Cold Winds of June

The garden is at full capacity as of yesterday. I began the planting outside, as well as shifting things around in the greenhouse Memorial Day weekend. Then Nicky got in and helped complete the task. Although I hardened the plants off , they still looked sickly. This week some of the brassicas have finally improved. The wind has been the constant this season, along with a June 5th frost. Unfortunately, in got the dahlia that I planted out that same day.

Now everything is under reemay wraps or poking out of IR film, which is used to heat the soil and cut down the weed growth. Peas are wrapped in reemay as well to keep the pesky white-crowned sparrows from eating their tender starts. By the way, the peas that were planted under cold frames are up. We have been eating salad from these cold frames, as well as the greenhouse and the hoop house. My favorite is the double purple orach seen on the right. It is growing in a couple of cold frames and the hoop house. This is a mountain spinach and it can grow to five feet tall. It contains three times the vitamin C as spinach. Along with claytonia it fast becoming my spring favorite.


In the hoop house, the brassicas are doing great. I am experimenting with growing broccoli, broccoli raab, chinese cabbage, and broccoli romanesque in this environment. The plan is for an early harvest, hedging on the cool June weather, which tends to be the norm. The hoop house garlic and onions are looking strong. We have already harvested onions from the hoop house that were planted in the fall. This is definitely worth doing again; both sets and bunching onions. The zucs are doing fine and are under wrap in the hoop house.















In the hog garden the starts were planted a week before the main garden, because of the wind protection offered by the willows that soround the garden.














The main garden has been feeling the brunt of the wind lately. It is in the open, great for sun. The strawberry patch is weeded and I have not decided whether to start a new hill outside the fence on the low end of the potato patch. I planted 50 plus potatoes in the patch and in several tires. Last year I did not plant enough for the year. They have been planted at different times for harvesting early and late.














The greenhouse is still giving us spinach, mixed greens, and claytonia. As soon as I harvest the inside beds, I amend with compost and fishbone meal, then I plant tomatoes, cucumbers, or herbs. It is getting tight, but soon it will change. Notice we still have starts, using he soil blocker, in the waits for transplanting outside. Last year, I was able to get four lettuce and pac choi harvests. This year I am adding Chinese cabbage and broccoli raab to the list.
This year Nicky put bean starts, thanks to Tari, and planted beans in the green house.
Around the property, the wild flowers are putting on a fantastic show for us, especially around the spruce forest fringe.

Even though we have a lot more colors in the yard the yellows are standing out in Nicky's gardens.