June's Garden (2023)

Summer is here. My days start in the garden just as the sun is rising and before the heat arrives. 

Everything is flourishing better than ever before and it is keeping me bustling.

My newest experimental crop is garbanzo beans. They are from a grocery store and not surprisingly, the germination rate was about one in ten. 

The leaves look like ferns and there is one bean per pod. I have been told you can squeeze the pod and it will pop so you can eat the bean fresh.  I can't wait to try it.

The Yukon Gold potatoes are finished. Now that the plants are dead, the green stakes surrounding the bed are visible. They were tied together with strings so the vines wouldn't spill over into the pathways. The garden rows are close together to not waste growing space. Anything that is a tripping hazard gets propped up - walking is much safer.

The large harvest was a surprise. They were planted later than the Red Pontiac and White Kennebec but grew faster. The others are still winding down.

Some of the onions have been dug and I discovered the amount of sunlight made a significant difference. The front half of my garden is full sun but it becomes progressively shadier toward the woods. The Super Sweet Onion slips which came from a local nursery were the earliest to be transplanted in the garden and were in an area of full sunlight. They matured first.

Generic bulbs were also purchased in bulk from a local nursery and were scattered all over the garden. It has been easy to compare the size difference since they are all the same variety.  The strawberry bed that was full of onions is almost empty since most have been dug. It is also in full sun.

Both the Super Sweet and the generic which grew in the strawberry bed are huge!

In the middle of the garden in what was originally the spinach bed are some of the generic onions. They were planted along the edge and at the sunniest end. Tiny okra seedlings were added to the middle of the row when the spinach finished. The okra didn't shade the onions until a few weeks ago but regardless, none of the bulbs are more than half the size of those grown in full sun.

Those in the back in the deeper shade are quite small. None performed well at all.

However, a huge unexpected success was the onions I started during the winter from seed. They were the size of hairs when transplanted into this full sun bed and I didn't expect them to live. They are still maturing and have matched the size of those from the strawberry bed.

These are storage varieties and will be tested to see how long they last. 

Next year, more will be started from seed but all must be planted in full sun.

Onions must be air-dried to cure before being stored. My wrought iron porch furniture makes a perfect drying rack. The dehydrator was set up outside because drying onions in the house is like breathing napalm.  All the activities on the porch have come to a screeching halt.

The back deck has a smelly problem too. An opossum moved into our neighborhood and has made a nuisance of himself (they smell like rotted garbage: just a fun fact for city dwellers). He is emptying out the birdfeeder and has invited his camera-shy raccoon friend to slurp the sugar syrup from the hummingbird feeder (sugar is expensive now!) They party all night long under my kitchen window. 

We have set up the motion detector alarm. The raccoon has the sense to bolt when we open the door but the opossum stands his ground.  He has become accustomed to us, the lights and the noise so refuses to budge. We have to shoo him away every night.

Bill has to go out all hours of the night when the alarm sounds to prod it off the deck with a stick. Since we don't have livestock that can be harmed, it has received grace. 

Possum poking is our latest pastime. Our lives are never dull.

Last Month's May Garden (2023)

Last Year's June Garden (2022)

Through the Garden Gate