Great organic food for veggies-flowers
Flowers and vegetables are only as productive as what you feed them with. They need more than chemicals and fertilizer pellets. They need the food that boosts their growth cycle. There are many organic, healthy foods available that will provide nutrients for vegetables, flowers, flower beds and and plants that will get your vegetable garden off to a great start without use of chemicals which subtract from the plants rather than add important food values. Most garden centers and hardware’s feature organic plant foods and they can be found at Ace Hardware, Lowe’s Home Improvement, and Home Depot. You can select from Plant-Tone organic vegetable food, Garden-Tone organic garden food, Tomato-Tone organic tomato food, Rose-Tone organic rose food, Flower-Tone for flower and container gardens, Dr. Earth rose food, Dr. Earth organic tomato food with added calcium, Alaska fish emulsion in quart bottles that you mix with water and great for vegetables, flowers and plants, Holly-Tone for azaleas, evergreens, and shrubbery. Most organic plant foods are fine-textured and absorb quickly into the soil and produce positive response to growing flowers and vegetables.
Preventing tomato blossom-end rot
Blossom-end rot on tomatoes can be prevented in several ways. One way is mix powder lime (calcium carbonate) with a sprinkling can of water and pour around the base of the plants and also on the blooms of tomatoes. Powder lime can be side-dressed in the row and hilled into the soil. Another preventative method is to side-dress the tomato plants with Vigaro tomato food with added calcium lightly applied on both sides of the row and hilled into the soil. Vigaro is available in one pound bags at Home Depot for around $6 per bag.
June is the month for Lima beans
As the nights of June continue to get warmer, the perfect season to plant Lima beans has arrived. They are a vegetable that loves warm days and nights and tropical in their nature. The continuous warm temperatures will produce a harvest in about 80 to 85 days and the harvest will last for several weeks. You can select from Thorogreen, Fordhook 242 bush Lima or Henderson bush Lima if you can find them. Lima will thrive in the warm soil of the June garden. A pound of seed will be enough for a 50 foot row.
Sow the Limas in a furrow about 6 or 7 inches deep. Apply a layer of peat moss in bottom of the furrow and sow seed on top of the peat moss and apply another layer of peat moss on top of the beans. Spread a layer of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food on top of peat moss and hill up soil on both sides of the row and tamp down soil on top of the row for solid soil contact. The layers of peat moss will help the soil retain a lot of moisture. Side-dress the beans when they sprout two leaves and then again in three weeks. Keep soil hilled up to the beans as they grow.
Making a Cheerwine strawberry salad
As the strawberry season of 2024 comes to its grand finale, we end it with this colorful and very tart Cheerwine salad. You will need two quarts of fresh strawberries, cut into quarters, one cup sugar, 16 ounce can of pine-apple tidbits, one 16 ounce bottle of Cheerwine two three-ounce boxes of strawberry Jello, and one cup chopped pecans. Drain juice from pineapple. Add strawberries, sugar and pineapple, and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add Cheerwine and Jello and dissolve them in one cup of boiling water. Add strawberries, pineapple, and chopped pecans. Refrigerate for several hours. Top with dairy whipping cream, Dream Whip or Cool Whip. Refrigerate after serving.
The glow of first rainbow of spring
As the days of June get warmer, the odds of thunderstorms become a greater possibility and this produces our chances of enjoying a colorful rainbow with a spectrum of the colors of red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo, and purple. Rainbows have a special glow when the eastern sky still has some dark gray in it from remnants of the passing thunderstorm. It gives the bow that glow in the dark look.
A durable water wand saves water
A great way to conserve water is to apply the water only where it is needed in the garden and at the base of the plants with a water wand. You can place water only where it is needed. A water wand will place the water on the vegetables and not the middle of the row where weeds grow. A good water wand has a variety of settings including spray, mist, stream, center, soaker, full, flat, angle, shower, and jet. They will place water where it is most effective. A heavy duty wand costs around $12 to $15. The wand has a spring operated trigger to control the flow. Always remove the wand when moving the hose to prevent damage to the spring operated trigger.
Japanese beetle season is drawing near
As we reach the middle of June, the Japanese beetle pests will soon be arriving. We hope this will not be an invasive year for them. We are hoping many of their eggs were killed during the winter. Some years seem to be worse than others for them. Even a season with few beetles is drastic because even a few beetles can cause a lot of problems. The best preventative measure is to bait the traps and place them where they can draw them from the garden. Baits for the traps will last all season. Don’t buy the plastic bag traps because the wind blows them over and the beetles escape. Spend the extra money and buy plastic container traps. With these, you can destroy the beetles by dipping trap in a bucket of boiling hot water and dumping them on the driveway for birds to eat. If the beetles reach epidemic stage, keep a bottle of liquid Sevin handy and mix with water in a spray mist bottle like glass cleaner comes in. Spray a mist on the foliage on humid, sunny days and allow the Sevin to dry on the foliage.
Fireflies in June are great memories
A bunch of kids, a Northampton County sawdust pile, mason jars, and thousands of fireflies or “lightning bugs” bring pleasant memories every summer when the fireflies begin to glow. As fireflies flicker, blink, and glow on the edge of the garden and on the lawn, we recall the huge sawdust pile near grandma’s Northampton County home place and catching fireflies on summer nights. In the 1950s, you could just reach out your hand and catch one. In just a short time in the twilight of the summer evening you could catch a jar full of glowing fireflies. At the end at the evening, all the kids in the neighborhood would release their trophies of fireflies into the night for a grand finale.
Staying ahead of the weed dynasty
Warm days of June increase the growth of the weed population and they are now showing up in the spring garden. The Bermuda grass, morning glories, crab grass, nut grass, lamb’s quarters and other types of weeds are showing up in the garden. The very best way to get rid of them is to pull them up by hand and throw them out of the garden. The younger they are, the easier they are to pull up by their roots and get rid of them.
Planting a large container of portulaca
The colorful portulaca is also known as cactus rose, desert rose, and rose moss. It comes in many colors including, red, yellow, orange, pink, tan, rose, white, burgundy, and purple. Unlike many annuals, portulaca can be set out on many annuals portuluca can be set out several inches apart and will cascade over sides of the containers. The foliage is is cactus-like except it resembles small spikes. The cactus have different blooms and color combinations each morning and open each morning with the sun. On cloudy days or rainy days, fewer of them bloom. When you purchase them they come in six and nine- packs and are blooming so you will know the colors in the packs.
Hoe hoe hoedown
“Worthless buy!” Husband: “You accuse me of making useless and foolish purchases.” Wife: “Yes, like that fire extinguisher you bought last year and never used it.”
“Late show!”- Lawyer: “You say you want a divorce on the grounds that your husband is careless about his appearance?” Wife: “Yes, he hasn’t appeared in over five years!”
“Interesting conversation.” My wife talks to her plants for two hours a day. I once asked the geranium, “How do you stand it?” The geranium replied, “Who listens?”
“Indebted marriage!” A happy marriage is when a couple is as deeply in love as they are in debt!
Happy Fathers Day. The moments fathers share with their children are priceless moments that last a lifetime. There is no more important task than raising God-fearing children. A great father will give their kids love, honesty, integrity, compassion, a smile, wisdom, consideration, a hug for encouragement, security in the home, a Godly example of faith that is active, a guide when times are good or bad. A good father will always be there for his children. The gifts of a good father and his influence will live long after his life on this earth is over. Than you daddy, for being that example for us. You still live in our hearts today. Happy Fathers Day 2024 to every father!
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