What I planted for the edible garden in early June

Temporary edible garden on shady side of the house

Monday, June 6, 2022 

I did another round of transplanting this week end.   I am late getting seeds started and transplant planted out, but there is plenty of time yet to get your summer garden growing and producing.  You can start a summer garden well into June and still have a productive harvest.  For some edibles, like squash, it is even better to wait a bit to plant to avoid pests.  

For summer harvests, I transplanted the okra, cucumber, pepper, eggplant and squash plants I started in early May into the garden bed.  I am growing them all in pots except the squash plants.  I am growing my edible garden in a temporary spot that long term will be just for ornamentals as it is mostly shady and we still have work going on the addition of the house where my permanent combo edible and ornamental bed will be on the south, sunny side of the house.  

Peppers planted in pot with snow peas and petunias

Eggplant and peppers do well in pots and I typically grown them in pots every year.  The pole beans, okra and cucumber I usually plant in the ground.  In the shady area under the hickory tree, they did not do so well last year so I am growing them in large pots this year.  The pots are around the size of a short whiskey barrel.  In addition, the cucumber plant is a bush variety that was bred for containers so it will not grow huge.  I planted only 3 bean vines in each pot when I typically plant 6 around each trellis.  I only put 2 okras in the very large pot.  It is the first time I have grown this variety and I wasn't sure if I should have just one or go for two.  We shall see if I made the right choice.

Bush cucumber on left, pole beans in middle and okra on right in large pots

The squash varieties I am growing this year produce huge vines, growing 10-20' long.  I could have put them in a pot and kept them pinched back but decided to put them in the temporary back garden bed in the sunniest spot.

Most of the greens, Cock's Comb flowers and basil I started a week ago have sprouted.  It looks like I will need to start some more sweet basil as only one of those sprouted and I like to have at least 3 plants for pesto and cooking.  The dill and cilantro from 3 weeks ago are starting to get their first true leaves.  I'll transplant them out when they fill out a little bit more, hopefully by next week end.

I will start another round of lettuce in a couple more weeks, but the bulk of my seed starting is over until July/August when I'll start seeds for fall and winter harvests.