Every year the vegetable garden season can vary significantly due to various factors. Utilizing techniques like frost cloth, low tunnels and cold frames to extend harvest periods may prove helpful in increasing yields.
Spacing out your planting of cool season vegetables allows for more frequent harvests and will avoid having everything reach maturity at the same time. Cold weather crops, like greens and peas, taste sweeter when grown at lower temperatures.
August isn?t just about summer crops
August is often seen as the peak month for summer harvests, yet for gardeners, it also marks the start of their kitchen vegetable gardening season. August plantings tend to include cool weather crops that can continue providing fresh vegetables even into fall and winter; thus extending their fresh supply long into a Midwest winter’s cold grip.
Now is an excellent time to plant heat-loving crops such as tomatoes, okra and eggplant for harvest in early autumn. Incorporate year-round fillers like beets, bunch onions, carrots, summer lettuces and winter radishes for variety in your garden.
As gardens across the nation are exposed to intense sun exposure, it’s crucial that you review your garden checklist regularly and perform maintenance tasks throughout the day. When possible, carry out these tasks early morning or during cooler times of the day when the sun’s intensity is diminished – don’t forget to stay hydrated while tending your gardens!
If you live in a warm and sunny climate, selecting appropriate vegetable varieties for your area is of paramount importance. When selecting varieties, be mindful to find ones which mature before the first frost has hit and use crop-extending techniques to extend the growing season in your garden.
When traveling during August, ask friends or neighbors to water your gardens for you, rewarding them with baskets of fresh garden produce! Be sure to record daily temperatures and rainfall amounts in your garden journal – these observations will prove invaluable when planning next year’s garden! Additionally, note which areas were more successful (or unsuccessful), how you managed them, such as applying mulch, using drip irrigation or planting specific varieties at certain dates – such details will ensure your next gardening experience will be the best yet! Happy planting!
August is for succession planting
Once warm-season crops have finished producing, succession planting of cool-weather vegetables should begin in your garden. Succession planting is an essential component of year-round vegetable gardening; its purpose is to ensure fresh homegrown veggies throughout winter and spring.
Succession planting works by sowing multiple sowings of the same crop at regular intervals to provide you with fresh produce over an extended period. It allows you to maximize the use of small garden beds while simultaneously protecting it from erosion caused by heavy rainfall. By covering your soil with leafy plants throughout the season, succession planting helps prevent weed growth while protecting from erosion caused by heavy downpours.
In areas with long, hot summers there is still time to sow warm-weather crops such as bush beans, cucumbers, squash and watermelons; eggplant, okra and lima beans should also be planted now. Meanwhile in cooler regions you can sow sweet corn, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower collard greens kale chard lettuce kohlrabi.
If you planted peas in the spring, now is an opportune time to sow another round so they will mature before frost arrives and allow you to enjoy them well into early winter. Bush beans and peas make great additions to any garden bed or container garden space.
August gardens should continue to see success with short-season cool-weather crops like radish and other short-season varieties; herbs such as cilantro and parsley; salad greens such as bok choy, arugula, and spinach that can be harvested within 30-40 days from sowing; all these will extend your edible season into autumn’s cool temperatures.
Radishes and arugula, short-season crops typically planted during autumn’s cool temperatures, can still flourish even as temperatures turn cool. Their easy sowing process means these varieties will quickly fill any empty spots in your garden beds.
August is for garden rotation
If you have been keeping a garden journal or creating a planting map, now might be an opportune time to plan crop rotations for next season. Vegetables grown in one spot for multiple years often develop disease-causing organisms in their soil and decrease yield of subsequent harvests – crop rotation prevents this by moving plant families around your garden each year and placing them in different spots.
Crop rotation may not be mandatory for every gardener, but it can help improve soil health and increase harvests for those who do it. To create one in your own garden, start by listing all of the vegetable families grown there each year; take note of where each one was planted each time; use this data to devise a plan which ensures each family moves into different sections each time around – ultimately leading to improved soil health and harvests!
Vegetables like beans, squash and tomato benefit from being planted every three to four years on an ideal rotation schedule. Legumes (bush peas and peas) and root vegetables such as beets, onions, carrots, radishes and potatoes should also be rotated annually for best results. Other plants suitable for rotation include salad greens, courgettes and cucumbers along with summer fruits such as strawberries and raspberries; perennial vegetables like asparagus or artichokes do not need to be rotated regularly so they won’t overcrowd themselves – although planting each year ensures optimal conditions!
August is also an excellent month to order spring-blooming bulbs like tulips and daffodils for planting before winter sets in. Order them either online or at your local garden center – just be sure that hardy early-maturing varieties make it through winter without dying off in the ground! Additionally, adding mulch in late August can keep soil cool while retaining moisture, while regular weeding throughout August reduces weed pressure in vegetable gardens as well. Don’t forget to prune berry canes after harvest and inspect tomato plants regularly for diseases or pests before winter arrives!
August is for setting up fall/winter harvests
Summer heat may still be with us in many parts of the country, but its time to turn our thoughts toward autumn and winter gardens. If you plan to sow vegetables that thrive in cooler temperatures such as snap beans, rutabagas, parsnips and turnips – now would be an ideal time to begin sowing.
If you have been succession planting your garden to ensure a nearly continuous harvest, continue the same strategy until the end of your hardiness zone’s growing season. After that, switch out older plants for ones that will fare equally well in cooler temperatures–carrots tend to do particularly well as fall and winter crops in many regions.
As fall vegetable planting approaches, now is also an opportune time to get beds prepared for plantings if necessary. This may involve amending soil quality, edging and tying in tall crops like corn. Also check your local garden center or nursery for end-of-season clearance sales that often feature perennial herbs, seeds and gardening supplies at heavily reduced prices.
Crop covers can help extend harvest into winter by keeping temperatures above freezing, enabling year-round growing in most parts of the country. Niki shows you how to set these structures up in her book: “Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a Resilient, Weather Resistant and Pest-Free Vegetable Garden”.
If crop covers are something new to you this year, make the investment worthwhile by using them in your garden. They can vastly increase the number of vegetables that can be grown as well as how long harvest times last – the investment should quickly pay itself back, especially if your family loves eating healthy!
