The Gardener's To-Do-List for June

 

June is here. These are some things to do for your garden.

No matter where you live, you should:

Keep a sharp eye out for pests – sucking aphids, chomping beetles, munching larvae, hornworms, and the like. Pick them off and destroy them, if you can find them. Otherwise, opt for targeted organic solutions rather than using indiscriminate chemical applications.

Keep pruning your vegetable plants. Tomatoes, cucumbers and other trellised plants will produce better crops if suckers are pinched off and unnecessary growth is removed.

Northeast

• Plant cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and melons outdoors.
• Fertilize your roses, again.
• Turn your compost pile, again.
• Watch out for June bugs.
• Remove dead flowers from spring bulbs.
• Plant eggplants and tomatoes outside.
• Add mulch if necessary.

Mid-Atlantic

• Squirrels, rabbits and groundhogs can dig in your soil, uproot your plants and eat your veggies. Trap and remove them (humanely) or cover your crops with netting.
• Plant curcurbits (squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc.) outside.
• Time to plant your tomatoes and eggplants.
• Divide spring-flowering bulbs.
• Add mulch if necessary.

Mid- and Lower South

• If you don’t have any extra, stop by a local nursery for seedlings and till in any empty spaces.
• Remove and compost early season root vegetables that are starting to go to flower.
• Keep watering your garden.
• Add compost to your garden.
• Turn your compost pile and add more to it.
• Fertilize roses, again.
• Check for pests and diseases.
• Squirrels, rabbits and groundhogs can dig in your soil, uproot your plants and eat your veggies. Trap and remove them (humanely) or cover your crops with netting.

Midwest

• Plant cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and melons outdoors.
• Squirrels and rabbits can dig in your soil, uproot your plants and eat your veggies. Trap and remove them (humanely) or cover your crops with netting.
• Fertilize your roses, again.
• Turn your compost pile, again.
• Watch out for June bugs.
• Remove dead flowers from spring bulbs.
• Plant eggplants and tomatoes outside.

Pacific Northwest

• Plant cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and melons outdoors.
• Fertilize your roses, again.
• Turn your compost pile, again.
• Watch out for June bugs.
• Remove dead flowers from spring bulbs.
• Watch for fungus diseases.
• Plant eggplants and tomatoes outside.

West Coast

• Plant cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and melons outdoors.
• Fertilize your roses, again.
• Turn your compost pile, again.
• Watch out for fungus diseases and insect pests.
• Remove dead flowers from spring bulbs.
• Plant eggplants and tomatoes outside.

Southwest

• Check your irrigation to make sure you are watering wisely and conserving as much as possible.
• Mulch your garden beds to conserve water.
• Add compost to your garden beds.
• Fertilize your roses again.

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Debbie's Charming Cottage Garden

 

Seen nestled behind a pecan grove, you’d think this charming cottage was built at least 150 years ago. But it’s much newer, built in 1990. Debbie moved to south Georgia over 40 years ago, but felt homesick for the place of her childhood in East Tennessee. After a few years in the area, she came upon a design that reminded her so much of her mountain home.

Her antique furnishings, décor and collectibles are in keeping with the homespun design. Visitors feel like they’ve stepped back into a simpler age. You’ll have to imagine it, though. The interior is not on display here.

While we stopped by to deliver some strawberries, Debbie allowed me to mosey around her little garden and take a few photos. I’m sharing them with you.

One of the joys of gardens, at least to me, is smelling the fragrance of flowers, and crushing the leaves of aromatic herbs for savoring. Debbie's roses, dianthus, verbena, achillea and bay delight the senses.

Her little place reminds us that delightful gardens needn't be large or ostentatious to be satisfying. They can be comfortable, small and intimate.

Follow me and see what grows in Debbie's garden.

Multiflora rose

Rosa 'The Fairy'

Verbena 'Homestead Purple'

Rosemary and Bay

Mutliflora rose

Achillea millefolium

Rosa 'The Fairy'

Oxalis

Dianthus and Oxalis

The cottage garden

Magnolia grandiflora

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How I started worm composting, and you can, too.

 

First of all, what is worm composting? I'm glad you asked. It’s the practice of intentionally enlisting the aid of earthworms in composting your organic yard and kitchen waste to use in your garden.

If you have an open compost pile or bin in your garden, earthworms have likely found their way to it.

As I wrote in “The Not-So-Magical-Experience of Composting”, the compost pile is “like a big bash going on down the street, nearby residents and passersby take notice. Flies breeze by and drop off bacteria. Single-cell creeps with hardly half a brain between them arrive and begin to cling. Fun-guys (fungi) appear from nowhere and make themselves at home. Mites pick at this and that, including other guests. Millipedes stroll and stroll and stroll, sampling a bit of everything. Sowbugs eat stuff mashed on the floor. Snails and slugs, never socially adept, slime their way among the crowd munching left-overs. Spiders entrap and roll the unsuspecting. Centipedes and beetles knock over spiders and other party-goers. Earthworms work their way around, and somehow everything comes out right from their ends."

I never gave earthworms much thought. They just showed up, and I expected that they always would.

This year I bought a couple of Vego 17" Tall 9 In 1 Modular Metal Raised Garden Bed Kits. With them came a promotional gift package containing two of their In-Ground Worm Composters. 

 

I installed one in an unplanted garden bed. At once, I began adding some soil and kitchen scraps to the bin. That’s how it started.

One can’t have a worm composter without worms. Being the impatient fellow that I am, I bought a bag containing 500 red wigglers from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. They arrived safely and earlier than expected. They are now happily housed in their new digs. (I guess they’re happy. They’re not actually smiling like Uncle Jim’s website shows. But who can tell with worms?) Now I divide our fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps between my worm composter, compost barrel and “swamp water” composter. (The “swamp water” composter is another story.)

In short order, I expect the worms to do their job decomposing the scraps. The compost should feed the garden bed, and the worms might wander around improving the soil.

So far, I recommend the Vego In-Ground Worm Composter. It’s a simple contraption compared to some others I’ve seen on the market. But I started thinking that there must be an even cheaper way.

It seems to me that one could use a simple plastic laundry basket with a lid, remove handles, partially sink it in the ground, then add soil, scraps and worms. The lid, I believe, would be essential to keep neighborhood cats and raccoons out. It might not even keep the raccoons out unless the lid was secured somehow. 

 

I’ll try it myself when I need another worm composter, but if you try it before I do, let me know how it works for you.

By the way! Vego Garden and Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm do not know I’m posting this article. They certainly haven’t paid me for this mention, nor do I expect them to. Rest assured that this is entirely honest and unsolicited.

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