Priorities for July-August

This summer's heat waves have left parts of my garden that need replanting and repair. Whether your garden plans have blossomed or crashed, there are choices to make now for the rest of the season.  The hours when it’s tolerable to work outside are limited, so it really helps to have a clear and concrete plan. If your priorities are clear, you can go to work without delays or indecision.

Of course you have to water, weed, and harvest the plants you already have. Many of them may need a top-dressing of compost soon to keep them productive. There may be pest problems, overgrown areas, weather damage, or the inevitable garden failures. All must be addressed.  But if you miss the window for starting new crops, your garden may peter out in August.

One solution is to write down your 3 most urgent tasks for existing plants, and your 3 most urgent new plantings to make.  You can tackle both your #1 tasks, then move down the lists.

For example, your biggest concerns might be that your tomatoes must be tied up before they collapse in a heap, the weeds are out of control, and your bush beans and lettuce are going by.  One plan you could make would be to spend your first garden session tying up those tomatoes and  while you're there sowing some lettuce in their shade. Your next garden session might be to cut down your old lettuce, run a hoe over the ground, and plant a succession crop of bush beans there. And your next few sessions might be to plant a few pots of winter vegetables and weed one small area each time.

Your priority may be a task like weeding or seed-starting. Or you may prioritize an area. You could make one bed your priority and do all the weeding, staking, tying, top-dressing, and replanting that small area needs rather than doing just one job over a larger area. What's important is to use the time you have to do the things that are most important or most time-sensitive. If you go out to the garden with your priorities clear in your mind, chances are you'll get a lot done.

July and August are important months for starting new seeds. Some may be direct-sown in the garden, others will be best in flats for transplanting later when space is available and conditions are right.

What to start is often confusing, so I've sorted them into groups to make decision-making easier. There are five types of summer plantings you can make now:

First, you might need to replace dead, dying, or spent plants. If you don’t have a replacement ready, either direct-sow the replacement, cover the area with mulch, or sow buckwheat as a quick soil-building cover crop. Fast-growing herbs like dill and basil are good options for bare spots. Leaving the area bare for even a week invites weeds and more work down the line.

Second, sow succession crops. Bush beans, corn, root crops, determinate tomatoes, lettuce, greens, sunflowers and even zucchini are all going to stop producing before the warm season is over. Now’s the time to start another wave of beans and lettuce, or a different crop to use the space. Cucumbers, bush beans, and chard are fast-growing and heat-tolerant options. Even if you already have some in production, new plants will be more vigorous and productive. Salad is often best started in a container in part shade.

Third, many herbs and flowers can be sown now. Quick-growing annuals like basil, cosmos, and coreopsis are great companion plants for late-summer pest control. Biennials and some perennials need sowing now so they can size up enough to bloom next spring.

Fourth, you need to start winter vegetables early enough for them to be productive. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards, and rutabagas need a long growing season, so start them soon. You don’t need to have garden space for them yet. Find a place in dappled shade or with only morning sun and start them in pots or in a bed set aside as a nursery.

Fifth, fall specialties need to be started now so they are ready to eat before hard frost. Fennel, endive, chicory (radicchio), carrots, turnips, beets, and chard make fall meals special and are best planted from now until mid-August. Fennel  especially will not stand hard winter frost, but bolts easily when planted in spring. It is at its best planted in July and August, as are all of the endive/chicory tribe.

Pots or flats need to be where they have light, but won't dry out or scorch. In cloudy, humid, or cooler climates, full sun may be fine. But if you have clear skies, dry heat and blazing sun, arrange for a place with morning sun but afternoon shade. An east-facing porch or on the east side of a shade tree is good. Sometimes indoors under lights or in a window is the best option. A frame or hoops covered with shade cloth is another option.  Wherever they are, be vigilant, as pots dry out quickly.