For gardeners, what鈥檚 not to like听about June? We advance toward the year鈥檚 longest day surrounded by fresh growth, favourite flowers, and nutritious, home-grown food. Temperatures remain comfortable, not usually too hot yet, and much of the heavy work of digging and spring planting is done.
I love to see June鈥檚 peonies and roses, the irises, delphinium, and spicy-scented pinks, but there is beauty in the food garden too.
For some, the sight of bright red, juicy strawberries amidst deep green foliage is one of the great anticipatory thrills of the season. In my garden, I听see two parallel pea rows lengthening on their supports as most robustly lovely and full of promise. In a few weeks, all being well, I鈥檒l be starting to steam-blanche the harvest using mint in the water beneath the peas to flavour them. In most years I freeze enough to听see me through the winter, when I听delight in adding sweet and tender, minty summer peas to my meals.
A great advantage in growing two parallel rows of peas is the space the young planting creates for salad vegetables. As the peas germinate and begin growing, I transplant lettuces and听endive alongside them. Miniature lettuces like Tom Thumb (baby butterhead) and Little Gem (miniature romaine) are perfect for fitting in such spaces.
In between the rows, the cool, shaded, moist conditions are perfect also for seeding (up against one side) small, speedy greens like mizuna, leaf radish and komatsuna. Similar conditions of moisture and shelter from hot sun can often be found on the shaded side of staked tomatoes, corn, and pole and runner beans.
Along one end of the pea rows this year is a small planting of a gorgeous red butterhead lettuce called Edox, from Veseys Seeds, which lists it as a 鈥淭op Pick鈥� for its reliability when grown for both early and late harvests. The plants form full heads of soft, thick leaves in burgundy red and bright green.
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Heading into heat. For a continuous supply of lettuce and endive, I seed more indoors every few weeks, and look for increasingly shaded, moist, cool sites for the transplants as the weather warms. These salad vegetables germinate and make initial growth most easily in an indoor environment of听shelter and cool temperatures.
Further warm weather considerations: Be prepared to mulch, with materials like compost, straw, or even young, chopped weeds as temperatures rise. Water deeply first. Keep compost heaps aerated and moist.
If you are keeping a patch of grass听green, be aware that you need to听water only once a week but with a听long, slow watering. Watering deeply and infrequently encourages strong, long roots capable of delving into the soil depths for moisture. Mow high, at听around seven cm, to shield grass roots from hot听sun and shade out weeds.
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GARDEN EVENTS
VHS meeting. THE Victoria Horticultural Society meets Tuesday at听7:30 p.m. in the Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. Dr. Patrick White, The Rose Doctor, will describe his ways of achieving a fine rose garden with a minimum of work and no chemicals. Patrick grows hundreds of roses in his Saanich seaside garden. The pre-meeting workshop at 6:30 will听feature lawyer and green advocate Mike Large explaining the City of Victoria鈥檚 guidelines on extending food听gardens onto public boulevards. urbanagriculturehub.ca.
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Lily meeting. The Victoria Lily Society meets Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Abkhazi Garden, 1964 Fairfield Rd. Members will tour the garden and have a pre-Lily Show meeting.
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Courses at HCP. The Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in听Saanich, is offering the following courses on Sunday, June 12. To register call 250-479-6162. hcp.ca.
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鈥� Willow Chair Workshop, 9 a.m. to听5 p.m. Make and take home a bent willow rustic chair, with guidance from Andrew Kent from The Willow Way. All tools provided. Cost to HCP members $250, others $275.
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鈥� The Nature of the Native Plant Garden, 1 to 4 p.m. Back by popular demand is this course on creating an听environmentally beneficial, low maintenance garden. Kristen Miskelly, owner of Saanich Native plants, will focus on听edible, deer resistant and drought tolerant native species.
