The final few days of Piedmont strawberry season. The next few days will be your last opportunity to visit a pick-you-own strawberry field near you. The harvest for 2020 is down to the last few days. It is worth one more visit to pick or purchase a gallon or two. Nothing is better than freshly picked strawberries mixed with dairy whipping cream and some shortcake. Call ahead to the field to make sure berries are still available. As the strawberry season winds down, it closes out with a Full Strawberry Moon. This moon was full Friday night, but rises a bit later tonight and is still almost full. Go outside before bedtime tonight and enjoy this beautiful full moon in the waning phase.
Keep setting out a few tomato plants each week. The soil of early June is ideal for setting out tomato plants each week for as long as they can be found to assure and abundant harvest all summer long. The determinate varies such as Celebrity, Better Boy, Rutgers, Marglobe, and Homestead, as well as Early Girl will perform well and produce tomatoes in late summer.
Use a healthy organic tomato food to boost tomato growth. Tomatoes do not need to be fertilized, they need to be fed. Organic plant food for tomato plants will feed them the nutrients they need for a great yield. Tomato-Tone plant food is totally organic and comes in three pound zippered plastic bags. Side dress the tomato plants and hill up soil on both sides of the plants. Tomato-Tone has a fine texture that absorbs quickly into the soil and tomato plants respond quickly to it.
Controlling blossom-end rot on tomatoes. There are several great ways to control blossom-end rot on tomato plants. The first solution is a two-parter. The first part is to water tomato plants at the base of the plants and not the foliage when conditions are dry. The second part is to apply handfuls of powdered lime (calcium carbonate) on both sides of the tomato plants and then hill soil up on both sides of the row to cover the lime. A chemical way to control blossom-end rot is to apply “Captan” mixed with proper amount of water and poured into a spray bottle such as Windex window spray comes in (or any type of spray bottle). Spray the tomato blossoms with a fine mist. We like the first method of control better because it is practical and adds something beneficial to the soil in the process. There is still another method to control blossom-end rot and that is to fill a sprinkling can with water and add a half cup of Epsom salts to the water and pour around the base of the plants.
Planting a row of lima beans. The warn soil of June provides ideal conditions for sowing a row of lima beans. They will sprout and grow quickly during warm days and nights of June and July and produce a harvest in 70 to 75 days. You can choose from Dixie butter pea, Henderson Bush, or Fordhook 242. A row planted now will produce a harvest in late July or early August. Sow in a furrow about three or four inches deep. Cover seed with a layer of peat moss, a layer of Black Kow composted cow manure, an application of Garden-Tone organic vegetable food. Hill up soil on each side of furrow and tamp soil down with a hoe blade for good contact with the soil. When beans develop two leaves, side dress with Garden-Tone every fifteen days and hill soil up on both sides of row to cover the Plant-Tone.
Making applesauce puff muffins. This is a quick dessert for a late spring supper with simple ingredients. You will need two cups Bisquick, one cup sugar, one and a half teaspoons apple pie spice, three fourth cup applesauce, one fourth cup milk, one slightly beaten large egg, two tablespoons Crisco oil, half stick melted margarine. Combine Bisquick, sugar, apple pie spice, stir and then add applesauce, milk, egg, and Crisco oil. Beat for a minute. Pour mixture into greased muffin pans or use cupcake liners. Fill to 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until they test done. Cool for a minute or two and remove from pans. Mix two tablespoons of sugar and half teaspoon apple pie spice together. Melt the half stick margarine. Spread melted margarine over the cupcakes and them sprinkle the mixture of sugar-apple pie spices over muffins.
Keeping humming bird feeders filled. The fragrant flowers of the wild honeysuckle is a staple of hummingbirds diet from May until mid-June. As the blooms decline, there may be a short lull in their food chain as many other flowers have not yet reached bloom stage. Keep hummingbird feeders replenished twice a week. This will keep the hummers visiting your porch or deck and they will discover a dependable source of nectar.
The wonder world of the pollinators. Did you know that more than half the food we eat is made possible because of the bees and other pollinators? They need pollen and nectar to survive and be healthy. Along with bees, other pollinators include hare wasps, bumblebees, hummingbirds, and many types of flies. Bees are the only insect in the world that produces a food that we can eat, and that product is honey and honeycomb. Nectar that produces honey is a powerful food. A bee could get enough energy from one ounce of honey to make a flight around the world. Bees have great color vision and can discern flowers and varieties by their color. They are especially attracted to yellow, white, purple, blue, or violet. There is no such thing as tame bees. The same type bee in a hollow tree is the same type bee that lives in a domesticated hive. A bee can travel a mile in search of nectar. Only females produce honey. Male bees are called drones and their job is keeping the hive cool and fertilizing the eggs of the hive’s only queen bee. At the end of the season, the droners are driven from the hive. In freezing weather, bees ball up in the hive to stay warm and derive energy from stored honey. In this 21st century, farmers, gardeners, and homeowners are the bee’s worst enemy because they use, misuse, and abuse by their use of pesticides, herbicides and insect killers. When this is continued to be practiced, we are biting the hand that feeds us!
Rainbows and quickie thunderstorms. A bit of late spring weather lore says that, “When the wind blows puffy clouds across the sky on a very warm afternoon, get your umbrella handy because a thunderstorm is brewing over the horizon.” We are now approaching the season of thunderstorms and much of summer’s water supple for the garden plot will arrive in the form of pop up thunderstorms. They are beneficial because they have an ample amount of electricity in them, that jump starts the vegetables in the warm weather garden. Another bonus is the fresh aroma after an afternoon shower. Another color bonus is a rainbow in the eastern sky as the sun returns after the storm. Another beautiful sight is when the sky is still dark in the east and the rainbow has a glowing effect and reflects what looks like a double rainbow.
Hoe-Hoe-Howdown: Store manager: “I saw you arguing with that customer who just left. I told you before that the customer is always right. Didn’t you understand me?” Salesman: “Yes sir, the customer is always right.” Store manager- “That’s better. Now what were you and the customer arguing about?” Salesman: “Well sir, he said you were an idiot!”
Enjoying the waning strawberry moon. The full Strawberry Moon occurred on Friday night but you can still enjoy the waning strawberry moon as it rises later each night this week. Let the light of the moon influence your garden plot’s growing vegetables by getting some “moon water” prepared to pour on the growing vegetables. Tonight before sunset, fill several five gallon plastic buckets with water and allow the waning full moon to shine down on the water during the night. Next morning, pour the moon-struck water into sprinkling cans and pour around the base of tomato plants, peppers, and growing vegetables. This is a trick our great-grandparents used a century ago. The moon does have an influence on growing things.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
Be First to Comment