PNW: 2015 June

boffer wrote:....snip..... Today, I prepped some empty squares for fall crops.  In a week or two, it will already be time to start planting for fall!

I've been looking through the TSC fall catalog, and thinking about trying some new varieties  that will over winter and begin growing in early spring next year.  So far, I've chosen Purple Sprouting broccoli and January King cabbage.

Any other suggestions?

No suggestions, jus' sayen....

I am starting Kalette, sometimes called flowering brussels sprouts. It is a highbred of Russian kale and an un-named brussels sprout. I will not have time or room to start my purple sprouting broccoli until July. I think the late season kalette is ready in February or March. 

Other then leeks, favas, and kale that starts sprouting in early spring, I don't know too much about overwintering. Where is Rose?

Hybrids are often interesting.

I've got a bunch of seedpods on my purple sprouting broccoli. The heads were not very impressive last season, though, and I don't know if they're hybrid or not, so I will just tear out the plants and put something else in.

Temps: 102 today, they say, 98 tomorrrow and cooling to the mid-90's by Wednesday. I've seen my first case of leaf scorch today, on my Arkansas Traveler tomato plant. Summer is officially here.

Hard to think of planting for fall. I do want to keep it in mind for growing peas. But around here, it's still the month to plant beans.

Boffer -- can hardly have too much kale, IMO.

I grow a little bit of kale, but we prefer chard to kale.  When my fall planting of chard runs out, I grow it inside.

My spring cauliflower is exceptional this year.  I steam it for 2 minutes, and it just melts in my mouth with a wonderful flavor.  I don't know why.  They're the same varieties I've grown before, in  my usual MM, and no amendments.  I guess it's one of those things that keep gardening exciting.

I blanched and froze 5 pounds of broccoli today.  Tomorrow I'll make my first batch of pickles.  I love putting up food for winter.  Don't quote me on that when I start complaining  about canning 50-60 jars of beans later this year!  I really depleted our bean stash this past year, and need to get it built back up.

How's everyone's gardens in the rainy zone handling this early heatwave we're having?  I guess I'm a lightweight, as I'm already looking forward to the cooling trend that's supposed to start tomorrow!

Has anyone tried to grow tree collards or malabar spinach in a raised bed SFG?

Our tree collards and malabar spinach is grown in real soil in a separate part of our garden in the old in-the-ground SFG of the 1980's.

I grew malabar spinach (green variety) last year in MM in plastic buckets.  Didn't vine very much at all.  They were very squat plants.  But they produced a lot of leaves very compactly all in on each other, like the leaves were cards in a deck of cards.  Health looking too.  But i was the only person who liked the taste, and i wasn't overwhelmed by the taste,so I'm skipping it this year.

108, it turns out, last Monday. Holy cow.  In early June!  A few years back, we had snow in May.  

Watered the plants today and some beans were on the surface of the soil.  I've seen that before.  Not sure why that happens that way sometimes, but beans especially seem to just get convulsed onto the soil sometimes.

Some disease spreading through some of the tomatoes *sigh*.  58 degrees tonight, 100 degrees this afternoon ... I think that kind of dramatic temp change makes plants extra vulnerable.  Some nice robust growth on the recent tomato transplants anyway,though.

We are going to have puppies, so I have to clear out almost the entirety of my garden back home, including the already planted burlap sacks.  I worry about disrupting the roots with the way the bags are going to heave and reshape themselves when I pick them up to move them.  All that stuff is in half of the kennel out back, but soon it's time for the dogs to use it.  Thank goodness I didn't plant too many bags/containers in that location.

BUt I did plant some that I want to keep seeds of ... Speedy snap beans, from Territorial Seed, which no longer lists them in its catalogue and which were a huge success for me last year.  Oh well, hope it turns out okay.  I will have to move my back yard garden for the most part to a neighbor's place.

You win again, 108*F!! And, you have quite a job ahead moving all the plants. Are the puppies from one of your dogs? You must post photos when they are born.

Our little girl, Feather, was mated with a very handsome fellow just a week or so ago. We're expecting her puppies in mid-July, I think. I'll keep you updated on the puppy adventure!

Some of the beans have sprouted already. I guess they really like germinating in this hot weather!

....trying to figure out how to get as much crops as possible for all the seasons of the year.....

Ack... sorry Rose! I don't recall being able to edit someone's post before, and somehow in my reply to you I guess I edited yours down to almost nothing!

My bad and my apologies. I have no idea how to reverse it.

Surgery, Rose?  You okay?

How you doing, Rose? I think we're all curious ...

On the garden front, scarlet runner beans DID pop up after all. I only planted four, from the school garden I worked at a while back. So busy lately, wish I could have gotten back there again this year. Anyway, glad to see it and will plant them in the back yard, up against a fence. No need for a bean teepee that way, I think.

Radishes and more and more beans sprouting. A few more non-sprouts than I'd hoped for, though. Bums me out a little bit. I want to save seed from my favorites, like Speedy and Royal Burgundy beans, but if I get mediocre germination, I may be growing many more plants just for seed than I'd like. I wanna actually eat the stuff!

Bought some locally adapted dragon tongue beans from Siskyou Seeds. I'm keen on them, as they were very good last year(and I don't think I've seen any other veggie so highly recommended here on SFG) though the crop was limited due to a beastly day that sun-scorched virtually the whole crop and ruined it. I hope I get plenty to eat and save this year, as it can be hard to do both and the seed packets aren't cheap. They really are cool-looking beans and taste great as fresh raw snaps. Plus they look so interesting on the salad plate.

I feel like should be in a gardener's version of the movie Swingers, substituting "Beans, baby, beans!" for "Vegas, baby, Vegas!"

Is it wrong to love beans?

Marc,   My KW are doing great behind their sheers, the Rattlesnake are putting out new lower leaves behind their new sheers, but the DT look dead from the +100s.  I'm going to try giving them a hair cut, better sheers and see if they recover.

Oh, best of luck on rescuing the dragon tongues, sanderson. I know how much you enjoy them. They really are pretty darn great.

Sure can be sensitive, though. I've had sudden flushes of both cold and heat wipe out wonderfully healthy bean plants overnight. The sheers seem like a great idea. The vines are so naturally thin, too, that the sheers probably provide some pretty helpful protection from winds. I have to be SO careful when I water them not to let the water beat the leaves down to the ground or twist up the vines.

I think I'm having some of the backyard surrendered to my gardening in exchange for getting all my plants out of the unused kennel. We'll probably never use it for puppies, but then again we might, so my plants have to go. And the space I'll be moving them into is right next to the kennel, but it's more than twice as big. Woohoo! Now I just gotta figure out how to fence it in so the dogs don't destroy it -- without spending a lotta money doing it.

I'm going to enjoy having so much more space to plant things!

Marc Iverson wrote:
I think I'm having some of the backyard surrendered to my gardening in exchange for getting all my plants out of the unused kennel. I'm going to enjoy having so much more space to plant things!

Yipee!

Yeah, gonna be great!

Went to visit my favorite local nursery today, Greenleaf. They are having a sale on plants. Even their cheapies are heavily discounted. Little four-packs for a buck, and it was buy one, get one free. So for seven bucks I got 8 pepper plants, 8 cascading lobelias, a bunch of coleus, and four purple basil plants. Purple ruffles is the basil type, and they've done extremely well for me in the past and been very pest-resistant. They're also beautiful. I look forward to having these guys around again.

Nice score.

Here's the forecast for the next 10 days in my neck of the woods.




Nighttime lows in the sixties aren't  common here even in the hottest month of August.  I don't recall ever seeing them in June.  Given last winter's low snow pack, I'm getting concerned.

So am I, Boffer.  With this "sticky" meridional jet stream, I think we're headed for extended warmer weather west of the Rockies, but much colder and snowier eastward.  This pattern typified the Wisconsin Ice Age.  

Not too long ago, I read about the discovery in Scotland of evidence of glacial initiation.

If the weather reports are correct, the Pacific states are going to have some extra heat late June, and I think, early July.  http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/heat-to-broil-west-during-last-week-of-june/ar-AAbQxGr

You're right, Sanderson!  I'm not looking forward to it.  

That was an unnerving story, sanderson. Sounds like the writer was taking the "extreme" heat very seriously, so I will too! I went out and watered early this morning even though I sometimes skip a day and just watered yesterday.

Some of my plants have only been in their 5-gallon buckets and other containers for a little while, so I may take to watering them twice a day. I don't want to train them to keep their roots up high were they can dry out more easily though. Might be a tricky business, I dunno.

I think I may have just barely saved some pepper plants, though. A couple of hot days came right after I transplanted them and boy were they withered by yesterday. The transplanted basil wasn't doing well either. But the basil seems to have sprung back for the most part, and I've got my fingers crossed for everything else in this coming hot weather.

Flea beetles are out and attacking the bean leaves again, and little green caterpillars are on the nasturtiums.

I think I allowed the MM to dry out too much and it was a bear to get it moist again. What makes it a hard battle this summer is the loss of 2 shade trees and dead lawn. As a result, the temperature is higher in the back yard than my first 2 years. I have got to get shade sails made. DH gets a toy airplane, I get a garden toy!! Fair, right?

More than fair, especially if he's not allowing you to eat the airplane.

boffer wrote:Here's the forecast for the next 10 days in my neck of the woods.




Nighttime lows in the sixties aren't  common here even in the hottest month of August.  I don't recall ever seeing them in June.  Given last winter's low snow pack, I'm getting concerned.

oh my

Im little stumped at the moment...mostly because of the weather.....I have a few SQ's in both SFG bed 1 & 2 that need to be re-sown with something.....as we harvested our carrots, beets and a few cole crops from these beds.......with the heat that we are getting Im not sure if I can sow more carrots..... maybe some turnips,  cole crops and other veggies for fall harvesting??....eek what should we do??.......

right now SFG bed #1 has 4 SQ's scarlet runner beans, 1 SQ celery, 4 SQ's onions with one volunteer sunflower.....that leaves us 7 SQ's empty......

SFG bed #2 has 4 SQ's sugar snap peas (that are slowing down) 2 SQ's purple cabbage, a volunteer sunflower in with the 1 SQ kale, 4 SQ's onions.....leaves us with 5 empty SQ's

help  this confused PNW gardener!
hugs
rose