What's happening in the garden this week

June 16-22: Battling the heat, covering the blueberries, plus more seeds in the ground

Jun 20, 2024

Heat wave

Like many gardeners I’ve been trying to mitigate the effects of the heat wave on the vegetable garden, and the perennial borders and flower pots. I’ve stepped up my watering by giving the vegetable beds a deep soaking every other morning. I stretched a shade cloth over one bed with lettuce and kale growing in it to help reduce the temperature of the soil and deflect some sunlight. I wish I had a couple more shade cloths since it would allow me to do the same thing for two additional beds. I may go out and see if the garden center has any.

My beds are well mulched with compost, and in some cases straw, so the only other step I’ve been taking is harvesting some lettuce plants before they bolt in the heat. It’s too much lettuce for us so I’m giving it to neighbors, especially those without gardens of their own.

We’re taking care to keep our pots with annual flowers in them well watered, checking the soil for dampness each morning. And we’re increasing our watering of some recently planted perennials, some shrubs and a tree. Newly planted perennials, bushes and trees are more vulnerable to heat. Plants that have been in the ground a year or more can usually withstand a heat wave like this, though we’re keeping an eye on them and watering if they appear stressed.

Blueberry covers

Our five young blueberry plants have a lot of tiny blueberries on them, to my amazement and delight. They should begin ripening over the next few weeks, so Katie, who is often more decisive than me, decided we really needed to cover them to keep the birds away. I think I had resigned myself to allowing the birds take what they wanted, which actually is silly since we’ve planted at least three bird-friendly native shrubs and one bird-friendly tree this spring – all specifically for the birds! We found tightly meshed bags designed to protect blueberry bushes. They drape over the plants and tie at the bottom to keep the birds out, since we don’t want to trap birds inside the netting where they could get hung up or injure themselves. They have a zipper running down the side to allow blueberry picking when the time comes.

Backup seeding

A few of the bush bean seeds I planted about 10 days ago either didn’t germinate or were eaten by something, most likely a slug, shortly after they emerged. So I sowed a few more seeds in the spots left vacant in the rows. I did the same thing with the pole beans I had planted at the same time. Where I didn’t get germination or the emerging plants had become some other creature’s meal I stuck new seeds in their place.

I had a little disappointment with the acorn squash seedlings I planted in one straw bale. I started them indoors and planted them in the bale when they were still pretty small. I wanted to move them along and may have been a little too hasty getting them out. Or some bug decided to eat them. Or both. The two seedlings were reduced to little nubs in the bale so I’ve direct sowed some new acorn squash seeds in their place.

There’s a theme emerging here. A couple weeks ago I direct seeded two varieties of cucumbers along the trellis where the snap peas are currently growing. One variety – a great hybrid called Unagi – seems to be thriving. The other, a pickling cucumber named Little Leaf, can’t seem to get itself out of the ground. So I re-seeded the Little Leaf this week too

American chestnut

The two American chestnuts planted three weeks ago have sprouted. There are tiny little trees coming out of the ground sheltered by the white plastic tube that surrounds them. I haven’t watered or otherwise touched them, so this is huge.