Rainfall
- 11th: 0.26"
- 12th: 4.32"
- 15th: 0.03"
- 19th: 0.53"
- 20th: 3.22"
- 21st: 0.78"
- 22nd: 0.48"
- 25th: 0.07"
- Total: 9.69 inches
Temperature
- range of nighttime lows: 53 to 67°F (12 to 19.4°C)
- range of daytime highs: 66 to 87°F (19 to 30.5°C)
Weather Notes
Typical June temperatures but more rain than usual.
Garden Notes
June is an in-between month. The cool weather crops peter out about mid-month, but the summer veggies aren't quite ready to harvest yet. I think the greenhouse will be the remedy for this. If I get my summer veggies started about a month earlier than direct sowing, we'll be enjoying the produce as the spring crops go to seed.
Of fruit, we're still getting a few strawberries every couple of days and the raspberries are producing.
 |
| strawberries and raspberries |
Last year we got quite a few mulberries from our young tree, but this year it produced very few berries and those few disappeared. Likely eaten by birds. I had hoped they'd fill the gap between strawberries (mostly May) and blueberries (usually July). Instead, we got a happy surprise of early blueberries.
 |
| Blueberries. |
They're plump and sweet and the bushes are loaded. Hopefully, we'll get more than the birds this year!
Figs are our August fruit harvest, but for the past couple of years we've lost some fig trees.
 |
| Dead fig tree behind the barn. |
 |
| Except for this one branch! |
This fall, Dan will cut back the dead part and we'll nurture the living branch. We'll also transplant some of the saplings. This is the second fig tree we've lost in the past two years, and we don't want to lose any more.
 |
| Our remaining fig tree is producing well. |
I have no idea how old these trees are. I discovered them our first year here, when I was trimming back the wildly overgrown backyard. Hopefully, we can get some new trees going for future harvests.
The June beetles have taken over my raspberry plants and lone table grape vine. Last year, neem worked. This year, I spray, they fly away, and come back with a vengence.
Tomatoes are beginning to ripen.
 |
| Corn is shooting up and the buckwheat is going to seed. |
 |
| Swiss chard |
 |
| Marigolds |
 |
| Digging the first of the potatoes. |
Biggest pest
 |
| June beetles |
The June beetles have taken over my raspberry plants and lone table grape vine. Last year, neem worked. This year, I spray, they fly away, and come back with a vengence.
Parting shot
 |
| Baby praying mantis. It's about an inch long! |
12 comments:
A good haul!
You have been blessed by rain this month! It makes such a difference.
I know so many are fighting with the Japanese beetles. I collect them for the chooks, as they love them as a snack twice a day. I just read an article yesterday on the Old World Garden Farm blog about dealing with them. Here's the link: https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2023/06/25/eliminate-japanese-beetles/.
Enjoy your harvesting!
Sandi, I'm thankful for everything we get. :)
Daisy, thanks for the link! Dan said he had success last year with soapy water (which is certainly cheaper than neem). Can't say I'm enthusiastic about picking off several hundred beetles twice a day. How do you keep them from flying away?
Rain makes a huge difference for growing things. I know we'll get a dry spell sometime this summer, and I always dread it.
Surprisingly well this year Leigh, although I think a lot of that has to do with 1) Actually having a really watering system in place and 2) choosing plants appropriate for my climate. Our weather has been hot - overly so - and so that may skewing results.
I fully intend to post on it - at some point....
TB, that's good news! A watering system and appropriate plants are a very wise move!
It seems like we, too, have kicked into high-summer gear just the past two days. All I can say to that is - Ugh.
Nice looking raspberries!!! We have to take any fig trees inside here or they will die. Occasionally one will survive a Winter but it is rare. June for us is always iffy but has been hot and dry here this year, Only a few little tomato fruits just starting and most plants are stunted this year it;s been so dry. I bet your green house will be the bomb!!!
PP, I hope it will be!
Weeks of hot and dry really make a garden struggle. We'll get it too, at some point, I just never know when because it isn't consistent.
I reckon you're out of fig tree range. Most of the time, they grow well here, but the past two winters have had some really cold spells. I wonder if that was part of their problem.
Volunteer figs ! What variety? I planted a Black Mission fig and it had 2 figs that never matured in its second year. This third year I have counted at least ten. It really likes where it was planted in the garden.
My squash has gone crazy with the warmer temperatures. The tomatoes are happy as are the bell peppers, eggplant and bush beans. I also have potatoes poking up in a raised bed.
Transplanted 22 pullets and 2 cockerels to the big coop . Growing the flock to 38 . Feeling pretty good about the future but trying not to get to far ahead of the possibilities.
Goatldi, our big fig trees are mature so I'm guessing they've been here a long time. I have no idea of their lifespan, but we have baby fig trees growing!
Sounds like your garden is doing really well! And, wow, that's a lot of chickens! glad they're all doing well.
For the Japanese beetles, I simply hold a plastic container with a little water underneath them and tap the branch. They usually fall right in and voila, snack for the girls!
I didn't plant anything except 2 tomatoes. I have volunteer cherry tomatoes that have came and went already but the 2 Cherokee purples are growing good with one tomato on each but now its to hot so if they survive the spot they are in for a while longer I might get some fall 'maters. I was busy and or preoccupied when the mulberries were ready and didn't get much. The one surviving blueberry gave me a qt and a half for the freezer. The fig is ripening now and many were lost to the deluge of rain a week ago but hot an dry now so been getting a dozen or so a day. Today I noticed the guava is starting to ripen and got a good handful to eat earlier... Should be able to pick a couple dozen tomorrow if the possum doesn't get em tonight. Then usually a qt a day for a couple weeks if things go according to the usual. Next is the persimmons. Second or third week of Aug is usual for one tree to start. Not as big a crop of them as usual but enough for me and the goats and chooks if 70% make it to harvest.
It was 98° when I looked about 3pm. I don't like this hot dry. Give me sweaty humid ducking lightning and thunder/showers and mosquitos....
Daisy, that sounds so easy! I can do that. :)
Annie, hot dry, hot wet, both are miserable! Sounds like you're really getting hit with the heat though. I say, even a small harvest is better than no harvest.
Post a Comment