N & C Midwest--It is JUNE!!!! Garden Time!

I cannot believe it is June already!  It was such a cool/windy/rainy/windy--oh, I said that already--Spring, but it has finally arrived!

What do you have in, show us some pics??  ?Please????!!!!!!

And what is still to be done?

I have in:  Tomates (still need support), peppers, lettuces, spinach (bolting--coming out this weekend), Swiss chard

Carrots, radishes about done some of them, beets, turnips and sugar snap peas. And kale and herbs in containers.

Still to be done:  Plant starts of melons, cukes, and squash.  Need to seed in the pole beans.  Sunflowers and nasturtiums (only 2 made it) will also go in the ground.  

So of course it is supposed to rain this weekend

OK, The radishes are gonna be done, loves me some radish sammies....yummy butter, light and salt.  

Tugging out the spent black seeded Simpson, and. Spinaches. 

In:  pole beans, hotties!  

Hot here today, nice...dry.  

Also planting the 2 nasturtiums and 15 sunflowers.

Pics on the way, but everything's changed since I last shot photos - 3 days ago? - so I'll get out in the morning and shoot more to post.

Old/going out - last of my Red Sails lettuce was taken out today, but that yielded yet another big tub of salad for the week.  I didn't have as many lettuce plants this year, but probably my best yield ever.  Very few rejected leaves going into the compost bin.  Love love LOVE the Red Sails!

Still going - cabbage, oh my!  They're YUGE this year, and completely free (so far) of cabbage moth worms.  It worked out really well that I interleaved the cabbage squares with the lettuce squares.  The lettuce finished up just as the cabbage is really taking off, and now the cabbage has a little more room to sprawl out.

New - Broccoli is getting heads of buds on them.  Not huge, so I probably won't get much from the 4 plants I raised, but I am pleased with my first effort to grow broccoli.  Also, this variety is getting lots of side sprouts, so we'll probably be nibbling on them for another few weeks or so.

...and the toe-maters!  Wow, wow, wow...  My "custom" SFG configuration is working great, as is the Florida weave trellis system.  The new containers are also working great, so far.  Just about all the plants are setting fruit now, and growing like crazy and the first ones are now clearly visible.  From what I can see now, there's going to be massive quantities of salsa this year, and maybe just a few extra jars and tubs of home-preserved tomatoes.

CitizenKate wrote:Pics on the way, but everything's changed since I last shot photos - 3 days ago? - so I'll get out in the morning and shoot more to post.

Old/going out - last of my Red Sails lettuce was taken out today, but that yielded yet another big tub of salad for the week.  I didn't have as many lettuce plants this year, but probably my best yield ever.  Very few rejected leaves going into the compost bin.  Love love LOVE the Red Sails!

Still going - cabbage, oh my!  They're YUGE this year, and completely free (so far) of cabbage moth worms.  It worked out really well that I interleaved the cabbage squares with the lettuce squares.  The lettuce finished up just as the cabbage is really taking off, and now the cabbage has a little more room to sprawl out.

New - Broccoli is getting heads of buds on them.  Not huge, so I probably won't get much from the 4 plants I raised, but I am pleased with my first effort to grow broccoli.  Also, this variety is getting lots of side sprouts, so we'll probably be nibbling on them for another few weeks or so.

...and the toe-maters!  Wow, wow, wow...  My "custom" SFG configuration is working great, as is the Florida weave trellis system.  The new containers are also working great, so far.  Just about all the plants are setting fruit now, and growing like crazy and the first ones are now clearly visible.  From what I can see now, there's going to be massive quantities of salsa this year, and maybe just a few extra jars and tubs of home-preserved tomatoes.

WOW!!!!  Yay!  Sounds great!  OK, what is the Florida weave?

I'll see if I can find the original topic/thread where I discovered the Florida weave.

Meanwhile, here are some photos from my garden, taken today...

Patio view with lots of sub-irrigating containers...


California Wonder peppers.  This plant is producing a lot for its size.  Little touch of sun scald on the lower one... :-/


Celebrities... always good producers, and always very flavorful.


Some tiny milkweed blossoms... these were just stunning.


A few more containers in the mulched area where the raised beds are...


The SFG bed where all the indeterminate tomato plants live.  Suffice it to say, they are thriving so far.


The Rutgers are winning the race, so far.  Or at least the one in the very center.  The others are not so eager, but are also in the race.  (This one was a little tough to shoot because it was surrounded by so much foliage and in a relatively dark place.)


Here's a nice string of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes off to a good start.  There are two more strings in progress, so far...


My cabbages in the leafy bed.  Best I've seen in one of my gardens, so far...  The netting is such a godsend.



First attempt at broccoli.  I just sampled some today, and it's wonderfully tender.



This bed has onions, garlic (that I planted in spring), and a few squares of carrots.  I tried clipping the onion stalks to encourage bigger bulbs, but so far, it's inconclusive whether this works.  I also got onion sets from a different source this year, so who knows?  But have gotten an abundance of stalks for drying and green onions.  We'll see if the big onions come around...



Took a sample pull of one carrot to see how the carrots are doing... they still have a ways to go, but they sure are tasty!


To be continued...

Here's the thread I found on how to do a Florida weave...

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t19561-florida-weave-for-supporting-tomatoes-plants?highlight=florida+weave

What is the material you are using to do the Florida Weave.  It looks green and thick.

Your plants look great, Kate, and your garden is gorgeous!  Isn't milkweed pretty?  Is that the tropical kind?  

I will be anxiously waiting to hear if you are a Florida Weave convert....

yolos wrote:What is the material you are using to do the Florida Weave.  It looks green and thick.

Good observation.  Instead of cotton twine, I decided to use the same foam wire that I use to tie up loose branches.  It's more expensive, but nice and cushiony on those stems, and can be re-used for a couple more seasons.  So far, it seems to work fine.

Here's the product info...

Scorpio Rising wrote:Isn't milkweed pretty?  Is that the tropical kind?

They're beautiful plants, I don't know what they did to deserve their reputation as a weed. I'm not sure exactly what species of milkweed I have, since there wasn't much information on the label. I got these from a local nursery. But they do have a very tropical appearance to them.

Scorpio Rising wrote:I will be anxiously waiting to hear if you are a Florida Weave convert....

If it keeps the plants standing through one of our severe thunderstorms, I'll probably stay with it. I'm not looking forward to the acid test, but it's inevitable. Also, it's kind of nice to have that conduit to hang on to when I'm stepping around the beds, too. They're a little crowded in that spot, and there's not much room to comfortably step around or lean over them.

CitizenKate wrote:  Also, it's kind of nice to have that conduit to hang on to when I'm stepping around the beds, too.  They're a little crowded in that spot, and there's not much room to comfortably step around or lean over them.

I know what you mean about using structures to help keep one's balance: I have a collard (that I'm trying to get seeds from) that has ended up flopped into an aisle in my OSFG bed area. The aisle is narrow to start with and there isn't an alternate route... the result is that I've been walking on the 1" wide (but only 4" tall) bed edge, balance beam style. Adjacent to that I just recently put in cages for the tomatillos, and it's been very nice being able to use those to help keep my balance.

CitizenKate wrote:

yolos wrote:What is the material you are using to do the Florida Weave.  It looks green and thick.

Good observation.  Instead of cotton twine, I decided to use the same foam wire that I use to tie up loose branches.  It's more expensive, but nice and cushiony on those stems, and can be re-used for a couple more seasons.  So far, it seems to work fine.

Here's the product info...

Thank you.

Interesting.....I don't have any conduit, I re-used some black metal trellises that I already had when I put up those first "boxes", and they will last longer than I....

Right, the first t-storms are not yet upon us....time will tell!

Kate, are those home made self-watering containers?  I'm also intrigued by the support system for those containers.  Is it just 4 pieces of conduit on each side? Do you the the tomatoes to the condui?

This weekend I helped my mother in law do a Florida weave system.  She was given 19 tomato plants by her neighbor who bought them and then had no time for the garden this year.  She had no idea how to support them (they were all indeteminates and she's only ever done determinates).  After seeing some posted on Florida weave, I suggested to try that.  She didn't want to spend the money on rebar and conduit, so just got some 6' garden stakes. I would have gotten longer ones and I'm worried about the stability, but it was her decision to balance cost and quality to fit her needs.  Anyway, got them all in the ground for her myself since she hurt her this weekend.  She just wanted them in the ground, didn't want any raised beds  (I haven't won her over to the SFG side entirely yet).  I did at least convince her to buy some compost so I mixed that in for her.  Did I mention she didn't have an actual garden area and I didn't have a rototiller, so I was trying my best to break up grass and double dig by hand?  Yeah, I did a probably didn't do a very good job,  but it is what it is. I figure she can't complain about free plants and free labor haha.

Kate, lovely garden!

sanderson wrote:Kate, lovely garden!

Yes it is ... excellent!

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:
I know what you mean about using structures to help keep one's balance: I have a collard (that I'm trying to get seeds from) that has ended up flopped into an aisle in my OSFG bed area. The aisle is narrow to start with and there isn't an alternate route... the result is that I've been walking on the 1" wide (but only 4" tall) bed edge, balance beam style. Adjacent to that I just recently put in cages for the tomatillos, and it's been very nice being able to use those to help keep my balance.

Those beds I have by the fence are less than a foot apart. I placed them in a spot where I did row gardening before that - if you could even call it that - and there was just barely room for 3 4x4 squares. So yeah, I do a lot of side-shuffling between them, and standing on the sides of the boxes when tilling, etc.

Robbomb116 wrote:Kate, are those home made self-watering containers?  I'm also intrigued by the support system for those containers.  Is it just 4 pieces of conduit on each side? Do you the the tomatoes to the condui?

Yes, I designed and built those.  I'm actually not quite finished building the trellises for those.  Here's a photo of one that's complete:



The cross members are just some polyethylene tubing, joined at the ends with a piece of dowel rod, and sealed with heat shrink. They're attached to the PVC conduit with zip ties. It's flexible but very sturdy. My friend who I gave this to routinely has gale-force winds on her patio, especially during thunderstorms, and it hasn't tipped over yet. (The plant is about 1/3 of the way up the trellis now.)

Robbomb116 wrote:This weekend I helped my mother in law do a Florida weave system.  She was given 19 tomato plants by her neighbor who bought them and then had no time for the garden this year.  She had no idea how to support them (they were all indeteminates and she's only ever done determinates).  After seeing some posted on Florida weave, I suggested to try that.  She didn't want to spend the money on rebar and conduit, so just got some 6' garden stakes. I would have gotten longer ones and I'm worried about the stability, but it was her decision to balance cost and quality to fit her needs.  Anyway, got them all in the ground for her myself since she hurt her this weekend.  She just wanted them in the ground, didn't want any raised beds  (I haven't won her over to the SFG side entirely yet).  I did at least convince her to buy some compost so I mixed that in for her.  Did I mention she didn't have an actual garden area and I didn't have a rototiller, so I was trying my best to break up grass and double dig by hand?  Yeah, I did a probably didn't do a very good job,  but it is what it is. I figure she can't complain about free plants and free labor haha.

She may change her mind about the rebar and conduit by the end of the season.  

The containers are genius, I would get a patent lawyer, Kate! 

Rob-I bet you have a convert for a 4x4 by seasons end!

Unseasonably cool here today.  Again delayed in planting out the cukes and squash....they are looking yellowish.  I am sure one they hit the MM they will green up.  Down to 40s tonight.  Then warmer.  

Topped the dill, it was gonna flower!

Scorpio Rising wrote:The containers are genius, I would get a patent lawyer, Kate! 

Agree! You may be a potential millionaire.
Shark Tank, here she comes!

Anybody out there still getting rain / willing to send some my way?  We were just officially declared to have gone from a "moderate drought" to a "severe drought".  Part of the city is on water restriction and there is talk it's going to expand to city wide if we don't get some rain.  Meanwhile my whole neighborhood is still watering their lawns, and I'm over here thinking "forget  the grass, save the veggies!". My lawn is distinctly brown haha.

Robbomb116 wrote:Anybody out there still getting rain / willing to send some my way?  We were just officially declared to have gone from a "moderate drought" to a "severe drought".  Part of the city is on water restriction and there is talk it's going to expand to city wide if we don't get some rain.  Meanwhile my whole neighborhood is still watering their lawns, and I'm over here thinking "forget  the grass, save the veggies!". My lawn is distinctly brown haha.

I just do not get watering grass.....really.....

Yes!  Save the veggies!    What is the point of the grass thing?  It either is growing and green or not....what a waste of a resource for a purely cosmetic non-health related thing....
 
Addendum!  Finally got the squash and cukes in.  Hope the trellis is the right size, whatever.  Gonna run with it!  I put 6 in the 4x4, and I think my trellises are 3 feet long.....will figure it out!

Hot and sunny weekend here, more hot weather on tap for the first part of this week.  Got things watered, need to pull radishes, way too hot for them, and most of the lettuce as well.

About 9 days daytime highs all hovering at 90 degrees here in central Ohio.  Thirty eight years  living here and I still detest the oven hot summers in Ohio.  It's not unusual to have some days warmer than Alabama and Florida.  Ridiculous Lousy weather.  I miss the east coast breezes...
SFG beds watered daily.  Swear I lose weight every summer dragging around hoses.

llama momma wrote:About 9 days daytime highs all hovering at 90 degrees here in central Ohio.  Thirty eight years  living here and I still detest the oven hot summers in Ohio.  It's not unusual to have some days warmer than Alabama and Florida.  Ridiculous Lousy weather.  I miss the east coast breezes...
SFG beds watered daily.  Swear I lose weight every summer dragging around hoses.

I am with ya, LM.  Not a fan.  I did get a curly lightweight hose for my back yard last year, and it is awesome!  It is stiff and coiling-like.  Smaller diameter than usual hose, much lighter.  Lowe's.

Yeah, I am taking my chances on the water.  Will do it in the morning again.