June Food Growin' Mamas

[serenetabbie]

Whew! May went by so fast!

Here's a link to May's thread.

I hope everyone is doing well. We had some really cool temps here a few nights ago, and some places a little north of us got frost!

In my personal garden news; the corn and squashes are sprouting, the peas are going crazy and everything is in the ground/containers. My boss put all the herbs on sale 50% off (so, 50% off + my 20% off = next to free for me ) so I have a TON of new herbs including a really cool red oregano (of course I forget the name now...). I am going to try not to kill the rosemary again, but am holding out little hope for that to happen. I went a little nutty with the different basils, so for sure I will be asking for basil & pesto recipes soon .

in non-edible news; DD talked me into buying annuals for the first time in years, so our shade garden has some white impatiens in it now! They are so cute, I forgot how they really perk up the area... I must grow them from seed next year. All of the other annuals I started are doing great, and it looks like I might actually have continuous three season flowering perennial beds! Yay! That only took 4 years to figure out !

[Talula Fairie]

I am quite relieved to learn that someone else killed their rosemary too. I'm trying again this year. I don't know what I did wrong last year, but I had three very nice looking rosemary bushes that died big time. I was bummed and felt like an idiot since it's supposed to be unkillable.

My basil keeps getting bug eaten and it's not growing very fast. I wish I had bought a bigger starter plant. It's barely grown in a month.

[serenetabbie]

Well... where I am rosemary is really an annual so I have to bring it inside. That's where I kill it. It's really, really tragic The rest of my family lives in the Bay Area, and they all have HUGE beautiful rosemary bushes. *sigh*

[Talula Fairie]

Originally Posted by serenetabbie

Well... where I am rosemary is really an annual so I have to bring it inside. That's where I kill it. It's really, really tragic The rest of my family lives in the Bay Area, and they all have HUGE beautiful rosemary bushes. *sigh*

I have no excuse. I'm about 2 hours east of the Bay Area.

[Milkymommi]

Can I join in?

I'm a new food grower! This is the first year I have had the space to plant my own garden. So far so good but I am totally flying by the seat of my pants here. In other words, I generally have no REAL idea what I'm up to Winging it!! I'm absolutely in love though...

So far I have 12 tomato plants. 1 Beef Master, 3 Big Boys, 3 grape,and 5 cherry. All are doing really well except the grape. Not sure yet what's up with them but the others are crazy! My Beef Master plant already had 10 flowers and just popped up with 5 more little buds. It's getting huge.

Growing a variety of herbs... Green peppers, Kale, and broc are all in and growing. I did a lettuce and spinach bed but it wasn't successful so I'm starting over. I direct sowed the first time so this time I started them in a seed starter container. Any advice on the lettuce front?

Still haven't finished putting everything in the ground but I'm getting there.

Happy to find this thread since I'm sure there are some wonderfully seasoned growing mamas here

[ms.shell]

Hi, Mamas!
Im glad to join this thread at the beginning; I will try to keep up...I know June should be a BIG month for everyone's gardens! Good luck to everyone!

Ours is growing well. We had a party on Sunday and I had a huge bowl of salad grown all from our garden. Lettuce, grape tomatoes, tiny purple onion rings, and green yellow and purple beans snipped into small bites. I only added parmesan cheese and made vinaigrette myself with basil oregano and rosemary. : it was sooo good.

We are really into the beans now. So far the harvest has been mostly from Sequoia purple and other bush beans. The pole beans are starting to make beans now, but we havent eaten any of those yet. They loved it last week when I blanched them for about 5 minutes and then sauteed in butter and garlic with a lot of oregano (which is really high now and i think soon to flower).

My squash hasnt produced anything to eat yet. There were 2 small yellow straightnecks and I went to see if I could pick them for salad this weekend, and they had rotted while still small. Now I see 2 yellow crooknecks that are much bigger I am hoping we will eat soon. Havent seen any zucchinis forming. I fried and we ate some big blossoms last week when I was frying the first Goliath tomatoes green. The squash blossoms were delicious. The biggest blossom I picked was jumping around in the bowl and so dp and ds took it outside and released a beautiful baby tree frog that grew up in the blossom! Like he hatched from the flower like thumbelina, so cool!

Hope everyone has a great month!

[Talula Fairie]

Note to self: do not buy large tomato plants, especially if you are not getting them from a reputible nursery. I bought six tomato plants from Costco, was all excited about them until....until I just realized they all have curly top virus. Wah wah wah. I just had to pull all six of 'em.

Oh well. Off to the gardening store to get more plants. Too bad I have no idea where my receipt is.

WOE IS ME.

[Sustainer]

Welcome Milkymommi!

[Toolip]

My squash hills (10 of them) were just starting to take off and were looking really good and a skunk dug them all up!

I am so mad at the skunks

My first planting of cilantro is bolting but the next patch is on the way.

Need to transplant about 100 sunflowers and 200 onions. I also need to rototill for the 2nd planting of corn but we're having thunderstorms so it's not exactly great weather for tilling but I do LOVE the storms!

I also need to prepare the beds for my sweet potato slips that are (hopefully) on their way. :

[dillonandmarasmom]

Originally Posted by Talula Fairie

Note to self: do not buy large tomato plants, especially if you are not getting them from a reputible nursery. I bought six tomato plants from Costco, was all excited about them until....until I just realized they all have curly top virus. Wah wah wah. I just had to pull all six of 'em.

Oh well. Off to the gardening store to get more plants. Too bad I have no idea where my receipt is.

WOE IS ME.

I just posted in the old thread about the cats in your garden.

I linked to this site.

[Toolip]

Originally Posted by Talula Fairie

Note to self: do not buy large tomato plants, especially if you are not getting them from a reputible nursery. I bought six tomato plants from Costco, was all excited about them until....until I just realized they all have curly top virus. Wah wah wah. I just had to pull all six of 'em.

Oh well. Off to the gardening store to get more plants. Too bad I have no idea where my receipt is.

WOE IS ME.

You don't need a receipt to return things at costco - they keep their own records of everything.

And, as a side note, I've seen people return dead poinsettias after Christmas without a problem. I wouldn't do that, personally, but I would take back those tomato plants!

[Talula Fairie]

Originally Posted by Toolip

You don't need a receipt to return things at costco - they keep their own records of everything.

And, as a side note, I've seen people return dead poinsettias after Christmas without a problem. I wouldn't do that, personally, but I would take back those tomato plants!

Oooh, thanks!

[Sandrine]

Sub'bing until i have some news. lol

[Milkymommi]

Originally Posted by Sustainer

Welcome Milkymommi!

Thank you!

Carrots went in today... had some beautiful sun the first part of the day! Now the rains a comin'.

What's curly top virus if you don't mind me asking?

[PiesandAbrosmama]

looking so good around here just keeping fingers crossed for no squash bugs

[Owen'nZoe]

Everything is going well here, considering how cold the nights have been. We are expecting frost tonight, so I will be out there covering everything once again. *sigh* Sorrel was definitely the star of the spring - we ate a lot of it before it started petering out a week ago. We've had a couple of salads, as well, but that is about it. Garlic is going crazy, as are the baby turnips (those should be ready for harvesting soon. Lettuce, spinach, sweet peas, onions and broccoli are FINALLY taking off.

Potatoes, beans, edamame, cukes, zukes, parsnips, pumpkin and watermelon are FINALLY coming up. It feels like they took forever to come up this year! 1 kind of cuke and 1 kind of melon still aren't showing I'm thinking I'll need to replant those, but I'll probably wait until we stop having frost warnings!

[morganlefay]

May I join?

I'm in FL so things are in full swing around here. The other night I made a dinner that was 98% home grown : Only the olive oil, butter, and some seasonings were purchased! Yay!

We had good lettuce and chard until recently, but those have pretty much expired with the heat. We have two yellow squash plants and one zucchini and so far that is plenty for both our family and some extra friends! We will probably plant more soon, though, since the vine-borers are already coming around. I have basil, pineapple sage, oregano, and rosemary planted in various places around the yard. The eggplants are starting to produce, and so are the tomatoes. So far the tomatoes are doing ok, although a few plants are starting to show blossom end rot. Our strategy with tomatoes is to just plant as many as possible of several varieties because they WILL get diseases! We also have banana peppers and onions. DH pulled up the garlic and had it drying in the sun, but then it rained : Maybe it will dry out again. We recently harvested green beans, cucumbers, and potatoes grown at DH's work site, and will soon have tons of corn grown on a plot borrowed from a friend. This weekend might find me freezing a couple hundred ears' worth.

[serenetabbie]

Sorry not to reply to the other posts (welcome to all the newbies!! )
BUT...
AGH! I am so bent out of shape, there are huge black ants in my garden! They killed three tomato plants. I dug up the nest three times now, and it seems like it just makes them spread more. I put diatomaceous earth on them and it seemed to have no effect. I am trying the grits trick next, but if that does not work, I am going to poison the darn things. I never had this problem before, usually digging up the nest or the DE worked in the past. *sigh*

[nadia105]

Originally Posted by serenetabbie

Sorry not to reply to the other posts (welcome to all the newbies!! )
BUT...
AGH! I am so bent out of shape, there are huge black ants in my garden! They killed three tomato plants. I dug up the nest three times now, and it seems like it just makes them spread more. I put diatomaceous earth on them and it seemed to have no effect. I am trying the grits trick next, but if that does not work, I am going to poison the darn things. I never had this problem before, usually digging up the nest or the DE worked in the past. *sigh*

This ant solution has worked amazingly well for us: Mix 2 parts molasses with 1 part yeast and one part sugar. Similar idea to the grits, when they drink, they yeast reacts and the gas ends them.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by Talula Fairie

I am quite relieved to learn that someone else killed their rosemary too. I'm trying again this year. I don't know what I did wrong last year, but I had three very nice looking rosemary bushes that died big time. I was bummed and felt like an idiot since it's supposed to be unkillable.

I wish I could get my hands on that Arp Rosemary.... supposedly it's hardy to zone 5 or so. I really like things I can plant and forget. Like my chives, overwintered potatoes (I'm so *planning* to do that this year rather than do it by accident!), daylilies, etc. Maybe at some point. You carry it over there Laura?

Originally Posted by Talula Fairie

Note to self: do not buy large tomato plants, especially if you are not getting them from a reputible nursery. I bought six tomato plants from Costco, was all excited about them until....until I just realized they all have curly top virus. Wah wah wah. I just had to pull all six of 'em.

Oh well. Off to the gardening store to get more plants. Too bad I have no idea where my receipt is.

You don't need a receipt for Costco. They have a satisfaction guarantee. Doesn't matter, you could return them a year from now even. Go back. Call first to see whether you need to bring the pots or dead plants though, just in case.

Originally Posted by nadia105

This ant solution has worked amazingly well for us: Mix 2 parts molasses with 1 part yeast and one part sugar. Similar idea to the grits, when they drink, they yeast reacts and the gas ends them.

Oh baby, I will be all over this. I have ants in various places where I'd prefer them not to be (namely, in a corn/melon patch, asparagus bed, and a strawberry bed). Do you just dump it on the ground over the nests? And is this for regular ants or carpenter ants? I've already tried the cornmeal thing, and it seemed to work for a day or so, but they came back with a vengeance.


Time for me!

My garden's about 80% done/planted... still have winter squash to plant, basil and peppers to transplant in, a few more random things to plant wherever I can fit them. Hubby started in on the drip irrigation, so that'll be finished up in a day or two. I hope. Watering by hand is starting to get old with all the garden space I keep adding and with how hot it's been.

My neighbor's garden however... Hubby weed-whacked and tilled. It was a freakin' mess. Turns out they kind of half-@$$ things. *sigh* It took like an hour and a half to two hours just to get half of it done (12'x30' or so?). And hubby has a big ole orange Ariens tiller. That thing is awesome - took him *maybe* 45 minutes for our entire big plot (at least 736sf - so about double the ground).

So, I got myself in a bit too deep. I'm only planting about half the space I'd expected. There's just too much crap and weird things going on over there. Hopefully tomorrow he'll put the cage back up around the plot so I can go start planting. Oy. Then figuring out their soaker hoses... it'll be nice when they're back in 10 days so I can just go visit once a week or so and not stress about it.