This Simple Homemaker: June 2016

Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but l life happens. And something had to give. And I'm posting from my phone. So... that has its own challenges.

The garden in May did fairly well. We had a problem early in the month with worms on our Mr. Stripey tomatoes. I really thought we were going to loose the both plants.

It was bad. Real bad.

I spent days picking off tiny worms and squishing them. Relentless. I ended up sprinkling the plants with food grade DE. It was my last resort. The DE took care of the worms, but I still had to keep the moths from laying eggs in the first place.

Enter peppermint oil. Moths really can't stand it. You do need to use caution though, as it will repel bees and butterflies, too. I mixed 60 drops in a gallon sprayer and filled it with water. I sprayed the leaves and stems of the plants and payed special attention to the base of the plant where the moths like to lay eggs.

I like to spray in the evening because moths are more active at night. And it's cooler in the evening. And there aren't as many bees out.



We also had a slight problem with fungus on our beans, but neem oil did a good job of keeping it at bay.

Let me take this opportunity to say that we started out with composted dirt, that wasn't broken down completely. So, we've been dealing with nitrogen binding in our plants. We also started with some plants from the store, which, while they were heirlooms, probably were not healthy. And they certainly were not organic.

Bad soil and less than healthy plants, we were behind before we even started. It's been an uphill battle from the beginning. We knew what we were getting ourselves in to, though. We have worked really hard at boosting the nitrogen in our soil with organic blood meal and high quality organic fertilizer.

Looking back, we should have tilled the ground and took the time to build up the soil with minerals. We were just too eager to get digging in the dirt.

All that to say, don't do what we did. Good dirt = healthy plants. Healthy plants resist pests and fungus and blight. Learn from our mistakes.

We also had a small problem with vine borers in our squash and zucchini. When I noticed frass on the stems, I carefully cut the stem of the plant and dug the nasty creature out. I then covered the cut stem with dirt and hay mulch. I was mindful to water those plants that had been cut. I think we only lost two squash plants out of 5 or 6 that had VB. I also was sure to spray peppermint oil around the base of the squash and zucchini to deter the vine borer moth from laying her eggs.

Now it's June. I was not able to be out in the garden much the first week because of VBS at church.

And boy, can you tell I hadn't been diligent in the garden. Somebody must have told the bugs, too.

And while we have had a good amount of rain, all of the rain has happened in the evening. You know, the time I work in the garden... I worked as much as I could until it down poured.

All I can say is, I really wished I had spent more time in the garden last week.

My Rutgers tomatoes are puny. That's from a lack of nitrogen. Compound that with fungus, and I'll be lucky to get anything off of those six plants.

The Cherokee Purples are facing the same worms that the Mr. Stripeies had last month. I spent 2 hours yesterday picking off worms by hand. Until I got soaked by a torrential downpour.

Again.

This is the first time we have grown bush beans. I wanted beans to can, so that's why we went with the bush variety. So far, they haven't performed as expected. It probably has to do with the horrible dirt they are growing in. I've picked a few worms and white flies off of the beans, but the pests haven't been horrible. They do have rust fungus, but the neem oil should take care of that. We started these from seeds, by the way.

The squash and zucchini are doing well. They'd probably be producing more if our soil was better.

The cucumbers look promising.

And delicious.

I've never grown okra before, so I really don't know what to expect. So far we haven't gotten much. Maybe I'll figure out what I'm doing wrong and try again. Or maybe I'll dedicate that space to something else.

The radishes are doing fine. The crickets really enjoyed eating the leaves, but the neem oil has been a great deterrent.

Carrots. They're there. We didn't get a great seed germination rate from the variety that we planted. They look good otherwise. We should have a few to harvest in the next week or so.

The corn has had its problems with lack of nitrogen and other minerals, but it does seem to be doing better. The peppermint oil has been great for keeps the moths from laying in the stalks.

Oh, and then there are my husband's babies, the pumpkins. He has always dreamed of being a pumpkin farmer. He is growing 4 different varieties this season. So far so good. As long as we can stay on top of the VB and pickle worms, he may realize his dream soon enough. Let's hope so.

I want to make all of his pumpkin farmer dreams come true.

We also have a small mound of watermelons. I don't know if we'll get anything from them  Bad dirt.

It's the story of our growing season this year.

So that's the garden in June.

Oh, and I forgot to mention. I haven't killed one flower I planted, yet. Way to go, me. Even my hydrangeas are alive and thriving.