Posted on 06/05/2008 10:10:48 AM PDT by Gabz
Please remember folks --- this article is from 2006!
June is here, and along with it, summer. Gone are the soft pastels of flowering vines such as jasmine and wisteria. The bolder, brighter summer colors of orange trumpet vine and the tropical colors of mandevillas are on their way. The soft, new greens of spring have been replaced by the harder greens of maturing leaves. Crepe myrtles and gardenias and hydrangeas are showing off their colors. Now that the things we hate about warm weather are back in full force-all the mosquitoes, sand gnats, yellow flies, and various other nasty biting insects, along with the heat and humidity and scads of weeds—we’re once again questioning our sanity. Why, exactly, is it that we have another garden planted? Didn’t we promise ourselves last year that we weren’t doing this again next year? Somehow, in the long span between springs, gardeners always forget the bad things about gardening and remember only the taste of that first ripe tomato, or the joy of a freshly cut bouquet. The scent of warm soil calls us, compels us to dig and plant, as seductive as any siren’s song.
Among the vines that will be blooming are the wild roses. The white one that smells like cinnamon and spices blooms early, perfuming the air. Too bad the flowers aren’t much. Another one is a pretty little hot pink rose, one that seems to haunt ditch banks and other wetter areas. Do not feel sorry for this rose and take a piece of it home. No matter how cute and lonely it seems, like throwing scraps to a stray dog, once given any attention, it will never leave. Almost impossible to kill, it has thorns that proclaim it to be an escapee from the impenetrable wall around Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
The cool weather lasted much longer than we expected and crops will be correspondingly delayed. Tomatoes and other warm season crops will be coming off later, but all they need is some really warm weather, especially at night, and they’ll take off. Watch them for insect pests, they like warm weather also.
Ever check on your tomato plants one day and they’re fine, only to go out the next day to find the vines defoliated and most of the tomatoes almost completely eaten? The culprit is often huge, green caterpillars, called hornworms. Look closely, they’re masters of camouflage. Usually bright green with white stripes, they have a very distinctive horn on one end. If they’re on tomatoes, they’re called tomato hornworm. If they’re on tobacco, they’re called tobacco hornworm. Go figure! Same pest.
Guess what hornworms turn into? Hummingbird moths! If you’ve never seen one, the moths are truly delightful. They resemble a baby hummingbird and are just a little larger than a bumble bee. Hummingbird moths are tan in color, unlike their colorful namesakes, but they fly just like a hummingbird does. They can usually be spotted around flowers early in the morning or late in the evening. Sometimes they will come out during the day if it is cloudy, so if you see something that looks like a baby hummer, look closer. It might not be what you think it is!
One other word about hornworms. They aren’t hard to kill, simply pick them off and squish them. If you see white, rice looking grains on the hornworm, don’t kill it. What?! That’s right, don’t kill it. The rice grains are the eggs of a parasitic wasp. Guess what it eats? Tomato hornworms. Pick it off, certainly, and move it far away from your garden, into the edge of your yard or woods. The wasps will hatch and go find another hornworm to start the process all over again.
Mid June is time to plant pumpkins and gourds and winter squash. Winter squash? Winter squash is a term that means a squash with a hard shell that will keep during the winter. Butternut squash is a good example. Butternut will often keep a year or even longer. Summer squash is a term used to denote softer squash, such as yellow straight neck or crookneck. There’s nothing wrong with planting butternut earlier, it just keeps better if it’s planted later. The cooler weather of fall helps harden the shells.
If you planted Vidalia’s early, June is usually about the time to dig them. Wonderful sliced in quarters or eights and microwaved until tender with a little salt and butter, they are equally delicious stir fried with summer squash. Add a little zucchini and some eggplant and… Technically, the only onions that can be called Vidalia’s are the ones grown in Vidalia. The onions themselves are actually yellow granex. These can also be grown in the fall if you can find the plants. They don’t keep well because of their high sugar content, so enjoy them while they last. Hard to believe that Vidalia’s have about the same sugar content as a large orange.
Weekly Garden PING!!!!!
bump
“Weekly Gardening Thread — IT’s JUNE!!!!!”
Not here~! lol.....we’re having frost warnings! My poor little plants don’t know what to do. Two weeks ago, it was over 100 degrees....we’re expecting a high of 60 today. But I do have a few ripe strawberries.
Ditto for 2008!!!
I live to garden as my favorite hobby. 40 qts of salsa last year and the last consumed a month ago. We are starving now. Tomatoes are blooming, broccoli is great, and corn in the ground this week. We have had the hindrance of cool, wet spring, but the weather has finally warmed.
my green tomatoes are already the size of a small fist. i can’t wait to taste them in a few weeks. yummy!
Thanks Gabz! Hope y’all enjoy it!
I hear you on the weather! Sunday was the first really hot day we’ve had. Usually we’re fighting ourselves to make it til the first of May before turning the ac on. Didn’t turn it on this year until Sun—first of JUNE!
WOW, gardengirl outdid herself with this one. I love it!!!
Running out to check my tomatoes now for those worms (LOL).
I haven’t been on the gardening threads lately, have been overwhelmed with the company of friends from out of town. I finally, today, got a break.
I have green beans blooming, a few small tomatoes on the vines (I have 25 tomatoe plants thigh high, with a few tiny ones up among the cucumbers, strays from seeds mixed in with the cukes).
And have been enjoying salads from the three types of lettuce. I have plenty of lettuce, and will pick a bunch of it to share with Mom’s neighbors tomorrow.
I have had a MAJOR battle with these big ugly white larvae. Best I can tell, from reading Jerry Baker’s book, is these are the larvae of Japanese beetles. So, I’m anticipating the onslaught of these pests.
And of course I am currently battling aphids, they come every year, always do, and attempt to eat every flower, everthing in their path.
I have a bed prepared for a rose garden I didn’t get planted this spring. At least now I have time to shop around, and need to order these from Diana. I had plans to order veggies from you Diana, then, with so much going on, I just bought seeds locally and had to get everything in the ground asap, as usual I was running late.
WOW, gardengirl outdid herself with this one. I love it!!!
Running out to check my tomatoes now for those worms (LOL).
I haven’t been on the gardening threads lately, have been overwhelmed with the company of friends from out of town. I finally, today, got a break.
I have green beans blooming, a few small tomatoes on the vines (I have 25 tomatoe plants thigh high, with a few tiny ones up among the cucumbers, strays from seeds mixed in with the cukes).
And have been enjoying salads from the three types of lettuce. I have plenty of lettuce, and will pick a bunch of it to share with Mom’s neighbors tomorrow.
I have had a MAJOR battle with these big ugly white larvae. Best I can tell, from reading Jerry Baker’s book, is these are the larvae of Japanese beetles. So, I’m anticipating the onslaught of these pests.
And of course I am currently battling aphids, they come every year, always do, and attempt to eat every flower, everthing in their path.
I have a bed prepared for a rose garden I didn’t get planted this spring. At least now I have time to shop around, and need to order these from Diana. I had plans to order veggies from you Diana, then, with so much going on, I just bought seeds locally and had to get everything in the ground asap, as usual I was running late.
Great article! Thanks!
WOW AuntB, and I thought our weather was crazy.
We had beautiful cool weather until this week (I turned my air conditioning on this week the first time), and now BOOM summer has arrived.
It’s hot as heck here now. I did enjoy the unusually cool weather while I could, knowing it was a matter of time here in the South.
Thanks! Glad you like it!
My garden is about the same stage as yours. We have some peppers coming on, and ate vidalias and swuash and zukes the other night for supper. Our lettuce is toast. :(
We had a hellacious windstorm with scattered hail come thru Sun nite. Blew all our peppers over but hubby straightened them back up. He was not pleased, as he likes hot pepper vinegar and hot is all we planted.
Had a customer come in with pics. His squash—bearing—had been beated into the ground. His corn looked like someone ran it thru a shredder. He was back for more plants.
Hope you enjoyed your company! It’s always nice to see them come, and usually nice to see them go too!
Glad you like it—Thank GAbz for posting it! I’m a writer not a computer genius!
I am having fun with my garden and eating some good stuff!
UMMM. Eggplant!
Did your zukes ever pick back up?
Sorry for the double post.
Now that June has arrived here in the South, here are some things we can expect:
June Bugs (as kids we’d tie a piece of thread to them and try to fly them like model airplanes).
Lightning (sp) bugs. Since I live in the woods, I have a light show in the summer when these hatch. They are thick here. I am so lucky, just think how many people have never seen a lightning bug.
Yellow jackets. Last year I had a tussel with these while filling up a hummingbird feeder. I NEVER want to do that again, these suckers are MEAN. I suggest never let one fly up under your T-shirt like I did last year. I have never had anything hurt so bad or take so long to heal.
Ticks. Oh boy, I had one embedded already. It was bad. I have plenty of these little terrorists.
Don’t worry about it! FR has been really slow and off center the last couple of days.
If you need anymore bugs just let me know! BE glad to share!
LOL. NO THANKS!!!
We even have some Cicadas this year, they are noisy, and I found a dead one on the deck this morning.
Talk about funny, you should have been here the year my city grandkids came for a visit and caught jarfuls of those lightening bugs. They had never seen any, and had a ball.
Being a “fun” grandma, I agreed to let them turn them loose in the house, then we turned off the lights and watched them.
I woke up with lightening bugs in my bed, clothes, etc., for weeks.
We’ve had plenty of ripe tomatoes this week even though the plants are starting to wilt already. I don’t think we over watered or fertilized, since I use mostly leaf and cow manure compost before planting the seedlings.
The same for the cucumbers crop. I have to pick several every other day. The biggest problem I have is the heat here. We’ve hit 100+ at least three times this year and isn’t even summer yet.
If I had read your article about those nasty green horn worms last year ... I would have known what was happening to my tomato plants! I know what to look for now ... they were very destructive and they like the new growth leaves which really hurts the plant!
If you ever see little small dark green - kind of squarish looking - droppings on your plants or on the ground you got a Horn worm eating up higher! The first one I found was almost as big as my little finger and just as green as the stem he was perched on!
We always caught them as kids—ran around the yard in the dark carrying a glass mason jar. CPS would have had a field day with my parents! We don’t have many lightning bugs, but I haven’t lost my touch!
Yuck! Cicadas! I remember when they did one of their 20 year hatches. They ate everything—clothes off the line, screens—and noisy! My gosh.
Amazing how something that huge can blend! Talk about camoflage!
Wind and rain has been doing the samething to my pepper plants. I finally staked them a couple of days ago. Do you have a recipe for the hot pepper vinegar?
My guys stuff a jar—olive oil jars work well, or anything with a plastic removeable inner cap, pours better—with hot peppers and pour vinegar over them until the jar is full. Use cider vinegar, not white! LOL
They eat it on collards, fish, #2 son puts it on just about everything.
Oh, and worm poop? It’s called “frass”.
Something you can add to your list of things you never wanted to know!
Greens with out hot pepper vinegar ... no way, gotta have it.
What kind of peppers do you use?
It snowed this AM.
Ahhhhh... New Mexico.
My guys prefer cayenne—they fit in the bottles better, and this year they’re trying Super Chili. I think the sc’s are going to be too hot for what they want. Smirk.
We planted some big chili’s. Sposed to be mildly hot for stuffing and grilling. We’ll see.
You can freeze hot peppers, but they tend to contaminate everything in your freezer. :)
Well I am not getting frassed on this year!
Snow?! That’s a four letter word! It’s 92 here in the shade. Sigh. Why can’t it just stay 75 year round? LOL
Yep, snow. It didn’t stick due to the 50 mph wind, though.
Too funny!
I think they’re worse than they used to be—no one in the county grows tobacco anymore, and the poor wee things have to have something to eat!
Yikes! We had wind like that Sun nite, but just hail—no snow!
We used to do the same thing with horseflies! My dad would find a particularly big one and bring it home in his handkerchief. My neighbors thought we were nuts.
We are just beginning to get the lightning bugs. I am not so bold a grandma as to let them go in the house.... I will however let them live in a jar and be a "night light".
Ticks! (spit) Demonic little insects... curses upon them. We have managed to get them off us without any digging in yet... except for Mr G. They seem to be plentiful this year. We have also had to de-flea our little dog for the first time ever. She is still scratching and not happy.
As to gardening.... I am waiting for my neighbor's tomatoes to come in so I can have some. 8-)
Oh and I have 7 Sugar Baby watermelons now. Will the plant just keep on producing all summer? One is so large my wife wanted me to pick it. I is not ready yet. The one she thought I should pick is just a little smaller than a soccer ball the others are between softball size or a little larger! They grow over night!
YIKES!!!!
We finally broke the spell of the cold warnings last week. It's been upper 70s/low 80s now for more than a week and temps are supposed to be in the 90s over the weekend.
Green usually.
Watermelons produce for awhile and then they fizzle. Heat gets them, I guess. Sounds like you’ll definitely have one for the Fourth! The stems curl up like a pig tail when they’re ready.
I had never heard of tomato hornworms before I found one on my tomato plants one year.
I about set some kind of Olympic standing long jump record.
I know the feeling. We continue to have a lot of wet, though even though the temps have finally gone up!
"... but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
I will agree with you on ticks! They don't like sunny areas. Tall grass and shady moist leafy areas are a breeding ground. They don't jump or fly but they do crawl. They will crawl up a stalk of grass and sit there and wait with their front legs out, it is called "questing". When you or an animal walks by and brushes the grass, they latch on!
You'll have to tell me how you make the vinegar.
While i plant both hot and sweet, I primarily plant hot for making jelly and salsa.
OOOOOOOOOOO!!! I like the way you do your eggplant. I adore eggplant, cooked anyway!!!!
My guys, and most people round here, just pour cider vinegar over hot peppers and let it steep. It will keep a long time, like from one year to the next. If it gets a little flat during the season, they add more peppers. Make sure you use cider vinegar. Add more vinegar as needed.
UMMMM. Salsa!
Just like you I have tons of lightning bugs al summer long. I love the light shows. I remember when I was growing up, in NYC of all places, how mean us kids were with the lightning bugs. We loved to catch them an then set them on the sidewalk or in the street and smoosh them, dragging our feet --- we'd have light streaks on the ground.
I have never had anything hurt so bad or take so long to heal.
I despise yellow jackets. They are not only mean, they are evil.
Ticks. Oh boy, I had one embedded already. It was bad. I have plenty of these little terrorists.
We have a SEVERE tick problem already. I was pulling them off me at the rate of 2-3 a day a week or so ago, as was my husband and daughter and our friends who live down the road, as well as other friends in other parts of the county.
Jerry Baker to the Rescue!!!!!!!!!
1tbsp dishwashing liquid
2 cups rubbing alcohol
1 gal rainwater or soft tap water
Mix ingredients in a bucket, pour into a 6 gallon hose-end sprayer,and spray your plants top to bottom making sure you get under leaves where they like to hang out. Spray in the evening if spraying on shrubs, the alcohol will cause burns if done during the day in the sun.
My hose-end sprayer (bought from Jerry Baker's website) is making the rounds around the county. All my friends are using it and the mixture, but we're all using it primarily on the grass/weeds around the house where we all congregate or our pets hang out. It seems to be working!
YIKES!!!!!!!
We're supposed to get into the 90s this weekend. 80s I can handle, I start wilting (let alone my plants) when we start climbing into the 90s.
She still wont eat cucumbers but fresh slices of zucchini on her salad, yum again!
I am thinking, if grows in our garden she will try it and find out she enjoys it. Either that or she is torturing herself so I wont be disappointed. LOL
Just loverly!!!
Ahhhhh... New Mexico.
My husband says that about Arizona where he used t ski in the morning and bask at the pool in the afternoon.
We’ve also had extremely high winds this spring. It’s been gusting to about 30 MPH for the past week or so during the daytime. That really dries out any moisture, especially potted plants.
Half the sprinklers on the golf course water the lawns on the NW side instead of the course. They aren’t watering the area next to my house yet. Last year, I hardly put any water on that area.
If that is happening to you, you're not freezing them properly. I've got habaneros in the freezer on the same shelf as ice cream. Never any cross contamination.
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