The Town Farmer

By Peter Melick Agricultural Producer

Cool Season Vegetables in July

ameliorate these conditions is to use white plastic mulch. This white mulch does a good job of reflecting the sun and heat away from the plants, and allows the plants to grow in a cooler environment than if they had been planted on black plastic or on bare soil.

We usually stop planting lettuce for a few weeks in early to mid-June as it is too difficult to get good quality lettuce during July. It usually takes four to six weeks from transplanting to harvest. But then we start planting lettuce transplants back into the field in the second week of July on white plastic mulch. These plants will then mature sometime in mid- to late August when the days start to get shorter and nights are cooler, and heavy dews will hopefully keep the foliage moist and tender. I know that there are some new varieties that do better in hot conditions, and some growers try and keep a steady supply of lettuce throughout the season, but I prefer to grow lettuce when there is a little more margin for error and the growing conditions are a little more forgiving.

Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and other cole crops are at their best during the fall here in New Jersey. Like lettuce, these crops do not perform as well when they have to mature during the hottest weeks of the year. They also prefer maturing in some of the cooler months such as September and October. While some of these to your brown spots? I know we love our dogs, but they do leave their “presents” behind (is that a pun?). Male dogs tend to find a fire hydrant, mail box or tree to do their business while female dogs squat and leave too high of a concentration of urine, which can kill the grass. Apply water quickly to urine spots as soon as possible if at all possible. This will dilute the concentration in the hopes of saving the grass. Rake and seed areas that are obviously dead. While chicken, turkey and cow manure are dehydrated and granulated to use for growing crops, it’s tough to do this with your dog deposits. Rake and seed dead areas as best you can. Enjoy a nice picnic this summer on your lawn, or go to the beach and forget about it for a while.

Editor’s Note: Todd Pretz is Vice President of Jonathan Green, a leading supplier of lawn and garden products in the northeast. For more information, please visit: www.jonathangreen.com varieties can be grown very successfully when they are planted early in the spring, a week of one-hundred-degree temperatures around harvest can wreak havoc on some of these crops. While cabbage is almost bullet proof when it comes to high temperatures around harvest, broccoli and cauliflower can have some quality issues if the weather gets too hot when they are maturing.

In order to harvest these crops during optimal weather conditions in the fall, we start planting these transplants in mid-July. We then stagger plantings for a month or so and use varieties with different maturity dates to try and spread out our harvest of these crops from late September into November. While a light frost will not bother these crops too much, a hard freeze before they fully mature can be devastating. Therefore, it pays to be vigilant and constantly monitor the weather once we get into November. For us, it is very tempting to leave these in the field as long as possible. Not only do yields increase, but in some years, we are able to take advantage of the increased demand for these products that comes with Thanksgiving. But every year is different, and all it takes is one cold night to lose a crop. Happy Summer and Good Luck!

Editor’s Note: Peter Melick is co-owner of Melick’s Town Farm in Oldwick and a 10th-generation New Jersey farmer. Peter is Mayor of Tewksbury Township, Hunterdon County, NJ. He also served as a director for the New Jersey Farm Bureau and is a past president of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture. Peter has also been featured on NJN, News 12 New Jersey and on the Fox Business Network.

While many perennials come and go in popularity in the garden, the catmints, Nepeta, have stood the test of time. Certain perennials like Heuchera, Helleborus, Carex, Baptisia, and Echinacea have had periods of being very “in vogue” in the garden. While catmints have not been coveted and collected like the aforementioned, they have had a year-in and yearout popularity over decades unlike most other perennials. In 2007, Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ was selected by the Perennial Plant Association as the perennial of the year. This was in large part due to the versatility of this plant in the garden and landscape. Even though the catmints are not native in the United States, they have most likely maintained their popularity due to Nepeta being an iconic English garden plant. They are drought resistant, have beautiful silvery foliage and blue flowers, are one of the few plants that can truly be considered deer resistant, and if you are a cat lover you know that some catmints or catnips have a euphoric effect on cats, especially Nepet a cataria. The leaves and stems of many catmints, especially N. cataria, have nepetalactone oil which when vaporized triggers various responses in cats. Like other members of the mint family, Lamiaceae, including Agastache, hyssop;