Having a Heat Wave - Late June Garden Ramblings

Borage in the tomato bed. A great companion plant in the potager. 

Whew, she sure is toasty out there! As temps soar up towards 30° C, all the garden puttering now happens in either the morning or evening.  

This weather gives me time to do some of the indoor chores during the heat of the day though, things I have been putting off as I tootle about in the yard. Tasks like cleaning out the linen closet and throwing away sheets that no longer fit any of the beds that we own. Or, maybe cleaning out the fridge, finally. Maybe just sewing, I have so many projects that I should get to...  

Oh, and before I forget. If you are signed up for my latest and greatest blog posts (wink) you will notice that you are getting some oldies showing up now and again. I will be getting rid of the Olde Thyme Food Garden website and blog in just a few days time as it comes up for renewal, so am copying some of my favourite posts onto this blog. Would hate for them to be lost forever. I cannot save them all, will not worry about the regular monthly ramblings, just the special ones :) 

If by chance, you have not yet signed up for this blog, the menu is that black strip on the right hand side of the page. The second button down is the subscribe button. 

Watering... 

Wondering how to water out there, now that we went from grey and rainy to hot and sunny? Keep on keeping on! Water as per usual with a deep soak every 5 to 7 days for things like broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, cabbage, etc... every 3 or 4 days for tomatoes and squash. Cucumbers will always need water more often.   

If your tomatoes are drooping in the heat, do not worry, they will perk up when it cools down. You can even water the foliage to cool them down, as long as you do it early on in the day. Never in the evening.

If your potager is in a hot and windy spot, you may get some cupping on the leaves. Not to worry. That is just the plant hanging on to it's moisture, a response to the dry conditions. 

If, on the other hand, you are watering daily and getting cupping leaves and curling stems, your plant is telling you that it is getting too much water. 

In pots... Peppers and eggplants need water only once a week in pots and even less often if in the garden. Cucumbers, on the other hand, will need water more often, especially once they start fruiting so that you do not end up with bitter cukes. I am currently watering them every 2nd or 3rd day as they are not yet fruiting.  

Please don't start watering your peppers and tomatoes (or squash) daily or you will end up with all sorts of issues from tons of BER (blossom end rot) to less flowering and fruiting. Just stick to your regular schedule of deep watering every 3rd or 4th day. Even if they are growing in pots! 

Daily watering will also give you bland, tasteless tomatoes, like the ones you buy in the grocery store. What's the point in growing those? Make the most of your gorgeous heirloom tomatoes with their fabulous summertime flavour by watering deeply and thoroughly... but less often.    

  

The pots and moss hanging baskets that I diy'ed in late May are watered every 2nd or 3rd day even though they face due south in the full-on, hot baking sun for 10 to 12 hours a day. One would think that they'd need water more often, but as the plants are still young they don't use as much water as they will a month from now. Then I will be watering daily and sometimes twice a day. 

How do you know if they need water? If the flowers/plants are limp, of course, but otherwise, stick your finger in the pots, the baskets, the garden beds. If the soil is moist an inch or two below the surface, they are fine. Be water wise, your flowers and veggies will be healthier, happier (better tasting) for it.  

Be water wise and conservative, your plants will thank you for it! 

A note about greenhouses... if you are growing food crops in the greenhouse, try to keep your temps down below 30°C as tomato/pepper flowers become sterile in prolonged heat. 

Water your floors a couple times a day and run a fan to move the air. Ideally have a window or door at the back to blow the cool air from the front and straight out the back of the greenhouse. 

Shade cloth is the easiest and cheapest way to control the heat. Those pretty white sheer curtains that you see in some of the Insta pics? They look amazing, offer lots of lovely ambience, but sadly, offer very little by way of real shade. 

Flowering, fruiting, and fertilising. 

To keep your hanging baskets and potted plants flowers, give them a shot of a blooming fertiliser once a week or whenever your remember, if you are like me. A 15-30-15 or similar, something with a larger middle number. 

When your raspberries, strawberries, and other small fruiting shrubs are flowering and making berries, they will need water a more often to make better tasting berries. Water them deeply once a week till harvest time. They do not need fertiliser as you (ideally) fed them with compost or manure in early spring. 

Peppers... your peppers should be of a pretty good size now, putting on flowers and wee peppers. If you are growing them in pots, is almost time to give them a shot of epsom salts. I toss a bit on top of the pots once a month. Do not do this if they are in your garden beds as our soil here on the island is not deficient in magnesium. 

If your pepper plants are still puny and not doing much, they might need a shot of two of a high nitrogen feed to help them out, get them growing first and then they will produce much better this summer. Remember that growing peppers is a lesson in patience. The peppers won't be ready till late summer and some not till early fall... but so worth it to grow your own as they are so pricey at the shops and are one of the most sprayed veggies (in the nasty top ten).  

Tomatoes in pots can also be given a shot of Epsom salts and fed with manure tea, fish fertiliser, tomato fertiliser, etc..  once a week or a bit of slow release Acti-Sol. 

Your potager/garden beds should not need much of anything as far as feeding goes, unless something looks peak-ed. If you need a boost, check out this post for organic solutions to feed plants in the potager.

What to do right now? Probably not a whole lot you have to stay on top of as of yet, but here are some things to keep in mind ... 

Prune your indeterminate tomatoes. Remove the suckers from between the main stem and the branches. 

Weed as they come up, try to stay on top of them or you may become overwhelmed. If you have lots of weeds, do not turn your soil, become a no-digger. Each time you turn that soil, new weed seeds come to the surface and germinate. If you are already overwhelmed, lay down some newsprint around the plants, right on top of all the weeds, top the paper with compost or manure.  

Harvest - yay! 

Tis the season for us to be eating well! Broccoli, cauliflower, peas, greens, lettuces, radishes, are perfect right now. You might even be able to furtle some baby potatoes (root around under the plant and steal some spuds without harvesting the plant).  

Garlic

It is getting closer! I have already harvested one early variety and will soon lift two other early types. If you have softnecks, keep an eye on them as they are usually ready at least 2 weeks before the hardnecks. 

The hardnecks will likely be harvested in mid July. Sending out vibes to the universe that we not get any rain just before harvest time so that the garlic cures well. Wet soil on the bulbs or bulbs full of moisture do not cure well, so this heat is just what we need.  

The leaves of the early garlic in my potager have rust on them while the regular hardnecks in a bed of their own in a different area of the yard look just fine with not a speck on them. I am happy about that, of course, but how weird is that, eh? If you have rust, cut off the worst of the leaves and try to leave them in the ground as long as possible. Dispose of the rusty leaves, do not compost them.  

Not sure when to harvest? See that post here. 

Pest control - I know that some of you really hate when I say this, but I mostly don't worry a whole lot about bugs.  

I currently noticed some aphids on my dill and some flea beetle damage on a couple of my tomato plants. Just a couple out of 100 is not bad odds at all. Oh, and I had some pillbugs eating my strawberries, too. 

For the aphids, I am doing nothing, not even spraying them off with a strong jet of water. I am pretty confident that the ladybugs, hoverflies, parastic wasps, dragonflies, etc... are taking care of them for me. 

Even if they aren't for some reason, it is still fine. As long as the aphids are on my dill, then they are not on my Brussels sprouts or my broccoli. So, the dill would be working kind of like a lure crop... and the dill is still edible, just wash and good to go. That is a win in my books. So, I do nothing. 

The flea beetle damage was only on the bottom leaves that were touching the ground while all the rest of the plant looks mighty fine. So, I removed the one branch with holey leaves that you see in the picture. That is it, problem solved. 

I also am a big believer in lure crops so if they were to continue to be a problem, I'd just sow a few radishes and let them bolt and grow tall with lots of leaves and flowers as a lure. However, there must be something else that is dealing with them as I do not see any bugs nor have had any further damage. In total, I had two or three plants with one bottom set of leaves all chewed up. Nothing else and nothing since. 

By the way, radishes are great lure crops to grow with cucumbers, too. A cheap and easy fix, plus they look really pretty when they go to seed ; )

Pic from Amazon.uk

For the pill bugs, I put a bit of chopped straw under the berries so they do not sit on the soil. If they are touching the soil, pillbugs and other soil life will start munching away and start turning them into compost. You can also use newspaper, cut squares out of landscape fabric or similar to put around the plant, pretty much anything that keeps the berries off of the soil.  

If you get pests, try to figure out an organic way to deal with them before resorting to sprays or powders. The time intensive, icky ways are usually the most effective, I'm afraid. We all get pests sometimes but how we deal with them will make a big difference to how the rest of your summer goes. 

If you put out DE for example, you will also kill off other beneficial insects. If you spray with soapy sprays, organic or not, they will also kill anything else that is on the plant and might be dealing with the issue already. You will then continue to get pests as you have killed off all the lovely beneficials that you attracted to your garden with the companion plants.  

Picking, squashing, or drowning are pretty much the safest and more effective way to deal with them. The year that I had a major stink bug infestation, I spent many days out there smacking those nasty things into a pail of soapy water and into the pathways where I could dance on them.   

This is my winter carrot patch, newly sown. 

When direct sowing seeds into the potager, make sure to keep them well watered. If they dry out during the germination time, the seeds just die and never come up. This is very common with carrots and parsnips as they can take a long time to germinate. Water daily with a watering wand/can, do not count on a sprinkler or weeping hoses for this. 

What to plant now? 

If you have recently pulled out your spinach, radishes, or brassicas that have bolted and have lots of room, you can direct sow carrots, some more beets, bush beans, and all your fall brassicas. They can also be start in 6 packs or small containers in a part shade location. 

Only two weeks left to sow your winter carrots, by the way! After that is too late, they will just not have time to size up before the days grow too cold and short. 

If you have a part sun bed, sow some lettuce, baby kale, all sorts or greens every 2 or 3 weeks for lovely new lettuces and salad fixings all the way through till frost. If you are in a full sun location like I am, it will be harder, I would wait till late summer as lettuces and greens grown in full sun will just go bitter and quickly bolt. 

Toss in scallions (green onions) seeds any time at all. Great time to succession sow anything you want more of right now. 

Didn't get around to planting some things earlier on? Is not too late to direct sow parsnips, celeriac, rutabagas, turnips, cucumbers, and even squash... go for it! This is the time. 

Diakon radishes, like the pretty watermelon radishes, and bush beans are great to direct sow in that empty bed after harvesting garlic. Daikons are not like regular radishes, they actually thrive in the heat.  

Grow what you like to eat or want to can/freeze later. No point in wasting time, money, water, or energy on things that you never eat. 

Happy sowing and growing! ~ Tanja