June is a beautiful time in my PNW zone 8 garden! The flowers are almost at their peak, we're harvesting spring foods, and planting to take advantage of the rest of the season.
I thought I'd share with you some of the things growing around our little cottage garden acre.
June is one of my most favorite months here in Oregon with so many things blooming, fruiting, and producing...and nothing dry or brown yet. Believe it or not, we're so dry in July, August, and September that by the end of July everything is brown - only the trees stay green! So much for rainy Oregon.
Strawberries & Blueberries
I've been picking strawberries for more than a week, but I was surprised to go out today and find that we've got some ripe blueberries already. The bushes are just loaded with berries this year, so this is just the beginning of a month or more of harvesting blueberries- yeah!
Flowers
Our hydrangea here are just starting to bloom, while the spirea are at their height of glory - they have such a delicate, airy bloom.
Spring Vegetables
In the vegetable garden, I'm harvesting chard, celery (behind the chard above), lettuce (both cut-and-come-again and heads of buttercrunch, romaine, and red leaf), broccoli, and cabbage.
I'm waiting to see if I'll get any peas before it gets too hot, because I planted them rather late this year.
Summer Vegetables
I was happy to see that the corn and beans seedlings are safely up - the last couple times I've looked, it seemed like the birds were pulling them up as fast as they sprouted!
I covered the beds with chicken wire and row covers. But that's also why I usually sow pretty thickly and thin later. I learned after having to re-sow corn at least two times one year. Sigh.
Tip: See how I plant corn to be WEED-FREE all season long here.
I put another layer of straw on the potatoes to hill them up and the early red variety is sprouting pretty purple flowers.
Some of the bigger tomatoes are flowering, too. I still keep the row cover around them because we get a lot of wind in our garden and this time of year it is often a chilly wind. You can go here to see how I plant tomatoes so that they thrive - and why planting under cover is a good idea.
I have all different sizes of tomatoes this year since I failed to start any from seed. Thankfully I got some small starts from my friend, Shannan, and then I bought some gallon-sized tomatoes as well as some regular-sized ones that were more economically priced.
It will be fun to see the differences in ripening depending on the size they were when I planted them.
What do you have growing in your gardens?
Kathleen says
I am so jealous as well 🙂 You have a beautiful garden though, lot's of work I know. Keep it up, I love weeing the results. Gives me inspiration.
Erdkinder
Lexa says
Jami-
The garden is looking great. We sure are having another year of wet weather, aren't we?! It doesn't look like it is bothering your garden one bit. I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who has problems with the birds pulling up my beans. Darn them :)Thank goodness for remay!
Beth says
Jami - Everything looks wonderful - so much produce and lovely flowers too. Isn't June a wonderful month in Oregon?
Zinnia says
What a joy to be able to harvest as much fruit and vegetables. It is too early to pick strawberries in my area. I regret that I have not sowed chard this year. I wish you a happy Midsummer! Zinnia
Mindy says
My peas are super slow going - I hope we get some too!
I can't believe you have hydrangeas starting to bloom already!
As always, jealous of your quantity of edibles.
Anonymous says
Hi Jami, what a nice organized garden you have....obviously
much thought given.,....Most of the blogs i read show pictures
of their garden(s) yet, such disarray with flowers growing randomly as well as their veg. gardening. Not impressed. The
little green houses your pictures display are very nicely done.
Good job! Crows Nest {C.N.}
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Well...I do edit out the weeds in the flower beds. 🙂 Thanks for the kind words!
SchneiderPeeps says
Your garden looks great. We go our first blueberries this year. I wanted to weigh them but not many made it into the house...the kids just picked and ate. We had some them were very small and ended up drying out and so I made a syrup with them. I'm hoping to get clippings from some friends' plants and start some more bushes this summer.
Thanks for hosting each week.
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Hey, what a great idea 'cause blueberries plants are so expensive! If you've written how you start bushes or plan to write about it, I know we'd all love to see your technique! 🙂
Athena at Minerva's Garden says
Hi Jami: Thank you for hosting another fantastic garden party! Your garden looks so lush and beautiful! I have spirea and strawberries, and tomatoes, eggplant and peppers growing under plastic--it's still often pretty cold at night here, so just have it up for a little insurance. I put a link about the garden party over at Facebook as well. Take care, and have a great week!
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Thank you, Athena, for the FB tout! Sure appreciate it and I love to see more gardens here. 😉
Stoney Acres says
Wow your garden looks beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Yael from Home Garden Diggers says
Love the things you have growing in your garden. My strawberries are ripening now, but no color on my blueberries yet. I wish I had room for corn, but I have a small garden. I know what you mean about the birds. And I found that row covers worked to keep them from getting at the corn seeds.
Yael from Home Garden Diggers
Anonymous says
Great blog! Is it free to subscribe to your blog by email? Thanks for sharing your great photos and ideas! 🙂
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Certainly it's free, and you know I encourage it. 😉
Mrs. Petrie says
Thanks for hosting, Jamie. I was just showing my husband your garden post and we are jealous! We live in New Mexico and some of the plants you have just don't do well here. Your chard is just beautiful.
SavannahGranny says
Your garden is awesome. It is so hot and dry here we struggle to have a lush garden. I have always heard that your area is a gardner's heaven. Your garden sure looks like heaven. xo Ginger
Debbi says
always look forward to this party which is "local" for me!
CAS says
Your garden & your flowers are so pretty. We used to live in Oregon & remember all the lovelies this time of year. We never had much luck with vegetable gardens there, but we lived close to some u-pick farms, which was great. We picked currants & blueberries a few times, & I made currant jelly & canned the blueberries. Oh my, I didn't think my kitchen would survive all that "blue" that was everywhere -- such a mess but so worth it! Now we live in the AZ desert & have had our best garden ever. I've been harvesting zucchini, yellow crookneck, acorn & spaghetti squashes as well as peppers, lemon cucs & tons of tomatoes. My squashes are all done now, but the rest is still producing & trying to survive 110 degree temps.....lol!
CAS
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
That sounds wonderful, CAS! I don't usually think of vegetables growing in AZ, but I was able to visit Agritopia when we were there a few months ago and saw what glorious gardens you can have there...and no slugs! 🙂
Debra says
AMAZING gardens ! Thank you for hosting / I have been reading and looking at the pics and articles on your site and enjoying it very much! : )
Lisa {DoleValleyGirl} says
I'm just a wee bit jealous of your strawberries being ready. 😉 One or two of mine are just getting some color -- can't wait! The warm weather we're expecting later this week to welcome summer should do its ripening job, and then we'll be eating some berries! Other garden news for us is that our corn is up! We've fed seedlings to the local birds, too, so we always put bird netting over ours when we plant to avoid the frustration of replanting. Today we'll be putting down eggshell around our lettuce as the slugs think we planted it just for them -- can you believe that? haha! Thanks so much for hosting! ~Lisa
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Oh the slugs always seem to be lying in wait to take over the garden, don't they? If you look close, you can see all the holes in the outside cabbage leaves- I've got to put down some more sluggo. It's a never-ending battle this time of year.
Good idea on the bird netting - sounds much easier to lay out than my rusty, rolled up and heavy wire fencing. 😉
Lisa {DoleValleyGirl} says
You'll never regret using the bird netting! I should do a post about that one day soon. Too late for this season, but it would likely be a blessing to others for next year!
Deborah Jean at Dandelion House says
Very impressive... You've got a lot going on and it all looks so good! We have similar growing climate.. I'm in the Northeast and June is also my favorite month for my shrubs and perennial gardens...This year we added 8 large 4x12 raised beds in our backyard for cut-flowers, herbs and vegetables...I'm sharing the latest here today! Thank you for hosting! Have a great week!
Sakura says
My favorite day of the week! I love the pictures of your garden. We have had an early season here, today I'll be canning, can you believe it! I'm making SF Cherry Pie filling, and dill pickled peas. We also have a ton of strawberries this year, that's been fun for the kids. I've already picked about a dozen cherry tomatoes off of one of our plants. This should be an awesome canning season with everything doing so well.
I have a question on starting your own plants. I tried it for the first time this year and I've found that my starts seem weaker, smaller trunk stems than the store bought starts. Is there anything I can do to make them better when I start them?
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Wow, Sakura, tomatoes already...sigh. I will be canning that rhubarb chutney this week (that I talked about a couple weeks ago) and freezing strawberries, so I know what you mean that the season has started (I've already put up some pickled asparagus). Fun times ahead. 😉
As for your starts, I've gotten the best results when I keep the light source close to the top of the seedlings so they don't have to reach toward any light - and fed them weekly with a diluted solution of fish emulsion. Get the odor-free kind, though, if the seed bed is in the house, 'cause that stuff is stinky! 🙂
Melynda says
Your garden is wonderful! So much to do here to prepare for transplanting everything over in the fall. Great inspiration when I visit, thanks.
daisy says
What a lovely garden you have. I have GOT to learn how to do those collages. Just gorgeous!
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Aren't the collages fun? I've been wanting to do them for awhile, too. It was the easiest thing ever with at picmonkey.com: it's free and there's a button for collages and lots of configurations - it took only a few minutes to figure it all out and then a few to make them. I'm lovin' it!
daisy says
Thanks, Jami, I'm gonna check it out.
[email protected] and A Debbie-Dabble Christmas says
Thanks so much for hosting!
Wow !! You gardens are amazing!!
Hugs,
Debbie