Mid-May is cucumber and squash time. As we reach the middle of May, it is now the perfect time to sow seeds of cucumbers and squash. They love the warm soil of mid-May and now the days and the nights are getting warmer. Most cucumbers will produce fruit in 55 to 60 days. Good varieties are Poinsett 76, Long Green, Straight Eight, Ashley, Marketmore 76, and Park’s Whopper Two, which produces long, dark green cukes in 55 days. Asian cucumbers are popular in American variety. Burpee has an Asian cucumber names “Suyo Long” that matures in 60 days and they will grow up to 16 inches long and can be harvested at any length which makes it a plus. A packet of 20 seeds cost a little over four dollars.
Plant cucumbers in a furrow about three or four inches deep, three or four seed at one foot apart. Cover the bottom of furrow with a layer of peat moss, sow seed, and cover with another layer of peat moss and then apply a layer of Garden-Tone vegetable organic food. Hill soil up on each side of row and tamp down with the hoe blade for good soil contact. When cucumbers sprout, thin to two plants per hill.
Warm soil of mid-May will promote growth of summer squash. Summer squash will thrive and grow quickly in the warm garden soil of mid-May. The nights are now warmer and will promote even faster growth. You can choose from crookneck or straightneck varieties. Personally, we prefer the straightnecks simply because they don’t have many seeds and the seeds are smaller, and the squash are meatier, plus the seeds can easily be scooped out and squash can be cut into half-inch cubes for casseroles, fried squash, or sonkers.
The best straightneckers are Early Prolific Straightneck Enterprise by Park Seed, Saffron my Burpee, and a new variety by Burpee Seed named Fort Knox, which produces fruit in 50 days. The squash are ten inches long. There are 20 seeds in a packet and it cost $5.45. Pricey, but with ten-inch fruits and a longer harvest, they may be worth a try. Many Burpee Seed can be purchased at Walmart, Home Depot, or Lowe’s.
If you prefer crooknecks, Burpee has the varieties of Golden Goose, Gourmet Gold, and Pick-a-Lot. Park Seed has Summerpac and Early Summer Crookneck. Plant squash in a furrow about three to four inches deep. Apply a layer of peat moss to the bottom of the furrow and sow four seeds to a hill about a foot apart and cover with a layer of peat moss, a layer of Black Kow composted cow manure and a layer of Garden-Tone organic vegetable food. Hill up soil on both sides of the row and tamp down soil with the hoe blade for soil contact. When squash sprouts, thin to two healthy plants per hill and keep soil hilled up to the squash. Side dress with Garden-Tone every two weeks.
Feed the garden instead of using fertilizer. For a healthier garden and better soil enrichment feed your garden instead of using pellet and chemical fertilizers. Use organic natural plant foods that boost the vegetables as well as the soil. You can use Alaska fish emulsion as a liquid plant food mixed with the proper amount of water for quick response to growing plants and vegetables. You can use organic plant and flower foods such as Garden-Tone vegetable food, Plant-Tone plant food, Flower-Tone for all kind of flowers, Holly-Tone organic food for azaleas and evergreens, Rose-Tone organic food for roses, Black Kow organic composted cow manure and 3.5 cubic foot bales of peat moss, Dr. Earth vegetable and tomato plant foods sold in three-pound bags at Home Depot. All these products dissolve quickly in the soil and plants and vegetables will quickly respond to these organic reasonably priced and easy to handle products.
Irish potatoes are producing dark green foliage. The Irish potatoes are producing lush green foliage that is bushy. It will not be long until they have tiny green spuds developing under the foliage. Keep soil hilled up to the foliage and side dress with Garden-Tone organic vegetable food. Keep a close eye out for Colorado striped potato beetles and lightly spray with liquid Sevin at the first sign of them. As white blooms form, continue to feed every ten days by side dressing with Garden-Tone organic vegetable food and hill up soil around the potato vines.
Starting a row or two of green beans. The warm days and nights of mid-May are just right for sowing a couple of rows of green beans for the 2020 growing season. Warm May soil will give them a jump start. You can choose from many vegetable varieties such as Top Crop, Kentucky Wonder Bush, Blue Lake Bush, Derby, Strike, Tenderette, Contender, Blue Lake 274, and White Half Runner. Green beans produce a harvest in 55 to 60 days, and if you cleanly harvest them, they will produce beans for several weeks. Sow bean seed in a furrow about four inches deep. Apply a layer of peat moss in the bottom of the furrow and sow beans on top of peat moss. Apply another layer of peat moss, a layer of Black Kow composted cow manure and a layer of Plant-Tone organic plant food. Hill up soil on each side of the furrow and tamp down with the hoe blade for contact with the soil. After beans sprout, side dress with Garden-Tone organic plant food every ten days. When beans bloom, apply a sprinkle of Dr. Earth vegetable plant food on both sides of row and hill up soil on both sides to promote a healthy bean harvest.
Partaking in the pick your own harvest of strawberries. A strawberry field on a warm May morning with the aroma of sweet strawberries and the perfume of honeysuckles wafting on the breeze and birds singing on a May morning in Surry or Stokes County. Picking berries is a fun thing to do and we like to crawl through the row and get right down where the berries are. Frozen strawberries that are capped and frozen whole are almost as good as fresh. Gather plenty for shortcakes with fresh whipped dairy cream or a strawberry cobbler. Pick enough to share with a neighbor.
Making a strawberry-banana salad. This salad is as fresh as a visit to the strawberry patch in Surry County, and easy to prepare! You will need two three-ounce boxes of strawberry Jello, one cup or boiling water, one and a half quarts of fresh strawberries cut into halves or quarters, four bananas cut into cubes, a half cup chopped pecans, one carton sour cream, half cup sugar, and one teaspoon vanilla flavoring. Dissolve strawberry Jello in the boiling water, add fresh strawberries, add cubed bananas, sprinkle with lemon juice. Pour half the mixture into a bowl or mold and chill until firm. Mix sour cream with vanilla flavoring and sugar (you can use strawberry flavoring instead of vanilla). Pour sour cream mixture over chilled Jello mixture that has been chilled. Add the remaining Jello mixture and chill until very firm. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
Hoe-Hoe-Hoedown: “How bright he is!” Teacher: “How long did the Hundred Years War last?” Student: “I don’t know; ten years?” Teacher: “No, think carefully. How old is a five year old horse?” Student: “Oh, I know, five years old!” Teacher: “That’s right, so how long did the Hundred Years War last?” Student: “Now I get it. The war lasted five years.”
Getting older: Carla: “My grandma is always complaining about how awful it hurts to be old.” Darla: “Mine does too, I guess those wrinkles hurt a lot.”
“Mixed up Mom” Ann: “I don’t think my mom is a very smart parent.” Jan: “Why don’t you think she’s not so smart?” Ann: “She’s always sending me to bed when I’m not sleepy and making me get up when I’m still tired.”
“Fun Pun” Why did cave men always live in caves? Because they could not afford condos.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com