What’s happening in the garden this week: June 30-July 6
A change of plans for the strawberries, plus cabbage moth control and tomato maintenance
Strawberries
A change of plan for the strawberries. This is why I try to remind myself to go back and re-read the planting and growing instructions included with seed packages and, in the case of my strawberries, the bare roots. This is especially necessary when you’re growing something for the first time. There’s lots of information there! Based on the guidance provided by Johnny’s Select Seeds, I’ve started pinching the flowers from the strawberry plants, sacrificing this year’s harvest for healthier plants and bigger harvests next year and the years to come. We planted a June-bearing variety called Jewel, which produces one large crop of healthy-sized berries during the summer from runners sent out by mother plants the previous summer. The first year, it’s best to allow the plants and their runners to establish themselves.
Spraying BT
I don’t spray our plants with chemicals or pesticides but I do use BT, or bacillus thuringiensis, on brassicas like cabbage, broccoli and kale to combat cabbage moths. I mixed up a batch this week because of the tell-tale sign of white moths flying around the vegetable garden. They’ll lay eggs on the underside of the leaves of plants and within a couple weeks the larvae will emerge and begin eating the leaves. You can combat them by covering the beds with fine netting that allows water and air in but keeps the moths out. You can also look to natural predators like lady bugs and parasitic wasps to get to them, another reason to have lots of pollinator-friendly plants that attract good insects. But BT, a bacterium found naturally in the soil, is a safe addition to the arsenal. It’s considered an organic insecticide, safe for humans and other animals, and it doesn’t harm beneficial insects or plants. It comes in liquid form. You add water and spray it on the underside of the plant leaves. I’ll probably have to repeat the application periodically in the weeks ahead.
Staying ahead of bolting lettuce (not)
I planted too much lettuce during the spring and now can’t harvest it (and give it away) fast enough to avoid the bolting that occurs when the summer heat arrives. This is not a new problem for me. I’ve harvested a number of heads, washed the leaves thoroughly and given bags of greens to friends or placed them in the refrigerator. But it’s still too much, which is okay in the grand scheme of things.
Planting more lettuce!
Call me an optimist, or determined, but even as I was pulling out bolting lettuce I planted about 10 new heads in the beds, nestling them in the shade of tomato and pepper plants. I started them indoors about a month ago, so they were nice-sized plants with healthy root systems that should – along with the shade – give them a leg up on the stressors of the heat. I planted three types of lettuce, two leaf varieties – red oak leaf and bronze beauty – and a romaine (Paris Island Cos).
Tying tomatoes
My tomato maintenance continues as the plants continue their growth up the cattle panel fence behind the straw bales. I’ve been removing suckers to limit each plant to three or four main vines and tying the vines with garden twine to the fence. I’m tying them in an espalier pattern, encouraging them to spread horizontally along the fence, supported by the twine ties. I’ve never had the space to grow tomatoes this way before. I’ve normally tied them to a single stake. Hopefully this will give them plenty of air and light, and more space to grow larger fruit.
Harvesting onions
I harvested some of the onions and scallions planted in a bed under a row cover back in mid-April, mostly because the leaves on a couple rows of the onions had fallen over, which is a sign that they’re ready. I’m not quite sure and I’ve left a row of white onions in the ground along with several groupings of scallions. The white onions, a variety called Sierra Blanca, are supposed to grow larger than the golf ball sized ones I pulled from the ground. I’ll see how the ones I leave in the bed look in a couple weeks.
.Previous updates:
What’s happening in the garden: June 23-39
What’s happening in the garden June 16-22
What’s happening in the garden: June 9-15
What’s happening in the garden: June 2-June 8
What’s happening in the garden: May 26-June 1
You had me at strawberries. Our neighbor Marion the Strawberrian made a strawberry cake for us and it was so good my resident baker got the recipe and tried it -- her first from-scratch cake ever. And it was the best cake I ever had. Better than any wedding cake even.