecast is 39C/103F and Sunday's is 40C/104F.  I must admit I am not doing too much for a while, unless I wake at 5am as I want to harvest some comfrey from down the road.

A sprinkling of rain is forcast for Monday but "they" have been lying to us for weeks.  I am beginning to think this may be the driest year since I came her in 1979. My lawn is beginning to look a little dry but I am happy with it as I have never watered it for the last two years, just cut high and often and leave the clippings in place.

The rest of the week is in the high 30Cs.  Expecting water restrictions any day now.

Just enjoying some cool temperatures of 18C/64F, doing some watering and picking the last of the June strawberries.

Then time to walk the dog before the afternoon of 40C/104F that is forecast.

Thunderstorms predicted for Monday and Tuesday then back up to these highs once more. I say prdeicted, but for a long time now none of them have happened so I have had to continue watering.  I would really appreciate a little break.

Finally had a lovely thunderstorm with lashings of rain. Sat and watched/listened to it for about 45 minutes then it cleared and the sun shone.

I loved looking at the trees thrashing around in the wind and then with their leaves all freshly washed gleaming in the sunlight.

The rain came down in sheets and blown along the road  like a river. I had been out     earlier watering my friend's pot plants, I just missed getting a real soaking by about twenty minutes.

Rain!

Things have cooled down a bit due to the thunderstorm we had yesterday and right now, at 9:00am it is a pleasant 20C/65Fn my car port and we have just returned from a walk.  It will go up to about 32C later today but that is much more bearable than the 40-42C we had recently.

Lawn mowing time again, but it is nothing to what had to be done last month and early this month.  No sooner turned one's back, it shot up two inches overnight, or so it seemed.  But that is when you get your lawn into shape for the rest of the year.

Now to  consider clearing the garlic and planting something else. Also the last of the strawberries.  Now need to read up about both of them as I still do not know instinctively what to do.

We got tons of rain here on the weekend too! 60 mm in some parts. I haven't set up a rain gage...just happy nothing washed away.

I should say I have the lettuce under the shade of an awning most of the time but pull it out when it rains. 

It looked like my beets had some kind of bug, so I pulled all of those ravaged leaves off at the risk of loosing some photosynthesis...and they really bounced back after the rain. Still keeping my eyes on them though. And still enjoying snow peas!

Question...what do I do when my tomato plants have reached the top of the cage? I've been pruning the low hanging stems as well as the intermediate ones...but not sure what to do at the top?

TastyTurnip wrote:We got tons of rain here on the weekend too! 60 mm in some parts. I haven't set up a rain gage...just happy nothing washed away.

I should say I have the lettuce under the shade of an awning most of the time but pull it out when it rains. 

It looked like my beets had some kind of bug, so I pulled all of those ravaged leaves off at the risk of loosing some photosynthesis...and they really bounced back after the rain. Still keeping my eyes on them though. And still enjoying snow peas!

Question...what do I do when my tomato plants have reached the top of the cage? I've been pruning the low hanging stems as well as the intermediate ones...but not sure what to do at the top?

I think it may depend on how many trusses to can expect to bring to produce tomatoes.  If you have no more trusses, why not prune the top and allow the energy to be diverted to the fruit already formed.

CONTINUE ON TO THE JULY 2015 thread.