Boy, am I embarrassed by my blog last month! Too much wishful thinking… I wanted to believe what I heard about no more rain in May! I don’t have a clue what’s ahead for us now, (other than the longest days of the year), but am grateful that this weekend was warm and dry and the warm season vegetables can start to put on some real growth.

 Now that the soil surface is starting to dry out, we will be tempted to start watering. Also, since plants have gotten used to clouds and wet roots, some may start to show “mid day wilt” even if the soil is moist. This is particularly true with members of the squash family.  I saw a bit of this on my cucumbers Saturday; we should expect squash and pumpkins to “wilt” on very hot days and perk back up when the sun goes down. When I was in Washington state one very wet year, many broad leaf plants would wilt as soon as the sun came out! They had not yet  “learned” to close the little pores on the leaves that let moisture escape, but they will as they get used to warm sunny weather. So I as I mentioned last month, before you water, dig down a few inches to see how moist the soil really is. Unless you’re growing in a very light mix or have a newly sown small seeds like lettuce or carrots, very light watering – if any – will be needed for at least a week. The most active feeding roots are in the top 6-8 inches so you don’t want it to dry out completely, but it’s good for some roots to need to go deep for water, nutrients and to stabilize the plant. There are no easy answers as to how often and how much to water your garden; this is one of the biggest challenges for California gardeners and one reason Sara and I talk about it so much!

 Many perennials have grown lush with the rain. Trees with a good fruit set are getting heavy fast as small fruit swells and I’ve seen plum and cherry trees in danger of breaking branches soon. Now is the time to thin fruit to reduce excess load, increase fruit size, and improve fruit quality. Too many fruit on a tree can limit its growth and reduce next year’s crop as well as increasing pest and disease problems. How much to thin depends on the total fruit load, the vigor and age of the tree, and other factors. But generally, apples, pears and Asian pears should be thinned to 1 or 2 per cluster (from one flower); peaches should be at least 4-6 inches away from each other, and plums should not touch each other. Thin for the largest, most uniform fruit, nice spacing and placement on the branches, and look for insect or disease damage as you go. Some trees will self thin, dropping excess fruit, but this is hard to rely on and may happen too late for a big impact on the factors mentioned above. On the other hand, when is it too late to thin? Some benefit can be had from thinning right up to harvest, and often it is good to thin at least twice so you can evaluate the fruit set as it develops, but the best results will be from thinning now.

 This is the peak of strawberry season, but the rain has made many berries moldy. It is very important to inspect the plants carefully and remove any moldy berries so they don’t infect new ones as they form. Take off old rotting leaves as you go, as they provide homes for slugs and other pests as well as mold.

 Back to the vegetable garden, it is absolutely not too late to start a summer garden! Most warm season crops can be planted through June and second plantings of bush beans, cucumbers, sweet corn and summer squash can be made through early July in many places. The heat lovers will grow much more quickly now; it’s fun to watch. If some of your plants are too close together, don’t be afraid to do some thinning now too. This can be difficult – no one likes to kill plants – but crowding and competition can lead to weak plants, poor harvest and even pest and disease problems. Make sure your trellises or cages for tall tomatoes, pole beans and other vining crops are in place now. Some tomato cages are not tall enough for vigorous indeterminate tomatoes but are great for cucumbers, which I always grow up. Add an extra stake or 2 to your tomato cages to make sure they don’t fall over with the weight of all those tomatoes.

 I mentioned leaf miners on chard last month, and another pest has come back on the last of last year’s chard now too – black aphids. There are several types of aphids and these seem to be the most difficult to control. Since the old chard is bolting now, I picked off the nice leaves to eat and am composting the rest. My new chard plants are almost big enough to go in the ground and they will go in a new location with plenty of compost, as they will be in the ground for almost an entire year. If the black aphids attack the new chard, I will inspect regularly, rub them off and make sure the plants have all the nutrients they need.

 As to the current harvest, I’m STILL eating asparagus every day and froze some, the rest of the artichokes are in my refrigerator (they would have gotten too tough on the plants at this point), there is beautiful lettuce, my Super Sugar Snap peas loved the rain, and the kohlrabi is starting to swell. Kohlrabi is not well known in this country but is a cool weather staple in northern Europe – a broccoli relative grown for it’s bulb-like stem that tastes like a cross between cabbage, jicama and apple. Use raw or cooked and the leaves can be used like kale. I love to grow this easy, versatile crop spring and fall/winter.

 Enjoy the sun and remember to wear your hats in the garden!

Wendy