June Planting & Harvest
Here’s some of what is going on in our zone 8 garden this June. June is still planting time for us in zone 8 PNW, though most of it should be done by the end of May.
Things have been a bit crazy around here this spring with our trip and Brian’s dad, so my whole gardening checklist has been basically thrown to the wind and it’s a “whatever gets done, gets done” kind of gardening year.
Vegetable Garden Harvest
Which is why I’m delighted with this harvest from a few days ago (those of you who follow me on Facebook will recognize this!).
The rhubarb and asparagus come up every year with minimal upkeep from me, as well as the strawberries – awesome right now!
Would you like to grow these easy perennial vegetables/fruits? Check out these Ultimate Guides:
- The Ultimate Rhubarb Guide: Grow, Harvest, Cook & Preserve
- Ultimate Asparagus Guide: Grow, Harvest, Cook & Preserve
Thankfully, I had time to plant lettuce seedlings I started back in February before we left for Greece and we are still reaping those rewards. And that huge head that wouldn’t even fit in the basket? It’s named Prizehead, naturally!
Early June Vegetable Garden Planting
So guess what I’m truly late planting? Potatoes! While most try to plant earlier, it’s actually okay to plant into June in our area, though the seedling potatoes should be an early variety. I planted Yukon Gold, so we’ll see how they do.
The bed in the background is the bean and cucumber bed – it looks all nicely done, doesn’t it? I only had time to get it ready, though – I still have to actually plant the seeds, ha!
And the corn beds? Well, those aren’t even ready…sigh. My window closes in a couple weeks, so I better make time soon.
This is the ‘cut-and-come-again’ section of lettuce I planted the beginning of April. We had unseasonably warm and dry weather in April and the beginning of May, so the lettuce didn’t actually start growing well until May. And then quickly got out of control!
I can’t give this lettuce away fast enough and it’s ready at the same time as the butterhead and prizehead lettuces, darn.
In an attempt to not have a feast-or-famine situation with lettuce, I started a small bed of a few summer varieties that are just coming up.
The peas are a bit slow for me, as they were traumatized by the warm weather we had earlier, followed by a cold snap mid-May. I finally am seeing some little peas – hopefully we’ll be able to harvest in another week – at least the snow peas.
My tomatoes are actually growing fairly well under their remay covers. (Tip: see my Ultimate Tomato Guide for more planting tips and recipes!)
They were outside hardening off when we had that late freeze mid-May, so suffered some damage. I lost one and planted the rest and surprisingly, they’re looking pretty good.
I can’t believe all they’ve been through this year – that freeze was on top of the dog damage in March. Tough little guys. I’ll be doing an extra-special harvest dance when I get the first ripe tomatoes this year, I’m sure!
Is all your planting done or do you still have some left?
I just got the Fall/Winter catalog from Territorial Seed – whaaat? Am I that late with the spring planting?!
I’ve never seen purple asparagus before – how does the taste differ from green? It’s very pretty. This is the first time I’ve seen pictures of your big garden space – how wonderful – you obviously get to spend lots of time out there. Your lettuces look beautiful.
The purple asparagus doesn’t taste any different, Lisa – and it turns green when cooked, so it doesn’t even look different when we eat it! It does seem to grow thicker than my variety of green, though, and produces a lot.
We finally planted our tomatoes and squash this weekend, as the nights were warmed up. And what do you know…40s last night. I am sad. š
I do have a question – your soaker hoses look like they behave so well. We fight ours every year, and they never want to go the way we want them to. Do your really just lay flat with no problem, or is there a secret to it?
Once the soakers warm up in the sun, they lay pretty flat, Lauren – I do let them go sort of where they want (curve this way or that) or use a trellis to wrap it around, but mostly they’re well behaved, though I always lay them first and then plant to avoid broken plants. Hmmm, I wonder why yours aren’t?