It has been hard for this old gardener to do much in the veggie patch the past few months. If the heat doesn’t get you, the mosquitoes will. I just took a walk around the garden, as I try to visit it each day, to pull a few weeds and pick anything that is still ripening. I am also working to get the beds ready for fall planting. My tomatoes have mostly given up. I have tried to save a few plants but not sure that is going to be successful this year. I have a few seedlings I will plant in the next week or so. I have been growing them up in containers so they will be ready to fruit when/if the temperature evergoes down below 70 degrees. It will—I promise!
Other holdovers from the spring are both hot and sweet peppers. Both have hung in and are still producing. They should continue to produce good crops right up until frost. The same is true of eggplant. We are sort of getting tired of eggplants, however . When it does well —it does really well! Two crops that do very well this time of the year but are missing in the Opperman garden are okra and sweet potatoes. They take up lots of space! And, okra almost requires daily attention. Since we do that at theOak Forest Gardens we decided not to do it at home.
I mentioned getting the beds ready. Try to keep the weeds down with mulching or old fashioned weed pulling. Never, never let them go to seed or your future problems will be magnified. Leaves and pine needles have been dropping and it is a good time to pile those onto your planting beds. If you can stand it, dig them in or cover them with soil or compost to hasten their decomposition. And, as dry as it is, wetting down the soil also helps to
keep the microorganisms working. A good dose of humates is also a good thing to add to your garden right now. If you did not buy them during our April fundraiser, you can still purchase them at you local garden centers. (You will just have to pay more!) We hope to have another sale onMicroLife products next spring.
The compost bins, too, deserve a little attention this time of the year. Ten minutes each day spent on making compost may be the most important thing you do for your gardening efforts. Remember you need to add green materials to brown materials, mix to introduce air and add water unless there is substantial rain. Adding some existing compost or even garden soil will introduce microorganisms to the pile and it will heat up and decompose much faster. If you are still sending your grass clippings off to the landfill, consider spreading them around your garden areas. Soon the leaves and the pine needles will be coming down in full force. Think about a way you can stock pile some bags of these valuable resources for later this fall and winter. Most lawnmowers now do a great job of mulching. If you don’t want to collect the grass and leaves simply mulch them into your lawn. However, if you catch them, use them as mulch around your bushes, trees, or in your veggie garden. Don’t waste them. They are valuable!
If you need to come in out of the heat to spend some time in the air conditioning, plan the fall garden. It will get cool again and maybe even freeze. Think of all the wonderful things you can grow this fall. Lettuce, radishes,cabbage, spinach, carrots, broccoli, and the list goes on. Dream a bit! Order seeds!