Rainfall
- 2nd: 0.14"
- 4th: 0.39"
- 5th: 0.42"
- 10th: 0.59"
- 24th: 0.01"
- 30th: 0.8"
- Total: 2.35 inches
Temperature
- range of nighttime lows: 53 to 74°F (11.6 to 23.3°C)
- range of daytime highs: 76 to 94°F (24.4 to 34.4°C)
Greenhouse temps Because I'm curious about the effectiveness
of the shade cloth.These are the days 90°F and above so far this year, before and after
covering the greenhouse with shade cloth.
- Without shade cloth
- Outside: 91°F (33°C) |104°F (40°C) inside
- With shade cloth
- Outside: 90°F (32°C) | 84°F (29°C) inside
- Outside: 93°F (34°C) | 84°F (29°C) inside
- Outside: 94°F (34.4°C) | 86°F (30°C) inside
- Outside: 94°F (34.4°C) | 88°F (31°C) inside
I'm guessing that the steady rise in inside temps is due to the
structure itself heating up and retaining that heat overnight. Also days
of full sun versus partly cloudy days. Even so, it's still better than the temps without it.
Weather Notes
We're into our summer weather pattern, where, as it warms up, rain systems come up off the Gulf from the southwest and then split as they approach the southern Appalachians. The result for us is that we typically miss the rain that the rest of the Southeast gets (rain shadow effect).
Garden Notes
- The birds got all the cherries! No pie this year.
- Now that the planting is done, I'm focusing primarily on getting everything mulched before picking starts. And watering as needed.
Planted
- sweet potato slips
- corn, Trucker's Favorite
- sorghum
Harvested
- multiplier onions
- walking onions
- wheat
- oregano
- thyme
- sweet basil
- potatoes
- garlic
- snow peas
- cherry tomatoes
- slicing tomatoes
- mulberries
- red raspberries
- lambs quarter
- kale
- Swiss chard
- wild lettuce
- daikon leaves
- daikon radishes
- blueberries
- green pepper
Preserved
- lambs quarter, canned
- last of the pantry stored winter squash, dehydrated for squash powder
- goats milk mozzarella, shredded and frozen
Photos
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| sweet potato slips before planting |
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| winter wheat |
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| My bed of volunteer lambs quarter |
It's growing in the location of the new keyhole garden.
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| Beginnings of the new African keyhole garden |
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| Peanuts, volunteer cherry tomatoes, and Katy |
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| Corn and flowering carrot plant (a purple variety, I think) |
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| Soon! |
|
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Besides processing wheat, I've been experimenting with making buckwheat
flour from last year's crop. I use my power blender and sieve to sift. Does an ok job but needs improvement. |
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| Moonglow pear |
|
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June salad: wild lettuce, daikon leaves, last of the peas, first of the cherry tomatoes, crumbled goat feta cheese. |
Parting shot
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| First sunflowers |
Your turn! How does your garden grow? (Or does it???)
Garden Notes: June 2024 © June 2024
14 comments:
Lambsquarters? I've always known them as weeds. What do you do with them? -Jenn
Very similar to yours. We have been harvesting daikon radishes, lettuce, onions, potatoes, peas, beans, various fresh herbs, and recently squash. Unlike you, we got one pie’s worth of cherries before the birds. We are also finishing the last of the mulching.
I hadn’t considered eating daikon radish leaves.
As always, the farmer in me shudders at the thought of anyone intentionally growing lambs quarter.
Jenn, lambs quarter is tastier than spinach! I cut off the tender leaves at the ends of the branches, then either steam them like spinach or sautee them with onion and carrot. I can as many as I can too, for a quick winter veggie or creamed "spinach" soup. They are one of our favorite vegetables. :)
Ed, lucky you on the cherries. I wasn't paying attention and missed them all! My summer squash appears to have not made it, which is disappointing. But so far, the winter squash are doing fairly well.
Wretched Birds! That must have been a disappointment.
I recall that you may have a fan to evacuate some of the heat in the greenhouse. Any thought to adding another given your experience?
I do enjoy the cat photo bomb!
TB, the birds usually get more than their fair share!
Yes, I do have a vent fan in the greenhouse. It's hooked up to a solar panel and we leave the windows on the opposite side (the shadier side) open to draw the draft across the greenhouse. It helped a lot in winter, also in spring, and I'm sure it's helping now but to less affect. Adding another is an idea, for sure.
Your garden is SO much farther along! I've harvested just a bit of 'greens' – kale, lettuce, parsley, cilantro (my son; I loathe the stuff). I have fruit setting on one cherry tomato, one bell pepper, and quite a few strawberry plants, and lots of blossoms on other tomato plants and the eggplants. I planted two hills of butternut squash starts this year and the plants are really burgeoning; I think they will be blooming soon and hope they produce well. I haven't had much success with any winter squash before.
Michelle, our locations are pretty much catty-corner on the continent, so I'm not surprised that our gardens are so different. That's one of the things that makes the internet so fascinating. :)
Lamb's quarters..delish! Things are growing. Plan on a garden post next. We just had a weekend culminating in 5.5 inches of rain, and more is supposed to fall this afternoon. The yard is squishy in places, and water has been laying between the spud hills.
Such a beautiful window behind the potato slips, and love the kitty face.
Rosalea, lucky you to be getting some rain! Of course, you might be thinking you've had plenty at this point! Looking forward to your garden post.
It all looks great! How do you thresh your wheat? Thanks!
--Melanie
Melanie, I thresh it in the dryer. I put a 5-gallon bucket of wheat heads in an old (but sturdy) king size pillow case with a dozen golf balls. I tie it closed with sturdy string, then knot the end of the pillow case, and tie it off again above the pillow case knot. There's enough room for the golf balls and wheat to move freely around. I've tried it with only one string, but it came loose and the wheat ended up all over the dryer!
The dryer is set on no (or lowest) heat and I put it through 2 and a half cycles. My dryer cycles are 75 minutes, so we're looking at about 3 hours of threshing time in the dryer. This does a really good job of separating almost all of the grains from the chaff.
You can see my first try with this method in this post - Another Experiment in Threshing Wheat, but note that I improved it through trial and error with extra tying and more time as described here. Now, I find winnowing pretty much a breeze.
The last of the peaches picked by about the 12th. Seminole pumpkins brought in at 24 total but a few had damage and I'm slowly feeding those to the goats/chix. I've had poke salat greens and wild amaranth greens a few times but they are getting rank now. Only getting 1.5" rain (until last night, adding another 1.5") with sporadic temps of 100° growing things suffered, but hopefully we're into the summer rain pattern now. I have started 6 papaya in pots and just planted a couple out hoping the rain continues. The figs have been coming ripe and I have over a qt in the freezer from the last few days. I have sweet potatoes growing but plan on putting several slips in my compost pile and see how they do. And the everglades tomatoe (volunteer by the goat pen)the goats ate off several times has finally been left alone long enough that I see some turning red! Oh, and a harvested goat and several squirrels(dog food)
Love the picture of Katie :)
Sorry to hear about your cherries! Sweet cherries are my favorite fruit, and one of the few "dirty dozen" produce items that I've decided to buy at least once every year. Not when they first show up in the market, but weeks later, when the crazy price drops. Right now I'm getting a few raspberries, but recent days of rain have meant insta-mold.
Goodness, that about the lambs quarter is amazing (your reply to Jenn). I had no idea. You get so much done...all that you have harvested already! Enjoyed all your pictures too!
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