What's happening in the mid-June edible garden

Zinnias, basil and tomatoes planted in garden bed

Saturday, June 15, 2024

 

My summer edible garden has gotten off to a decent start this year.  There are baby peppers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers but none except the tomatoes and peppers I overwintered that are ready for harvesting.

  

Squash-I have many volunteers coming up in the garden.   Both the volunteers and the ones I planted are flowering with a couple with baby fruits.   Everything you need to know to grow squash

Eggplant-I started them all from seed this year.  I moved them to their large pot summer home about a month ago.  I have Rotanda Bianca, AO Daimaru, Turkish Orange and Amadeo seedlings.  The plants are all doing well aside from flea beetle holes.  I saw a baby eggplant on one plant so the rest should be flowering soon.  Everything you need to know to grow eggplant, in a...

Beans-I started all these vining types from seed in the garden bed with a trellis this year: Blauhilde-purple snap bean, 1500 Year Old bean that can be harvested fresh for snap beans or left on the vine for shelled beans, and Christmas Speckles heirloom lima bean.  The winged bean I have growng in a pot is slow growing; it is always the last to take off as it thrives only in hot weather and it has really taken off in the last week.  No flowers yet on any of the bean vines but it should be soon.  Growing beans

Cucumber-I am growing Bush Champion this year in the ground this year.  It is growing well and has flowers and baby cukes.  Everything you need to know to grow cucumbers, in ...

Tomatoes-I planted 5 in the garden bed and they all croaked for some reason.  We have voles so not sure if they ate the roots for them to wilt and die or if they got a wilt disease which is spread by cucumber beetles.  To be safe, I pulled them all and put them in the trash and then sterilized all my tools and gloves that I used.  I removed a good bit of the dirt, too.  I won't plant tomatoes in the same spot for a couple of years and when I do, I think I will go with hybrids that are resistant to wilt disease to be on the safe side.  

The 10 seedlings I gave my hubby to grow upside down in 5 gallon buckets with an auto watering system are doing well with lots of baby tomatoes and flowers.  The Chocolate Pear and Red October tomatoes are starting to have color variation so shouldn't be long for ripe tomatoes.  With the bucket system, they need daily watering and more frequent fertilizing.  He fertilized when he planted a month ago.  It is time to fertilize again.  You don't want to give too much nitrogen or you will end up with all leaves and no fruits.

  Everything you need to know to grow tomatoes

Snow peas-All are drying up.  Peas are spring lovers.  They love cool temperatures and lots of moisture.  When heat moves in, they give it up.  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer

Greens-All the spinach, all the mustards, all the sprouting broccoli and all the lettuce planted in March has bolted.  There are a few younger lettuce plants that have not bolted.  Usually, the Red Sails and Butter King stay sweet even after bolting.  Harvest first thing in the morning or after a rain for best tasting leaves.  Put in a bowl of water to plump up the leaves.  

The amaranth and orach are producing flower stalks but they will remain sweet all summer long.  The chard planted a couple of months ago is a nice size; the earlier ones have gone to seed.  There are volunteer sprouting broccoli in a range of sizes.  They will stay sweet all summer, too.  Red Malabar and New Zealand spinach love the hot temperatures and are growing quickly.  Their leaves can be harvested all summer long as spinach substitutes.  Carefree summer salad greens

Herbs-Cilantro has bolted; it is a cool temperature lover.  The seeds can be saved as coriander or left to self-seed.  The rest of the herbs are growing well-dill, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, horseradish, and basil.  Dill, oregano, thyme and a few basil has put on flower heads.  All do well right to winter except for basil; it dies as soon as the first frost comes.  Most winters in our Zone 7 garden, the sage, thyme, oregano can be harvested throughout the winter.  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Fruits-Still getting strawberries.  Round 1 of raspberries has wound to a close; they will continue to produce off and on all summer.  There are some ripe blackberries.  Ground cherries are ripe and will continue all summer long.  Some blueberry bush production has come and gone while others are just now starting to have ripe fruit.

Flowers-Celosia, Love Lies Bleeding amaranth, daylilies, purple coneflower, bee balm, hydrangeas, blunt mountain mint, sunflowers, petunias, mums, spiderworts, blue morning glory, hollyhocks, lantana, gardenia, and zinnias are all blooming in my garden.  Many carrots have bolted, creating tall white flowers that look like Queen Ann's Lace.  Pollinators just love the small flowers on herbs and carrot flowers.  

My pollinator bed has several flowers in bloom, orange coneflower, echinacea, white yarrow, daylilies, and mountain mint.  It is filling in nicely.  I planted swamp milkweed and butterfly milkweed this week.  I really don't need any more flowers in the bed.  It has taken 4 years to get it full.  It gets a good deal of shade so natives don't grow as quickly as they would if it was a full sun location.  Most of the flowers I started from a pollinator mix.  I'd sow a few seeds in a pot and when they got big, I'd transplant them.  I'd get in 1-2 sowings sowings each summer.  Since the seeds were free, it only cost me time and patience.