It has been a whirlwind in the potager in May and June! When faced with the choice of sitting at my desk writing my blog or spending the time in the potager, the potager won every time! Of course, the internet logarithms abhor inconsistency, so I did my blog rankings no favors by skipping posts. BUT, I received priceless rewards by being outside watching the flowers grow! A lot has changed in the garden since my last post, so let’s show off the potager from the month of June!
Strawberries
When we moved from our old house, I was sure to dig up a number of strawberry plants from the old potager. I planted them in the back sunny corner of the new potager, and this is the first summer for fruit. The harvest was small, especially after our black lab figured out how to get under the protective fencing I had draped over the plants to keep the birds away. She effectively finished off any remaining berries. She was caught red…well, red muzzled, because she got stuck and needed help getting out from under the fencing. (sigh…)
Cut flowers really started to grow
The snap peas that I had started in the glasshouse took off, and I have been snacking on the fresh peas while in the potager. The Labradors also love fresh snap peas, so I am glad they are up in the raised bed! The first round of snapdragon seedlings are growing quickly. The first variety to bloom was “Avignon Pink”. They are such a pretty pink, and I have been taking buckets of them to Bloom Floral Design in Charlevoix, MI.
The foxgloves, which I grew from plugs, also bloomed prolifically in June! I have never grown foxgloves before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with growing them in pots. I have a sizable collection of large black plastic pots that I saved from a landscape project. I filled them with soil from raised bed soil from an old garden bed, and planted the foxglove plugs. The plants have performed very well in the pots; interestingly, all flowering weeks earlier than the plugs planted in the garden beds.
Delphiniums in the potager
I have also never grown delphiniums. I started plants from seed and am also growing plants from plugs. The plugs are well ahead of the seedlings at this point, and I have been harvesting lovely blooms for the flower shop. As they are perennial, I was very careful on placement in the potager, and placed them in groupings in symmetrical spots along the border of the potager.
Stock and Dianthus, (Sweet William)
Stock is one of my favorite flowers to work with and grow! It has a unique clove scent and the ruffled blossoms really add texture to flower arrangements. The first variety to bloom were the plants grown from plugs, “Vintage Brown”. I have a number of varieties growing from seed that are much farther behind. The only problem I have encountered is yellowing of the leaves at the base of the plant. This occurred with the stock and lisianthus, nothing else! I am working with new soil, which is quite compacted, which could be the problem. I am interested to see what happens with these varieties next year after soil amendments and fluffier soil.
Another plant that I have never grown before is Dianthus, or, Sweet William. I am completely smitten! I plan to grow TRAYS of this next year! The stems were amazingly tall, and the color combinations and texture make an instant impact in flower arrangements. This flower has not been widely used in quite a while, but I think we will see a lot of this flower from farmers and floral designers over the next few years!
June has been blooming in the potager
It is such a long wait in Michigan from the end of the spring bulbs to the blooms of cut flowers! The sweet peas are taking off, snapdragons are coming on strong, and new to me flowers are doing so well! The tomato plants are starting to grow tall, the potato plants have blossoms, and we’ve enjoyed lettuces, basil and Italian parsley from the potager. And, we still have my favorite flower season of the year to come, dahlias! I’ll be sure to share July on the blog, so get out in a garden, and watch the flowers grow!
