YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES
Your questions here
Posted on June 26th, 2009 – 10:42 AMBy Jaime Chismar
How’s your garden growing? Are your tomatoes soaking up the sun? Will your corn be knee-high by the 4th of July? Has your cilantro bolted? Is your coneflower in bloom?
Summer is certainly in full swing. Do you have a lot of questions? I know I do. So today, we’d like to open the blog to your gardening questions and concerns.
I’ll kick off the Q+A with a question of my own: Is it too late to start cucumbers? I have room for a few in my community garden plot, but I don’t know if I’ll get a harvest if I plant them this late in the season. Would you give it a shot? Or would you wait until August and plant some cool season veggies like lettuce or kale?
Thanks for your help!
49 Responses to "Your questions here"
I’d say give the cukes a shot–if it doesn’t work out, you can still plant the cool season stuff later on.
Has anyone had portulaca reseed itself and come back prolifically the next year?
Tomatoes look great; cilantro has bolted; coneflower blooming. My phlox, however, looks very sad. It’s all brown and crunchy on the bottom and green on the top. Why is it doing that?
I have some lilies that came with my house when I bought it two years ago. We moved in June and they were in bloom, since then they have not bloomed. They grow about ten inches and stop, no visible flower buds just leaves. What happened? Not enough sun? I’ve got a hosta in front of them that needs to be split so it may be blocking some sun, but I’ve taken to cutting off some of it’s leaves to allow the lilies more light. Any help would be appreciated!
Auntie K–my phlox has the same symptoms and they do every year. I’ve always assumed that I can’t do phlox. Thanks for posting the question–maybe we’ll both find a miracle.
Tomatoes are going great guns, coneflower budding, peas are sad, sad, sad.
And, I’m with CindyLou on the cukes.
Why plant cukes when you can plant more beans and sweet corn? Heck, they can even be planted together for maximum yield. And in the end you’ll have sweet corn and beans. It’s win-win-win!
Here’s a guide to mid-season planting. I don’t see cukes on it at all. More signs that your garden wants beans and corn:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/M1227.html
Officially the planting season for cukes is until mid June, but if you just do a quick glance at the calendar, it still sorta looks like the middle of the month, so you should be fine.
I plant cucumbers all summer long. They need compost, mulch and moist soil but the heat is not a problem. While the older vines are running out of steam, the younger ones take over production. Cucumbers are high in potassium and make a great snack. I don’t make pickles but I enjoy eating them fresh right up until frost.
I’d like to try to make pickles this year. I know I shouldn’t try to pickle the slicing/burpless varietys, but where can I find any others? Is it too late to start from seed? What varieties make the best pickles? I’ve never tried this before so I’m open to suggestions!
I have a ton of creeping phlox. It pretty much does that every year after the first year when it looks all green and charming. If it’s not blazing hot, give it a serious haircut and water well. The new growth will eventually cover the dead ugly stuff. I do the same with my lavender. Pretty much every shrubby plant will do this eventually. Some people rip it out and start over but that gets expensive.
I’m curious if anyone else is having early blight issues this year. I’ve never had a problem before, but this year my fingerling potatoes got it pretty good (interestingly, the Russets and Yukon Golds right next to them seem as yet untouched). And the tomatoes are showing signs of it, too. *sigh*
Kathy - In a about a month the farmers markers will be overflowing with cukes. You can often buy a basket of tiny pickeling cukes for $5.
Daniel - Blight is often the result of poor crop rotation. Do you plant your tomatoes and potatoes in the same place every year?
Kathy, I would second Jaime. It’s way easier and cheaper to buy pickling cukes than to try to grow them yourself. They won’t all mature at the same time so you’ll find yourself over the canner nearly ever day when they start to get ripe. no fun!
My tomatoes are growing fabulous and I had corn that was already past knee high. I say had because the something got at it last night and knocked it down and chewed on it. I’m guessing it was squirrels and ideas to keep them at bay?
My potato vines and brugmansia have been utterly infested by Colorado potato beetles. Any ideas for an organic way to get rid of these pests?
Cukes can be planted anytime you still think you have time to let them grow, in fact, I just planted a row the other day to get some later on in the summer when the weather gets cooler.
If you have garden phlox (the tall kind) you probably have a mildew problem. They get brown/grey and crunchy on the lower leaves and it progresses up. You can spray and mulch to keep the fungus to a minimum but if you like the phox this disease goes with the territory.
Anna, it sounds like your lilies have their roots fenced in by those greedy hosta. Asiatic or oriental lilies need a foot or so of their own to get their roots into. Transplant in the fall giving the lilies more room and some good compost and next year you should have flowers.
Annesha, Moss roses (portulanca) will reseed all summer long and send up new plants every spring. I have a patch between some rocks I didn’t move for years. I do the same with pinks every year in a crappy spot in the yard, just let them do their thing.
Thanks, DebW! The phlox is the garden phlox. It is in a mulched bed. Will the phlox bloom? I didn’t have this problem last year.
Anna, Quite possibly, the move disrupted the root system, thus the sluggish growth. What exposure are they getting now? Lilies are garden troopers so I wouldn’t worry about them. My lilies have grown like crazy as long as they have plenty of sun. Once in awhile, I’ve found that transplanting them to a spot that has less sun than they’re use to will cause the lilies to be less exuberant, for lack of a better word. Give them a little time - I’m sure they’ll come around. Hostas typically prefer shade to part shade. If things are getting crowded that, too, may be the problem. Oh, one more thing, maybe spread some compost around the plants. I use mushroom compost for all my hosta and they LOVE it!!!! Hope this helps. 
My corn will chest high by the 4TH of july my tomatoes are booming. This appears to be a great growing season
I just read a book about companion planting that says it’s fine to plant tomatoes in the same spot year after year. I was hoping that was true because my tomato spot this year is a really good one.
I have so many questions I don’t know where to start. How about this one? How often should you reapply those little pellets that acidify your soil around blueberry bushes?
Thanks DebW from me too because mine is garden phlox as well. Glad to know it’s just part of the phlox deal. Mine are mulched too but they are tucked in behind a Japanese willow so they don’t get much air!
Forgot to mention that we’re eating handfuls of raspberries each day–not a full harvest yet but enough for cereal. I think this is the earliest we’ve ever had ripe raspberries. Does anyone else think they taste like roses smell? Yum.
Jennifer,
Depends on the results of a soil test. I think the instructions say to not treat more than once every couple of months within the drip line, but if you treat it and a month later the pH is still too high… give it another treatment. It may take several to get it to an ideal level.
I have several endless summer hydrangeas in my east facing front yard. They are about six years old; they bloomed a lot the first few years, but since last year, the blooms have dwindled to one to three blooms per shrub. They receive dappled light, some more than others as the south side has a grove of oak trees. Any ideas to get them to bloom more?
Jaime - I do rotate my garden. My potatoes and tomatoes are in a spot this year, in fact, where neither has ever been before. So it was definitely a surprise to see the blight. I was wondering if maybe the weather conditions this year were somewhat of a culprit (lots of dryness and coolness at first to stress the young plants, then all of a sudden lots of good hot sun with moisture, but in a humid fungus-encouraging form)…
Kristin, the squirrels used to munch on everything of mine. Sometimes it was just a nibble; sometimes they’d yank up an entire plant to get to the roots. A friend told me they were after water (in the leaves and roots) and that they might lay off if I put out a ground-level birdbath from which they could drink. I put one out two summers ago and it worked pretty well; I added another last summer and haven’t had any plants munched on since! (In fact, it’s been maybe ten times this year that I’ve seen the squirrels run right up to the birdbath and stick their mouths in for a drink.) Try it! You may think you’re “attracting” more squirrels, but they’ll leave your plants alone!
My tomatoes are goin’ great guns, like everyone else’s. My Early Girls are already producing after some early blossom end rot problem was contained; much fruit is set, so I’m eager for them to start ripening.
And we’re having baby zucchini’s for dinner tonight! They have also been very healthy this year.
Garden phlox will do better with some air around them and watering the ground around them rather than the leaves. And keeping them watered when it is very hot.
I have had leaves burn up or turn yellow or even red when these conditions are not met.
i’d like to plant pear trees next year. any resources on what pear cultivars grow well in minnesota? anywhere that might have ‘pear tastings’?
My veggies are growing sooooooooo slow. What is a good side-dress fertilizer?
Aneesha, I have planted portulaca for several years and yes they reseed if you let them.
Has anyone actually tried human hair and ivory soap in the garden as a deer and rabbit repellant? the corn and sunflowers and high enough for them to snack one, and i always worry about a rabbit or mice or moles finding a way in. Any suggestions?
Sharon - I love fish emulsion or coffee grounds as a side dressing. When did you plant your garden?
Laura - In Minnesota, your options for pears are pretty limited. I have heard that they are not the best for fresh eating but I have yet to taste any myself.
http://fruit.cfans.umn.edu/applespears.htm
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG3195.html
When do I put mulch under my tomato plants? This year I plan to use shredded newspaper. Does it help to cut off the green tops of my onions? I’ve had some success.Wow mirical grow sure helps the plants get larger, will it help the fruit grow?
Donna,
Now is a great time to mulch. Newspaper works great — just don’t use the ads. They are printed with some pretty toxic inks on plastic coated paper.
And yes, cut the tops off those onions to encourage bigger growth.
The tree nursery that my mom got her new apple trees from says that the plastic bags that you get when you get groceries, fabric, whatever tied in the branches whole will scare off the deer as they can’t identify it as friend or foe. So far it is working better than the stinky soap bars. For the rabbits: new dryer sheets on sticks, they don’t smell april fresh to the rodents.
What do I do with my tomato plants that outgrew their stakes and are huge? It is too late to cage them, but I’m fraid with fruit they’re going to collapse even more. Should I resort to pruning?
I have tomatoes although green yet. My coneflowers look the best in years, they are very weather particular! Not blooming yet but ready to pop. Herbs look good. Baby grasshoppers are starting to eat basil and peppers though. Potatoes, eggplant and all flowers look pretty good!
I have questions about foxglove. I buy them, they look really robust all the first year(but don’t flower) and then the next year when I’m expecting them to flower they don’t do anything, most don’t even come back. What do I need to do?
Amelia,
It is a best practice to remove suckers through out the growing season. However, I have been known to prune entire branches if they get unruly. Too much growth can inhibit fruit set. I’d try caging first, then get our a clean pair of pruning shears or kitchen knife and remove, small competing branches. Do not prune large support branches.
Christine,
Where have you planted your foxglove? It grows best in dappled shade. I’ve had rotten luck growing foxglove in sunnier spots.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/3300521/How-to-grow-Foxgloves.html
To Laura,
I highly recommend Luscious if you’re looking at pear trees. If grown and ripened correctly, they’re simply fantastic.
Make sure you take stock of the trees around (particularly within 50 yards) your site for potential pollenators, but you’ll likely want to plant at least one pear cultivar that is not pollen-sterile.
Test ripeness by lifting directly opposite the hang. They’re ready if the stem base naturally starts to break free with little or no pulling. Tree-complete pears (not entirely ripe, but ready to pick) should require little effort to pick and should not cause the tree to ’snap back’.
Once you’ve picked, you _need_ to cold condition your pears or they won’t ripen correctly. Place them in the coldest part of your refrigerator for 3-7 days (if in doubt, longer is better.) Then, as ‘demand’ dictates, remove and allow to ripen at room temperature (usually 2-3 days). If they seem gritty or grainy after ripening, condition longer and/or colder. Do not put them in the freezer.
They’ll keep a long time in the refrigerator, but once you pull them, they’ll ripen in a hurry.
Good luck.
Hummingbird, my hydrangea isn’t blooming at all this year. Anybody else having this problem? It’s growing well, the foliage is big and beautiful and it bloomed well last year…but no buds at all. Also, does anybody know what those bushes are that have red flowers on them? I see them all over - they have long branches and small dark red flowers.
Pruning it is. I have a square foot garden and the tomatoes were about to take over the jalapenos, so I’ve already done some pruning, time for more! Thanks!
We have problems with potato beetles too. We always hand pick them and dump them in a coke bottle filled with water. Now that we’re starting to find the babies, we usually take the whole leaf and put it in the water. We also had to pull up an entire plant that was infested and had to get rid of it and we ate the one little potato that had grown of it. I’m not sure of any other ways to get rid of those darn things. They have been so annoying that I am really tempted not to grow potatoes again.
I have coneflowers in the front of my yard…I just planted it this year. It’s in full bloom right now but for some reason the leaves are burning out, I give it a lot of water but everyday the number of leaves burning goes on increasing. Any tips on how to stop this ?
Actually I just started gardening this year and I am not sure if the way I am lunching is right, maybe it prevents the water to reach the root-ball if it’s too tightly packed around the plant? Can that happen?
Does anyone know the garden center that is closing, it was mentioned last night, 10pm news, Kare 11 and I missed it.
Thank you!
I am a newbie (less than five years gardening - flowers only) and looking for advice on eradicating canada thistle. My neighbors (Separated by a fence) let their yard go wild, so this is a problem. Is it over-the-line for me to suggest to neighbor that I could come over and remove all their thistle in exchange for a couple of the gorgeous white-flowering hosta they have buried beneath the towering thistle plants?
Aneesha..I have had portulaca reseed on the south side of my house, which is a very hot and dry spot.
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
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