What To Plant In Grow Zone 8b In June

June 1, 2021December 22, 2021 Sarah

Good morning, and First Day of June already! It’s time to start thinking about succession crops, but also to start dreaming about fall crops (yes, I realize the irony that we haven’t even started summer yet….). But Mother Nature doesn’t wait for us. Start planning now for your fall garden means you will be eating well till the first frost. But it also allows you to start a garden, even in June. It’s never too late: Just pick varieties of seeds that have the shortest days to harvest, and look for F1 hybrids in particular, over heirloom seeds. Heirloom seeds often have longer grow times, which if started early work great, but if starting later, a good F1 hybrid seed will really ensure success.

Our grow zone on Whidbey Island, Washington is Zone 8b, however this list will work for a wide range of grow zones, even to Zone 7.

Let’s get going –

Crops to start from seed, direct sowed (Beans, beets, carrots and similar can be sowed every 2 weeks through summer):

Bush Green Beans
Bush Yellow Beans
Bush Purple Beans
Beets
Carrots
Kale, especially dwarf types
Summer Squash such as zucchini
Pickling Cucumbers
Swiss Chard
Kohlrabi
Potatoes, smaller types, such as Yukon Gold, Red and similar
Heat resistant radishes
Lettuces that are heat resistant
Turnips

From Starts (if buying starts, look for as large as possible and that they were kept well watered):

Tomatoes
Bell and Hot Peppers
Green Onions (Scallions)
Pumpkins
Summer squash (zucchini)
Cucumber
Corn
Winter Squashes
Herbs
Eggplant
Tomatillo
Celery
Rhubarb
Strawberry, consider ever-bearing as you get strawberries all season long instead of June bearing
Blueberry bushes (remove berries first year)
Raspberry plants (look for dual crop types)

Start from seed, in pots for transplanting later:

Swiss Chard
Lettuce
Hardier spinach
Kale
Bush beans, to proceed with a second or third seeding, to give a crop all summer long
Kohlrabi
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower (for fall)
Broccoli (for fall)
Green onions (scallions)

~Sarah

Garden Beds In May

May 25, 2021 Sarah

It’s May, and June is around the corner. I have been busy, almost too busy to write. I am still homeschooling our boys and after school time we work on the homestead, often till dinner time, then we come back till sunset. I find time though to take photos when I think about it, to keep for seeing how the beds grow.

This week though it has been cool and rainy. I’ll take it. Sunny weather is right behind it, and it will jump into the low 70’s by Memorial Day Weekend. The plants will take off with all the deep watering. But today I spent writing and cleaning.

The reason we have beds comes down to deer and rabbits. Our property is not fenced (though someday it will be), which allows the deer to travel. So each growing area is fenced independently. This allows us to keep the rabbits suppressed as well, using chicken wire aprons around the beds.

The start of planting.

Our original bed. Ready for putting in the first plants of the season in late April.

Filling in more of the rows.

Plants growing.

Into the second week of May.

Even the weeds outside are growing.

The onions on the right have really surged.

Yesterday afternoon in the rain. The potatoes in the trash can have surged. We are harvesting lettuce now.

Early in May for the berry bed.

The berry bed has greened out the entire month. The golden and red raspberries, both which are dual crop varieties, are covered in flowers – and native bees. The blueberry bushes are still flowering, and many are putting on berries. The swimming pools are full of bush peas, just flowering. The big metal in front is full of potatoes.

The newest bed had its planting started around Mother’s Day weekend. First the tomato, pepper and pumpkin plants went in.

Getting the rows planted.

Yesterday, the tomatoes have surged this month. All the rows are seeded and planted, and everything is growing.

Side view of the bed.

I carved out a mini area in the main chicken coop run. Before they came to be here this was a strawberry bed, which they promptly destroyed.

It is fenced internally, and home to a peach and a pear tree, and many other plants. With watering many of the destroyed strawberry plants came back in this section. Outside the bed grows a feral potato plant, where a chicken rolled a potato into a hole. Nature grows well by itself.

They all wish they could be in there….not on my watch!

The rest of May…who knows what it will bring. Hoping for a sunny Memorial Day Weekend, when the well watered soil will surge to summer.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading

It’s Not Too Late! What To Plant Now In Grow Zone 8b

May 10, 2021 Sarah

The lament is real. It hits Mother’s Day weekend and on every Facebook community page (and backyard gardening page) people start freaking out that they have missed the magical start line. But the thing is, in Grow Zone 8b (and even into Zone 7) you have time plenty for most crops. There are exceptions of course. Tomatoes that are giant heirloom ones, especially the deeply colored black and blueish ones, they are hard to get a successful crop if the plants are not started in the end of winter, you can’t start seeds in Mid May, but you can plant a large start you purchased and catch up. If a crop is 110 days from seeding to harvest, your chances do diminish for success, but even then that is only the end of August if you were to start it by May 15th. So yes, you have time. In fact, you have PLENTY of time still. To even grow a couple times of succesion rows, of items such as bush beans, carrots, lettuce and beets.

If you are really behind, find a good local source of starts and buy them up. Just make sure the starts look healthy and were kept watered while waiting to sell. Avoid starts with wilty texture and yellowed leaves. In general I avoid starts from big box stores such as certain home improvement chains that is “HD” or “L”. They don’t water often enough and often sell varieties that don’t grow well locally. But local farm stores are often a good source, as are nurseries and local farms.

The good news is outside of the heat wave in early April, we have had a relatively cool spring. Locally, on Whidbey Island we are seeing upper 50’s to mid 60’s during the day time. We will cross 15 hours daylight this week. And for the foreseeable future the weather stays the same. This buys us time, where as a hot May can eat up time. It has also been rainy the past week, meaning the things you plant will grow well.

In a few short months I will discuss what to start for your late summer/fall garden.

So! It’s Monday. Let’s get our gloves on, and get to work on eating awesome in a few short months.

(Waiting to be put in the ground)

Crops to start from seed, direct sowed:

Bush Green Beans
Bush Yellow Beans
Bush Purple Beans
Pole Beans, but look for as short of days as possible
Bush Green Peas (They often can produce before it gets too hot)
Beets
Carrots
Hardy Spinach (more delicate verities may go to flower)
Kale, especially dwarf types
Summer Squash such as zucchini
Pickling Cucumbers
Small gourds for decorations (such as mini pumpkins)
Swiss Chard
Kohlrabi
Short Season Sweet Corn (as short as possible)

From Starts:

Tomatoes
Bell and Hot Peppers
Green Onions (Scallions)
Pumpkins
Winter Squashes
Herbs
Eggplant
Melons, such as small watermelon and cantaloupe, if your grow areas are warm and sunny
Tomatillo
Celery
Rhubarb
Strawberry, consider ever-bearing as you get strawberries all season long instead of June bearing

Start from seed, in pots for transplanting later:

Swiss Chard
Lettuces
Kale
Bush beans, to proceed with a second or third seeding, to give a crop all summer long

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading

A Year In Making A New Bed

May 10, 2021 Sarah

Building a bed in ground to garden in can be done two ways: Rushed, or you take the time to let it be done right. Since we moved to our land here I have done both methods. And yes, I had to re-do the first rushed beds, that first summer (2018) so we could grow some food. This new bed I started about a year ago, in May of 2020.

We covered the space I selected in a small sileage tarp, and then walked away for the spring/summer, and let the heat kill the grass and weeds (such as thistles and the nasty ground choking blackberry vines). In the photo, you can see on the left field we are in two stages there, killing grass, and a lush cover crop coming up (it’s buried yet again under a tarp).

Using the BCS in early April we broke the land, and turned it under.

And this is a truth….when you live on an island in the PNW, you have to till it the first time. Most likely it won’t ever be tilled again. But you must break open the hard surface.

Then the hard work starts. That is…rocking. Bucket after bucket. One chore I pay the kids to do. Here the first rows are being formed. In this bed we formed them by hand, using a shovel. In other beds we have used the BCS to form them. However, this bed sits on a hill.

We do the rocking before forming the beds, and then again. Then you wait for awhile, and let the next set of rocks appear. Because they will! All it takes is a good rain, and the rock potatoes surface.

The wooden stakes are there to measure out the lanes.

The beds mostly shaped. They will be smoothed out using a landscape rake. And more rocks picked. The chickens love when we open up land, and are on it constantly, till it is fenced. I let them scratch and make dust baths, it doesn’t take much to fix their damage at this point.

T posts in.

Outside fabric laid, to help suppress weeds and grass on the edges. T post knocked over by my neighbor on accident with his mower’s trailer. Oops. He and I got a good laugh at least.

At this point we carved out walk pathways, the black plastic deer fencing is in, and the chicken wire laid down low to keep rabbits out.

Compost added to the beds.

After that I built a gate and installed it at the top, and we started laying down rocks along the chicken wire (to keep it laying flat).

And with that….it was done and ready for planting. We will add in wood chips in the walkways this week. And for in the PNW, on our island, this is the week for getting the warm weather crops in the ground! Done just in time.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading

April: Garden Tasks and Planning

March 30, 2021 Sarah

I find it interesting how many people say in April “I wanted a garden, but I missed the time to plant” and I am….no you haven’t. In growing zones 7 to 8, we won’t cross the last frost date till in April (for us it is April 15th). We have so much time left, if you use it wisely. But more so, planting a garden isn’t a one time thing – you can plant all season long, over and over. Or…you buy starts and pop them in the ground when it is time. If you missed planting tomatoes? There is no shame in buying up a number of fun starts (and honestly, if you want to grow 20 different types, but only one plant each? Just buy them. It is cheaper than buying seeds).

So don’t stress. The days are far longer, the daytime is warmer, and it’s time to get working. For us, we will cross 13 hours of daylight soon, far removed from the dark days of December when we had 8.5 hours of daylight.

Garden Tasks:

Walk your beds/garden and look for dead plants or damaged ones to pull out or fix.
Check fencing and fix as needed
Plant onion sets if you have purchased them soon.
Plant rhubarb roots and bare root asparagus and strawberries as soon as possible.
Start potatoes.
Weed beds.
Lay down more wood chips in pathways if you do this.
Clean out birdhouses, bird baths and bird feeders. Scrub them good.
Feed existing fruit trees, blueberries and berry canes if you haven’t yet.
Turn compost piles. Or start one!
If you have small starts, pot them up as needed to the next size.
Start putting starts for lettuce, kale, bok choy, and so on in the ground.

Seeds To Plant:

To see more on when to seed, and transplant, see here.

Below are seeds you can start in April and or are ready to transplant. The dates are not set in stone, it is a guide of what week may be most preferable to get them started. If you have a cold/wet spring, waiting a week or two more before seeding is smart.

Needless to say, the start of April is go time. And if you miss out and start seeding later? It’s OK for many crops. And for temperamental ones that bolt in heat you always can grow those as a fall crop, where they often fare better than in spring, if you miss the window, or late winter is too warm/cold.

What we are doing is using the last frost date as our guide, and backing up to figure out when to seed, be it inside, outdoors direct, or when to transplant your seedling you started inside.

So for Zone 8b, if the last frost date is April 15th, the dates going back:

1 week: April 8th
2 weeks: April 1st

Seed Chart

Beans

Bush: 52-59 days, seed direct after last frost, start inside 2 weeks before last frost. Plant every 2 weeks in ground for continuous crops.
Pole: 63-69 days, seed direct after last frost, start inside 2 weeks before last frost.

Beets

48-60 days, seed direct from March and on, every 2 weeks for continuous crops.

Cabbage

80 to 150 days, start in greenhouse 6 weeks before last frost, transplant 3 weeks before last frost date.

Cauliflower

75-85 days. Start in greenhouse 6-8 weeks before last frost. Transplant after last frost.

Carrots

65-70 days, seed direct in ground, starting a few weeks before last frost. Repeat every 2 weeks for continuous crops.

Celery

120 days, start in greenhouse 8 weeks before last frost. Transplant after last frost.

Corn

Sweet Corn: 65-85 days, seed direct after last frost date.
Popcorn: Same as above.

Cucumbers

Pickling: 50-60 days, seed direct after last frost.
Eating: 50-70 days, seed direct after last frost.

Greens

Bok Choy: 44 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
Kale: 50-70 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
Spinach: 44 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost. (If too hot, grow for fall)
Swiss Chard: 55 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
Swiss Chard and Kale can be reseeded, directly, or in greenhouse, through the growing season.

Herbs

Start in greenhouse, transplant or set outside after last frost.

Kohlrabi

60 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Direct seed after last frost.

Lettuce

Romaine: 60-80 days, start in greenhouse 4 to 6 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost. Repeat every 2 weeks of seeding.
Other leaf lettuce: 30-45 days, start in greenhouse 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost. Repeat every 2 weeks of seeding.

Onions

Eating: 110 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Transplant after last frost. (We grow Walla Walla). If starting this late, I would suggest buying onion starts instead of seeds.
Bunching: 75 days, start in greenhouse before last frost. Transplant after last frost. Seed every 2 weeks for continuous crops. Bunching onions are green onions, and grow quickly so can be started from seed even in spring.

Parsnips

130 days, seed direct when seeding carrots.

Peas

Dwarf: Seed directly before last frost. Direct seed after last frost for continuous crop till heat hits.
Bush: 55-70 days, seed directly before last frost.
Pole: 65-70 days, seed directly before last frost.

Peppers

Hot: 70 days, Start in greenhouse before last frost. Transplant after. This late in the season you may want to consider using starts you buy, however seeds will grow quickly this time of year and often catch up.
Sweet: 75 days, same as above.
Ancho: 80 days, same as above.

Pumpkin

Jack Be Little: 95 days, start seeds 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost. Direct seed after last frost.
Regular Pumpkins: 90-120 days, start 2 weeks before last frost. Transplant after last frost. Direct seed after last frost.

Radishes

24-30 days, seed direct after last frost.

Rhubarb

Start 8 to 12 weeks before last frost, in greenhouse. Transplant after last frost. Let establish before you harvest plants. A full year is the best.

Squash

Summer Squash: 40-70 days, seed direct after last frost. If starting in greenhouse, 2 weeks before last frost.
Butternut: 95 days, start in greenhouse 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost date.
Winter Squash: 105-110 days, start in greenhouse 2 weeks before last frost, transplant after last frost date.

Strawberry

Alpine: Alpine plants produce ever bearing, for a fall crop from first year plants, start seeds in greenhouse before last frost. Slow germination is normal. Once last frost is passed, transplant to gallon pots, set outside to finish growing.

Tomatoes

Dwarf: 60 days, start in greenhouse before last frost, or for bigger plants, up to 8 weeks. Transplant in first week of May. Seeds will grow quickly though in this time, so you can still plant in early April and they will catch up.
Shorter Season: 48-68 days, same as above.
Heirloom: 60-80 days, same as above.

Watermelon

80+ days, seed direct after last frost.

~Sarah