June Harvests: Greens, Berries, & Cherries

May is a busy month for the serious gardener.  There is so much to plant, endless weeding, flower beds to revitalize along with harvesting.  Depending on the weather these chores can extend into June. One of my goals is to eat year round out of my gardens.  With careful planning this can be done.  The purpose of this post is to show you what you should be harvesting, how to harvest, varieties to try, and early summer chores. 

June is the month of the super greens.  I start most of my greens from seed indoors in February and put them out in late March or April depending on the weather.  They don't seem to mind the chill and unpredictable spring weather and now are giving us nutritious and delicious harvests.

Loose leaf lettuces give you an extended harvest.  You  only pick the outer leaves as you need them.  When I harvest, I lightly rinse them and put them in a large Tupperware container.  All greens including mache, spinach, sorrel, and lettuces store well this way. The picture above includes Bronze Arrowhead, Black Seeded Simpson, Merlot and Rosa di Trento.

  This is Mascara is a loose leaf lettuce with unique shape and beautiful color.  The color is not only stunning in a salad but means that it is packed with antioxidants.

Bronze Arrowhead is a beautiful loose leaf lettuce.  The leaves are oakleaf shaped and the color is green bordered with maroon.  A good crisp lettuce.

Merlot is probably the deepest red lettuce.  It's gorgeous!  I interplant onions with lettuce to ward off aphids.

Sorrel adds a lemony zing to salads.  It is a perennial.  I plant it in partial shade since I have hot summers.  It is harvested the same as spinach by individual leaf.  It is great in an omelet with Swiss cheese.  Yum!

Kale is the all star of the super greens (at least for now)  I grow a variety of kales.  I harvest individual leaves until the heat sets in then leave them alone until the cooler fall weather comes.  I always add a variety of greens to every salad, but I do enjoy a kale salad.  Massaging the leaves with oil is a great way to tenderize them for the salad.  Pictured are  Blue Curled Kale, Redbor (which is milder in taste),  Red Russian, and Nero di Toscana. My goats and chickens love kale so I harvest through the summer for them.

Spinach is a spring favorite.  I love Strawberry or Raspberry Spinach Salads.  I also add spinach to our fruit smoothies in the morning. Harvest individual leaves.  As the weather warms spinach tends to bolt.  So enjoy it while you can.  Seeds do not germinate as summer weather sets in.  This is one green that I always sow directly in the garden. Bloomsdale Longstanding is a deeply savoyed leaf and a reliable variety.  Other good varieties to try are Space, Giant Noble, and Scarlet.  These are a smooth flat leaves that are very tender.

Storing greens ensures you always have something on hand for a salad.  I lightly wash them, put them in a large Tupperware, and refrigerate them.  This works great with fresh greens but not store bought greens. We eat a lot of spring salads.  I include a little of all the greens I grow.

With head lettuce the entire head is harvested.  I grow Cos or Romaine lettuce and Butterhead.  Most people are familiar with Romaine lettuce.  It does come in some beautiful crimson colors.  The entire head of both these lettuces are harvested.  Butterhead lettuce is a gourmet lettuce and so tender and delicious.  It is a little harder to grow but worth it.

 A cos and Jericho head lettuce.

 Silvia Red and Paris Island Cos

Merveille Des Quairte Saisen as Romaine lettuce

Swiss Chard is great sauteed in oil and garlic and added to pasta dishes.  It is very healthy juiced but a little goes a long way.  You harvest the outside stalks both the stalks and leaves can be eaten. The stalks come in a variety of colors including shades of red and pink, orange, yellow, and white.  This is also best direct seeded in early spring.

Cilantro, parsley, lemon balm, winter savory and oregano are the spring herbs that we harvest.  Oregano I cut down leaving a couple of inches.  I put some in the dehydrator, infuse some with oil, and freeze some in olive oil in ice cube trays.  Cilantro, which is pictured above,  is one of my favorite herbs.  I love the smell.  It's great in salads, rice, and of course salsa.  I harvest the outside leaves.  With the heat it likes to bolt.  The seeds of Cilantro are coriander.  To have a continual harvest succession plant cilantro.  

 

I love fresh peas.  I grow both edible pods and shelling peas.  Snow peas have flat edible pods that are great as snacks, in salads, and stir fries.  I planted Oregon Sugar Pod this year.  Snap peas have edible pods but are not flat and sweeten up as they fatten up.  Shelling peas are removed from the pod.  They can be eaten fresh, canned, or frozen.  The heirloom varieties I plant are Canoe, Dakota, Telephone (which is 4-5' tall), Avalanche, and Iona Petit Pois.  Planting a variety extends the harvest because they mature at different times.  Peas need a trellis and can be planted in early spring when soil temperatures are 45-50 degrees.  I planted in early March. The tail end of the harvest will be allowed to dry on the vines and saved for seed.

These are Telephone peas.  They grow 4-5' and need a sturdy trellis.

Radishes are a quick crop that can fill in holes in the garden.  I actually plant them as a companion crop around squash and cucumbers.  I allow them to flower.  The above picture includes Watermelon, Purple Plum, and White Icicle. 

 

This little ruby is a Nanking Cherry.  These can be pruned as small trees or shrubs.  They are great in landscape, hedgerows, or windbreaks.  The small cherries can be eaten.  I make Nanking Cherry Jelly and syrup with them.  They produce an abundant crop and are easy to pick. They give you an early June harvest.

I have the day neutral Tristar and Ever bearing Ozark Beauties.  Both start producing in June.  The berries become larger as the season progresses.  For info on planting a berry patch here's a link:

Growing Strawberries

Nothing goes better together than strawberries and rhubarb.  The outside stalks of rhubarb can be harvested in early spring.  Give the the plant the summer off and then in fall you can harvest again.  As flower stalks develop remove them.  If you plants are spindly then next spring while dormant you need to divide your plant.

While not ready to harvest, there are other cool season crops in the garden including broccoli, cauliflower and a variety of cabbages.  Chewed leaves are a result of caterpillars.  Leaves that droop in the afternoon are probably suffering from thrip damage.  These are very small insects that suck juices from plants they rarely kill a plant but stress the plant.  To deal with these pests mix Neem oil and Spinosad in a sprayer and spray in evening or early morning.  Be sure to get the under side of the leaves.  You can also hand pick off the caterpillars but they are good at hiding.

 This is Chinese cabbage interplanted with broccoli and onions.

This is celery interplanted with cauliflower and onions. 

 Artichokes interplanted with marigolds and cauliflower.

Kale and cabbage with onions.

Early Summer Chores:

• Mulch around all plants
• Reseed beets and carrots where they did not germinate.  You can also seed a second crop.
• Be sure to provide even moisture
• If a plant is struggling, give it fish emulsion and kelp
• Finish planting all warm season crops
• Share your extra harvests with your neighbors 
• Enjoy the sunshine and beauty of your garden

Garden Books For Children: Inspire The Next Generation

Gardening Tips From My Grandchildren!

• Gather your tools.  Get excited we are going to garden!
• Dig a hole.
• Thoroughly explore the hole for worms, bugs, and dirt clods
• Sit in your hole to be sure your plant will be comfortable there
• Plant and water
• Enjoy your harvests!

Educate and Inspire The Next Generation

Be an inspiration to your kids and grandchildren! Get involved in your neighborhood and community.  Pass on your love of gardening and knowledge of botany.  There are so many wonderful resources to help you teach and inspire.  After home schooling 5 children for 21 years, I have some favorite resources that will most definite educate and inspire both you and your children. 

There are so many gardening and botany books that are specifically written for children.  Here's what I look for in a good children's book.

1. A whole book written by an author who is passionate about their subject.  
2. Beautiful and accurate illustrations.
3. Includes lots of hands on projects
4. Does not water down the subject matter.  Our children can understand much more than we give them credit for
5. Always open the books and read the first couple of pages.  If you do not want to read on neither will your children
6. Collect a variety of books:  read a loud books, plant identification books, curriculum book,  books that integrate other subject matter into gardening and botany.

Some Favorites

 

Linnea's Windowsill Garden by Christina Bjorke & Lena Anderson

Linnea is named after Carolus Linnaeas who classified and gave plants their Latin names.  It is also a woodland flower.  With Linnea, you will explore all the possibilities of an indoor garden.  This is a perfect winter book because all the projects are indoors.  You will plant pits, seeds, and bulbs. Linnea teaches you how to keep a plant happy, how to water, plant, fertilize, and take a cutting.

You will make garden cress cheese from homegrown cress, plant an Amaryllis bulb, and start your own plant newspaper.  Linnea calls her garden newspaper The Green Gazette. Excellent, highly recommended children's, teen, and adult book. Learn together and love learning.

Learn how plants grow with scarlet runner beans.

Try planting these seeds and pits.

  Linnea in Monet's Garden

 Linnea visits Claude Monet's garden!  See the inspiration for many of Monet's famous paintings, visit his gardens, home, and meets his family.  Monet was an impressionist painter that lived in a pink house in Giverny with eight children.  

If you live near Southern California there are some great museums to visit to see the original paintings of Monet and other artists who are inspired by the beauty of nature.  Our family made a few trips to the Norton Simon, The Getty, and LA County Museum.  The Huntington is a fabulous botanical garden to visit.  In Utah, Thanksgiving Point has beautiful gardens also.  Take a sketch book, camera, and prepare to be inspired.

  Linnea's Almanac is also available.  I love this whole series.

Camille and the Sunflowers

This is a fun read aloud book to introduce you to Vincent van Gogh.  Although this book does not teach specifically about gardening it is a great book to accompany your study of composite flowers and of course planting a sunflower garden.  Be sure to grow giant sunflowers to enter in the county fair.

Exploring Creation with Botany by Fulbright an Apologia Science Book

If you plan on exploring the world of plants in your home school curriculum, this is my favorite botany curriculum.  It can be done in a semester or a year depending on the age.  It is designed for middle school but can be adapted to any age.  It includes hands on demonstrations, projects, and a website for additional materials.  Have each child keep a notebook of narration, sketches, and experiments.  I love all the Apologia Science series.

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock

This is a reference book for parents.  This is a classic written in 1911 for elementary school teachers as a handbook for the teacher.  It includes the study of all living things except humans.  This handbook is meant to be used outdoors in nature observing, inquiring, and exploring nature.  Each unit has study questions to keep you thinking.  A great addition to any science curriculum.

Field Guides

There are many good field guides available to identify the native plants in your area.  Visitor's centers at national and state parks are a great place to find some good resources on native plants and animals.  

Start a pressed flower and leaf collection of native plants you identify on hikes in your area.This is a fun thing to start with grandchildren.  Each time they visit they can hike with you and add to the collection.

Local Resources and Programs

Your extension office may offer a Junior Master Gardener program.  The resources may be available to you without enrolling in a course if travel does not permit it.  You could also find a master gardener in your area and encourage them to teach this course locally.  

4-H is another excellent program to get involved in.  Other local events that can inspire young gardeners are county fairs and having a booth at a farmer's market.  Some county fairs offer cash prizes which kids love.  Having judged our country fair, I love seeing a whole family come in and each member enter their produce.  They have entries for vegetables, fruits, herbs, field crops, and flower arranging. 

Library Book Sales, Thrift Stores, and Antique Stores

Some of my favorite books were purchased at library book sales, antique stores, and thrift stores.  Many modern youth books are all photos and no substance.  In my opinion they are very "dumbed" down, dull, and uninspiring.  

Below are two books published in 1956 and 1965.  The have a single author who is passionate about the subject matter.  The illustrations are wonderful and they are wonderfully written. 

There are many other great children's books on gardening and botany.  I would love to hear about some of your favorites.  Regardless of your age you are never too old to learn and inspire a love of learning in others.