In these hot and steamy months of the summer, it is important to keep on watering! Especially this year since there hasn’t been much rain. If your plants are small and scrappy chances are that they could use a lot more water. If you are having a hard time keeping up with watering, setting up a simple irrigation system helps a lot! It can as simple as a sprinkler on a timer. Set the timer for 4AM – 5AM every day.
If you have trouble with aphids, thrips, or cabbage moths, we’ve got bugs for that! We even have praying mantis as a super cool generalized predator. Check out our beneficial insects.
It is time to get your tomato plants up on the trellis to free up space in your vegetable garden. Most of the pea vines are finished, or almost finished producing so they can be ripped out to make space for the tomatoes. If the vines are yellow or brown you should remove them. If they are still green, you can keep them in but get the tomatoes onto the trellis anyway. To get thetomatoes on the trellis (new video), you gently wrap the growing end of the vine around the trellis netting. Any branches that do not fit on the trellis need to be cut off so they don’t crowd the other plants in your garden.
Lettuce is going to seed in this heat! Bolting lettuce is bitter and tough, so please remove the entire plant of any lettuce that is getting tall and eat it while it is still good. Keep harvesting the outer leaves of leafy greens – Kale, Swiss chard, and any non-bolted lettuce. Celery can be harvested this way as well. It is super important to keep a nice clear area all the way around peppers and eggplants to give them a chance to grow.
Remove any larger outer leaves of broccoli or cabbage if they are getting in the way. Cabbage is probably ready to harvest, get to it before it splits! The broccoli should be making a head soon. This head is actually a flower. You need to harvest it before the buds open. 3-4 weeks after cutting off the main head, you should get two smaller heads on the side of the stalk (florets).
If your garden was planted in late-April or early-May, beets, carrots and onions will ready to harvest soon as well. To check, dig around a little with your finger to judge the size of the root. If it is to your liking – pick it! In the mean time, onion greens and beet greens are delicious additions to any dish. Just make sure not to take too many leaves from any one plant to leave some for photosynthesis.