Now is the time to start late tomatoes

Starting packets of tomato seed for August

Now that summer’s first harvest of tomato is almost ready, a couple of packets of tomato seed can be planted to provide plants for late summer tomatoes for the garden to set out in August. Great tomato varieties for late summer gardens are Rutgers, Marglobe, Better Boy, Celebrity and Mountain Pride. Seeds sown now will be ready to set out in the garden early in August and produce a harvest in late September all the way until frost and provide green tomatoes to store before frost.

Set out two packets in two quart plastic flower pots of seed starter measured out and allow two handfuls of seed starter to cover the seed. Place the seed start in a pot or bucket and mix water to moisten the starter. Sow a packet of seed in each flower pot and cover with the seed with seed-starter and pat down the seed starter medium with your hand for seed contact with the seed starter medium. Fill a spray bottle such as glass cleaner comes in and fill with water and spray the flower pots each day. Keep pots out of direct sunlight.

In about a week to ten days, they will develop two leaves and be ready to transplant into individual containers. Mix seed-starter into a bucket and add water to moisten the starter. Make sure you have labeled the tomato seed so you will know the plants you are transplanting to individual pots. Fill the pots with moistened starter and use your index finger to punch a hole in each filled pot and place a single plant in each pot and pinch medium around the plants. Keep out of direct sunlight. Use spray bottle to water the plants each evening. They should be ready to transplant to the garden in three weeks.

Keep an eye on the wild blackberries

With June coming to an end, the harvest of wild black berries should be getting near. Check the areas where they were blooming early in May and check them to see if any of them are ripe. The wild black berries have a distinctive wild “whang” to them that makes an unusual ingredients for blackberry dumplings. By the time July Fourth arrives, the wild blackberries should have plenty of berries on the vines.

Making homemade nectar for hummingbirds

The hummingbirds are showing up in great numbers as June comes to close. The honeysuckles are finishing their cycle and many summer annuals have not yet starting to bloom and the hummers will be coming to the feeders for nectar. You can make a half gallon of nectar by mixing two quarts of water and with two cups of sugar and pour it into a half gallon milk container. You can also purchase ready-made nectar in plastic bottles or concentrate that you mix with water and also envelopes of powdered mix that you add water to. You can also use bottle water or distilled water to mix with sugar and red food coloring. You can also purchase clear bottles of hummingbird nectar or packets.

A quick remedy for tomato blossom-end rot

The first tomatoes of the season should soon be ready to harvest. As the harvest gets ready, there are a couple of preventive remedies to solve blossom-end rot. One method is add two cups of powdered lime (calcium carbonate) to a two gallon sprinkling can of water and pour around the base of plants and on the yellow blossoms once a week. Another method is to side dress the plants on both sides of the row with Vigaro tomato food with added calcium. Still another way is use the water wand in spray mode and apply water to the base of plants when no rain is in the forecast. For healthy tomato plants, feed them with Tomato-Tone organic tomato food every two weeks and hill it into the soil.

Inviting bees to squash and cucumber blooms

To invite and attract honey bees and bumblebees plus other pollinators to the cucumber and squash vines, use a spray bottle such as glass cleaner comes in and add five teaspoons of sugar to the bottle of water and mix well and spray a mist of the sweet water on the foliage. As the bees and other pollinators are attracted, they will also pollinate the blooms of squash and cucumbers.

The fields, meadows, roadsides are adorned with Queen Anne’s Lace

Queen Anne’s Lace waves tall and dainty in a veil of snow white in the fields, roadsides, and meadows of Surry, Yadkin and Stokes County. My mother and grandma always used it to intermingle with zinnias, cosmos, and marigolds in vases to place on the altar tables at the Baptist church on Sunday. We think Queen Anne’s Lace is royal enough to adorn a vase all by itself on a dining room table. It is a native of Europe and who knows but the Lord how it made its way to America where it grows in the United States. In England, it is also known as carrot or wild carrot which makes us wonder if the bulbs are edible. We do know it grows from the eastern United States all the way into America’s heartland.

Making a batch of wild blackberry preserves

The wild blackberries are beginning to get ripe along the roadsides and fields in the Piedmont. Check the harvest along the country byways during the weeks of June. Blackberry preserves made with wild blackberries is a great breakfast treat on a hot biscuit. It is simple to make. All it takes is wild blackberries, sugar, and patience to wait out the cooking stage. After you harvest the berries, wash them in cold water twice. Measure out the berries in pints and add a cup of sugar to each pint of berries. Place in a pot and boil on medium or medium low heat at a slow boil, stirring often (this is where you need patience). As it boils down, it will thicken. Check it often and lower heat to prevent sticking. To test for thickness, use a cup of cold water and drop a drop of syrup into the water and when it forms a sticky ball, it is ready to place in pint jars and process in a hot process for ten minutes.

Cooling off the birds on summer days

The summer sun shines down on the birdbath and heats the water. As the sun gets warmer, empty the water and replenish it with fresh cool water twice a day to keep birds returning to the baths.

The butterflies make grand appearance

As the annuals of zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, and bachelor buttons start to bloom, they attract the yellow and black swallowtail butter flies to their colorful displays of flowers. On hot pre-Dog Day afternoons, give the flowers a fresh drink of water. Water the base of the flowers to prevent powdery mildew. The zinnias also attract bumble bees and finches.

Alaska fish emulsion feeds the garden

Liquid Alaska fish emulsion is powerful food for the garden vegetables. It comes in quart bottles that you mix with water and pour directly around the base of plants of any kind. It is highly concentrated and a little goes a long way.

Hoe hoe hoedown

“Church comers and goers!” Some go to church to weep, while others go to sleep. Some come to tell their woes and others to show their clothes. Some come to hear the preacher, others like the solo. Many go for good reflections, few go to give collections, Boys go to impress girls. Girls go to show their pearls.

“Bad joke.” Judge: “Did you steal this man’s T.V. sets?” Thief: “Oh, I only took it for a joke.” Judge: “How far did you carry it?” Thief: “From his house to mine.” Judge: “Six months in jail for carrying a joke to far!”