Some Garden Tips and Tasks for June

For your vegetable gardens you will want to:

Start any warm weather vegetables as soon as possible, vegetables such as Corn, Beans, Peppers, Egg Plant, Tomatoes, Squash, Pumpkin, etc.

Be sure to weed your vegetable beds to keep the weeds from taking over. A lawn weeder is a great tool that can help to weed anywhere in your yard, vegetable, or flower beds.

Protect you fruits from birds with garden netting.

Mound the soil up around your potato plants to prevent the tubers from being exposed to sunlight and turning green. A green potato contains solanine which is a natural toxin and is poisonous. So do not eat any green potatoes.

Thin vegetable seedlings to be sure they have ample room for growth.

For flowers, trees, & bushes you will want to:

Pinch back mums for fuller bushes and more blossoms next fall. Continue pinching back until about June 15th.

Begin planting morning glories, cypress vine, scarlet runner, hyacinth bean, and moon vine.

If you are cultivating a living Christmas tree now is the time to shape & sculpt it. 

It is also a good time to shear, prune, and/or pinch your Junipers, Cypress or Conifers.

Container plants may need daily watering now that the weather is starting to dry out.

Deter Deer from Your Garden

One of the most damaging things for your garden, is for it to be discovered by deer. We have some tips to help keep your garden deer free.

Tips:

1. Create a fence with VHS tape. This is a great way to recycle these old tapes. Put some sturdy stakes around the perimeter of your garden, use the vhs tape to rope of the perimeter of your garden, be sure to pull the tap as taut as you can without breaking it. This will cause the tape to create a buzzing noise that will frighten off the deer.
2. Put up an electric fence. An electric fence will definitely help keep the deer away. Be sure to read all the instructions to ensure that you are using the fence safely.
3. It is said that deer do not like the smell of strong deodorant soap. Place decent sized slivers of the deodorant soap around the perimeter of your garden.
4. Use garden netting to cover your plants to keep the deer from being able to get to them.
5. Surround your garden with items that make noise and movement. Anything from wind chimes to whirligigs to tying bells on string that the deer will have to disturb when attempting to get into your garden.

10 Ways to Maximize your Garden's Harvest

There are many things that everyone has heard that will help their garden grow to it's biggest potential. There are many magazines on the market, blogs on the internet, friends, farmers, experts, etc. who all have an opinion on some of the things that you should be doing.  Well, we want to add our list to all that info, perhaps you will find some ideas here that you want to try, or others have been telling you about (if it comes from more than one source, it just might work...right? Well, we'll see...)

1. Grow foods that grow well for you. Be sure to repeat crops that you have had success with in the past as certain plants thrive in different climates and soil types. When you grow an abundance of foods that do well for you, then you will be sure to have them on hand for meals and for preserving for the winter months.
2. Plant edible perennials. Plants that come back each year save you time in planting and the maintenance for these types of plants is usually limited to weeding, fertilizing, and mulching. Some examples of edible perennials are: rhubarb, sorrel, Jerusalem artichokes, horseradish, bunching onions, and even bamboo shoots.
3. Plant crops that are compatible. (see our list of companion plants) Companion planting allows plants to help each other grow, whether by shading plants that do not need as much sun, or by releasing beneficial nutrients into the soil that other plants need. 
4. Think about trying vertical gardening. This is great for those with limited space. Use trellises for tomatoes, pole beans, and cucumbers to maximize space and help them grow.
5. Harvest plants when they are their peak. It is best to pick your vegetables and fruits in the morning. This is when your plants are full of moisture and nutrients. 
6. Use free fertilizer. Grass clippings make great mulch for your gardens, also creating your own compost pile is a way to have free fertilizer.
7. Be sure to use the correct tools in your garden. Long handled spades, garden trowels, and hoes that you can use to standing up are great for bigger gardens, however, if you have beds or container gardens then you will want to use shorter handled tools. Be sure to keep the edges on your spades and hoes sharp so that they work better. 
8. Water your plants efficiently. Mulches help to hold in moisture, and soaker hoses help to get the water deeper so that your plants roots grow deeper and won't dry out as easily. To help with watering during droughts capture water in rain barrels to use in your garden.
9. Write out a garden plan in late winter. This is a great time to go over all of your preserves, what did you run out of that you would have liked to have more of? You should grow extra of that this year. Do you have some foods left that you aren't sure will be eaten? Grow less of that plant this year, or maybe not at all depending on you and your family's feelings about that food. Grow smart, grow foods that you will eat and appreciate.
10. Create small spot gardens. Spot gardens are mini gardens that are grown in spots in your yard where there is more than 6 hours of sunlight each day. You will want to create deep, fertile gardening beds in these spots. Or you can use large containers for spot container gardens.

Companion Planting Guides

Over the past year, we have created several companion planting blogs here. We have decided since they are all spread out amongst the site, that we wanted to create a link list for you in order to make them easier to find:

1. Allium Companion Planting
2. Bean Companion Planting
3. Beet Companion Planting
4. Borage Companion Planting
5. Carrot Companion Planting
6. Cucumber Companion Planting
7. Geranium Companion Planting
8. Lettuce Companion Planting
9. Marigold Companion Planting
10. More Bean Companion Planting 
11. Onion Companion Planting
12. Pea Companion Planting
13. Pepper, Hot Companion Planting
14. Pepper, Sweet Companion Planting
15. Squash and Zucchini Companion Planting
16. Tomato Companion Planting

Planting for Mid April

Sprout Robot is a neat little website that tells you when to plant things for your area. So what do they say you should be planting if you are in the Red Hill General Store area? (SW Virginia)

Green Onions Endive Scallions Celery Shallots Sorrel Bok Choy Chives Basil Parsley Cornsalad Brussels Sprouts Chinese Cabbage Kohlrabi Arugula

Leaf Lettuce Cilantro Cauliflower Summer Squash Salsify Head Lettuce Onions Celeriac Mint Spinach Cress Fennel Dill Asian Greens

Start Indoors: Eggplant, Bell Peppers, Tomatoes.

So grab your gardening tools and get to it! And take a second to tell us what you are planting this year.

What is Lasagna Gardening?

The term lasagna gardening seems to floating around some of the gardening communities lately. But what is it?

Lasagna Gardening is a garden that is created by layering several different materials, one right after the other, with no need for mixing or tilling. The materials go through natural decomposition that does the work of mixing for you. Another name for this method of gardening is "sheet composting".

You can do a lasagna garden in a container or just right on top of the soil. You will first need to decide which you are doing and where. Then you will need to work on your layers. For your layers you will need some "ingredients". The ingredients that you will need for your lasagna garden are similar to what you would put into a compost pile. Some examples: grass clippings, leaves, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee and tea grounds, weeds (be sure they have not gone to seed), manure, compost, seaweed, shredded paper, pine needles, garden trimmings, peat moss, etc.

You will begin by laying out a layer of cardboard or several water soaked newspapers over the area that will container your lasagna garden. Then you will create a layer of green (materials that are high in nitrogen such as, peat moss, manure, coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, grass clippings, etc.) Next is your brown layer (materials that are high in carbon such as leaves, hay, straw, shredded newspaper, egg shells, saw dust, wood ashes). You will continue to alternate layers until your "lasagna" is 2 feet tall. Your final layer on your garden will be compost or manure. (If you keep a compost tumbler or heap this is a great time to use the compost you've been building up in there)

If you are starting your lasagna garden in the fall, it will be ready to plant by spring. However, if you are beginning in the spring, there are a few things you can do to help it be ready to plant almost immediately. While you are creating your lasagna garden add more soil-like amendments when layering, such as, finished compost, peat moss, or topsoil in between each layer. Finish off the entire bed with three or four inches of finished compost or topsoil, and plant. The bed will settle some over the season as the layers underneath decompose.

Patio or Balcony Gardening

For those who want to garden, but are limited on time or space, a great method to use is container gardening. With the containers on your patio, porch, or balcony they are close by for tending. Growing your own vegetables this way can provide you with fresh produce right at your fingertips while also saving some money on your grocery bill. Another great benefit of this type of gardening is that issues with soilborne diseases, nematodes, or bad soil conditions are remedied.

Beginnings of a container garden in a round washtub.

There are many types of vegetable crops that can be grown in a container:

• Broccoli (1 plant per 2 gallons)
• Carrot (2-3 plants per 1 gallon, need containers 2 inches deeper than the carrot length)
• Cucumber (1 plant per 1 gallon)
• Eggplant (1 plant per 5 gallons)
• Green Bean (Space plants 3 inches apart, a 2 gallon minimum)
• Green Onion ( 3-5 plants per 1 gallon)
• Leaf Lettuce (2 plants per 1 gallon)
• Parsley (3 plants per 1 gallon)
• Pepper (1-2 plants per 5 gallons)
• Radish (3 plants per 1 gallon)
• Spinach (2 plants per 1 gallon)
• Squash (1 plant per 5 gallons)
• Tomato (1 plant per 5 gallons)
• Turnip (2 plants per 2 gallons)

The containers that you can use vary, as long as it drains well then it can be used. If you have buckets you want to use, be sure to punch drain holes in the bottom and fill the bottom inch of the bucket with gravel so the holes aren't easily plugged by the dirt.

When thinking about what seeds to start for your container garden, you will want to go with plants that are easily transplanted as they do best in containers. Some items you can germinate your seeds in: backing pans, plastic trays, pots, or even a cardboard milk carton. Your seeds should be started in a warm area about 4 to 8 weeks before you transplant them into their final container. Also you will want to germinate them in an area that receives plenty of sunlight.

There are some plants that will need cages or other means of support, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and pole beans.

Maintaining your container garden:
Inspect your plants each day and water, trim, train, remove pests, weeds, treat diseases, and/or prune them when it is needed. Continue your gardening education by talking with experienced gardeners in your area. They will know the best about what plants fare well in your region.

If you have plenty of yard space, but are dreading the time it takes to plant it, you might want to check out the Earthway Garden Seeder. It can save a lot of time and hassle.