How I Am Fighting The Heat in My Garden

I am happy to report that I have blossoms on my two tiny Red Robin tomato plants now.  It was nice to see them.

These babies are not even a foot tall yet, but that's about how tall they will get.  I expect lots of fruiting when the time comes.

I mulched with short-cut straw yesterday to try to keep evaportation low when I water my garden now that its getting so much warmer.

With 3 days in the low to mid-90sF this week, I was concerned for my garden.  I still have cool-weather crops starting to grow like lettuces, radishes, kale and arugula and as for tomatoes, they stop blossoming and growing when the temps reach high 90s.  To combat this problem I went out with white bleached muslin and clipped pieces to bamboo poles to combat the heat.

I tried to put sheeting between the crop rows and around my tomatoes.  In this one the muslin in the rear covers my two Lizzano tomato plants just fine.

The muslin to the far right is protecting my little Red Robin tomatoes.  Amazing how much wind we are getting.  The muslin just kept billowing up all the time.  But with enough spring clothes pins they are held fast.

As for me, here I am kitted out for fighting the heat in the garden.  My hat keeps me nice and cool.  Its an Arctic Hat which means you run cold water thru the top before donning it and it keeps your head cool.  I also have 2 battery fans hanging around my neck which are not in the picture but I can tell you, they are sooooo wonderful keeping me cool in the heat.

Keep cool everyone.

How To Handle Your Garden During Too Much Heat

 It seems that everyone is experiencing too much heat too soon this year.  What does one do to protect their garden.  Here are some tips in the following video.

As usual Luke gives good advice. 

Now how does one protect their cool-weather crops from excess heat?  You give them shade in one way or another.  Here are a few tips in the following video.

Good avice here.

I have used shade cloth and also sheeting to protect my crops from too much sun.  When the temps. rise even your tomatoes will suffer.  They stop producing and blossoming in excess heat so I put up sheeting between the sun and my plants to give them a bit of shade and cooler space.

Enjoy your gardening.
  

How To Grow Cucumbers

How does one grow cucumbers successfully.  Its not difficult if you follow a few rules.

Here is a video that may help you get started.

An important thing to remember is that cucumbers, along with tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and watermelons, like a lot of water but they also like to dry out between waterings.  

Enjoy your time in the garden.

Tips for Growing Squash and Zucchini Thru the Summer

Here are a few videos that should help you in growing your bush squash and zucchini in your garden.  To start there's the problem of male and female blossoms.  Sometimes you only get one sex and you need both to grow fruits.  Here are some reasons that happens and sometimes you just have to wait a month or so.

Very helpful tips there for the home gardener.

But that's not the only problem you may find.  This next video shows how to combat powdery mildew on your leaves and blossom end rot on the fruits.  You need to thin out the lower leaves to give air flow and sunshine and pollinators a chance to work their magic.

As usual Luke from MIgardner on Youtube has the anwers.

In this video Luke has grown for intensity harvest, planting closer than the recommended distance on the packages.  Yes, you can plant 4 plants around the perimeter and then also plant an extra one in the center.  You will get more fruits and they grow well as long as you thin out the lower leaves to give them some air movement and space for pollinators to do their job.

For those of you who want to touch base on how to start those squash and zucchini plants, this video gives you the answers for their start in your garden in early spring.

Whether you start yours from seeds or from transplants, you can use this information.

That goes for bush squash as well as zucchini plants.

Enjoy your gardens.

I Have Blossoms on My Lizzano Tomatoes

I just love it.  I have blossoms on both my Lizzano tomatoes.  Now these are small shrub tomatoes with small tomato fruit but lots of it when they blossom.  And they are so tasty.

I will be so happy to pluck a few ripe fruits off my two plants soon.  My Red Robins have a few tiny blossoms which are hard to notice on the plant so I did not take a photo of them.

Happy Gardening everyone.

How To Grow High Intensity Lettuce Crops

I want to grow lettuce, all kinds of lettuce.  I love my salads.  How can I grow lettuce so that I have lots to harvest thru the seasons?  Just watch Luke in this video and find out.

I always 'cut and come again' when growing lettuce.   That means you cut off the tops of the lettuce plants leaving a couple of inches at the bottom.  This way the plant can continue to grow.  You will get more lettuce for longer with this method.   I get more bang for my buck and I get it for a longer period during the season.  Lettuce can be grown in the spring and in the fall.  If you get heat-resistant varieties, you can be assured of lettuce even into the heat of early summer.

Enjoy your Gardening.

The Top Mistakes Made When Transplanting Crops

 Though its already June and most transplanting has been done, this information may be helpful for those that are transplanting for fall crops soon.

I found the information very helpful.  Luke also tells you how to remedy the situations and when and how to transplant properly.

I found myself making some of these mistakes myself in the past.  I have since learned my lesson after some losses.  Be sure to listen and watch and learn.

Have a great gardening day!

The Best Crops to Grow for Beginning Gardeners

This video is very helpful, for beginners and for anyone that grows vegetables and herbs in their garden.  I think those that are new to growing will find this information very helpful.

I even learned a little bit with the help of Luke, once again.

If you want to learn more about growing your garden, you can find Luke at MI Gardener on Youtube.  He has several helpful growing videos.

Yes sir, for sure I want to find Purslane for my garden.

Enjoy getting your hands in the dirt.  

The More You Pick, The More They Produce

 Here are 5 crops that produce more and more the more you harvest.  Keep picking the vegetable, or the leaves in the case of leafy herbs, and you will get more.  The secret it to keep them from going to seed from lack of haevesting while still young.  Of course adding fertilizer will aid in the growth of new crops.

Here is Luke from MI Gardener to tell you what its all about.....

Here are 5 crops you can keep harvesting all thru the season and they will give you more and more crops.  

I especially like the idea of growing only one Zucchini in my small 4' by 8' bed and it will give me a dozen or two dozen lovely zuchinni.  Since I have limited space to grow things I enjoy, I did not grow Zucchini this year.  Well folks,you can be sure I will be growing one next year.

Enjoy your gardens.

10 Things Mainers Can Grow in September

 Have you ever wondered what to do with all that open space in your garden after harvesting your crops?  Well, if you live in Maine, you can still sow and grow some crops thru the fall and into winter.  It all depends on what your night temperatures are at the time and how long before your first frost date.

Here is Luke from MI Gardener who can shed some light on the subject:

This young man is very knowledgable about growing vegetables and has studied botany and agriculture since he was a young lad.  

You can use your own local weather information to see what will work for you.  And if a frosty night is on the way, you can cover your young crop against the cold to keep the vegetable growing.  In some cases, a mild frost will not even hurt them.

Take a look at this video and learn a few things.  

Have a good day.

What To Plant in Your Garden in August

 When we have a garden, its a shame to waste space after harvesting the summer crops.  In the northern states its also a good time to sow seeds that will grow well in the fall when many bugs are less apt to attack some crops, like the cabbage moth, and the cooler weather keeps the plants from bolting too soon.

Here is a video from Luke, the MI Gardener, who is always so helpful.

I know for a fact that this is useful information having tried many of these in my own Maine garden in the past.  I wanted to share this with my gardening friends.

I hope you can get more use from your home garden with this information.

Good Gardening!

How To Speed Up Pepper Growth

I live in the north so my gardening time is less that many places.  For peppers, they need warmer days and nights.  Nights especially, in which to grow well.  This video gives some tips on how to get the most out of  you pepper plants.....

I have learned thru my own mistakes with peppers, that in southwestern Maine its best to wait til the days and nites have warmed up a bit before transplanting outdoors.  I now wait til at least June 10th and that, too, depends on if the days nites are warm enough.

I am happy to share these good tips for anyone growing peppers, especially in the northern climes.

Happy Gardening.

What To Do To the Tomato Forks At The Top of Your Indeterminates

 This is a video that shows how to determine what branches of your tomatoes you should eliminate.  I was quite surprised to learn that a branch in the armpit could be a good stem that you want to keep when its near the top of the plant.  To learn more, I am keeping this in my blog.  This young man is a veritable mine of information when it comes to growing your garden vegetables.  He's very good. He's been on for years and is very reliable.

Seeds Are Popping

 I love it.  I came out to check on my raised bed and found some seeds apoppin' which made me smile.

Between my Red Robin toamtoes I found my Cherry Belle radishes just starting to peek out.  That rain we got yesterday must have been beneficial.

And here in the wet row just above my watering can, you can see the tiny bits of green where the Arugula are peeking thru the soil.

Here is how my raised bed looks this morning.  All healthy, all doing well.

It feels to good to see growth in my raised bed.  Its been awhile since I gardened but its like riding a bike, its all coming back to me.  

My bamboo stakes came in the mail yesterday so I brought down a few.  I will use them to make shady areas for the greens that will not be pleased when the heat comes.  I want to be sure I get some harvest this year since I started out so late with the beds not being built til this past weekend.

Wishing you all a good day from southwestern Maine.  

Transplanted and Sowed Seed Today in My Raised Bed

Our raised beds were built yesterday and filled with wonderful soil.  Today I transplanted my seedlings and sowed some seed as well.

Here is my personal Raised Bed.  You can see the watered rows are Arugula in the center long left wet row and Nasturtiums in the long right wet row.  In the short rows on the left beside the thyme are 2 shor rows of Alkindus (red) lettuce and the middle short row is Starfighter (green) Lettuces.  The very front wet row on the left, I planted Russian Kale seeds.

The Two  transplants in the foreground are Red Robin tomatoes.  They only grow about a foot or so tall but give lots of small tomatoes.  On the left, the wet mark, is planted some Lemon Gem Marigold seeds which are edible, both leaves and flowers.  The short wet rows between the Red Robins are Cherry Belle radishes.

In this right corner are the Stevia plants that I  transplanted today.  The left plant is one of the Red Robins.

These are two Lizzano tomatoes in the cages.  They, too, are miniature plants only growing about 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall but giving lots of tasty tomatoes.  I grew them before.

In the cage on the left I sowed several Bush Cucumber seeds around the area.  Again, a small plant and even giving small cucumbers, but tasty ones.  On the right you can see my 3 Mini-Red Pepper transplants.  They harvest little sweet red peppers around 2" long and wide.  Just the right size for snacking.

These are my Summer Thyme transplants.  I love Thyme.  I it a lot, in soups and with chicken and tomato sauces.  One of my favorite spices when fresh.

A long view of my rasied bed from the other side.

I used a couple of tricks I learned over the years so I added some Epsom salt and some crushed Tums (for the calcium) in my tomato holes.  The calcium helps prevent blossom end rot, which is when a tomato gets brown on one end. You can use crushed egg shells, but I had none available today. 

I also placed 3 or 4 toothpicks right up against the stems of all the transplants.  They help prevent cutworms from cutting down my plants and destroying them.  I have used this method for years and it works.  

I will tuck more Cherry Belle radishes between the Lizzanos and Cucumbers in another week or two to get a continuous supply.  These are cool weather plants so sowing the seed between plants gives them shade which can help their growth before they get too warm.

The same is true for more lettuces.  The two types I sowed today, Alkindus and Starfighter, are heat tolerant but I never grew them before so I do not know how well they will do when it gets warmer.  I hope to get some harvesting done before it gets too hot.

Have a good day friends.

Our Raised Beds Have Finally Arrived.

 I am so thrilled that the new raised beds have been built today and filled with some really good soil.  This soil is so rich it should be good without additions for about 2 years.  Sounds wonderful.

The bed in the foreground is mine, the one with the tomato cages laying on top.  The beds are 12 inches deep, 4 feet wide by 8 feet long which I love.  The soil is so rich and dark.  I cannot wait to start transplanting tomorrow morning.  My energy is down a bit right now and I do not want to transplant them late and water them is since they will not have a chance to dry off.  The wetness can bring fungus.  One should water early in the day if needed, not late.

I put my seedlings outdoors on a bench under the canopy so if it rains tonite they will be safe.  I had watered them this morning.  The temps today are only around 60*F and will drop into the 50s tonite. Its quite cool after a few days of 90* temps.  Back to normal.  Besides, the plants need a bit more hardening off so they will be safe.

The rest of my seed order for greens came today from Johnny's Seeds so I am a happy camper.  Home Depot emailed me that my bamboo stakes are on the way and should be here by the 15th.  I do not need them right now so everything is going according to plan.

Happy gardening everyone.

Walking in our Back Garden Today

 Today I took a walk thru our backyard gardens  I needed to put out my seedlings to harden off anyway, so I took some photos.....

Here are the purple irises.

More Irises by the other birch tree.

Some Irises by our  back patio.

A long view of the first birch tree area.

Irises here among the early Pampas grass.

In this area along the walkway will be our new raised beds.

I am hardening off my 4 tomato plants and 2 of my mini-red pepper seedlings in this first utility cart.

In this 2nd cart I have my Stevia seedlings, some summer thyme and 1 mini-red pepper hardening off and my air plant getting s bit of fresh air today.

I put my plants in my utility carts (I have 2) to transport in- and outdoors which makes it so darn easy.  They only stayed out for 2 1/2 hours today.  Tomorrow I will keep them outdoors for probably about 4 hours.  They need to get used to the sunshine and the breezes a bit at a time.

Have a good day.