Mid July Garden To-Do List
We have rounded the bend on summer, and with this week’s cooler evenings, you might be fooled into thinking the dog days are over. In truth, we are known to have 80 degree temps through September, so don’t put your handheld fan and Big Stanley away yet. Still, but for some Edward Scissorhands action on the tomatoes and a pocketful of peppers every few days, your summer crops should be pretty self-sufficient at this point and you can plan your retirement, ahem, I mean…shift your sights to fall.
Harvest: Whenever the temps do cool down at night, you can expect your beans, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers to go bonkers. These plants benefit from temps that are cool enough for them to transfer pollen, so you’ll see an influx of fruit during these breezy 70 degree evenings. Keep picking so that the plants continue to produce, and remember that you can blanch and quickly freeze these crops when your counters are full.
Try eating okra raw while it’s tinier than your pinky finger. It has a delicious fresh flavor and you’ll stop forgetting about all of those extra long okra that you meant to come back for… besides, we need to expand our palates beyond gumbo and a fried platter!
Plant: We still have 80+ days for another round of beans, cucumbers, and summer squash. If you’ve lost cucumbers to bacterial wilt and the vine borers zapped your zucchini, plant more and harvest through the fall! Zucchini cake in back-to-school lunchboxes, anyone?
Support: Continue to weave or tie tomatoes to their trellis. If you have tomato cages laying around, use them for peppers or eggplants. A stake will do the trick, too. Dahlias and other tall flowers like zinnias may also need a stake near their main stem. Look out for them to flop after a big rainstorm. They probably won’t stand upright again without help.
Prune: Snip basil flowers to keep your plant pesto-ready! As soon as basil plants bloom, their leaves taste bitter, so prune them daily. In my garden, I keep one basil plant for my pesto recipes and one basil plant for the bees. The pesto plant is trimmed often and the other is wild with flowers. The bees flock to it, and I’m happy to watch, but those beautiful buggers cannot have the entirety of my crop!
Regularly remove damaged or yellowing leaves on all plants. If your tomatoes are getting wild, you can remove some suckers. You can also prune any or all leaves below the actively ripening fruit— they reduce airflow and create an environment for fungal diseases to grow. Similarly, a crowd of leaves can be removed from summer squash — you should definitely do this if you are seeing any powdery mildew on them.
Feed: If you haven’t given long-season plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and melons a boost of nutrients yet, do that this week (and again in a month or so) to keep them producing for the rest of the season. Use a fertilizer like TomatoTone which will encourage the plant to produce fruit rather than leaves.
Pests: Hornworms, Squash Vine Borers, Squash Bugs, and Flea Beetles are all out doing their thing this month. Hand-picking and drowning in soapy water is always a good approach. See our Growing Guides for more info on these pests and options for treatment.
Diseases: This week, we’ve been seeing a lot of crunchy and curled up cucumber plants— they’ve been struck by a disease called “bacterial wilt.” This disease is carried by spotted and striped cucumber beetles, and once they’ve spread the bacteria, cucumber stems can no longer transport water and nutrients. Even though you may see the plant fight for a few more days, it usually dies within the month. Your best solution: Trash the struggling cucumbers, and plant more! There is plenty of time for a second crop! Try varieties that are resistant to bacterial wilt, like “County Fair” and “Little Leaf 19,” Gemini and Saladin.
Planning for fall and next year:
A productive gardener is always thinking a few months ahead. It seems crazy, but if you want to have a fall garden you have to get started in July. In the next couple of weeks, plan what you want to grow this fall and start figuring out where it might go in your garden. If you are starting your own seeds indoors, clean and take stock of your supplies, including seeds for the varieties you want to grow. Tennessee Kitchen Gardens offers complete fall planting services, but spaces are limited, so book now.
And Shopping! Garlic should be ordered now to plant this fall. It often sells out fast, so don’t delay ordering! You can also use a couple of bulbs from your own harvest this year as seed for next year. Don’t forget the fall-planted bulbs like tulips, daffodils, alliums, and ranunculus. Order them now before the best colors sell out, and they will ship to middle Tennessee in October.
