The Cornucopia Corner

Tips for Growing, Buying and Cooking Fresh, Locally Sourced Food for Your Table

It’s Not Too Late to Plant a Summer Veggie Garden

By Steffie Littlefield

Hello Summer and the biggest season in the vegetable garden. What? You didn’t get to start your garden because life was too busy? I’m calling this the “postcovid syndrome”, activities and events this spring were multiplying at record speeds and the calendar is exploding. Have no fear, there are a few fun things to still get going in the garden as the lazy days of summer come round the corner and we can catch our breath and find peace in the garden once again.

Let’s start with a few last-minute greens. Yes, it is too late for spinach, arugula has bolted and kale will just stand frozen in time until the temperatures are cool again, but you can still sow a few lettuce varieties (Oakleaf, Black Seeded Simpson, Red Leaf), plant Malabar Spinach, and start a planting of French Sorrel. These will be happy to grow in warmer weather. The trick for the lettuce is to provide a bit of shade in the midday so it doesn’t need to bolt. Folding lawn chairs, frost protection cloth, cheese cloth, or beach umbrellas can do this.

Some warm season veggies can be planted anytime, the trick is to pick ones with shorter harvest times. Bush green beans like the old-fashioned ‘Contender’ can be harvested in 40-50 days, ‘Top Crop’ in 50 days and ‘Provider’ is 48-50 days. I even cut back my green beans after the first harvest and let the same plants spring back with a faster 2nd crop in the fall. Next look for a smaller bush type cucumber like ‘Easy Snack’ hybrid, ‘Pick a Bushel’ or ‘Artist’ hybrid for pickling, all under 50 days to harvest. Summer squash is an easy choice to start in the summer. The cute small hybrids like ‘Pool Ball’ (38-40 days) and ‘Griller’ hybrids (38 days), ‘Black Beauty’ (45 days), ‘Spineless Beauty’ (43 days) and ‘Easy Pick Gold’ ( 45-50 days) zucchinis.

Let’s not forget the easy and fast-to-grow radish and all the new varieties. Radishes are making a comeback in the culinary world with lots of them being pickled, roasted, chopped and pureed for exciting new side dishes for summer BBQ’s. ‘Saxa’, a popular European radish, is ready to harvest in 18 days, as is the French variety ‘De 18 Jours’. You can really get creative here with pink, purple, white, and even green Japanese Wasabi radishes. Beets are another special type of vegetable that grows underground, once those seeds get going they can survive frost and produce beautiful beets in time for your Thanksgiving dinner. The beet greens are also delicious in a sauté.

The most desirable harvest in the garden is tomatoes. But this late in the season it can be difficult to start from seed, however many garden centers will have a few 6 packs of cherry tomatoes on their sale rack in July and you can rescue these with planting them in rich composted soil and giving them a little love and lots of water they will start to produce pretty quickly. You will enjoy a wonderful fall harvest of tomatoes for your efforts.

Now, let’s revisit what is necessary for that summer garden to be successful! WATER, WATER, WATER… It’s not tricky, it just needs to be done every day. The ground will cool off when it’s soaked with fresh water, this will revive the plants and keep them happy. If things are wilting, create some shade. If things are pale in color, feed with some organic low nitrogen fertilizer. If things are leggy or burnt, cut them off. If you have holes in plants, find the bugs and get them off. Check your garden every day while watering and you will be able to address its needs quickly.

Now, while you have a break in the action and before fall events keep you busy, plan your August Garden. The first cooler nights lure me back to the garden to plant some cool season crops that will survive early frosts and add to my harvests in October. Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale, Spinach, Peas, Onions and Garlic can all be added later and even covered with some frost protection to keep that garden going almost all winter. Give it a try!

Steffie Littlefield is a St Louis area horticulturist and garden designer. She has degrees from St. Louis Community College at Meramec and Southeast Missouri State and is a member of Gateway Professional Horticultural Association, Missouri Botanical Garden Members Board and past president of the Horticulture Co-op of Metropolitan St. Louis. She is part-owner of Edg-Clif Winery, Potosi, MO. www.Edg-Clif. com.