June 1, 2015

Springtime Promises: June 2015 Garden Share Collective

Spring is so welcome after such a long cold winter. May is when the garden finally got tilled after a snowy winter that went straight into a very wet spring. There was a small window of opportunity when it was dry, windy, and hot enough to rototill and most everyone I know tilled at the end of that week.

 Pink Berkley Tie-Dye tomato
 Black Krim tomato
 And here's a picture of that Black Krim tomato plant.
 Main tomato bed. Bed to the right has pole beans and vining plants like cucumber.
 Tomato and eggplant bed. That's coffee grounds on the eggplants, hopefully it'll help with flea beetles.
 Sweet pepper bed with some mildly hot Pablano peppers.
Broccoli bed.

So like most of the United States, May was filled with planting:
50 tomato plants, 22 sweet and hot peppers, 15 eggplants/aubergines, 22 broccoli, leeks, bush beans, cucumbers, melons, loofa, bitter melon, pole beans, summer squash, zucchini, asparagus, and artichokes were all planted out in the garden.

I also started Brussels sprouts and basil from seeds, and started rooting grocery store starts like bunching onions, basil, and lemongrass.

And we are harvesting:
Nothing so far, but there are big hopes for the end of June or beginning of July.

To do list for June:
  • Put up tomato supports which consists of sandwiching plants between 2 rows of fencing.
  • Put up trellis system for pole beans, vining plants, etc.
  • Plant out Brussels sprouts, basil, bunching onions, and lemongrass.
  • Mulch the whole garden.
Summer will be soon be upon us, which is a wondrous time of eating fresh from the garden. My personal favorite is green beans, whereas my spouse says he is really looking forward to the broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

Vegetables that are new to us for growing as well as starting from seed:
Asparagus, artichoke, broccoli, and Brussels sprout.

I'm participating in the Garden Share Collective hosted by Strayed to the Table

TheGardenShareCollective300pix

15 comments:

africanaussie said...

Oh my you have lots of plants and some interesting varietites of tomato - I am loooking forward to seeing that tie died one as it ripens.

Unknown said...

You have a lovely big garden area with so many plants in the ground. I am sure you will have a wonderful bounty of produce to collect in the coming months. Have a great month in the garden. I look forward to checking back in again to see how it is progressing soon.

lizzi {strayedtable} said...

Welcome aboard the GSC. I have to say a big THANKYOU, this past summer my eggplants got totally munched by flea beetles. I have been looking for methods to reduce them or to get rid of them. They ate through 60 of my plants and I only got one eggplant from them all as they just suffered too much from the beetles. Love the look of your garden and can't wait to see what your ty die tomato will look like.

Daphne Gould said...

Those broccoli look great. And I'm with your husband. I'd be looking forward to the broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

Texan said...

It all looks wonderful! Look at your tomato plants they are sure pretty! Everything looks great, your going to be busy when it all starts to come off :O)...I ran out and put coffee around my eggplants as prevention after reading that article. I always save them as they are great for the garden. I put some around my cucumbers too as that article said those beetles will eat cucumbers too. I hope it works for you. We don't have near the issues here with them as some areas obviously but you know what they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure :O)

Texan said...

PS coffee grounds have nitrogen in them so if you see that the leaves of your eggplants are showing issues, just put it on the ground. I put mine on the ground as I don't have a issues right now. But the article did say sprinkle it on the plant leaves and around the ground. Just thought I would mention that. :O) So you can keep a eye on the leaves.

Phuong said...

Hi Africanaussie,
A lot of the black tomatoes I haven't grown before or they never produced for me. Berkley Tie-Dye is actually one of the first tomatoes to ripen which is amazing because it's so big.

Your rosella plant is so pretty with its pink blooms and red stems.

Phuong said...

Hi Kyrstie,
I'm so excited the growing season is finally here and soon there will be fresh eating in the garden.

Your young garlic looks amazing. I should try growing it since garlic is so expensive here.

Phuong said...

Hi Lizzi,
Flea beetles are such a menace, its awful how they devastated your eggplants. I normally use diatomaceous earth and have tried spraying with spinosad which is considered organic, but it's been too wet for either of those methods to be effective. Hopefully the coffee grounds are working. I think the flea beetles weaken the leaves so that heavy rains end up tearing up the leaves.

Phuong said...

Hi Daphne,
Your spring garden is so amazingly productive even with the late winter you had.

I'm excited about the broccoli and Brussels sprouts as well, but since it's our first year growing them I'm trying not to expect too much.

Phuong said...

Hi Texan,
Thank you for the coffee ground suggestion. It looks like the eggplants are on the uptick so hopefully they will recover and be able to produce something.

I probably went a little overboard in the coffee ground application, but I'll keep an eye on the leaves to make sure they don't get burned.

Bek said...

Oh, to have tomatoes. I love winter but I miss ripe tomatoes. Looks like you will have a fabulous harvest.

Phuong said...

Hi Bek,
I hope we have a productive year, we're planning on canning lots of tomato sauce. You have such a wonderful variety of fruit you're growing in your garden, a mango even. So amazing.

Anonymous said...

It's great to have you join the GSC this month. Your garden is inspiring, both in its size and range of produce. I'm looking forward to watching it develop over the next few months. Kate

Phuong said...

Hi Rosehips,
I have my fingers crossed that the work will pay off and we will get good harvests this year. I really want to do some canning and make our own tomato sauce for pasta and pizza.

Your garden is looking so beautiful and lush and green this winter. It really makes me want to plant tons of mint.