{"id":229,"date":"2008-07-02T20:34:33","date_gmt":"2008-07-03T02:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=229"},"modified":"2008-07-02T20:34:33","modified_gmt":"2008-07-03T02:34:33","slug":"its-the-last-of-june-and-the-gardens-taking-off-big-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2008\/07\/02\/its-the-last-of-june-and-the-gardens-taking-off-big-guns\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the last of June and the garden\u2019s taking off big guns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nWe’ve been having nice heavy rains, then hot weather.\u00a0 Just what the garden loves.\u00a0 Luckily for me, who doesn’t love hot weather, it cools off nicely at night.\u00a0 Whew!\u00a0 The Bristol black raspberries I planted last year and the year before kind of grew last year; enough to give me a handful of berries.\u00a0 But this spring, they’ve taken off.\u00a0 I pruned them, mostly to rid them of half-dead canes, then I’ve mulched them heavily with rotted oat hay left over from the goat pen.\u00a0 They eat the round bales that we shove up against the stock panels, but there’s always the weathered outside shell of the bales that they leave.\u00a0 And does it make great mulch.\u00a0 Sure, some oats spring up out of it, but they are easily pulled.\u00a0 Just look at my black raspberries!\u00a0 They’re shooting up and the older canes are loaded with flowers.\u00a0 Eat your heart out Will.\u00a0 I get to eat ALL the berries!<\/p>\n

Because the weather’s been so great, not only has the garden been growing but also the weeds.\u00a0 So the last few days, I’ve been down there a lot, hoeing and hand weeding between the plants.\u00a0 So far I’ve done the potatoes, which have started blooming, the wide bed of onions, the new 100 foot row of asparagus, two 30 foot rows of carrots, the 25 new Latham red raspberries and the cabbage.\u00a0 After I did the tomato staking\/caging, I threaded my soaker hoses in close to the plants, then, after making sure they were working well, I threw a good layer of oat hay mulch around each one.\u00a0 They love it!<\/p>\n

This year, because of the drastic increases in all things, I feel like I’m on a mission with the garden!\u00a0 Mom, too, is uneasy with the economy.\u00a0 She keeps asking me if I’ve planted plenty of squash, rutabagas, and whether I have dry beans enough in the pantry.\u00a0 Oh, yes I do!\u00a0 And I also just planted six more double rows of beans, just for safety’s sake.\u00a0 We like to eat around here….and eat well!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers\u2019 questions:<\/p>\n

Canning milk
\n<\/strong>
\nMy questions involves canning milk.\u00a0 In the newest issue you tell about how to can.\u00a0 BUT how long of a shelf life canned and can it be kept on a pantry shelf or refrige it?\u00a0 I was talking to the Amish couple that I buy my raw milk from and they said I should seperate the cream from the milk otherwise it might funny ( cream and the milk would seperate in the jars and possible for the cream to curl).\u00a0 What would you recommend?<\/p>\n

Ralph Lincoln
\nBerlin, Pennsylvania
\n<\/em>
\nHome canned milk is stored in your pantry; once it’s canned, it will keep good for years.\u00a0 Yes, it will help the appearance of home canned milk to separate it first.\u00a0 Home canned milk isn’t like fresh milk or milk from the fridge, but it IS good, especially for cooking and making ice cream, etc.\u00a0 Sometimes it gets to the point that any good milk is better than powdered milk.\u00a0 Of course, I always have a good supply of powdered milk on hand, too, but I only use that for baking….we can’t stand the taste. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Mason bees
\n<\/strong>
\nAre you a bee keeper and do you have many hives? Are you also familiar with Mason Bees?\u00a0 We have Mason Bees to polinate our fruit trees and garden.\u00a0 We are so grateful for all your wealth of knowledge and sharing it with us readers of Backwoods Home Magazine.<\/p>\n

Pam Foster
\nRichfield, Minnesota
\n<\/em>
\nI used to be a bee keeper and really loved working with them.\u00a0 Bees are very interesting and fun to hang out with.\u00a0 Yes, I’m familiar with Mason bees.\u00a0 They do a good job of pollinating, but I really like having the honey!\u00a0 Our current pollinators include bumblebees, butterflies, hummingbird moths and other native insects.\u00a0 I’d like to have bees again, but Will is VERY allergic to bee stings, so much so that he has to carry injection pens in his pocket.\u00a0 I’m not sure if we’ll do bees again at some point in the future or not yet. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Planting wheat
\n<\/strong>
\nI live in South Mississippi and would like to plant some wheat.\u00a0 I have planted wheat for the wildlife before, but never for human consumption.\u00a0 What type of wheat and when would I need to plant it to have a decent crop in South Mississippi.<\/p>\n

Trent Robertson
\nLeakesville, Mississippi
\n<\/em>
\nI’d check with your County Extension office, usually located in the courthouse for precise information.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I have never lived even close to your climate, so don’t really have the information you need.\u00a0 But if you’ve raised wheat for wildlife before, you sure have the basics down.\u00a0 Go for it! — Jackie<\/p>\n

Corn question
\n<\/strong>
\nWhat would cause corn to tassel at 1-3 feet tall? We live in the northern part of middle Tennessee. This question is for my neighbor.<\/p>\n

Tammy Hanson
\nBethpage, Tennessee
\n<\/em>
\nCorn usually tassels prematurely because of stress.\u00a0 This often includes lack of water and\/or infertile soil.\u00a0 If your neighbor makes sure that the growing corn receives at least 1″ of water (measure it in a glass set near a plant during watering) a week or more in hot, dry spells and adds plenty of rotted manure to her corn patch, I think her corn will be huge next year!\u00a0 Also be sure she is planting a standard sized sweet corn.\u00a0 Old timey corns such as Golden Bantam are often very short to start with.\u00a0 Add some stress, and BANG; short corn. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve been having nice heavy rains, then hot weather.\u00a0 Just what the garden loves.\u00a0 Luckily for me, who doesn’t love hot weather, it cools off nicely at night.\u00a0 Whew!\u00a0 The Bristol black raspberries I planted last year and the year before kind of grew last year; enough to give me a handful of berries.\u00a0 But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}