Knee high by the 4th of July
Harold Shippey’s farm in 1933, when it was owned by the Dixon family. It’s located in the Town of Bolton, on the Schroon River. Harold pointed out that this was well before the Northway was built on the other side of the valley.
That’s the old saying about what the height of your corn should be in the first week of July. I went out to my garden this morning to check. I’m there. Photo at end of this post. How’s your corn doing?
Meanwhile, two gardeners making repeat visits to this site with their garden photos now that we’re into a new month. Both posted photos a few weeks ago. Here’s a visual report on current garden status.
From Harold Shippee, this wonderful photo of his farm, taken 80 years ago. He reports that the farm used to feed the summer people on nearby Sherman Lake. Now, owned by Harold and his wife who, since their retirements a few years ago, have become more serious about vegetable gardening.
Harold reports lots of help from SUNY Adirondack plus the Extension Services in Warren and Washington Counties, and local farmers and friends.
View of the vegetable garden at end of June. Photo: Harold Shippee
Harold describes this photo as a view of the main garden at Unicome Farm, looking west. 100 ft rows with initial planting on the right (north) and subsequent plantings on the left. Permanent 4 ft beds with a variety of rows, depending on plant spacing needs. Closest bed rye, then clover cover crop, sunflowers, lettuce, tomatoes, cover crow, beets, carrots, Swiss chard, onions, shallots, peas, cover crop, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, beans, garlic, more lettuce, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and finally blueberries. Along the tree line, the orchad plot, including young apple trees with rye, hairy vetch cover crop. 180 ft rows of more corn, squash, pumpkins and cucumbers.
In St. Lawrence County, which looks to be a little further along in the season at our lower elevation, Jim Rudd sent in his third batch of garden photos:
Cucumbers spreading. Photo: James Rudd
Sugar snap peas. Photo: James Rudd
Zucchini is blossoming (lock your car doors). Photo: James Rudd
As promised, a photo of the corn in my garden. This is the late corn. Beyond the young trees (our mini-nursery for starting sugar maples and apple trees), there’s a patch of early corn. The early corn is produced on much smaller (shorter) plants, though those are also just about knee high this week. The bright yellow-ish green growth along the upper left is the second planting of salad greens (this morning I just fed the remains of the first planting to our young pullets).
Here’s the corn in my garden. Just knee high. Whew! July 4th is Thursday. Photo: Ellen
Keep those photos coming. You know how every year has its garden successes–and failures. What’s going well in your garden this year? What isn’t thriving in the cool, damp weather? Photos may be sent to me: [email protected]
Tags: agriculture, gardening
This is too funny: “Zucchini is blossoming (lock your car doors)”
I am recently back from visting relatives in North Carolina, which is obviously further along in the growing season.
My husband’s cousin gifted us with her over-supply of yellow summer squash . We are still eating our way out from under that!
Doing very well in my garden: garlic, lettuce, snap peas, strawberries, chard, etc.
Looking very sad and stunted: tomatoes, peppers and summer/winter squash. Terrible germination of edamame (soy).
Ellen, last year – the hot & dry one – I followed your advice on okra: wait till June to direct seed outside. Bumper crop! This year I tried that again and it didn’t even germinate.
Oh well, win some lose some. And then there’s zucchini.
Hey, Lucy, I planted my okra around June 10 (in between raindrops) and it’s a few inches high at this point. There’s actually still time to replant, particularly if you use one of those varieties designed for our shorter northern growing season.
Ellen, your corn looks great! No corn in my garden (I buy it when it’s in season), but most veggies are hanging in, if not thriving. The lettuce is deliciously sweet, but I have to remove rotting leaves regularly. And the beans and beets have needed to be replanted in patches.
The good news is that all of the rain has kept down some of the hungry insects and the chard and kale look better than usual. But, please, a little sun would not hurt at all!
Yes, Ellen B….sun sun sun. But I agree about the insects–this is the first year in a long time that I haven’t spent every day fighting off cucumber beetles which sometimes do so much damage all of my cuke and squash plants shrivel up and die. This year, sturdy plants that can withstand some insect activity at this point should those little buggers show up once the rain stops…if the rain stops. 🙂
Ah, July 4th. Am taking time to read the website, check blogs, see Jim Rudd’s pictures, and marvel at your weedless garden, Ellen. Very impressive! You may have insect activity under control, but snails and slugs are having a field day in my flower beds. Rain, rain, go away.