End of June In My Potager (Week 26)

The month of June in the garden feels real fine! I got the last bits planted or sown at the beginning of the month, so hopefully in time to get squash by the end of summer.

All the seeds are coming up but anything sown in May sure did take its time popping up. Maybe because it has been so dry? Maybe because the nights were often still cool despite the really warm daytime temps? Not sure, but the beans are just now hitting 3 inches tall though they were planted weeks ago. Zinnias are still teeny so I gave them a bit of grow-juice to see if that will help them along.

That said, waiting till June to sow my beets and carrots worked great as they popped up in mere days.

We discovered that our cold room/storage room actually does have a vent in it, the previous owners knew what they were doing! Yay! It is hidden in the far corner with junk in front of it right now but will get it all set up in time for storing the harvest. Will be perfect for onions, potatoes, squash, garlic, and rutabagas.

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are growing fast, cucumbers and melons are coming along, scallions look great but need to start sizing up! I found some seeds for Baby Spaghetti squash so got those in the ground (in the greenhouse) to sprawl at the feet of the indeterminate tomatoes.

Hubby and I got the burlap shade cloths made so it no longer gets stinking hot in there. We purchased burlap that has a very open weave so I made one extra curtain so that we could bunch it up a bit for more shade. If you want to make these, look for a denser weave, if you can. They sell burlap at fabric stores, if you happen to have one near you. It might cost a bit more but you can get a denser weave so is totally worth it.

To make these curtains for the south wall of our 12' greenhouse, we bought:

40"x 30 feet long roll of burlap

8 x screw hooks

3 x 10 foot long electrical conduit

1 x can of satin black spray paint

I spray painted the conduit black. Love the satin black! It even makes plastic look good.

We put 4 of the hooks by the ceiling, spaced 3 feet apart.

The other 4 hooks went on the wall, at the very top, to drape down over the 'glass'.

I split the 30 foot roll of burlap into 4 and sewed a rod pocket at the top of each. This made them just long enough. If you do not sew, or do not want to sew, pick up some curtain rings with clips and just clip them up to the rod at the roofline.

Thread the 'curtains' behind the rod on the wall. That's it. Easy peasy. Took us one hour to do the whole project and most of that was the sewing.

We are having a rain day and supposed to have unsettled weather for a week or so. The rain is much needed and welcome, but the forecast worries me a bit as June always seems to have such up and down weather. We call it June-uary as the weather often turns from lovely to cool and grey for weeks at a time.

The good news is that I got my lettuce seeds sown in my new small 'greens' bed on the north side of the house just minutes before the rains started. The new bed is just 2 feet by 4 feet and very low. I just raked the bark mulch aside and plunked this wee bed in amongst the hostas.

On my agenda...

1. Mulch the greenhouse with composted bark, small wood chip, or grass clippings to retain moisture.

2. Deal with the south sideyard, it is such a mess! Of course, it is the first thing people see when the enter the backyard. I wish the former owners had not put down landscape fabric and rocks as it just becomes a disaster to deal with when the weed seeds blow in and root in the fabric. Will take me the whole summer to remove the rocks, the fabric, and the weeds.

3. Mulch up any areas with bare soil to help retain moisture and make it look tidy.

4. Feed and deadhead baskets and planters on a regular schedule.

5. Start fall veggies in the mini-greenhouse to plant out in early July for late summer veggies (rutabagas, cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage). I am a bit worried about whether the cauli and the cabbage will size up in time but you never know unless you try. Just in case, I popped some Pixie cabbages in the little lettuce bed, they have a much shorter maturity date.

The calendula (pot marigolds) I am sowing here and there for some late summer colour in the hopes that they will self seed for free volunteer flowers next year.

Fall veggies are started 10 to 12 weeks before first frost. In my area, that is around mid-September, so I will be start sowing between June 21st and July 5th.

As I putter out in the yard, I find all sorts of thoughts and ideas popping through my head, so I am starting a new weekly garden thread to share these thoughts with you guys. What is happening, what I am changing, planning, thinking, and working on. Just garden info that I want to share with you all while it is fresh in my brain.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, it is a bit like my 5 Things Friday posts. I just need to decide what day I am going to be sending it out... Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Stay tuned!

Good news... tomatoes are finally flowering! Whew! In the yard and in the greenhouse, too.

Happy Growing ~ Tanja