Early Summer Garden Chores

June weather can be interesting with a few nights in the 40's, wind, some very hot days, some cool days, and others absolutely beautiful. June is a busy month in the garden. My chore lists are based on what I am doing or what needs to be done this time of year.  The more experienced you become at gardening the less overwhelming these chores seem. My goal as a gardener is to eat year round out of my  gardens so I probably have more "chores" than most backyard gardeners.  

 

Flowers are important to the gardener because they provide nectar for native pollinators and beneficial insects.

Shade loving plant have the right idea with the summer heat.

General Chores:

•  Be sure to check your water systems and make sure your crops are receiving even moisture
• Water stress causes misshapen, bitter, and small fruits
•  WEED, WEED, WEED
• Start thinking about your fall and winter garden and check on what seeds you need.

 

An orchard ladder is a great investment.  It's stable, lightweight, and easy to get into the center for the tree for pruning, picking, and thinning.

Climbing the cherry tree.

In the Orchard:

• Apples and peaches will be sizing up so be sure the trees have adequate moisture
• Continue with the summer spray schedule of Neem Oil, Spinosad, fish emulsion, and kelp every 10-14 days. Kaolin clay is also recommended.  This will control colding moth and aphids along with other pests. Another option is to bag your fruit.
• If you have not thinned your fruit do so before the heavy loads break branches.  Also if you don't thin you will set a poor crop next year.  The buds for next year are developing along with this year's fruit.

In the Garden:

 Beautiful companion planting combo of 

cauliflower, onions, and celery.

Cool Season Crops:

• Be sure to check daily and harvest cool season crops.  You should be harvesting broccoli, cauliflower, peas, kale, Swiss chard and lettuce.
• You can put a shade over lettuce to extend the harvest or plant in an area of the garden that gets afternoon shade.
• You can plan on leaving some peas on the vine to save as seed.  Your peas should be open pollinated or heirlooms to do this.
• Some lettuce will go to seed and it is fairly easy to save seed from lettuce also.

 

A beautiful purple cauliflower Grafetti.

Cheddar cauliflower starting to form.

• Cauliflower does best if the inner leaves are clothes pinned shut around the developing head.  Be sure to check frequently so the head does not begin to open. You want to harvest both cauliflower and broccoli when the buds are tight.

 

This is a conical shaped cabbage that is early and good for areas with hot summers are hard on the late cabbages.

• Harvest early cabbages
• Harvest outer leaves of chard and kale
• Celery is also close to harvest time.
• Continue to harvest side shoots of broccoli
• Watch for aphids on brassicas.  You can spray them off with water or use Neem.
• Remove lower leaves of cabbage and broccoli

 

I like Waltham and Premium Crop varieties.

• Sow a last planting of beets and carrots
• You may be close to harvesting carrots and beets depending on when you planted
• Remove scapes from garlic.  Scapes are the flower stalk of garlic.  You want to cut them off so the energy is focused on developing the cloves.

Warm Season Crops

• When sweet corn is knee high fertilize with fish emulsion
• Stake tomatoes up or put cages on.
• Cut lower leaves from tomatoes.  This helps with disease control
• Remove any plants infected with curly top.  It is caused by a virus and there is no cure
• Until peppers mature in size around 1 foot high pick off the flowers so you have a stronger plant to support fruiting
• Squash bugs are here!  Check for eggs and pull off the leaf or squish the eggs. Squash any squash bugs you see.  Continue with the preventative spray routine:  Neem oil, fish emulsion, and kaolin clay.  Add pyrethrin if you see adult squash bugs.

 

Oregano

Herbs:

• Continue to harvest oregano, basil, lemon balm, parsley, thyme, mints, and cilantro
• Lavender is starting to bloom so prepare to dry some lavender
• If you enjoy raspberry leaf tea, harvest and dry leaves from primocanes (first year canes)

 

The seed from cilantro is coriander.

Yarrow is a beautiful flowering herb with medicinal benefits.

Berries
You can enjoy continual harvests of berries.  Some berries can be planted in a landscape setting. Below I list berries from earliest to latest harvest dates.

Nanking cherries make a delicious jelly and syrup.

Nanking Cherries while not a berry are a small cherry that makes a fantastic jelly and syrup.  It can be pruned to be a small tree or shrub. They ripen mid-June

Gooseberries can be green or pink.  They are very thorny and have a tail that must be removed before preparing.

Next are Gooseberries, and black currants.  They need to be checked and picked daily because they do not all ripen at once.  I freeze them as I harvest them until I have enough to process them.

Gooseberry Jam

Gooseberry Coconut Cake

Black currants can be used in jams, jellies, syrups, and for medicinal purposes.

Jostaberries will be ready some time in July along with Pink currants. Both make a great jelly. 

Jostaberry Jelly 

When raspberries begin to ripen,  pick daily and keep plants watered well during fruiting. 

 

I prefer the erect varieties.  They seem to be much more productive than trailing varieties.

Blackberries are starting to develop fruit and also need to be watered well.  You can give berries a drink of fish emulsion during fruit development if you have time. 

Elderberries flower and ripen at different times depending on the variety you planted.  Both the flowers and berries are edible and have medicinal purposes plus the berries make delicious jellies, pies, and syrups. 

 It seems like the season is passing so quickly.  Enjoy the fruits of your labor, and remember you always reap what you sow in gardening and life.

Bolting lettuce.  Saving seeds from lettuce is fairly easy.

Saving Heirloom Lettuce Seed

Gooseberries

No kidding it's a real berry!  A gooseberry is also a term referring to a "fool."  Put them together and you have an English dessert call Gooseberry Fool which is stewed gooseberries folded into a cream.    It may be fool hardy to not try this backyard small fruit in your garden.  It is a slightly tart grape size berry used to make desserts like pies, tarts,  jellies, and jams.  This small bush is more common in European gardens than in American gardens, but is gaining in popularity.

"In Europe in the 1800s, as many as 722 gooseberry varieties were in existence, and "gooseberry clubs" were established by enthusiasts. Most of the European varieties were large fruited and sweet as a result of centuries of selection and breeding, while American types had less desirable flavor and more disease resistance." (Penn State)

The gooseberries available to the home gardener today are usually a hybrid of both the European and American varieties.
It is in the ribes family along with currants. Unlike the currant, gooseberries have thorns which means careful picking but also means you can use these woody shrubs in the landscape because the deer will steer clear.

This 3 to 5 foot bush with arching branches produces slightly tart green fruits the size of a marble.  Some cultivars ripen to a pink or burgundy.  The skins are translucent and the fruit has a tail. They ripen in throughout July and hold on the bush nicely.

Planting and Care

Gooseberries are an easy to grow shrub.  Purchase 1-2 year old plants in early spring.  Plant bushes 3-4 feet apart.  You can propagate from your existing plants using stem cuttings and the arching branches will layer if left on the ground.  In the planting hole I add a handful of a dry organic fertilizer mixed with some compost.

Once established, I fertilize with an organic dry fertilizer in early spring.  During the growing season I also fertilize with fish emulsion and sea kelp.

  

Pruning

Fruit is produced on  small spurs of 2 and 3 year old wood.  Older wood will become less productive so the these are the pruning goals:  

1. Remove branches lying low to the ground 
2. Remove older wood leaving new shoots to replace the old
3.  Remove crowed branches and open up the center.  You want to be able to pick without too much danger of the thorns.  Overcrowded branches means more "ouches" when picking

Harvesting

Gooseberries ripen late June and through July.  Underripe berries can be used in jellies and jams.  The underripe berries are high in pectin and can be mixed with ripe berries in recipes that do not need pectin.  Ripe and overripe berries are perfect for pie fillings, tarts, and stewed gooseberries to use in Gooseberry Fool.  These can also be canned or frozen for use later. One of my favorite desserts is this Gooseberry Coconut Cake.  So delicious!

Gooseberry Coconut Cake

Potatoes: Tasty Tubers

Potatoes are one of the most rewarding crops to grow. While the tops grow, flower, and then die back tasty tubers are forming underground.  Digging in the cool rich soil pulling out tasty potatoes grown organically is a thrill!  With skin colors from purple, blue,  red, and brown potatoes are anything but boring!  Some of the harvest will store well into the winter with very little preparation.  And some will be enjoyed on the day of harvest because nothing beats a fresh baked potato. 

Potatoes  are a family favorite with endless cooking options:  baked, boiled, roasted, shredded, steamed or fried.  They can serve as a taste side dish, in a salad, or even as the main event at a meal.

They are a great storage crop and can be processed in a pressure canner or dehydrated.  With so many options why not give the spectacular spud a try?

Purple Viking Potatoes

Are Potatoes Healthy?

Potatoes are actually nutritional gold mines.  They contain  vitamin C, potassium, iron and are a good source of fiber. They also contain B vitamins, vitamin A, minerals like zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium, and antioxidants. In fact, one medium potato with its skin can provide half of the recommended daily dose of vitamin C. In a survival situation, this would definitely be an important crop because it is calorie and nutrient dense characteristics.

Kennebec

Why Brother Growing Potatoes?

Why not just purchase potatoes from the store?  After all they are inexpensive, so why go to the effort to grow them?  There is a difference between fresh potatoes and store potatoes.  Texture and taste are so much better. Also there are so many varieties and colors and shapes of potatoes each suited to  a particular use and cooking method. Flavor ranges from nutty to sweet and from mild to intense.  Each variety has its own texture.  The texture determines what dishes each variety is best suited for.  Once you start growing your own spuds you will always find a space for them in the garden.

Besides the endless options of varieties,growing your own potatoes means you are getting an organic pesticide free potato.  Commercial potatoes are heavily sprayed with chemical fungicides and pesticides.

Purple Viking

Picking a Potato

Potatoes are planted from whole or partial seed tubers.  Use only certified seed quality tubers not grocery store potatoes.  This prevents the risk of certain diseases.

Potatoes can be characterized by maturity date, any where from 65-180 days, and skin type.  There are early, mid season, and late varieties.  I like to plant at least one variety of the early, mid, and late season potatoes. This extends the potato season allowing us to enjoy these yummy spuds from late summer through fall.  Skin types include russets, smooth, and colored.  Some varieties exhibit some resistance to potato disease so that is another factor to look at.  Each variety allows a different yield from light to heavy yields. Storage length is also another consideration with the late season varieties being the best for storing.

Weeding and prepping the field

 Planting Potatoes

Start with egg sized potatoes.  Larger potatoes can be cut and left out overnight to cure at room temperature.  Potatoes can be planted 4-6 weeks before the last frost date as long as the soil can be worked.  They like a sandy soil with lots of organic matter. 

 I start with a trench 1-1 1/2  feet deep. Leave the removed soil on the side of the trench. Before planting, I add dry organic fertilizer.  I  plant the seed potatoes 8 inches apart.  Cover the potatoes with only 2 inches of dirt.  

When the potatoes emerge and have about 6 inches of top growth cover them with another 2-4 inches of soil.  Continue to do this until the plants are level with the surrounding ground.  Then mound up one more time around the potatoes so they are actually  growing on a hill.  This is important because potatoes form between the seed potato and the ground level.  Mounding ensures an abundant crop.

Care of Potatoes

Other than the dry organic fertilizer you put in the trench potatoes do not need any other fertilizer.  You can cover emerging potatoes with compost once while mounding them and again when you hill them. Straw can also be used to mulch potatoes just be sure it is seed free. 

Even moisture is important to prevent mishapen potatoes.

Pests

There are a few pest to watch for in your potato crop.  As with all your crops, a stroll through the potato plot looking for signs of insect damage will result in early detection and possibly save your crop.  

          
 Colorado Potato Beetle

This beetle reside in most states despite the name Colorado potato beetle.  Check the underside of leaves, looking for masses of orange eggs.  Destroy them!  The adult beetle is yellow with black stripes.  The larvae is dark red or orange with black spots.  Both adults and larvae feed on the potato foliage.  Pick them off or spray with Neem and Spinosad.

 
Flea Beetle

Flea beetles are small pesky black beetles.  They chew small holes in plant leaves damaging young plants.  Rotating your crops and maintaining high organic matter in the soil will help.

Diseases

Problems with disease vary from year to year.  The determining factor will be the weather. Moisture and temperature and the right host make disease pathogens active.  

There are some preventative measures you can take.  First of all it is very important to rotate where you plant potatoes.  Potatoes and tomatoes are in the same family so keep that in mind when planning your crop rotation. Second always use certified disease free potato seed.  And finally use a regular organic spray routine throughout the season.

I have found the following spray routine effective for both pests and disease:

• Neem Oil
• Spinosad
• Kaolin Clay

I put all three sprays in the same sprayer and apply every two weeks.  I also add kelp and fish emulsion.

 Scab

The fungus that cause common scab lives in the soil for many years.  It is inactive if the pH of the soil is below 5.4.  You can take a soil test to determine pH.  Look for scab resistant varieties.

Late Blight

Late blight was responsible for the Irish potato famine.  It is caused by the fungs Phytophthora infestans.  This disease loves cool, wet weather and spreads as the weather warms up.  Look for water soaked areas that turn brown and black as the leaf dies.  Both potatoes and leaves can be affected.  Be sure to plant certified seed and follow a regular spray routine.  If weather conditions are right add Serenade to the spry routine.

  Mosaic Virus

  MosaicVirus is spread by aphids.  It causes leaves to curl and they look two toned.  This virus occurs throughout the United States.  Kennebec and Katahdin, two of my favorite storage varieties, have some resistance to this virus.

Let everyone help look for potatoes!

Holding the lids open

Harvesting Potatoes

You can harvest new potatoes before the main harvest.  This robbing can be done 50-60 days after planting.  A good time to rob for new potatoes is right before flowering.  Just gently reach into the hill and remove the new potatoes. Be very gentle.

Potatoes for storage are dug after the plant flowers and the vines begin to die.  They must be dug before the ground freezes.  

To check for maturity dig up a plant and rub the skin.  The skins should not rub off. If they do and weather permits leave them in the ground a couple more weeks. Harvest in the morning on a dry day.  Dig your potato fork to the side of the plants and gently lift out the spuds.  Digging around will result in finding more potatoes.  It's like a treasure hunt.

Brush off the dirt but do not wash until you are ready to use them.  I cure them in a cool garage on a rack which allows circulation and continues to cure the skins. Curing allows skins to harden and cuts and bruises to heal.

Used to store potatoes in the house.

Storage rack to cure potatoes in my garage.

Storing Potatoes

Potatoes are stored best in cool, dark, and humid conditions.  The ideal temperature is 40 degrees with 80-90% humidity.  Lower humidity causes potatoes to shrivel and light causes them to sprout.  In the west it is difficult to maintain high humidity, but do the best you can to maintain good storage conditions.  Not all varieties store well so use them up first and save those varieties intended for long term storage for later.

Varieties I like:.

Early Season 

Purple Viking: early, purple skin, white flesh my favorite.  My all time favorite

Red Norland:  Red skin, white flesh resistant to scab
Moutain Rose:  Red skin and flesh

Mid Season: 

Katahdin:  Reliable, white flesh, good storage, a must in my garden
Kennebec:  Large, reliable, large yields, long storage, excellent

La Soda Red:  Dark red, white flesh, disease resistant, high yields


Late Season:

Carola:  yellow flesh, excellent quality, drought, scab, and blight resistant, high yields
All Blue:  Large blue skin and flesh, high yields

Be sure to place online potato orders early or you will not have very many choices available.  The sell fast.  

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