Last night I harvested a gorgeous bouquet of crimson giant radishes… and there’s still oodles more to pull up. If you’ve never grown the crimson giants before, you should give them a try. They’ve got loads of flavor to them… a little spicy and they pack a nice crunch when you bite into them.
Current view of our little front yard kitchen garden. I think the only thing that hasn’t really done well are the cucumbers. I planted about 30 seeds and only about 5 came up. But I think that’s because I planted them a little too early and so I’ll plant a few more seeds this week and see if I can get them going. If not, I may just plant another row of basil in their place.
Those peonies we transplanted in the spring? They bloomed a beautiful light pink color. I think they might be the Koningin Wilhelmina variety.
Spinach! After getting a little scorched on hot day a couple of weeks ago, it seems to have bounced back. Now if I could only get Lucy to stay out of the spinach patch. 😉
The cabbage is looking mighty fine these days…
As are the sugar snap peas.
I think we should have enough cilantro this year to use fresh, share with the neighbors and dehydrate.
And the pole beans are coming along nicely too.
Those Shasta daisies I started from seed? They’re rockin’ it. I wasn’t expecting many flowers this year from this perennial flower {usually they take a year or two to really get going} but they’re doing so well, I bet we’ll get a bunch of blooms this summer.
All those chives I started from seed back in February? They’ve really taken off.
And last but not least, my sweet little row of 1 gallon hydrangeas, they’re really coming along. Just think… in a couple more years they’ll be knee high and weaving themselves in and out of the white picket fence. 🙂 Wahoooo! I love it when a plan comes together.
Sunny and 72, that’s our forecast for today here in coastal Maine. Not to hot and not too cold… just the way I like it.
What’s the weather like, and what’s growing in YOUR neck of the woods?
Have a good one,
~Mavis
Mel says
I had real trouble germinating cucumbers last year. I went through at least 2 whole packets of seed and got maybe 5 plants. It was new seed, warm outside, etc., so I still don’t know what went wrong. This year, I started seeds in a seed tray on the porch to transplant. I still only got 50% germination, but I’ll take it. We should be picking the first one soon.
The rest of our garden is doing pretty well so far:
Flowers and Herbs: The cardinal flower, blue sage, calendula, bee balm, and purple coneflower are about to bloom, and our borage, cinnamon basil, forget me nots, snapdragons, and blue and black sage have been blooming for a while. The other herbs are doing great, and we love the new bed layout for them.
Tomatoes, Peppers, Potatoes: Our raised bed tomatoes are now about 6 feet tall (and loving their new trellis system), and we’re already harvesting from our one dwarf cherry tomato. Our bucket tomatoes were planted about three weeks late, but they are growing well so far and flowering/forming fruit. Our peppers are leafing out, our beans are climbing their trellises, and our potatoes are dying back.
Fruit: Strawberries are done for the year. We’ve picked a few blackberries, and our blueberries are just starting to turn blue.
suzanne says
Mel, did you get the cilantro substitute in? I can’t remember if you said papalo or pipicha. If so, do you like it?
Mel says
Yes, I ordered a papalo seedling, but it keeled over and died a few days after it was delivered, so I never got to try it. I think it might be a bit more resilient if grown from seed, but I didn’t feel like trying. Regular cilantro and even the Slo-bolt varieties bolt immediately for us, so those weren’t an option as a replacement, so I decided to go with Vietnamese Coriander (aka Rau Ram). It’s a gorgeous plant (each leaf is green but with an almost purple mark on it) and doesn’t bolt, but it’s not quite like cilantro. It’s hard to describe, but it’s almost as if it accents dishes in a very similar way, but the flavor is different–almost the way hot peppers are all hot but have different flavor notes with them. I do like it, but I’m not sure it checks the same box as regular old cilantro.
The papalo was from an Etsy seller, but the Vietnamese Coriander and nearly all my other herbs came from The Grower’s Exchange. They’re based in VA, but they do online orders, and I have loved everything I’ve bought from them.
Kim says
Mavis,
How do you maintain that straight edge beside your hydrangeas? Weed eating weekly? Hand weeding?
Mavis Butterfield says
No fancy tricks here. I use a garden hand tool and spend about 1 hour a week weeding {the entire garden}. That’s it. 🙂
Annette says
Is it a special tool?
Mavis Butterfield says
No, not really. I use the garden rake from Tuli Fisher: http://tidd.ly/2fa19fe0
Margo says
Do you use the radish greens? We sauté them in butter for a minute or two until they wilt and squeeze some fresh lemon over them and season with salt. Delicious!
suzanne says
Those are beautiful radishes. I’ll have to put those on my list of things to try along with the Jimmy Nardello peppers. I’ve been growing radish to let run to seed. The pods are absolute delicious, numerous and juicy with a much milder bite. They’re perfect to top salads and fresh eating. My grans eat them by the handfuls.
Miche says
So cool! Didnt know you could eat the pods, thank you!
Lisa Rostocki says
Everything looks so wonderful and those peonies are so beautiful!
Miche says
Good thing your hubby has a drone so you could post that amazing picture of your awesome garden!
MEM says
I’m in a suburb about 10 miles outside of Boston. Due to poor soil
I grow everything in containers. So far I have baby grape tomatoes – the variety is Jelly Bean Red but they are still green. I also have a few green cherry tomatoes. I purchased exactly one zucchini plant and it’s thriving in a whiskey barrel – four two inch zucchini already. In another whiskey barrel I have one butternut squash plant. My zinnias that I started from seed are doing well but the rabbits ate all of my dwarf sunflower seedlings. I have three small dogs who try to keep the rabbits away but there is a rabbit population explosion this year. I planted 48 Jiffy pots of petunia seeds and not a single one sprouted. So, I purchased some. My roses are not doing well. My daylilies are huge and gorgeous. These are not the orange ones Mavis hates but more rare varieties like strawberry cream.
Jude DeWitt says
I’m also in a 6a region in SW Ohio. It’s a real mixed bag here. Most of what I planted in March and April got frozen out in May. I started much of it over in June and now it’s too hot and sunny for some of my starts. My sage is struggling, as are the borage, tomatoes and the peas. Spinach, radishes and dill are just fine, as are the chives and the mint. I’m hoping for some crooked neck squash since I have blossoms this year, And my elderberry bushes are looking very promising. Unfortunately the “foolproof” morning glories are on the third planting, mostly because the squirrels keep digging them up! The onslaught of three different groups of cicadas (that emerged all at once several weeks ago) hit the garden too, and even denuded many trees because the eggs laid in the leaf stems make them weak when the wind whips up before a storm. I’m cheering on the marigolds, which so far are spindly and thin, but still trying. A good late summer/early autumn garden harvest with succession planting is my only hope for a “win” at this point.
HollyG says
I’m very concerned for our garden. The forecast for Saturday is 112 degrees – In Portland, Oregon. This would be 5 degrees higher than the all-time high temperature record. We’ve been watering the garden and the chicken run well, hoping the evaporation will keep things a little cooler.
Tomorrow, we’re going to do some deep watering and harvest what we can before the 105 forecasted for Friday (and Monday). I really hope I don’t lose the whole garden – we lost the harvest last summer when the wildfire smoke and ash killed everything.
If anyone has ideas that might help – I could really use some.
Mel says
That is a very hot day. Wow. I don’t have experience with heat waves on that magnitude, but I wonder if shade cloth might help. I’ve never used it, but Mavis taught me to use old bed sheets over plants on cold nights, and that works instead of row cover, so maybe they’d work instead of shade cloth? Even beach umbrellas might help small areas.
In addition to watering, can you mulch? Pine needles make great mulch in a pinch.
I think heat can interfere with pollination, but I’m not sure about that. It’s probably not worth trying to hand pollinate, but you might want to leave trays of shallow water with rocks in the shade for pollinators like bees and butterflies to drink. Also make sure to fill hummingbird feeders, bird baths, etc.
Is there anything you can bring inside, like container plants? Do you have a garage where you could set up a chicken playpen where it might be cooler?
I hope the garden makes it!
Mavis Butterfield says
I was thinking some sort of shade too. I don’t know what else one could do. 🙁
Michèle says
It’s normally that hot here all through the summer, so we deep water to 14”, use fish emulsion every two weeks, and my husband staples together cardboard covers for the plants hit hardest. So far the plants have survived, I’ve had heatstroke twice!
Lori N says
Hi, I garden in southern nevada where our temps are routinely in the 100s. Today will be 104, tomorrow 107. Shade cloth and lots of mulch (1-2 inches deep) around your plants is how I do it. The mulch will hold moisture in and keep the soil cooler, and the cloth helps prevent the sun from directly frying your plants. Last year there was a run on shade cloth so we bought a roll of screen door mesh and used that. I liked it better because birds were less likely to get caught in it. Good luck!
HollyG says
Thank you all for the suggestions. We do still have piles of chips left from chipping downed trees from the ice storm (it’s been a crazy year – fire, pandemic, ice, now heat). The shade cloth/sheets are a great suggestion. I’ll see what I can find. Thanks again
JoAnn Moran says
I was so shocked to read this. My husband is from Portland and a I’ve spent many summers there. Usually June is fairly cool. I’ve never heard of such temperatures in Portland. I wish you the best.
Diana says
Harvested my first tomato this week – a Jet Star – it was delicious! Packed with sweetness and flavor. I like the taste of it, but I’m not too keen on the plant itself. I’m having a major issue with caterpillars and some sort of leaf curl. Could be how I planted it, but don’t know.
Had 5 random tomato plants pop up in the ground and pots in the yard. I’ve staked them all and we’ll see what they are once they start fruiting. I LOVE volunteers!
The blueberries are coming in very nicely. Have a huge crop this year.
The almonds on the tree look like they’ve been attacked by the plum curculio. Dang it! I’m going to have to pick them all and throw them out. I’ll have to spray the tree for next year’s crop.
I harvested over 40 lbs of potatoes this past week. Pontiac Red, Kennebec and Yukon Gold. It appears the ones I thought were bad and threw into the compost pile weren’t bad. I haven’t harvested them yet, lol.
Bell peppers are doing well and have one or two to harvest in the next day or so.
Started my peanut seeds a few days ago and they are coming up like gangbusters! I’m gonna experiment with them this year and grow them 2-3 in a 3 gallon pot and see how they do.
I planted Gerkin cukes this year to try to pickle them. I love one particular brand of pickles, so I read how one can reuse the pickle juice and I’m gonna try it.
I love how pretty your garden looks. Mine is scattered all over the place looking for the sun, lol. Lots of trees here in GA to try to keep it cool.
I see the HH got his toy out to take pics. Love the overhead views. Would love to see more so we can see how beautiful it is where you live.