The apples on my apple tree are starting to form, so it is time for them to wear socks. Not because it is cold, but because the socks keep the apple maggot flies off the apple so you get nice clean apples later in the year.

I use “foot socks”, those small stretchy socks that you use to cover your bare feet when trying on sandals in a shoe store. We sell them at Bainbridge Gardens in boxes of 100. They fit now and stretch as the apple grows.

Another thing to do to try to control apple maggots is to use tanglefoot on a fake apple. The maggot fly will try to land on the fake apple and get stuck.

To get the maggot flies to come find the tree, you can hang a container of pheromones from the tree.

I don’t cover every apple, just the ones I can reach, and when there is a cluster, I try to only cover the strongest one as the weaker ones will usually fall off early before ripening. Nature does some thinning for me.

My pole beans are up about 8 inches and wrapping themselves around the poles. My bush beans have been kept toasty warm with the row cover. I started them a week later than the pole beans but they’re catching up fast. Row cover really helps in this cold weather.

Because it has still been cool, I’m going to wait another week before planting my basil starts.

My Sugar Snap peas are ready to eat! The flat chinese peas are also ready, especially for stir-fry. Fresh peas taste so good.

I’m waiting another week for the basil I started from seed to sprout a second set of leaves then I’ll plant them in the garden. There should be enough time to get good basil leaves from them before the growing season ends.

My tomatoes are setting flowers already. Same with the eggplants. I’m going to fertilize them again this weekend.

It sure was a cold week for June. I would like to wait for warmer weather, but then I might run out of time in the fall so I’m going to plant squash, pumpkins and things like that.

The basil I started indoors from seed already sprouted after only a week. I’ll probably wait another week for them.

Some of my strawberries are ready for picking, but the slugs are eating them. I have to put out some Sluggo slug bait to defend against them. It is made of iron phosphate so it is safe to use around vegetables and fruits and won’t harm dogs and cats.

My peas are flowering like mad. I expect to see small flat peas on them any day now.