End of May Planting

Good morning gardeners!

I hope you have been enjoying all the Portland spring sunshine. Yesterday Slim & I enjoyed an awesome hike around Hoyt Arboretum. We saw the last of the magnolia and rhododendron blooms, as well as prolific flowers on native rosa, salal and salmonberry. What a treasure is Hoyt Arboretum, every season of the year there is something of interest.

In our home garden we are enjoying the blooms of peonies, spirea, scabiosa, roses, lavender, clematis and our dogwood tree. I am fighting slugs constantly, having planted THREE successions of beans & sunflower seeds to find then sprouted them mowed down overnight. The first raspberries of the season are ripe and I gorge myself on them every time I walk by. Our strawberries and peas both have flowered but not yet produced fruit.

We are enjoying harvesting, cooking & eating from the garden: arugula, basil, chard, green garlic & garlic scales, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, shallot scapes and spinach.

My herb garden is prolific and I am so enjoying the colorful flowers, foliage texture, fragrance and taste. At least once a day I harvest fresh herbs to incorporate into our meals and make fragrant delicious teas. I am especially enjoying teas from: tangerine sage, lemon-rose scented geranium, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lavender blossoms, thyme, apple mint, peppermint and chocolate mint.

This week we planted tomatoes (7 varieties), several varieties of basil, summer squash, cucumber, and beans. In our limited garden space it is always a fun struggle to determine which tomato varieties will make the cut. This year we decided upon:
Lemon Boy
Orange Strawberry
Great White Pink Stripe
San Marzano
Purple Bumblebee
Sungold
Sweet Million

The night temperatures have consistently been above 55 degrees and the soil temperature has been consistently at least 60 degrees. If you have not planted yet, don't despair you have not missed out. You can still plant your veggies into the beginning of June to reap a nice harvest. These are the things you can plant now:

Artichoke
Basil
Beans
Beets
Broccoli
Carrots
Collard Greens
Corn
Cucumbers
Dill
Eggplant
Green Onions
Kale
Leeks
Lettuce
Melons
Parsnips (for a fall harvest)
Peppers
Pumpkins
Radishes
Rutabaga (for a fall harvest)
Salad greens-arugula, mesclun mix, micro greens, orach
Spinach
Strawberries
Summer Squash
Swiss Chard
Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Turnips
Winter Squash
Zucchini

Please don't forget to companion plant some summer annual flowers for the bees, butterflies and beneficial bugs! Try alyssum, calendula, cleome, cosmos, lantana, lobelia, marigolds, petunias, sunflowers and zinnias. The Portland forecast is for rain to return on Monday, so get planting this weekend. Remember on warm sunny days to plant in the morning or evening, not during the heat of the day. And keep your new transplants well watered until they are better established.

Happy gardening! Jolie