The Display Vegetable Garden in June

It’s been a month since we planted the 12 x 12 foot display garden. In the last week of May we hit some record high temperatures for the Ottawa, Ontario region and the garden is now coming along very nicely. In fact this week, we actually managed to pick our first garden grown veggies for our salads.

Successful Vegetables

Tatsoi has been the biggest surprise in our trial veggie garden. We purchased the seeds at an organic growers meet simply because we had never grown this vegetable. The tatsoi grew extremely fast, has a lovely mild chard-like flavor and makes a great crunchy green in a salad.

The interplanting of carrots and radishes worked out perfectly. The little carrots are now setting their second set of leaves and the radishes are ready for picking. In the next couple of days we’ll have harvested the last of the radishes from the carrot patch, giving the baby carrots plenty of room to grow.

Peas, beans, cucumbers, zucchini are all up and doing well. The snow peas are now about 6 inches tall, and will need to be supported. Supporting poles for our peas, cucumbers and beans are already in place, so it will be a simple job to staple the netting in place. Curiously, the squash plants that grow with a companion squash right next to them seem to be doing much better than squashes growing alone.

Vegetables with Issues

The peanuts and parsley never came up. Both sets of seeds were about 5 years old. I really should have run a germination test on both sets of seeds. The birds love sitting on the bean supports, but the ingrates nipped the leaves off 1/3 of my baby bean plants. Their thinning job is a bit erratic, so I’ll replant in the spare spaces in a couple of weeks for the second bean crop. The flea beetles seem to love my tatsoi just as much as I do. We are going to try a row cover on the tatsoi to see if that will discourage those little gourmets.

We had a spot of cool weather around the first week of June, so delayed planting the tomatoes until around June 12th.

Happy Gardening to you all.

Annie Rose

Vegetable Gardening Tips

Most vegetables require at least 6 hours of sunlight per day, some need 8. Some quick growers like lettuce and radish can be grown between the rows of plants that take longer to mature, like beet or corn, thus making full use of the area available.

Throughout dry periods, vegetable gardens need extra watering. Most vegetables benefit from an inch or more of water each week, especially when they are fruiting.

During the growing season watch for insect pests. If you discover a bug problem early it will be much easier, but be careful to not use pesticides once the vegetable are close to being picked unless it becomes an absolute necessity. Organic gardening is one healthy and environment-friendly option. Once you have reaped your crop, put the vegetable waste into your compost pile so that it can be recycled for next spring.

It is important to protect your vegetable garden from wild animals looking for a tasty treat. Make sure your garden is surrounded by a fence that will keep out dogs, rabbits, and other animals. The harm done by wandering animals during one season can equal the cost of a fence. A fence also can serve as a frame for peas, beans, tomatoes, and other crops that need support.

Protection is needed in order for your vegetable garden to yield a bountiful harvest. Hard work will pay dividends if necessary precautions have been made.