The merry month of May still has a week remaining and the strawberry season is still going strong, with warm May days the berries are getting ripe quicker. Usually the strawberry harvest will last until the first full week of June. There is still plenty of time to make a trip to a field in your area and pick several buckets to freeze for winter and make a batch of strawberry jam.
Season of pollen still here
The pines and mighty oaks are now shedding their dusty pollen. The dusty layers of pollen cover the porch, carport, lawns, deck and vehicles. Keep the leaf blower nearby to blow pollen off the carport and prevent tracking the yellow dust into the house. Use the hose to rise pollen from the vehicles. Keep windshields and wipers clean. By the time the month of June arrives, much of the pollen season will be over.”
Time to set out hot and sweet peppers
Peppers are tropical vegetables and love warm temperatures. The soil temperatures in late May with nights getting warmer is the time to set out both sweet and hot peppers for a harvest during the whole summer and even into autumn. You can choose from sweet bells such as California Wonder, Big Bertha, Door Knob, Keystone, and Lunch Box. As you set out peppers, keep some distance between sweet and hot varieties to prevent cross-pollination by bees. Pepper plants can grow quite tall and should be staked or caged to prevent wind and thunderstorm damage and also make peppers easier to harvest. Keep soil hilled up to the peppers for extra support. Feed with Garden-Tone vegetable food every month. When peppers start blooming, add some Epsom salts around base of the plants and cover it with soil.
Making a fresh and tart strawberry salad
While strawberries are still in season, prepare this fresh strawberry tart salad that is quick and easy to make and also very pink. You will need two three-ounce boxes of strawberry Jello, two cups boiling water, one can Comstock strawberry pie filling, one eight and a half ounce can crushed pineapple, one quart fresh strawberries (whole), one eight-once box softened cream cheese, one eight-ounce sour cream, three fourth cup sugar, one teaspoon of strawberry flavoring or extract. Dissolve Jello in two cups boiling water. Add pie filling, drain the crushed pineapple and add enough water to make one cup liquid. Combine with Jello and strawberry extract. Add the whole fresh strawberries. Mix and pour into a two quart casserole dish or bowl. Refrigerate for three hours. Mix cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and one teaspoon vanilla extract. Pour on top of the Jello mixture and top with a three ounce pack of chopped pecans. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve. You can use whole strawberries on top instead of chopped pecans.
Planting another row of green beans
As May slowly comes to its last full week, sow another row of green beans to extend the harvest until well into the summer. They only require around 70 days to produce a harvest. They are one of the most productive of all summer’s vegetables. Green beans can be mixed into garden salads, made into casseroles, cooked as a meal, pickled, canned, or frozen. It definitely has to be one of America’s finest and most productive garden vegetables next to the tomato which is sometimes referred to as a fruit. There is such a huge variety of green beans to select from including Top Crop, Strike, Derby, Tenderette, Contender, Blue Lake Bush, Kentucky Wonder, and White Half Runners.
The beauty of packets of color in cosmos
No other flower is quite as unusual as the stately cosmos. It grows tall and has beautiful flowers with bronze centers and many petals. Another bonus of the magnificent cosmos is their fern-like foliage. The cosmos is worth planting just to use the foliage for decorating flower arrangements. My mother and grandma always had plenty of them in their flower beds and used them to highlight the altar flowers in church during the summer months. They can be sown in the zinnia row to give a colorful contrast to the zinnias and attract butterflies and bees all summer long. Plant them along with the zinnias and feed them with Flower-Tone organic flower food every two weeks.
Set out some tomato plants each week
Now that the main crop of summer’s tomatoes have been set out, try to plant a four pack of indeterminate varieties of tomato plants each week for as long as you can still find healthy plants such as Big Boy, Better Bay, Rutgers, Park’s Whopper, Mortgage Lifter, and Beefy Boy. Place a layer of peat moss and a handful of Tomato-Tone organic tomato food in the hole where you set as the plants. The peat moss will retain moisture and the Tomato-Tone will boost them off to a good start.
Joseph’s Coat: An heirloom annual
My mother had them on her porch every summer in an old tub. My Northampton County grandma adorned her garden pathways with the colorful Joseph’s Coats. The old fashioned name is Joseph’s Coat but the modern name is Coleus. You can purchase them in four packs in colors of wine, pink, lavender, cream, white, yellow, red, mint green, and purple. Many of them come in four packs of assorted colors. They perform well in rows and also do well in large containers that will hold four assorted colors of coleus. They prefer a semi-sunny location away from direct sunlight. As the coleus produces stems of seed flowers, pinch them off to promote more foliage. Water them once a week and feed with Flower-Tone organic flower food once a month.
Portulaca makes a rainbow of color
Portulaca has a rainbow of colors that include red, yellow, white, tan, orange, rose pink, wine, bronze, coral and light orange. The flower also has at least three names including rose moss, desert rose and cactus flower. The portulaca opens each morning as the sun rises and only some will bloom on rainy or cloudy days. Each day, there is a different combination of flower patterns. They prefer a semi-sunny location away from direct sunlight preferably in a large container that will hold ten or twelve plants. Fill container with a finely textured flower potting medium. Water twice each week and feed with Flower-Tone organic flower food once a month. Buy them in four and nine-packs. Most of them are in full bloom when you purchase them so you will know the colors you select. Unlike most annuals, they can be planted as close as several inches apart for greater contrast of color.
All the summer annuals can be planted
May is winding down and the days as well as nights are getting warmer and so is the soil which paves the way for saving and setting out the annuals of summer. There are many summer annuals in the flower world including zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, forget-me-nots, Veronica, Dahlias, clown flower, petunias, begonia, verbena, portulaca, coleus, vinca, impatiens, red hot poker, creeping jenny, candy tuft, dusty miller, creeping phlox, pink thrift, heather and Boston fern. Start them off in containers of fine flower potting medium sold in 25 pound bags such as Sta-Green and Miracle-Gro. Fill containers and mix in several quarts of peat moss to each container to retain moisture. Flower seed can be sown in furrows. Place a layer of peat moss in bottom of furrows before sowing flower seed and place another layer of peat moss on top of the seed before applying a layer of Flower-Tone organic flower food. Hill up soil on each side of the furrows and tamp down soil on top of the row with the hoe blade for solid soil contact.
Hoe hoe hoedown
“School Daze.”- Teacher: “You missed school yesterday didn’t you, Jeffry?” Jeffrey: “No, not a bit!”
“Hidden knowledge.”-Joey: “I always carry my note book in my hat.” Teacher: “So, I see. Knowledge in a nutshell.”
“Early Coffee.”- Boss: “Young man, you are 15 minutes late on your first day work.” Employee: “Oh, no sir. I just took my coffee break before I came in.”
“Postal Service.” The postal service is getting so bad that “Occupant” letters get lost!
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