I was reminded by one of my readers not to forget about the monthly garden checklist. I have to admit that I’ve been distracted by fulfilling another reader’s request to share recipes using fresh herbs. Please keep the suggestions and reminders coming!
The first reminder is to always keep your favorite clippers in your back pocket!
https://www.amazon.com/Pruning-Comfortable-Ergonomic-Gardening-Scissors/dp/B015608ZB4
Vegetables and Herbs
1. Summer vegetables like okra, yard long green beans, Southern peas, and warm weather greens like malabar spinach can still be direct seeded into the garden. Once their heads pop out, be sure to thoroughly mulch to keep the soil damp and cool in our extreme temperatures.
2. Keep harvesting your summer herbs to help them not get too leggy and woody.
3. Remove all spent tomato, cucumber, squash, and other early summer vegetables. Allow some soil to lay fallow and cover with mulch.
Perennials and Annuals
1. You can still plant coleus and impatiens in shade beds.
2. Keep perennials neat and tidy by dead heading and trimming regularly.
3. Marigold, zinnia, and cockscomb seeds can be planted all summer long for continual bloom. You will notice that you have many of these voluntarily sprout from last year.
4. Container flowers and foliage may need to be watered twice a day when temperatures reach over 100.
Sit back and enjoy your outdoor living spaces. Watch all kinds of wildlife benefit from your hard work. Relax now because Fall is when the hard work begins!
What tool is in your back pocket?
Grandpa in his garden,
Picks tomatoes and broad beans.
We eat them for our dinner,
With all the other greens.
It’s harvest time.
Berries in the hedgerows,
Apples on the tree.
Grandma puts them in a pie,
It’s tasty for our tea.
It’s harvest time.