​     Weather is always weirder than we remember or expect, so we’re just continuing the pattern.  But this coolness after that barely-hot spell is definitely bespeaking Spring instead of Summer.  I personally love the cool mornings with sun burning through the cloud cover for midday.  But I know the tomatoes and squash and cukes ad infinitum thrive on the heat and intense sun.  So I keep waiting for our usual burning heat of Summer to finally happen. 
 
Should I start a garden now?
     A friend of mine, in anticipation of being able to determine his own Father’s Day activities, asked if he was too late in the season to begin incorporating amendments and planting. 
      Expecting the summer heat to be upon us any day, I warned him that the amended soil would warm up as the microorganisms from the mix of manure, compost, and coffee grounds would heat up too much to plant transplants for about two weeks. 
     I urged him to dig in the amendments and purchase the plants, but to wait to plant them until his hand stuck into the soil six inches deep was barely warm, indicating that the plant roots wouldn’t be “burned” by the still-active soil mix. 
      He’s accomplished the amending, and has the transplants waiting nearby so they acclimate to the climate of their new home.
     The weather forecast through July 6 is for low-to-mid 80s daytime temperatures, so getting those seeds and plants in should be just fine. 
     So, I’m doing more seeding and transplanting than I’d planned, as well.
     If you choose to, as well, just be sure that you purchase healthy plants that have extensive roots but aren’t rootbound in their pots. 
     For vegetables and flowers, purchase four-inch-size pots.  You want more root system at this time of year than is provided in 6-packs, since you want them to be able to quickly establish themselves into your garden beds before summer heat arrives and stresses the plants.
 
Transplanting Tips

1. Dig a hole that’s several times as wide as the container.
2. Rough up the rootball as you hold the plant above the hole so the potting mix falls into the hole. 
3. Mix the original soil in the hole with the potting mix from the container to create a combination of what the plant has grown in and where it will grow. 
4. Hold the plant at the same level it was in the container (tomatoes are the only plants that can be planted deeper)
5. Pull the mixed soil into the hole around the rootball. 
6. With your fingertips, press the soil around the rootball to anchor it. 
7. Create a shallow basin about four inches around the plant so you can water the plant in and have the water go down deeply into the soil.
8. Fill the basin three times to make sure that the soil has made good contact with the roots.
9. If the sun does get intense, provide a bit of shade from about 11am-6pm for a week or two, until the roots have established themselves and the plant is growing well.
10. In four days, water again three times.
11. After that, water as necessary to make sure the water reaches a good foot or so down.  Most vegetables’ roots go at least that deep; tomatoes can go three feet down!

  
For More Garden To-Dos
See June and July tasks.

     The heat has come, with a blast.  From high-70s daytime temperatures and fog taking till noonish to burn off, yesterday and today have been in the high-90s with intensely clear sun.  Although not as severe a jump compared with last July’s 113 degrees, our gardens may show some effects in another week or so.  In the meantime – or rather, immediately – make sure your garden is deeply watered so existing plantings will have the reservoir of moist soil to keep their roots viable and enable them to overcome whatever stress they’re undergoing.  Fortunately, the forecast is for temperatures to be in the mid-to-low 80s for the rest of the week.
 
Tomatoes
     I watered my tomatoes yesterday, both in their sunken planting holes and in the 5-gallon buckets between them.  
     But I also planted 5 more tomato plants – 3 Celebrity and 2 Ace 55 – into the spaces where I’d finally cleared out the last of the peas.  I’ve placed a nursery tray on the south side of each plant to hopefully reduce the intensity of the direct sun during this intense heat, since the plants haven’t yet had the time to re-establish their root systems.
     I make a point of tucking in the wayward branches into the cages before I water, when the branches are somewhat limp.  Then, they’ll bend more readily so I can push and pull them under the rungs with minimal breakage.  If I wait until after I water the plants, the branches become rigid so are not so easily manipulated without breaking.
     I have purposely pruned the cherry-type tomato branches that have grown taller than the double-stack cages.  This will foster new growth from existing nodes further down in the plant, so harvesting will be within easy reach.  Last year, I’d let the plants grow as tall as they wanted, which meant they bent over and grew down outside the cage, so to harvest I had to reach through the new growth to fruit in the inner cage.  It was difficult to see which were ripe because of all the shading.  We’ll see whether this new method works better.
 
First Apricots; Peaches & Plums Yet to Come
     Yum!  I was happily relieved that only a few of the ripening apricots had been nibbled, since I just now got around to wrapping bunches of fruit with the netting. 
     Because my trees have a thick layer of mulch at their bases, I harvest by gently shaking the branches.  Whichever fruits fall are ripe.  They fall onto the mulch so don’t get damaged. 
     Peach and plum fruits have been wrapped with netting.
 
Artichoke Blossoms
     The last artichokes that I hadn’t harvested before they were too mature for eating, I now let them mature fully into decorative blossoms and even beyond so I can use them at workshops to show where the seeds reside – at the very outer edge of the completely dried blossom.
 
Carrots
     Many of the carrots are sending up their bloom stalks, which I allow to mature to attract beneficial insects and go to seed.
     I keep watering the carrot bed in the hopes of getting the roots to continue being fully hydrated and sweet so I can continue eating them.  Once the hot weather is unrelenting, they’ll become too “turpentiney” to enjoy.
 
Color In The Garden
     Irises are done and getting trimmed back, and nasturtiums are dying back but left in place as mulch.  Alstroemerias, begonias, bougainvilleas, geraniums, iochroma, roses, salvias and Verbena bonariensis are fully in color. Succulents are colored up and blooming; repotting them results in lots of offshoots to root and give away.
  
For More Garden To-Dos
See June tasks.