SteemIt Community Garden Journal Challenge 2 - June Update

June is here, and it's finally starting to feel like summer! We had a super wet cool spring (for Middle-GA anyway) that was great for growing. Lots of time keeping up on keeping the weeds down, but the plants absolutely loved the water. Our first round of sweet corn - Midnight Snack - is ready to be picked this weekend, with a few miscellaneous ears that will be left on the plants to mature for seed next year. Just as the sweet corn started to mature the popcorn started tasseling and the winter squash began weaving it's way in and out of the eight foot talk stalks of Cherokee Long Ear, and our second round of sweet corn is making it's way skyward and should be ready late-summer or early-fall.

We planted two types of winter squash this year: a childhood favorite of mine Sweet Dumpling and a new variety called North Georgia Candy Roaster. I've always loved the Sweet Dumpling variety, and wanted to try something else, so we went with a semi-local variety that has a good history growing in this area. We also kept in mind that Sweet Dumpling is C. pepo while the Candy Roaster is C. maxima, so that even though we hand pollinate for next year's seed, crossing shouldn't be a problem. Knowing that the Candy Roasters are C. maxima, I had an idea they'd be big, but the vines are

turning out to be quite prolific, at which I am amazed. (My past experience tells me size is usually traded for quantity.)

The Sugar Baby Watermelons are still flowering at the ends of the vines, but the refrigerator sized melons near the base of the vine look like they may be ready to pick by the Fourth of July. Fingers crossed we'll get a couple. If not, we can munch on the cucumbers we're quickly becoming inundated with. (It seems as if the cucumbers are replacing the zucchinis...).

Although we had a tough time getting the Alaska peas to go on the hugel culture mound, we were finally successful with some okra and a few bell peppers. I hate Okra, but we have lots of friends who enjoy it, and our girls love bell peppers.

Though the rain was great for the stuff already growing, the seeds we tried to plant did abysmal. Most of the seed was beans: Potawatomi Pole Lima Beans (we sell seeds) and a cowpea from the local nursery we decided to try. The Potawatomi we have been growing for years and have been selecting for pods with four or more beans and over time have seen some improvement. Unfortunately, when they sprouted, it was too cool, and rainy, so the sprouts that didn't rot in the ground, got devoured by aphids and cut worms. Thankfully, our Beurre De Rocquencourt wax beans were able to get a good foothold and have blessed us with lots of beans to preserve and a few nice plants we'll save for seed.

And finally, we managed to get our sweet potato slips into the ground at the beginning of the month. And even though all our tomatoes are still green, we're hoping that his warm weather encourages some of them to start turning red, or purple as the case may be.

Green tomatoes, hugel culture, Cherokee Long Ear

As mentioned before, all vegetables grown this year will be saved for seed that can be purchased by going to our website - Liberty Minded Agrarian - and sending us an email. We're inclined to trade seeds or sell for crypto or anything else.