Late vegetable crop

Jul 08, 2010

by Helen Halpenny, Lanark County Master Gardeners

In July it’s not too late for growing a second crop of vegetables. Just choose short season crops like lettuce, chard, spinach, radish, zucchini and kohlrabi. Planting a few dozen onion sets every second week provides green onions all summer and fall. I also plant a few more beans, carrots and even early maturing corn, just to have that “new crop” taste in late September and October. We might have an early frost and you will lose them but take the risk. What have you got to lose but a few seeds?

When the first crop salad crops are past their best, pull out the plants for the compost pile. The soil is warm now, and seeds, given moisture, will germinate quickly. I loosen the soil to prepare a good seed bed, plant my seeds, cover them and soak the soil well. Then I place an old board over the row until they germinate. This helps to keep the soil moist by preventing too much evaporation. Check the row each day and remove the board as soon as the seedlings appear. You will be surprised just how quickly the seedlings will grow if they get enough moisture. The veggies that like cool growing conditions do better if they are planted where they are partly shaded, such as on the north side of a row of corn. This process of succession planting will not only maximize your yield, but also make the best use of your available garden space.

If the nights get nippy before your new crop is ready for eating you can protect your plants from a few degrees of frost with a row cover, be it a commercial plastic tunnel or simply an old cotton sheet. A late planting of veggies usually will reward you with fresh vegetables for your Thanksgiving dinner.

For more gardening information, call Margaret Inwood at 613-259-3141.