Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

June 25, 2014

June Garden



A stretch of sunny days followed by a warm, soaking rain is just what the garden ordered.  Everything is growing so well.   Oh, the garden...it seems those seed packets sat for months in my pantry, just waiting to be planted, and now they have all sprouted into lovely, healthy green plants.  I was a little unsure in the beginning if my garden had a chance against our flock of guinea fowl that insisted upon flying over the fence and scratching in the freshly planted soil and finding the seeds.  I covered as much as I could with row cover, but the hens quickly found their way through that.  We considered keeping them in the barn until the seeds had germinated, but then many precious days of pest control would have been lost.  The guinea fowl are amazing at finding and eliminating ticks, fleas, Japanese beetles, and many other unwelcomed guests around the farm, and up until now, the guineas had left my garden alone.  I'm not sure what made them decide to start eating my seeds, but something had to be done.  We finally resorted to the unpleasant task of clipping their wings.  They are not as docile as the chickens and do not like being picked up, but Hubby and the boys rounded up all forty of them and somehow managed to get the job done.  My seeds are safe, but the bugs are not...problem solved!


This is the first year I have grown garlic...well, not the first year; I had planted it several years ago without success, so I'm not counting that year. Three rows of bulbs went into the ground last fall, and I heavily mulched them with leaves and pine branches.  They all made it through the long winter, but suffered an attack by the guineas early in the spring, and a few bulbs were lost in the raid.  I plantednleftover cabbage and Brussels sprout plants in the empty spaces.  The surviving garlic plants are strong and healthy, and I'm looking forward to harvesting tasty garlic scapes soon.




In my attempt to grow more food this year, I am paying closer attention to spacing.  In the past I have ignored the spacing recommendations for planting. I thickly sow the seeds to ensure a good germination rate with intentions of thinning (our spring can be so finicky with cold temperatures and lots of rain, causing the seeds to rot in the ground), but then I never really get around to thinning.  I know I will have healthier plants that produce more if I give them the space they require, so this year I am making sure I do that by following the recommendations on the seed packets and in my handy little book, The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book. I am planning on letting my garden greens grow a bit more, using the thinned baby greens in salads, and eating the thinned beet greens, allowing the remaining beets to mature for harvest in the fall.


The new squash garden is complete for this year.  Eventually we would like to have the entire garden made up of beds with mulched walk ways in between.  We did the first three rows this year and covered the rest with black plastic. More rows are planned for next year.  Again, I paid close attention to the spacing of my cucumbers and squash.  I did, however, plant one Brussels sprout seedling in each squash hill.  I had been generously given 18 Brussels sprout seedlings after I had already planted as many as I could fit in my garden, and I had to get creative to find the space for this favorite vegetable. I may be wrong, but my thinking is the Brussels sprouts and squash plants will not be affected by each other since one grows upwards, and the other sprawls out along the ground.  We shall see.  I'm excited about this year's garden and the changes we have made.  It will be interesting to look back at last year's photos and notes and compare the results to this year's garden. 

How does your garden grow?  Please, feel free to leave a comment with a link or description of your gardening this summer.


9 comments:

  1. Your garden is just beautiful, thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow - clipping 40 guinea wings - 80 wings total! What a task! When we had an adventurous flock of ladies, we had to do about 10 chickens and that was always a taxing experience. I was always sure the neighbors were going to report us to the police, with all of the racket that they made.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It all looks wonderful. Ours is very neglected no vegetables. Interesting about your Brussels sprout and squash combination. I look forward to seeing the results. I think all our fruit trees and bushes are going to be very fruitful this year especially the mulberry tree. It will be just in time for the new owners to enjoy the harvest. A happy welcome for them.


    ReplyDelete
  4. Whoops. I didn't even finish my sentence. That should have said that our garden is sadly neglected this year and I didn't plant any vegetables at all. Next year it will be a cottage garden and I would like to plant vegetables amongst the flowers in true English cottage garden style. Apparently the soil is amazing so nothing like our heavy clay here that's very difficult to work.
    That sounds a bit better.
    debx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your garden is wonderful so much going on :). My garden is very green and rather overgrown I have neglected it if late really must find the time to tend it...........

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looking beautiful and very productive. Love your idea of sprouts and squash together, hope it works!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your garden is looking fantastic, so organised and productive. Ours is tiny, so not much is growing - a few tomatoes and strawberries, that's about it. x

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's all looking fabulous! What mulches and fertilisers do you use Emily?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so sorry, Annie, that I didn't answer your question sooner. We mainly use manure (from our cows and chickens) as fertilizer. For mulch in our new beds, I laid newspapers down then covered with straw. I also used straw around my blueberries, but last year we used saw dust that Hubby collected when he planed all the wood for our addition. The wood mulch adds acid to the soil that blueberries love.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...