Home Gardener; Summer is Finally Here!

So it is finally, truly summer, the longest day has passed and the strawberry moon is fading.  The spring monsoons seem to be past too.  So, what should you be doing in your garden?  Weeding hard my dears!  I like to get things well cleared of weeds in the veggie patch by early July and then you only have to pluck out the occasional tiny weeds as they appear.  One the weeds get big pulling them is damaging to the root structure of your veggie plants so you need to get them out of there if you haven’t done so already.  Just do it!  And throw those weeds into a compost pile where you will be mixing them with leaves this fall and creating rich black leaf compost.  Find a corner of the property and create a compost pile; you can use a length of wire mesh fencing and a couple poles and start a simple one.

And now is the time to get that layer of mulch around your plants.  Mulch is like a light blanket for the garden.  It keeps out the weeds and holds in the moisture so you need to water less.  About two inches thick is good.  I use the mulch from the compost center for this purpose.  Next year it will be just part of the soil of your garden.

It is not too late to plant zucchini, I confess that I had to replant again, for a third try at zukes.  Nothing came up the first two tries.  But I have a hard core gardening friend who intentionally waits until mid June to plant her zucchini seeds.  She says it helps them to avoid the dreaded squash borer worms.  So I guess I will be safe from their marauding insect jaws! Mine came up about 5 days ago and are just thinking of getting their second leaves.

You can also plant late rows of beans, lettuce, beets and radishes this week.  It is getting late for that but if you water them well they might succeed.  Then in late July or early August you can do more successive rows.  You can also cover crops like lettuce and radishes with a light row cover to lower the amount of hot summer sun striking your plants.  You can get a fabric row cover at Neighbors; where I got mine.  I put it down in the fall to cover for light frosts but it is good for the purpose I just described.  If you plant like this in small successive plantings every week you will be well supplied with fresh, tasty lettuce all summer long.

It is a good time to put up your hummingbird feeder.  I try to attract the little darlings with my flower blooms but you can just hang a feeder full of sugar water colored red and they will zip into your yard for a sweet drink.  If ants get into it you should put some Vaseline where ever they are entering from and that will deter ants as they just hate sticky feet! After a busy day gardening it is nice to relax and watch the wild life.

Last night as I was picking some spicy greens for a salad I saw a rapid movement out of the corner of my eye.  I was startled and thought, “Oh darn, a bunny got in here!” I went to the other side of the bed to investigate and found myself staying eye to eye with a medium sized toad.  I was glad to see such and left Mr. Toad to his garden business of eating bugs and insects.  Good toad!  I do have a couple toad houses but I always wonder if they ever actually use them to relax in on hot summer days.  I have a semi-broken clay pot for the purpose and a fancy stoneware clay house I made in my studio that says “Toad Hall” over the curved doorway.  I can only hope it gets some real usage this year… 

So, weed, plant, relax and let the toads do their jobs.... oh and happy early summer gardening folks!