Vegetable Gardening in June

I have a rather small vegetable garden.  It's big enough to fit a couple of rows of beans, five or six tomato plants, two or three peppers, three eggplant, and a few each of zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers.  I planted the garden around May 5th which is a good time to start planting your summer vegetables (also known as warm season crops) here in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Any earlier and you might get a late frost that will wipe out the plants and any later just does not give the plants adequate time to get their root systems developed before the heat sets in for the summer.  I do not plant everything the first week however.  Succession planting (planting the same plant or seeds a week or two apart) is important so that you get a boost of vegetables in the late summer and in to fall.

The green beans ('Blue Lake' bush variety by seed) were planted with one row the first week of May and the second row about two weeks after that. If I had more room, I would have continued to plant every two weeks for another month.  This would give me green beans all summer. 


 It is about six weeks since I planted the green beans by seed (super easy to do!) and they are getting big.  They aren't big enough to pick yet, but they will be pretty soon!
 The tomatoes are doing exceptionally well this year.  I planted all heirloom varieties which means that I may not get as big a yield, but I'm hoping for really great taste and interesting looking tomatoes.  The one below is 'Big Rainbow'.  It has been slow to bear fruit, but the plant is large and very healthy.

 'Rutgers' is another new one for me this year.  It is a determinate tomato meaning it will set all of it's fruit at one time and then be done for the season.  Determinates also set their fruit faster, so 'Rutgers' is coming along much quicker than the other tomatoes and already has twenty five nice looking green tomatoes. It has been said that the 'Rutgers' tomato is what Campbell's Soup uses to make their tomato soup recipe.
 I also planted 'Mr. Stripey' which is still in the flowering phase and 'Sun Gold' which is my favorite cherry tomato.  'Sun Gold' is big and healthy with tons of tomatoes, but it's dealing with quite a few pests.  I will be posting on the pests later this week.  I also just planted 'Cherokee Purple' last week.  With this late addition it will hopefully allow me to have tomatoes well in to October or November.

Moving on to the peppers!  The peppers are also doing well although we have had a bit too much rain for their liking and the bottom leaves are turning yellow.  Below is a banana pepper that is starting to bear fruit.

A new pepper for me this year is shishito.  I read an article about the trendy shishito pepper in early spring this year.  When I went to get my first round of vegetables from Lowes, there was one shishito pepper plant left.  I wish I had two, but one will have to suffice this year.  We already had one round of peppers from this plant. They are really easy to cook up and are very trendy in metropolitan restaurants as an appetizer.  Foodie Crush has some great recipes to use shishito peppers too.


Eggplants are next in line.  I have found better luck in my area with the Japanese eggplants rather than the traditional kind.  This has been the best year thus far for the eggplants.  The plants are large and healthy with lots of flowers and I will be picking eggplants very soon for dinner.


 The yellow squash were planted by seed (again very easy to do).  They are planted in the worst soil area in the garden.  The garden is on a slight slope so the amendments to the soil over time tend to rest at the back of the garden.  That means that whatever is planted at the front is in quite a bit of clay.  None the less, squash are easy to grow and they are already bearing as well.




I planted zucchini by seed and in succession.  Zucchini and squash both will give out a lot of produce off of one plant, but we have a big problem here with the squash vine borer and well as fungus.  Sometimes right when it starts to produce the whole plant will succumb to one or the other issues.  So the zucchini were planted a few weeks apart for the last six weeks or so. 


Lastly, the cucumbers!  A super easy vegetable to grow from seed here.  They do not seem to have the pest and fungus problems as the other vegetables and do not need to be planted in succession.  If you are starting out growing vegetables this is the one plant that you should start with as it is so easy and cheap since you can grow them from seed.



There are lots of options for buying vegetable plants and seeds here in town.  Lowes and Home Depot carry a large assortment and I do get some from there.  I also purchase from Jamestown Feed and Seed and Homestead Nursery.  I have even purchased one or two from McDonalds pop up nurseries and from Walmart.  The best prices are at Jamestown Feed and Seed and Homestead Nursery and I think they do a better job selecting the vegetable varieties that do well in our area. 

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