June Garden

The June garden is pure abundance. It's too late to start most summer veggies now in my valley, and too early to start fall crops, so my focus is on garden care - watering, weeding, mulching - and on HARVEST. We are going to have an early heat wave this week - so watering will be paramount.

Agenda:

1. June tasks

2. Planting

1. June tasks:

I'm using the Second Breakfast Garden monthly guides, because they are in zone 8b.

1. Harvesting: I'm harvesting peas, rhubarb, lettuce, and boy choy - which is ready to bolt, so I need to use it fast! Other cool season crops (lettuce, peas, beets, kale, etc.) might start to wither or bolt. Pull some, and leave one to flower for the pollinators.
2. Thinning- Carrots: Use scissors to snip to the soil line. Remove all but one within a two inch radius. Beets: Each beet seed contains three or more plants. Gently pull or snip the extras so they each have about three inches of space. Lettuces: Gently pull extras so each has about a six inch radius.
3. Tomatoes: Remember to prune the suckers (branches that grow out of the joint of other branches) on my indeterminant tomatoes.
4. Leeks: Begin blanching as plants grow and thicken by piling soil or straw around the leeks inside the trench. This practice keeps the bottom of the leeks white and tender
5. Mulch strawberries: It keeps the soil cool and moist, and keeps the berries off the dirt.
6. Aphids: Wherever I see aphids, I can look also for little golden clutches of ladybugs eggs. (cabbage moth eggs look similar but maybe not in a clutch?)
7. Pruning: It is bird nesting season so hold off on any further tree pruning until late summer. Hummingbird nests are so tiny that you may not notice them. If you’re lucky, you will hear tiny peeps and busy bird parents shuttling food to their nests.

2. Planting:

Corn (maize) probably originated in Mexico's southwestern highlands, and was domesticated only once, about 9,000 years ago, and then spread throughout the Americas. Stone milling tools with maize residue have been found in an 8,700 year old layer of deposits in a cave.

I've waited a little late but still hope to get some going. I'm going to plant 3 patches of corn, a week apart, with seeds 8-inches apart and 2-inches deep, and the pointed end down.

The Cherokee people have a method of growing called the three sisters where each plant helps the other plants grow in a symbiotic relationship. The traditional three sisters method uses corn as the trellis for the pole beans and the pole beans feed nitrogen to the corn. In addition, they plant summer squash with the combination, and this shades the roots of the other two plants. The three plants work in harmony to feed, shelter, support, and repel pests from the other two in the group.

Green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris): The green bean originated in Central and South America and there's evidence that it has been cultivated in Mexico and Peru for millennia. I usually try to plant beans in late May, but early June is not too late. I'm planting bean seeds I saved from my giant pole beans of two summers ago. Since green bean seeds are thick-coated, I'll give them an overnight soak in room temperature water to fully hydrate before planting.

Beans are a good crop to follow heavy feeders like tomatoes because they fix nitrogen in the soil. Catnip repels flea beetles, so catnip is a good companion plant for green beans, and marigolds will repel the Mexican bean beetle and suppress nematodes in the soil from attacking the roots. Bean plants repel the Colorado potato beetle and potato plants repel bean beetles so these two make a wonderful pair. Cucumber, eggplant, carrots, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, kale, strawberries, swiss chard, tomatoes, lettuce, peas, cauliflower, parsley, spinach, and radishes all grow well with green beans

Beets will stunt the growth of pole beans and pole beans stunt the growth of beets. Onions, garlic, and other members of the allium family stunt the growth of beans and don’t allow them to add nitrogen to the soil.

Bean tips:

• Plant pole beans about a hand-span apart, and give them a pole or string to twine up. 
• Avoid watering with cold water. Instead use warmer water from a watering can that has been sitting in the sun. 
• Keep slugs under control; there is nothing more delectable to slugs than tender young bean shoots.