homesteading – Sustainable Garden Design

The garden is a riot of blooms bursting with color. Let’s take a look at English garden roses, one of my favorite. Goumi, the earliest fruit in my garden has a sweet-tart flavor that I love to nibble. The garden is alive with bird songs! Robins in the garden are fun to watch as adults seek out worms and their fledglings beg for food.

By now in the vegetable garden, the cool season crops are producing and warm season crops are in the ground. Before the month is out we will be preparing for the winter garden.

Edibles

Tomatoes: Begin training indeterminate tomatoes. Train a couple of main stems. When new shoots form between the main stems and a leaf, pinch out these suckers. There will be less fruit but they will ripen sooner. Remove some foliage if it is excessive but leave some to protect the fruits from sun-scald.

Vegetable Pests: Watch for signs of leaf miners on spinach, beets and Swiss chard. The larvae form tunnels between the layers of leaves that look like yellow trails and pockets. As the fly larvae metabolize the plant they deposit black frass. Hand pick the leaves and trash them. Don’t place them in compost!

Swiss chard leaf with yellow spot indicating leaf borer within.

Leaf miner maggots visible on top left. The top layer of leaf was peeled back to reveal these fly larvae.

Garlic: Harvest scapes ( curvy shoots with flowering head) Stop watering when leaves start to turn yellow. Harvest when only 4 leaves are still green, or the bottom 1/3 of foliage is yellow. For longer storage, cure (dry) garlic with the tops and roots for several weeks, allowing nutrients into the bulb. Cut tops and roots leaving as much skins to protect garlic bulbs.Prevent the spread of garlic rust fungus by starting with certified disease-free bulbs, rotate crops and use a mulch of arborist chips to prevent rust from establishing in soil.

Asparagus: Mature fronds can get top heavy and fall, sometimes snapping at the base. For attractive plants in an edible landscape stake individual plants or prop up with bamboo. For asparagus in rows place a metal t post at each end and run jute twine between the posts. To keep the plants together weave the string between plants. In the fall when the shoots die to the ground, the jute can go into the compost along with the dead asparagus.

Fruit Trees: Thin fruit, and watch for signs of fungal disease that spreads by splashing water. Use neem oil spray or sulfur powder. Look for and destroy tent caterpillars. Patrol for slugs and snails.

Winter vegetable garden It can be confusing to newbie gardeners that just as the summer solstice arrives, we begin sowing seeds for winter harvest! Sow brassicas including winter cabbage, kale, and purple sprouting broccoli. from mid- to late June. If you miss this window, buy vegetable starts at the coop next month. Purple sprouting broccoli is the most successful winter broccoli with its small and numerous shoots. Early July is time to sow the following: carrots, beets, Swiss chard, kohlrabi and radicchio. (Crops for late fall harvest grows through the autumn equinox and then growth slows almost to a standstill.)

Ornamental Plants

Deadhead Rhododendron. By gently snapping off the flower cluster, seeds won’t form, instead we allow the shrub’s energy to be directed into growing foliage and starting next year’s flower buds.

Perennial Flowers: Some late summer and fall- blooming perennials, pinch back now for sturdier and shorter stems. Remove the top 1/3 of the following plant Asters, mums, beebalm (Monarda), and Joe-Pye weed.

Fungal diseases are exacerbated by rain. Powdery mildew is not one disease but a symptom.Caused by different fungal diseases, the symptom is white circular patterns with a powdery texture, becomes gray or brown over time. The disease is more than cosmetic; it inhibits photosynthesis. It can overwinter in buds and also on dropped infected foliage on the ground. Humid weather and crowded conditions that cause stagnant air encourages fungal growth. Neem oil or sulfur can be effective when used at first signs. Safer brand Fungicide is another option.

Winter Injury: By now many plants have recovered from the winter. Evergreen shrubs that dropped foliage are now leafing out. Old stands of red-hot-poker that completely died to the ground with many rhizomes turning to mush are now leafing out. All these plants require monitoring, removing dead wood and watering during dry spells.

Asparagus shoots are emerging–here is a crop to test our commitment to delayed gratification! Some clients have told me they tried growing asparagus but gave up. This perennial vegetable requires a dedicated bed and will produce for decades if well-tended. Growing asparagus well is time-consuming; let’s look at what it takes. One trick is to prepare the planting site well in advance.

Preparing the bed: Diligently remove all perennial weeds and prevent them from getting established. Add lots of organic matter and water deeply until the plants are established. If the soil is heavy clay, prepare a raised bed. Wait a couple of years before harvesting to allow the plants to get established.

Harvesting: Begins for a couple of weeks in the third year. Snap or cut the shoots at the base. After about five years, harvest for almost 8 weeks or as long as the shoots are vigorous and finger-wide. Stop harvesting before emerging shoots are spindly. By allowing the fronds to grow and nourish the plant, we prevent the plant from losing vigor.

The plants are either male or female. They are sold in nurseries as 1-year old crowns. All-male varieties have the advantage of bigger shoots. Growing them from seed means you will also have slender female plants that put more energy into producing red fruits and seed. Be sure to remove volunteer seedlings so they don’t crowd out the initial crowns. In the autumn after the plants turn yellow, cut them to the ground.

Staking: Do you lean more to the aesthetic or very efficient gardening mode? An asparagus crop is a prime candidate for edible landscaping with its ferny leaves. Stake individual plants or use a horizontal trellis (used for growing long-stemmed flowers) to allow the ferny fronds to sway a bit.

If you have a no-nonsense, efficient approach to the garden then plant them in a row and place wood or metal posts at both ends. Once the plants are tall and start to bend, string a line from post to post and pin the plants in as the plants mature. A month later twine another string about a foot or two above the first to hold them in place. In any event, asparagus is a delicious addition to the garden.