
If
you are on the Coast, the weather will forgive you for most of your transgressions
of procrastination. As you go further inland, you are cutting
your production seriously if you do not have the bulk of your summer
plants in the ground by now. Inland, the hot weather will flatten
cool season plants much more seriously than closer to the ocean. On
the coast, if we have a typical summer, we have until the end of the
month to get almost all of our cool season veggies out of the soil.
We can have an atypical summer too. Sometimes it gets hot here and
the cool season veggies are wasted just like those in further inland
(including the San Fernando Valley). Other times, it is cold and
foggy through June and we can have carrots an beets until July. One
never knows, so it's best to have a little of both. Once they are
out of the ground, usually I will wait until September before taking
another crack at planting those cool season veggies. With our
tomatoes and cucumbers and all the rest in the ground, we can step
back and admire how pretty everything is: just perfect! Doesn't
last all that long – take a picture now while you have the chance!
Do
all that is listed for May if you haven’t done so yet, but do so
with the thought that you’ll need to be more attentive to your
plants’ water needs, and if you are inland, the later in the month
it gets, the more stress your plants will be under to get their roots
established in the ground before really hot weather hits. If you
haven’t gotten your slower growing heat lovers in by now, it would
almost serve you better to wait until next year. I’m thinking of
some squashes and pumpkins – the big ones. The bigger the squash
or pumpkin the longer it takes for them to get ripe; some of these
take 100 days to harvest time, check that out, that’s over
three whole months!, and will not ripen fully without the good heat.
On the coast, if we cool down right after Labor Day, it can be
challenge to get them ripen to perfection. Inland, you need to know
your climate. Do you get cold in September or is the heat still on
full blast? Most of you will say, heat still on. But those who have
a little elevation might be thinking, heat? September? Not so much!
It bears repeating, that no book can speak to your personal
microclimate and your local conditions trump any book ever written.
Including this one. Take what is written as a guideline, but always
look at your local conditions and do not be afraid to modify what
I've written with a good dose of reality. Learn to trust your
senses.
The
mulch around your plants needs to be up to at least three inches –
provided of course that your plants are taller than 6 inches, as most
of summer's crops are. Add any kind of organic matter at all. It
matters little what it is, but don't be stingy with it. The worms
will come up from the ground in the night and pull bits of the mulch
down into the soil, creating air pockets as they come and go and
depositing their castings all through the soil. This is what they do
and you make them an important and viable part of your soil ecology
by allowing them to do what they are born to do – besides it saves
your back and makes for a much more enjoyable garden all the way
around. And that's what we all want to do – enjoy the garden!
Garlic
planted last fall will come due soon. Racambole garlic – the
hardneck kind of garlic that I prefer – will begin to grow a hard
center stalk that will eventually have a small group of bulbils on
it. The hard neck grows up to almost even with the leaves and begins
to make an elongated “Q” shape. Once this shoot begins to make
its sweeping turn, begin to hold back water. Keep an eye on it and
once they have begun to brown, pull them.
Other
garlics are a lot less dramatic. As their leaves begin to turn brown
on the tips begin to hold back on the water. As the leaves begin to
turn fully brown, pull the garlic bulbs, shake the soil from them as
best you can and leave the plants in dappled sunlight for a few days
until really dry to the touch. You can then braid the softneck
garlics and tie the hardnecks into a bundle. Hang them in a cool dry
place – I know, like we have those in Southern California, but do
the best you can.
Remember,
if you have planted both kinds of garlic, the hard necks will often
have a more garlicky taste, but they will not keep as well as the
soft necks. The soft neck allows the bulb to be sealed more
effectively from the air and so helps it last longer. Eat the hard
neck garlic first, then, keeping the braids of soft neck garlic until
later in the winter. Onions are much the same way – if you have
good sized bulbs and the tops are not turning brown, you might need
to knock them over at the very top of the onion. This will cause the
onion to 'seal' off the bulb from the stalk and will help the onion
last longer in your pantry. Mind you, this is not possible with all
onions – only the big round ball shaped storage onions. My
favorite onion, the Italian Red Torpedo onion, is not a keeper and
will need to be eaten fresh – I usually pull them as I need them
because they keep better in the soil than they do harvested. The
first onions are pulled a little smaller than full sized, the middle
ones are pulled as they reach full girth and the rest as I need them,
mostly they are gone by the 4th of July. But they are
delicious off the grill (like candy!) until they are gone.
A
note on the name 'Italian Torpedo...' I finally figured out that
'torpedo' was a bastardization of the name, 'Tropea.' I couldn't
figure for the life of me why an onion was like a torpedo, but one
day I found it came from Tropea, Italy and it suddenly made sense;
the onion certainly does not resemble a 'torpedo' – at least the
torpedoes I know. They are a long red onion and until you have had
them, you don't know what you are missing! Normally, onions, a long
season crop, are bought as 'sets;' small plants someone else has
started growing for you and you set them in the ground to finish them
off. Several years ago, my supplier was out of Italian Torpedo
onions and I was forced to buy packets of seed. Guess what? Worked
out fine although a healthy dose of patience was required. Onions are
set out in fall and if you have to grow them from seed, start them in
September.
All
the aliums are not fast growers – onions, garlic, leeks and even
shallots, plant them in fall and you should begin to harvest them the
following May/June. Why that'll be now, by golly.
I
just started growing shallots after fighting off the mystique that
they “had to be difficult.” They take the same care as onions,
and are, in fact, far easier to grow and provide a more reliable
harvest than onions. And, while you can buy onions rather cheaply,
certainly the same cannot be said about shallots! So, dollar for
dollar, shallots are a more tempting allium to grow than onions.
Look for October's chapter for more on planting onions, garlic and
shallots because that's when you get started. Now for those of us
who did it last October, we are at the end of the cycle – the yummy
part!
If
you haven't staked up your tomatoes yet, you may well find yourself
resigned to having free-range tomatoes this year. Once plants reach
a certain size, it is more destructive to try to corral them into a
cage than to let nature have its way with them. You may escape with
the best harvest ever, but, as much of a risk taker as I am, this is
one bet I don't place. Even a lone bamboo pole at the back is better
than nothing. Use some soft ribbon or old rags to tie them up –
string or twine can damage the plant. Tomato plants that set fruit
in contact with the soil are a recipe for tomato loss – the tomato
fruit on the ground will surely be attacked by our friends, the
detritivores. Sounds like a punk rock band, doesn't it? These are
the critters that eat detritus and I love the word, “detritivore.”
However, what they can do to your tomatoes is sad.
I
have my tomatoes planted with two basil plants and one pepper plant
for every tomato plant. I'm doing companion planting to discourage
pests and to not drain the soil of the nutrients needed by one plant.
I could have planted more tomato plants closer together, but all
those plants would draw on the same nutrients through the soil. By
planting different plants near by, I am using the same ground but
perhaps not pulling nutrients of the same exact profile from the
whole bed. There will be slightly different nutrients used by the
basil and pepper. This helps me keep my soil more fertile – as you
know, I eschew the use of all fertilizers. I think they end up being
harmful to the soil in the long run. Even the organic ones.
'Organic' heroin is just as bad as chemical heroin. As a part of the
companion thing, most folks will add in marigolds for pest
deterrence. Marigolds are considered as one of the pest deterrent
workhorses of the summer garden. And the yellows, oranges and whites
of these plants make a colorful addition to the summer garden. It
doesn't hurt to have some color!
Beans
and corn can be grown as succession crops in summer. Corn probably
is a bad choice for most of us in Southern California because it
takes so much room – in fact, if you have enough room to do a
succession planting of corn, you probably don't live in here! Corn,
as we observed last month, has to be grown in fairly substantial
blocks to allow for good pollination. Beans can be grown as a
succession crop in summer. Put in several different kinds of beans
all through June – just make sure you don't fail to water the seeds
and the young plants on hotter days. They'll need more water than
the rest of the garden until they put on some size, so pay special
attention. Also on beans, watch for snails and slugs – in my
experience, beans are the favorite meal of these pests and I have
seen entire bean crops defoliated and it's a sad sight.
Also try to keep a
lettuce plant here and there on the shady side of taller plants –
like corn and tomatoes. Some of the lettuces to try for summer are:
Bronze
Arrowhead, Gold Rush, Jericho, Mascara, Pablo, Rossa
di Trento,
Rossimo,Tango,
Red Velvet, Reine
de Glaces,
Slobolt, Summertime, Sunset and Yugoslavian Red Butterhead. All of
these promise to be “slow to bolt” or “hold well in heat,”
but often that heat is 'heat' as in Maine or in Paris and not 'heat'
as in Los Angeles! Marvel of the Four Seasons (Merville
de Quartre Saison) is
only Marvel of the Three
Seasons (Merville
de Trois Saison)
in Los Angeles!
If
you have cabbage, broccoli or other cool season crops still in your
garden, you'll probably have to kiss them goodbye soon unless this is
a cooler June than usual. Even with “June Gloom,” the
temperatures are usually too high for good-tasting food from those
cool weather plants at this time. If you have a cabbage or a
broccoli close to being fully grown, watch it very carefully lest it
bolt suddenly on a warm day. Broccoli will begin to show the yellow
of the flowers. Once you can make out a pronounced yellow in the
head, you cannot procrastinate any longer. If some of the buds do
open, all is not lost because you can still eat open flowers, it
doesn't have that classic 'broccoli' look. Get it sooner rather than
later.
Once
cabbage has formed a head, it is acceptable to pick it. If you want
the most cabbage for your square foot of land possible, feel the
head. If there is 'give' to the leaves, you have a ways to go to
being fully ripe. A fully grown cabbage will be hard – there will
not be space between the leaves and that flexibility will be gone.
At this point, you need to pay closer attention to it. Once you see
the outer leaves on the head begin to curl back on the edge, the
cabbage is about to split open and the flower stalk will emerge.
Once the head has split, you've no longer have a good eating cabbage
on your hands, your cabbage is 'bolting,' going to seed. That's good
if that was your intent, but very bad if you've been bragging about
your amazing kraut recipe.
If
you do miss the signs and they do go to flower, if you have the room,
leave them in your garden. Beneficial insects will find them a happy
addition to their diet. Many of your gardening friends will be
convinced you screwed up, but you can explain to them that you are
saving the seeds and allowing the beneficial insects to have a good
thing to eat. If this is not a hybrid crop, look into learning how
to save your seeds for next year.
Keep
your garden moist – a tough trick as our world heats up. Your
mulch will help, in fact, mulching is essential! Water only in the
cooler times of day – early AM or late PM. If you have troubles
with mildew and other fungus problems, try to stick to the early
mornings; any moisture on the leaves will have a chance to be wicked
away and will less likely cause problems. However, if you are like
me and crunched for time, late in the evening is better than not at
all! And on the coast, you'll have mildew no matter what you do.
It
is better to avoid over head watering if at all possible because the
amount of water lost to evaporation and wind dispersal. If you can
get one, a 'leaky' hose that sweats the water out at very low
pressure is the way to go and is fairly inexpensive to boot. Turn
the water on very slightly and, once the hose is full of water it
will bead out of minute holes all along the length of the hose. Allow
it to run for a very long time and you'll get water soaking down into
the roots of your plants which is where you want it. You can use it
much less frequently than you would an overhead sprinkler. Look
elsewhere here for information on 'ollas.' This is an ancient
version of drip systems I have begun to work with and am very excited
about.
Overhead
watering can also encourage problems with mildew on plant leaves.
You get a whitish sheen on your leaves that eventually kills the
plant; that's called mildew. If you grow squash, the 'work-around'
is to grow your cucurbits fast ('cucurbits' refers to the family that
includes all melons, squashes and cucumbers), get a crop and if that
wasn't enough start more plants to keep the harvest coming. Of
course, the ones you can't really do that with are the winter
squashes and pumpkins. Their growing season is just too long to
start over again so you really only get one crop. Still, grow them
(if you have room) with plenty of light and air circulation. If
you're lucky, you'll get a crop. In most years, you'll be OK,
although you'll never harvest those record-setting pumpkins you can
read about from points further east – like Kansas, Kentucky and
Connecticut....
Marina
de Chioggia squash produced a lovely crop for me last year even in a
relatively shady bed! So go figure. That not withstanding, if you
want a good crop of winter squash, I still advise you to put it in an
area with abundant sunlight. And airflow.
Try
to insure your summer garden is in before the end of June. After
that, it's beginning to be too hot to do all that digging and the
planting you do will need extra water to get started.
Start
These In Containers
|
Start
These In The Ground
|
Move
to the Ground from Containers
|
As
little as possible
|
Beans
|
Cucumbers
|
|
Corn
|
Squash
|
|
Cucumbers
|
Tomatoes
|
|
Squash
|
Peppers
|
|
|
Okra
|
|
|
Basil
|
|
|
|
Refer to the text for exact dates.
You don't really need a recipe
this month. This is the month that zucchini and other soft skinned
squashes begin to get large enough to harvest and you must harvest
them frequently to keep them small and tasty – avoid letting them
get to the size of baseball bats – they are flavorless and not
nearly as tender as they could be. Most of the harvest can be
slathered with a little olive oil and put on the grill. Keeps the
heat outside the house and deliciousness ensues. It's time to begin
to enjoy our world-famous summers!
david
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteI've a conundrum and have been internet surfing for answers to no avail. I hope you can solve the mystery of the "Hollow Fava Bean" I live in L.A. zone 23.
Currently i've pods that are 4 inches (some larger some smaller), but the inner beans are undeveloped. OK, yes I did plant dried organic favas that were purchased from my local farmer market for eating, decided the dried were not for me so rather that throw out I thought I'd try planting them. Big gorgeous plant grew, I staggered planting times by about 2-3 weeks and I have great success with my earlier crops.
Also, this is the 3rd year i've planted favas, some plants are in the same place as last years.
Hmmmmmm.......
Susan
Susan, it wasn't the seed you started with. And your plant placement isn't to blame either. The only thing I can think of is that you didn't have a pollinator. Usually favas are pollinated by bees. I can't imagine that you didn't have bees, but that's what it seems to me at first glance to be. If that isn't it, I'll be at a loss to explain. But let me know, I'd like to try to solve this if we can! david
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your blog, it is so informative! I discovered it last month and have already read all the archives! I live 3 or so hours up the coast from you in Arroyo Grande. My garden is the best it's ever been this year--each year I learn so much. My hubby and 2 young kids are all benefitting from it too, so far we have harvested tons of green beans, zucchini (google Ina Garten's recipe for zucchini pancakes), cucumbers and a few tomatoes. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteChristie