It’s not too late to plant that vegetable garden.
Summer is well underway and the bounty of the vegetable garden has been a reoccurring topic at the dinner table. If you’re feeling a little green with envy, it’s not too late to grow a few veggies and herbs.
The key is not to wait too much longer. Seeds must be planted by Aug. 1. Depending on where you live, some vegetables and herbs can be harvested well into the fall.
Seasoned gardeners have reported that they have harvested carrots at Christmas and have found them to have an intense sweet flavour. It seems cold weather and even frost adds immensely to the taste.
Certain vegetables, like tomatoes and peppers must be planted in the spring. They require a long growing season to reach full maturity.
Frost starts rearing its ugly head about the second week of September or even earlier in some regions.
“This is one of the important factors to understand and keep track of for small space gardeners”, said Sonia Day ,speaker at the June meeting of the Fergus Horticultural Society.
According to her website, “Day writes talks and breathes gardening”. She is a Master Gardener, author, columnist and public speaker who somehow finds the time to see what’s growing on her 48-acre rural property.
Her new book, Incredible Edibles 43 Fun Things to Grow in the City, was the primary resource for her presentation.
Day discussed why we should be concerned about the environment and the foods we eat. She espoused that we should buy local, be thrifty and above all stop eating chemicals.
She pinpointed many of the essential characteristics for growing a successful garden, reminding all gardeners that they must be diligent in choosing the correct place to garden.
The book was written for those who are new to gardening and are willing to try to grow vegetables and herbs.
Incredible Edibles is for anyone who is contemplating growing organic herbs and vegetables but are in a quandary over if they have the correct amount of space or whether the process is too difficult.
Vegetables require a minimum of six hours of sunlight, good soil, and the right spot or container.
Any gardener who practices succession planting will also need to research the days to maturity of each variety of vegetable.
The dates are readily available on seed packets, seed catalogues or on the internet. Radishes take 28 days to mature so there’s lots of time to get one or two crops.
For seeds that are directly sowed into the soil, such as beans or root vegetables, the days to maturity are usually calculated from the time the seed germinates.
Lots of moisture and warm summer days are essential in the germination process.
Not everything can be planted in the middle of summer. Make sure the tender young seedlings will be able to withstand the scorching heat of July and August or the cool evenings of September.
Often, seeds planted in mid-summer will not mature as quickly as those that were planted in the spring. This is due to the time of year and the angle of the sun.
As the summer gradually turns into fall, the intensity of the sun rays is not as strong as those of early spring. Be patient, seeds will germinate but they will grow at a much slower rate.
In Sonia Day’s presentation she reviewed the characteristics of chosen herbs and vegetables and gave a critique of each.
Notable mentions were: Swiss chard (plant by the end of August, great substitute for spinach); beets (very colourful, edible root, sauté early greens in butter; celeriac (forget regular celery, too much hassle); garlic (scapes – the curly stocks are delicious); carrots and parsnips (benefit from late planting to prevent carrot rust fly life cycle; coriander (delectable herb, harvest small leaves); radishes (cover to keep going until fall); basil (prefers warm temperatures rather than cold); and mesclun (mixture of lettuce greens).
Ron Stevenson is a member of the Fergus Horticultural Society.
