June Garden Ramblings

You guys! Summer has finally arrived. June has started off with lovely sunshine and warmth, so very welcome after the unseasonably cool and grey May. 

Hopefully we avoid the typical June-uary that we tend to get here on the island, feel like we have already had our fair share of cool grey days! 

Of course, you all know that I had to start off by talking about the weather... is the Canadian thing to do ; )  

What's going on at the potager? 

The spring retail shop at the greenhouse is finished for the summer which means I am madly playing catch up with planting and sowing, building hanging baskets, and planting up pots for summer colour.  

I found two empty pots in the hoophouse yesterday (Yippee!)  so zipped over to our local grocers for a few more plants to stuff into them. Seemed a shame to leave them empty, right? 

Most all the planting is now done, except the final bed needs more beets, pole beans, and carrots. Must get this bed done this weekend so that I can move on to other things!  

Here are some things that have come to mind as I putter in the garden, plus answers to common questions from these past few weeks... 

Watering - When and how often? 

I always remember when I first started working at a large family run greenhouse, the matriarch, Lois Hole, said that watering is the most important job. 

In her book 'I'll Never Marry a Farmer' she says ... "to a plant, water is everything. If you water it too much, too little, or inconsistently, you'll have real problems." Truer words were never spoken.      

At the information booth, where I spent the majority of my time, watering was the one thing I spent most of my time talking about with people. It seems odd, I know, is such a small thing but yet when you think about it, it really is everything to the plant... so we gotta get it right : ) 

(Psst, by the way, over-watering is the most common reason a plant fails to thrive, we tend to kill with kindness.) 

Here are some tips ... 

Hanging Baskets, flowers in pots - At the beginning of the season, when you have first potted up your baskets and pots with young plants, only water once or twice a week. 

The young plants are not very big yet and have small roots systems, so are not yet using a lot of water. On sunny or windy days, they may dry out a bit faster but if the days are cool and grey, the will not be drying out very quickly. 

What is the best way to check if they need water? With your finger! Truly! Stick your finger into the soil in the pot, the planter, the hanging basket. If the soil feels damp under the surface, leave for another day. If the top inch or two is dry, you need to give them a good drink.   

As the summer progresses, you will need to start watering more often. My moss baskets eventually get watered daily and twice daily if we get around the 30°C mark when they are big and full. 

If you purchased pre-made baskets or planters with mature plants in them, you will likely already be watering daily or every second day. Again, check the soil with your finger daily to get an idea of how often it needs water in your location. 

Too wet and you will get root rot, too dry and the plants will quickly wither and die. If your basket is a self watering one, you may be able to water less often, that is why the finger check is important until you get to know it's needs. 

Veggies in pots - Just as above... In the beginning, they will not need much water, maybe once a week. as the summer goes on, the plants grow, the roots get bigger, and the days and longer and hotter, you will end up watering every day or every 2nd day. I usually do every 2nd day with my tomatoes but only once a week for my peppers and eggplants. 

In the garden beds/potager - Seeds need water daily, they need to stay moist in order to germinate. This is especially important for carrots and parsnips as they can take up to 3 weeks to germinate and the seeds die if they dry out during the process.  

I cover mine with burlap sacks to keep the soil from drying out. Water through the burlap daily, start checking for germination about 5 days after sowing. Remove the burlap when you see little seedlings.  

Seedlings/starter plants are watered at planting time and then about every 3rd day to get them well rooted in. Do not water daily. 

Once things are well rooted in, water once or twice a week with a drip system or weeping hoses. Do not use a sprinkler on anything but lawns as it wets the foliage and does not get the water to the roots where it is needed, so you end up with fungal issues on your leaves and weak, unhealthy plants. 

Deep water once a week (every 5 to 7 days) things like root crops, potatoes, onions, herbs, peppers.... 

Deep water twice a week (every 3 to 4 days) plants like squash, tomatoes, brassicas, celery, beans, peas..

Fertilising - When. how, and how often? 

Hanging baskets & planters - To keep them blooming, you need to feed them regularly through the summer. Give them a bloom boosting fertiliser that has a bigger middle number once a week, like a 15-30-15.  Here is a post about how to have spectacular hanging baskets all summer long.  

Garden beds/potager - NOT needed! Plants do not need to be fed in the garden, not at all, not ever. Not the veggies, not the flowers, not the trees and shrubs. 

This is the hardest one for most of us to grasp as we have been conditioned by the industry to believe we need to keep feeding throughout the season for a good harvest. We are bombarded with commercials that tell we need to use their product (you all know which company I mean) to get bigger, better veggie crops. This is absolutely not true, they just want to sell you their product.  

Organic gardening is all about feeding the soil which in turn feeds your plants for happy, healthy, thriving plants. If you have been feeding your soil annually with organic matter like compost or manure, you do not need to additionally feed your plants. You have already invested in good soil by feeding the soil life, you do not need to spray or water the plants in with anything else. 

If you want, you can additionally feed your soil at planting time, when you plant your seedlings you can toss some manure, compost, or other organic matter into the planting hole or trench. You do not need to do this, it is just an option if you feel the need to feed. 

However... if you have inherited less than spectacular soil, have really poor soil that you have not yet had time to improve, or your plants are looking peak-ed this summer, here are several option to feed your organic garden. 

1.Feed with a side dressing of manure. This gets distributed to the roots by the soil life and with each rainfall or watering. This applies to veggies, trees, shrubs, roses ... 

2.Give them a foliar feed (spray on the leaves) of liquid seaweed (I like Reindeer's, a local mom and pop company) but any kelp or seaweed feed will work well.  

3.Water them in with a manure or compost tea. See here for organic garden tea recipes.

4.Feed them with an organic slow release fertiliser that you scratch into the soil.  

Garlic - Garlic scapes (the curlicues that sprout at the top of the garlic) are forming on most of the hardneck varieties now which means only 3 to 4 weeks till harvest! So early this year! 

Stop watering now so that you do not end up with bulbs that are really wet and heavy with water when you harvest. Wet bulbs do not cure well and will usually just grow mouldy. 

If you planted several varieties, keep an eye on the early ones as they are getting close already! 

How do you know when garlic is ready to harvest? See that post here!

Fruit trees - You may suddenly notice that your apple trees starts dropping it's wee fruits on the ground. This is called June Fruit Drop or just June Drop. Not to worry! It happens when you have too many apples (or other fruits) on the tree so it cannot successfully ripen them all. Therefore, it starts to drop some off. You cannot stop this process with extra watering or with fertiliser. 

You can let nature take it's course and let the tree choose which fruits it wants to drop, or if you want to make sure you get the bigger, better apples (or pears) pick off the smaller fruits, leaving the larger ones to mature.   

If, by chance, you feel that your fruit trees need a bit of something and you did not feed them earlier on in April, it is not too late. Take a bag or two of manure or compost, spread it around the drip line (where the rain drips off of the tree's canopy of leaves). Rake it in and let the rains distribute it to the roots or put the hose on a slow trickle to slowly seep into the ground so that you are deep watering and feeding at the same time. Yes, you can do this even if your trees are in the lawn, like mine are. The compost will soon disappear as it gets incorporated into the soil, it will not be unsightly.

In My Potager... 

Potatoes - a whole bed of Sieglinde potatoes was planted up just two weeks ago and they are already coming up fast and furious. Will be giving them their first hilling in just a few days time. 

Onions - the onion sets were just planted up about 2 weeks ago, are also up and doing great. Soaking the sets in liquid seaweed to re-hydrate them made a huge difference. I have had about 99% success with the transplanting, only a couple of the sets did not come up. 

See... is never too late ; ) For more information about planting onions from sets (the little bulbs) see here! 

Squash - winter and summer squash sown were sown from seed just a week ago and are all up. So, here is a fun scoop.... I read about a new way to plant squash last year that I really like. 

I used sow the seeds/plant in hills, about 3 per hill. So old school (just kidding, of course! - Do whichever way that works for you.) This new way of planting has me sowing the seeds across the garden beds in rows rather than in hills. 

The seeds are sown every 6 inches in a row from side to side down the width of the bed (4 foot wide bed) with one meter between each variety. Once they are up and thriving, you thin out the seedlings to 3 or 4 plants per row. 

The picture from last year, in mid July, kind of shows the different varieties all spaced out, before they started to mingle their foliage. I love this way of growing and will keep doing it from now on. Feel it is a much better use of my space. See... we always keep learning new tricks ; ) 

Oh, and don't forget your companion plants! 

For more info about what flowers to plant with what veggies for the best results, check out last year's June Ramblings post here. 

For another view on what companions to plant with your tomatoes, check out this great link here.. 

Keeping Great Company: | World Tomato Society

Planting and Sowing... 

Wondering what you can plant now from SEEDS? Much more than you probably thought. I am still in the thick of it, sowing seeds every day : ) 

- Beans (pole beans take about 100 days to mature, bush beans are much faster at 50 days)
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Corn
- Cucumbers
- Lettuce, greens, spinach
- Parsnips
- Scallions
- Squash of all kinds... butternut, delicata, gourds, pattypans, pumpkins, spaghetti, zucchini...

You can still plant some flowers and herbs from seed, too...
- Cilantro
- Chives
- Dill
- Cosmos
- Nasturtiums
- Sunflowers
- Zinnias

Okay, that is it for this time. I can literally ramble on forever. Will just try to post more often as I have all sorts of information that I want to share with you all! 

Happy Gardening ~ Tanja