5 things to do in the garden this week:
Fruit: If you are looking for an edible ground cover, consider thornless blackberries, which are ripening now. This is the season for blackberries of every type, but they are generally thorny and demand you wear gloves when harvesting them. If you have a fledgling orchard of fruit trees, you can fill the space between them with thornless blackberry plants. Plant them 10 feet apart so that their trailing stems have plenty of room to roam.
Vegetables: The end of June is considered the last chance for maximizing the potential of summer crops if you have been delaying planting their seedlings up till now. We are talking about pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and beans. Make sure your soil is good and soft by working in lots of compost or soil amendment prior to planting.
Flowers: Gladiolus corms may be planted as late as early July and still bloom this year, sometime in the fall. This is really an easy care plant with – as its name implies – a swordful of flowers that come up year after year. Gladiolus may actually be planted at any time between February and July, and its corms do not require any winter chilling. Just be prepared to wait at least two months before foliage appears. These corms are larger than most and should be planted at a 4-6 inch depth with a 3-5 inch separation between them. We are fortunate that they spread here from year to year while being left in the ground, whereas in colder climates, as John Vanzile informs us, they die each winter unless lifted in the fall and stored inside until spring.
Herbs: Basil is a heat-loving herb that no summer garden should be without. It is often planted at the same time as San Marzano tomatoes — the tomato of choice for cooking — since both are incorporated into a classic spaghetti sauce. However, basil will need considerably more water than tomatoes, so do not plant them too close to each other. While annual sweet basil is especially thirsty, perennial culinary basil thrives in half-day sun. It exhibits a strong vertical growth habit, as suggested by the names of its two widely planted varieties. Choose from Everleaf Emerald Towers, which grows three feet tall, and Everleaf Thai Towers, which reaches two feet in height with purple stems. Both of these varieties may live for years and, once established and well-mulched, two weekly soakings should be sufficient to satisfy their water needs. Tomatoes, on the other hand, once established and well-mulched, can go one week or more between waterings.
Although grapes are one of the seven species the Bible mentions as native to the land of Israel and therefore capable of subsisting on winter rain alone, you will get more sizable crops by soaking your vines once a week. If you find that critters are consuming your crop before you can harvest it, put a paper bag around each grape cluster, secured with a staple. Peek in periodically to see how far the fruit has progressed in the ripening process.