Mid-June garden check
by Ellen Rocco on June 17th, 2012
Just a quick shout out here to encourage you to tell me how your early garden looks: what’s doing well, what isn’t. In my years of gardening, one thing remains constant: there are dramatic differences in how things grow each year. So far, this looks like it’s going to be a bumper crop for peppers (hot and sweet)–lots of flowers and fruit already setting. Tomato and potato plants looking good, too. My squash and cukes all being attacked by cucumber beetles (that’s something I deal with every year–my garden is infested with this pest).
So, what’s looking good in your garden? Be sure to tell me where you live and how this year compares to other years. Thanks.
Tags: gardening
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Our garden is in Burlington’s Intervale, first time there. Before that, i gardened in St. Albans.
Currently hip deep in lettuce and radishes. Cukes are coming along well, as well as our beans and cabbages. Tomatoes aren’t doing as well as they did in years past, still kind of short, but look healthy at least.
This is our first season with pests. Cuke beetles were around a few weeks back, but didn’t kill anything off. Now the potato beetles are moving in, they also seem to like hanging out on the cukes, though they aren’t eating them yet.
Our gardens look fantastic. The carrots are a little slow, the crows won’t leave the corn alone, and the deer trimmed the tops on a whole row of beans, but we focus on the bright side….The greens have been feeding us for weeks. the peas are five feet tall, we’re on a second round of radishes, and the potatoes are herculean. Something always fails, that’s a given, but everything else grows. Diversify your portfolio.
Michael–It’s true, isn’t it? Something always fails. Other stuff grows. That’s probably the single most important gardening lesson I’ve learned through the years. Is your corn going to be knee-high by the Fourth of July? I think mine will make it, still two weeks plus to go and we’re past mid-calf.
In regards to crows eating the corn seed (they do walk right down the row and find each one) we put row cover down. We “pin” it into the soil and leave it on until the corn is up to about 4″. This system works great for us. We also make a low tunnel over our cukes and that helps to keep the cucumber beetle damage down.
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