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How the Garden Harvest is Shaping Up

August 2015

We are entering the home stretch of summer, hopefully ripe with summer harvests and colorful bouquets of garden flowers. Yet it’s been a strange year in the vegetable garden and we’ve needed to work a little more diligently to result in well deserved successes.

Our cool and wet spring necessitated the replanting of many early crops like salad greens, beets and carrots while punctuating the importance of sowing them a few times, a few weeks apart. This succession planting strings out the harvest and can be the solution to making a comeback after challenging weather conditions and feisty insect populations reduce yields.

May rains also made replanting necessary for corn, squash, tomatoes and peppers who need warm soil which isn’t overly saturated lest they stagnate and rot.

Somehow, there was a case of mistaken identity with garden seedlings and now I’m wishing I had two Sun Gold cherry tomato plants, not just one. Their ease of freezing and wonderful flavor when tossed into winter soups makes them an all around winner in my book. The medium sized Early Cascade fruits used for drying will fill in the void but overall, my tomato plants just don’t seem as robust as in past years, despite the fact they started out doing well. At this point, I can just hope that weekly applications of liquid organic fertilizer and being prepared with season extension techniques for slow to mature varieties will give me an edge if an early September frost threatens.

Garlic planted last fall and harvested in July opened up an area that was quickly amended. It’s now covered with shade cloth and hosts a planting of beet seeds for a tender, late September crop. Sweet onions whose tops are yellow and bent over will soon be cleared out too, opening up more space for additional fall crops.

Pole green beans climbing high have replaced the early yet shorter-lived bush beans that are now overrun with sprawling winter squash.

Crisp lettuce from the backyard has been replaced with alternative salad ingredients including cabbage, broccoli, beets, carrots, beans and generous quantities of nutrient dense herbs until cooler temperatures allow for a fall planting. Kale leaves are less chewy and more pleasing in salads after the tough rib is removed and they’ve been gently massaged. This can be done either with or without the dressing. Fortunately, the dependability of this prolific superfood will often carry us through late fall.

While most of my July raspberry crop was eliminated by harsh weather, healthy everbearing plants plants suggest the potential for an abundant fall crop. But you never know until the day arrives.

Fertilization, regular, deep watering and 2-3 inches of leaf mulch will go a long ways towards making the most from the remaining lease on this year’s garden.

As the new normal becomes one of unpredictability, diversification in all its aspects is my biggest take home so far this year with respect to plant varieties, times, frequency and quantity planted, as well as preservation methods.  Those are just a few of the strategies a resilient gardener needs to grow by. Luckily we have an abundance of farmer’s markets as backup!