I tilled the entire garden a couple of weeks ago, to work in the rotted manure Will dumped on it last fall. Then a week ago, I did it again. It’s amazing how nice our rocky, sandy soil has become in just a few years! I set in another row of asparagus, next to our old row, in the garden, then got busy this weekend and put in two pounds of yellow onion sets. I plant them in a wide bed, making three rows about five inches apart, in all directions. They seem to do well that way and only require a couple of hand weedings during the summer.

I also planted a big bed of peas, about 20-feet long and 15-feet wide. They will help add nitrogen to the soil and we can pick, eat, and can the peas the vines make, too. We like that!

Because David was home Sunday, we put the plastic on the tall hoop house Will made. It was a little breezy, but the plastic went on very well despite the wind. Now it stands ready for peppers; but last night it was 24 degrees, so it won’t be very soon.

Today we’re starting to set out tomatoes, protected in Wallo’ Waters, of course. We won’t have any dependable frost-free days until the second week in June. So we increase our growing season with those water-filled plastic tipis. And our tomatoes love ’em! It does take awhile to set the 76 units, filling them one at a time with water. But we definitely feel it is worth it, considering our huge harvests.

We’ve got a real busy June coming up. David graduates and has a get-together here on June 5th. Will and I will be married on June 11th and the next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we’re off to man the Backwoods Home Magazine’s booth at the Energy Fair in Custer, Wisconsin! So we’re trying to get as much done ahead of time as possible. — Jackie

6 COMMENTS

  1. Erica,

    I’ve never had a deer jump into the garden or orchard over our 6′ high fence or the 6′ high fence we had in Montana. To keep deer IN a pen, you need at least 8′, but to keep them out of the garden, our experience is that 6′ is high enough.

    Jackie

  2. Is 6 foot high enough? I was told you had to go 8 feet to keep deer out. Nothing is deterring the deer this year. We even have them in the yard in the middle of the afternoon and I have to walk all the way up to them to get them to move on.

  3. Erica,

    We put our tomatoes out now but will still have frosts until the second week of June (probably). But we use Wall’O Water plant protectors that shelter the plants and heat the soil, making them really strong by then. We’d have deer too except we have a 6′ high fence of 2″x4″ welded steel around our garden. I got sick of feeding the deer our food! Nothing else worked.

    Jackie

  4. Amanda,

    I would just leave the flowers. Tomatoes have a way of not setting fruit until the plant is ready, so those flowers may not make tomatoes. If they do and the plant is still small, I’d pinch off the tiny tomatoes then so the plant will get some growth before developing tomatoes. (I’m not really supposed to answer questions in the comments….)

    Jackie

  5. I don’t put my plants out until the beginning of June for fear of the weather and because I would just be feeding the deer. How do you protect your garden from deer?

  6. June 11th is a great day to celebrate, it’s my birthday too!!! I have a tomato question. Our tomatoes are about 16 inches tall and are in their raised beds and they are already starting to flower. Should we just leave them alone or pinch the flowers off so all energy goes into making the plants bigger? We’re in Oregon, zone 7.

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