What's happening in the early June edible garden

Chives and sage in bloom

Saturday, June 10, 2023

Typically in the early June edible garden, the summer veggies are flowering and have baby fruits and the spring veggies are at the end.  This year, my tomatoes, beans, peppers and squash are flowering.  The tomatoes and peppers have baby fruits.  My eggplant seedlings and bush cucumber seedling are still really small.  My last round of lettuce is starting to bolt and the lettuce plants that overwintered and planted in April have bolted and gone to seed.   Herbs are growing robustly.  By this time of year, we no longer need to purchase produce from the grocery store and can get fresh herbs to add to ordinary dishes that make them taste wonderful.

The greens we are eating-lettuce, French sorrel, chard, spinach, dandelion greens, chick weed, sweet clover, green onions, Ruby Streaks mustard, sprouting broccoli leaves, snow peas, Red Malabar spinach.  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Herbs to add to dishes and salads-chives, cilantro, oregano, thyme, horseradish, Egyptian walking onions, tarragon, sage, dill.  Parsley and rosemary are still small.  Fruits for salads and desserts-raspberries, strawberries, blueberries.

The flowers that are blooming-spiderwort, marigolds, petunias, roses, daylilies, Love Lies Bleeding amaranth, hollyhocks, Heavenly Blue morning glory, lantana, moss rose, hellebore, the herbs and veggies going to seed-white flowers on the cilantro, the white, red and pink flowers of thyme, lavender chive flowers, yellow broccoli flowers, white carrot flowers that look like their cousin Queen Ann's Lace, yellow and blue lettuce flowers.  All veggie and herb flowers are edible.  A fun way to add flavor and beauty to salads or other dishes!

The hummingbird vine volunteers are still small.  The potted moonflower vine is a couple of feet long, but no flowers yet.  No marigold volunteers yet; they usually start showing their heads later in the month.

Pepper, squash, cucumber and eggplants are small for this time of year.  Peppers, squash, and cucumbers typically can be harvested in June and tomatoes and eggplant around the 4th of July.  I'm not sure there will be peppers or summer squash by the end of June; definitely no eggplant or cucumbers.  The tomatoes started early have fruits on just about all of the different varieties-beefsteak, Roma, Prize, Rubee Goddess, Black Prince and Rubee Dawn.  The others have flowers-Brandywine, Chocolate Lightning.  Maybe the Rupee Dawn and Black Prince will be ripe by the 4th of July. 

Tomorrow, I will plant my latest round of seedlings that I started at the beginning of May and have been really slow to get going-eggplant, basil, rosemary and a few more tomatoes.  I fertilize when I plant them.  I have also added liquid fish fertilizer to all my pots and my in ground tomatoes as they were on the yellow side.  It's time to also do another round of solid fertilizer when all the tomato plants have baby fruits on them.  I have also been removing any yellowing bottom leaves from the tomato plants.  I'm going to try coffee grounds around the tomatoes, too, to give slow release of nitrogen and discourage voles.  

I have continued to start pollinator seedlings in a rectangular pot close to the patio.  I have a few that are large enough to transplant but I am waiting to make sure they are flowers and not weeds.  I've already done around 3 rounds of plantings so far this season.  My pollinator bed is looking pretty well covered now.  

Flea beetles, slugs and aphids are about the only pests I have seen so far in the garden.  Slugs proliferate in the lettuce pots because I keep lettuce moist.  I finally put out some slug bait to get them cut back some.  I put some de on my amaranth to keep the flea beetles under control.  For aphids, I just spray the plant with water.   Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays

You can start seeds indoors and outdoors throughout the season.  I keep my seed packets in the refrigerator for years.  This keeps them fresh enough to germinate even though they are not this year's seed.  For any I start indoors, I put the seedlings on the covered patio to harden off.  The sun is very intense this time of year so if you start seeds indoors be sure to let them get used to the sun before planting in the garden.  I let them harden on the covered patio for a week or two and try and plant out in the garden when it is calling for rain.  I prefer to start seeds outdoors on the patio this time of year.  Outdoor seed starting tips

Potted lettuce bolting

Lettuce is a crop that does not like the heat.  When it gets up in the 80's, they bolt, sending up a stalk that then flowers.  You can let them go to seed and then save seed for re-sowing.  Most lettuces start to get bitter when they bolt.  Red Sails and Butter King are two of the few that stays fairly sweet even after bolting.  Be sure to harvest first thing in the morning for the best tasting greens.  

This time of year, re-sow every 3 weeks to keep in lettuce.  Also, sow the most heat tolerant varieties you can find to extend how long you can harvest.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces