The nights and days of late spring are warm and soil temperatures are ready for all warm weather vegetables. As we enter June, it is the ideal time to plant squash and cucumbers for a harvest in sixty five days. They will sprout and grow quickly in warm June soil. Set out a few tomato plants each week for as long as you can find healthy plants and set out different varities for an extended summer harvest.

Sunday is Pentecost. The moon reaches its first quarter on Tuesday. There will be a full moon on June 14. The name of this moon is “Full Strawberry Moon.” Flag Day will be celebrated on June 14, and Fathers Day will be celebrated on June 19. The moon reaches its last quarter on June 20. The first day of summer will be on June 21. The new moon of June will occur on June 28.

The time to plant late crop of squash and cucumbers is now so you can enjoy a harvest in late summer. Great cucumber varities for late cucumbers are Marketmore 76, Poinsett 76, Straight Eight, Long Green and Ashley. Early Prolific Straight is the best late squash variety. Keep late squash and cucumbers watered with the water wand in “shower” mode on humid days with no rain in the forecast.

The Dragon Wing is the most beautiful of all begonias. They have glossy, dark green oblong foliage and are adorned with clusters of hot pink or red blooms. The Dragon Wing sprawls out of its container like an umbrella and showers itself with massive clusters of colorful blooms. They continually bloom all the way until frost. You will need a large container of potting medium to accompany this high production, colorful begonia. Feed it with Flower-Tone organic flower food once a month for summer long beauty.

A preventive for tomato blossom end rot

As tomato plants continue to grow, prevent blossom end rot by applying calcium carbonate (lime) on both sides of the plants and hill up soil on both sides of the row to cover the powdered lime and retain moisture. When you feed the plants, use Vigaro tomato food with enriched calcium. Hill up soil on both sides of the row after you apply Vigaro with enriched calcium.

Feed vegetables, flowers organic foods

Improve flower and vegetable production and growth with organic plant foods such as Plant-Tone, Garden-Tone, Tomato-Tone, Flower-Tone, Holly-Tone for evergreens and azaleas, Rose-Tone for rose bushes. These products are available in four and ten pound plastic zippered bags. The four pound bags are lightweight and the zippered bags make them easy and clean to apply to plants and flowers. It is very fine textured and the adjustable zipper allows you to clean apply the food right where you want it and the amount you desire right into the furrow with no excess or mess. These products have proven themselves organically in gardens for well over one hundred and thirty years. The products have fine non pelletized texture and absorb quickly into the soil.

The very best and most productive of green bean varities is definitely the Strike. They are a bush type that will produce a long harvest. The beans are pencil shaped and totally stringless and have a maturity date of about 65 days. The best feature of these beans is you can sow a couple of rows now and follow up with another row in July for late summer harvest. These beans are very productive and will yeild beans for several weeks. A pound will sow a 50-foot row or two 4×8 beds.

There are hundreds of varities of tomato varieties in all sizes, shapes, colors and types and a few of them perform and produce better than the others, especially when it comes to performing in the heat and humidity of summer.

When we were growing up as kids in eastern North Carolina, there were certainly not as many varities of tomatoes as there are today. My father only planted three varities: Homestead, Marglobe and Rutgers. He set them about two and a half feet apart, placed no cages or stakes around them but allowed them to sprawl. When they developed green tomatoes, he would apply pine straw around them so ripe tomatoes would not be muddy at harvest. He harvested bushels of tomatoes on a 100-foot row.

Some good hot weather tomatoes are Homestead, Rutgers, Marglobe, Big Boy, Park’s Whopper, Mortgage, Lifter and Celebrity varities, which will endure the heat and humidity of summer. Feed late tomatoes with Tomato-Tone organic tomato food once a month and these proven varities should produce a harvest late into summer. Use the water wand in “shower” mode to keep base of plants moist.

10 apples, peeled, cored and cut into half-inch chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add lemon juice to the cubed apples and mix in 1 cup white sugar and the brown sugar. Add 1 tsp. apple pie spices, ½ cup milk, butter, 2 tsp. corn starch, 1 tsp. vanilla and cinnamon. Boil the apple mixture until apples are tender and the mixture thickens. Spray the bottom of a 13x9x2 inch baking dish with baking spray. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or a little more if necessary.

Make sauce by mixing one cup milk, a ½ cup sugar, 1 tsp. apple pie spices and 1 tsp. vanilla. Bring mixture to a boil on medium heat. Mix a ½ cup cold water in a glass with 3 tsp. cornstarch. Pour a little of corn starch mixture at a time into sauce mixture until sauce gets as thick as you desire. Pour sauce over the sonker to serve.

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