* Snip off the blossoms on chives and save a few before tossing the rest onto the compost pile. Chive blossoms, with their subtle onion flavor, may be used in various recipes. After snipping the blossoms, dip them in water to remove dust and any tiny critters inhabiting the flowers. Pat dry the blossoms before breaking them apart into their individual florets. These may be used in salads, egg dishes, soups, and to flavor vinegar.
* Don’t be alarmed to see Virginia bluebells, bleeding heart, and Oriental poppies die back after they finish flowering. There’s nothing wrong with the plants; they just go dormant after they bloom.
* Over the course of the next week, take the last harvests of rhubarb from plants that are less than four years old. Harvesting rhubarb from long established plants, i.e. more than four years old, may continue through the month of June and into early July. If desperate for rhubarb cobbler, you may pick a few stalks at any time during the growing season. But don’t overdo it.Â
* Stack straw around potato plants as an alternative to hilling the plants with soil. The straw method makes harvesting easier, as all you have to do is pull it aside to get at the spuds. That is especially helpful when harvesting a few “new” potatoes. “New” potatoes are immature and are used soon after harvesting as they do not store very long.
* Make successive sowings of bush beans. The harvest season for bush beans usually lasts about two to three weeks, so make additional plantings at three week intervals until mid-July. This is not a problem with pole beans, since they’ll continue to yield beans until killed by frost.
* Begin looking for Colorado potato beetles. No, you don’t have to go to Colorado. They’ll find their way to your potatoes, eggplant and tomatoes. When you see the beetle larvae, remove them by hand or apply Spinosad, a natural soil bacterium product.
* A large pot filled with flowering annuals says “Welcome” when placed at the top of the walkway to your front door.
* As you continue planting this year’s vegetable garden, make it a point to grow a little extra to donate to local food pantries. There is a need!
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Question of the week: “Who’s digging holes in my lawn?”
On the list of prime suspects are skunks and raccoons. They dig holes in lawns to search for grubs, earthworms, and ground beetles. Once they find a choice bistro with these gourmet delights, they tend to return repeatedly to the same locale. Other possible perpetrators are squirrels and chipmunks, who dig up lawns searching for the cache of nuts hidden last fall. Unfortunately, these critters must have good lawyers; there’s no easy way to deal with their transgressions. Check with: https://www.mass.gov/learn-about-wildlife for options that are available for managing these animals around home grounds.
