It’s Time to Pay Attention to the Vegetable Garden
Posted on Friday, June 12, 2026 · Leave a Comment
Tomato cages keep plants from sprawling on the ground
By now, most of us have planted our vegetable gardens. My peas, onions, lettuce, spinach and potatoes went in early, and now our tomatoes and peppers have settled in and are starting to grow. Is it hammock time? No, now it’s better to do some maintenance so that we can go to the beach later on – with a good conscience.
Many gardeners are looking for a magic potion to put on their tomato plants to prevent that nasty fungal disease that blackens the leaves and shortens the lifespan and production of their tomato plants. Alas, there is none. But there are a few things you can do to minimize it.
Right now go look at your tomato plants: do they have any leaves that touch the soil? If so, take a sharp knife or scissors and cut them off. The spores of the disease are in the soil – unless you area starting somewhere that was, most recently, lawn or field. That first year you will probably have plants free of blackened leaves.
Mulch under your tomato plants now, before disease sets in. The spores get on leaves by splash-up when you water or get a heavy rain. Got a bagger on your lawn mower? Save the grass and spread it over the soil. Or you can buy straw (which is seed-free) or mulch hay (which is not, but is less expensive). Spreading 4-layers of newspaper on the ground before putting down mulch helps keep soil moist and helps weeds from germinating. I don’t recommend using chipped branches or bark mulch in the vegetable garden.
One last bit of advice on tomatoes: I have found that buying the biggest cages possible is best: 54 inches tall, with 4 legs not 3. They’re not cheap, but you should get 25 years or more out of each if store them in the barn for the winter.
It’s time to start more lettuce from seed
I have plenty of lettuce to eat right now, having planted it early. But I will start seeds now. Although I could sow seeds directly in the ground, I prefer to plant in seeds in cells and keep them on a sunny deck where I will see them, water them, and monitor them. When they have 2 true leaves, sturdy ones, I will plant them in the ground. That allows me to space them well. Small seeds are easy to over-plant directly in the ground, and then I’d have to find the time to thin them later.
That brings me to thinning, sigh. The most tedious job in the garden. If you planted carrots, beets and radishes early on, they are about ready to thin. Start now and thin to 1-inch apart. Then, by the fourth of July, thin again – but to 3-inches apart. Crowded carrots compete with their cousins for water and minerals just as they would with weeds. Eat those thinnings. Young carrots are a real treat.
I don’t mind weeding. Some of you do, and I agree it can be tedious. Young people wear earbuds and listen to music, but I like to listen to the birds and the burble of my brook going by. Did you know that by adding stones to a brook you can tune it? In 2003 I interviewed Robert Irwin, an installation artist who designed the gardens at J. Paul Getty Center in Los Angeles, and he told me he personally “tuned” a recirculating brook he had installed at the gardens. Water falling over stones makes a pleasant sound which depends on the drop and quantity of water falling.
But back to weeding. The best time to weed is after a rain or a good watering. I use a CobraHead weeder, a single-tined tool which easily slides through the soil, loosening it so that weeds pull easily, and weed roots are less likely to snap off. Right now is the time to weed because the bigger they get, the more difficult they are to pull.
The kneeler is comfy and makes it easier to stand
I used to do all my weeding standing up, bent from the waist. Now? Mostly I kneel. I use a “Garden Kneeler” I got from Gardener’s Supply Company. It has a padded kneeling platform a few inches off the ground and handrails on the sides that are a great help in getting up from the kneeling position. Turned over, it provides a seat, and it can be folded up for storage. Using mine, I just weeded a double row of onions 16 feet long, and felt no aches and pains from doing so.
To avoid re-weeding the same bed, over and over, there are two things you should do: 1) never let your weeds flower and produce seeds. 2) Mulch after weeding. Same as above, newspaper covered with straw. In the old days, newspapers used toxic chemicals in the ink. Now? As far as I know, all the inks are made with soy products. By the end of the summer my earthworms will have mostly eaten the papers.
The first step of mulching as I do it is to put down newspaper003
If you grow potatoes, it is important to watch for potato beetles. Go down the row, pawing through the leaves so you can watch for the orange egg masses under the leaves and scrape them off. Later, if you look for larvae or beetles every day or two and pick them off, you can control the problem in a home garden. Just drop the culprits in a jar of soapy water. There is also a biological control called Bt which is a naturally-occurring bacterium that you can spray; it sickens the larvae as they eat the leaves but will not harm anything else.
I’ve been picking and eating homegrown vegetables all my life, and I am convinced that it helps me stay young(ish) and healthy. And it gives me great joy.
Tips for Growing Wonderful Flowers
Posted on Monday, June 1, 2026 · Leave a Comment
Knock out roses are reliable bloomers
I’ve heard it said that June is the most common month for weddings. I’m not sure why, but my theory is that June, despite black flies and noxious ticks, is a great month to be outside for wedding receptions. Roses are in bloom, as are peonies, iris and so much more.
Roses have evolved considerably since I was a boy in the 1950’s. Breeders have created modern hybrids that are disease-free and bloom almost non-stop all summer. In the old days rosarians sprayed roses regularly with various poisons to minimize damage from fungal diseases and insect pests.
Many told fashioned roses bloom mostly in June and are deliciously fragrant. New hybrids will bloom more or less continuously all summer if in full sun, but most are not fragrant. And they are rarely attacked by insects as they have no scent that would attract them. Since I’m technically a geezer, I should grow the old fashioned roses – but I like these new hybrids.
There are several lines of trademarked roses. I love the ‘Knock-Out’ roses. They are winter hardy (in Zone 4) and offer blooms until October for me. Everything the Proven Winner people grow – annuals, perennials, roses – do very well. Their ‘Oso Easy’ line of roses is well regarded, but I haven’t personally grown any.
My wife loves heirloom roses and has had great luck buying some from Old Sheep Meadows Nursery in Alfred, Maine. And if they will grow in Alfred, Maine, they will grow where you are. According to his website, the owner, Raymond Graber, has been growing roses in Maine for over 60 years. He has a wealth of knowledge and he is happy to share it.
Three bits of knowledge I can share abut roses: 1. They love – and need – plenty of water. Water daily in hot or dry times. 2. They like dark, rich soil and some added garden lime and slow-release organic fertilizer at planting time. 3. Although six hours of sunshine or more is recommended, most will do fine with four. You don’t have any roses? Go buy a few. We only live once.
Peony ‘Festiva maxima’ that my grandmother grew
Most plants have a finite lifespan. Many perennials will die out in 10 years. Some trees last a hundred or more. But I often say, “Properly planted, peonies will live forever.” My maternal grandmother, Anna Lenat, died in 1953 when I was just seven years old. My mother dug up one of her peonies and brought it to our home in Connecticut. I dug it up again in 1984 and divided it, leaving half with my mom, and planting half at my home in Cornish, NH. The roots or tubers, presumably more than 100 years old by now, still produce plenty of blossoms.
I always recommend buying peonies in June when they’re in bloom –seeing is believing. Some are fragrant – even heavenly fragrant – while others are not. Some have stiff, strong stems, while others flop even on sunny days from the weight of their magnificent blossoms. “Single” peonies have just one row of petals so are less prone to flopping. But most common are the doubles: gorgeous, but with so many petals they flop when it rains.
Peony rings are wire cages sold to hold up flower stems even on rainy days. Most are too low to really do the job right. Plus, you have to remember early in May to install them. By now mature plants are too big to fit the cages over them. My solution is to poke three bamboo stakes firmly into the soil around each plant and then connect them at the appropriate height with green garden twine. If you were a Scout, you may remember learning to tie a clove hitch. That’s the knot you want.
If you bought a nice peony a few years ago and it no longer blooms, you may have planted it too deeply, or covered the “nibs” (growing points) with too much mulch. Feel around the plant to see where next year’s growth will emerge from little pointy nibs. More than an inch of cover will often inhibit blooming. Yes, you will have a healthy plant – but no blossoms.
My great Great-Granny told me that peonies need ants crawling around on the buds for them to open. Not true. Peonies attract aphids, and ants come to harvest the sweet “nectar” that is their poop.
Gas plant is a good addition to any garden
Other great June flowers in my garden include gas plant (Dictamus alba) which has an intense citrus odor that is strongest at dusk to attract night-flying moths.
Delphiniums are wonderful plants with stalks often over 5-feet tall and loaded with blue, purple or white blossoms. But you do need to stake them to keep them upright in the rain. Scratch in some slow release organic fertilizer each spring as they are heavy feeders. And if you cut them back to the ground after blooming, they probably will re-bloom in the fall.
Perennial bachelor buttons (Centaurea montana) are easy to grow and make good cut flowers. Blue to purple, they love sun and will make you feel like you have made it as a gardener.
All the flowering plants are wonderful. Think back to what your parents and grandparents grew. That’s a good place to start shopping. Or better yet, see if you can dig some plants from their gardens if they will let you.
Henry can be reached at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or henry.homeyer@
comast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
Delphinium are gorgeous but each stalk needs support
Bachelor buttons have unusual, spidery flowers.
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