The Vegetable Gardenin SummerThe Vegetable Garden in Summer is typically the most productive time of the year. For those of us in the cooler climates, its the time to get stuck into the warmer season crops that just won't grow well in Spring and Autumn. Even if you're in a warmer area, the best approach is to get most crops planted in early summer to ensure that they are established well enough to cope with the hotter temperatures. The key to success with most of the beds is consistent and even watering (allowing for weather variations), mulchingand good soil preparation. So lets look at the beds one by one..
The Legume Bed
My Summer vegetable garden always includes a Legume bed and this continues on from Spring with both bush and climbing beans as the temperatures are warmer and the plants flourish. This year we are again growing three types of bean, a Dwarf Bush Bean and two climbers, a green bean and Purple King for a bit of colour. The beds were given a light dressing of fertiliser (chicken manure), a good dose of potash (to boost flowering) and due to the unseasonal wet weather, the watering has been more than sufficient. The bush beans started producing within weeks and the climbing beans, which seemed to just sit for ages doing nothing inspiring, have suddenly taken off and are wrapping tendrils around the support frame as they begin to climb.
Leaf Crops
Our main Summer leaf crops in the vegetable garden are Lettuce, Corn (which is technically a grass) and this year Broccoli and Cauliflowers. I don't normally bother with the Brassicas in Summer as I can't be bothered fighting the White Moth caterpillars that always seem to invade, but this year we have extra seed and it seemed a waste to throw it out (as it was expiring) so we planted up one of the raised Colorbond corrugated iron beds we had in stock with the seedlings. Any heads that we don't manage to eat ourselves can always go to the market stall
Brassicas are heavy feeders, so give them a side dressing of chicken manure or alternatively, make a fertiliser tea and water them generously with it
We seem to have found a new favorite when it comes to lettuce crops, the Misticanza mixed lettuce. They are always sown direct, thrive and give a good mix of different lettuce types. We just don't bother with head lettuce any more, particularly that bland supermarket staple, the iceburg. Sow successive plantings 2-3 weeks apart. Even though this is a picking lettuce, where the main plant remains as you harvest leaves, the seed is supplied in such quantities, is prolific and vigorous, we just keep sowing and get stuck in. The odd plant that bolts in summer ends up with either the chickens or the pigs.
The corn crop is usually planted in amongst the pumpkins, but we had some spare space, so these are in their own (well half shared) bed elsewhere. Remember, PLENTY of food and good consistent watering are essential for great corn cobs, especially when the cobs are forming. Have a look at the Corn planting guide here.
Root Crops
The root bed in the Summer vegetable garden is set up with successive sowings of our favorites :- Carrots - both large and baby, Beetroot - for pickling and roasting, Radish - for that quick growing, peppery crunch to salads and parsnips which need quite some time in the ground for winter roasting. Remember NEVER buy root vegetables as seedlingsas they will surely bolt to seed when divided up from the punnet and planted out. Always sow seed direct. The key here is to ensure the seed bed doesn't dry out. We create a drill in the soil, sow the seed, top dress it with seed raising mix and water well. Then, to help ensure it doesn't dry out in Summer, place a fence paling on top (not a treated pine one). This will keep the soil moist. After a few days, carefully lift it to check for germination.
CucurbitsSummer sees the Cucurbits really get into their stride. The Zucchinis are now if full production. The growth of these vegetables is truly amazing with them seemingly turning from just that little bit too small one day to mammoth marrows the next. This years crop for us is a multi planting of an Italian striped variety, or Zucchino striato d'Italia. One of my favorite things with this variety is that when cooked, the zucchini is much more resistant to turning to mush like most varieties do and their striping looks great on the plate! The pumpkins this year are Sweet Grey. Like most, they spread like wildfire, so once you have enough fruit set, pinch out the ends of the runners to control the spreading and concentrate the plants energy into growing nice fat pumpkins for yourself. We have three cucumber varieties in, the ever popular lebanese variety, long slim continental and apple cucumbers. All of which have started the climb up the support wire, getting themselves above the persistent invasion from Pumpkin tendrils.
Capsicums, Chillies, Eggplant and Tomato
It's Tomato time!! There simply is no better home grown produce than a ripe tomato, fresh off the vine. With some extra unused space, prone to weeds and unwanted grass, we extended the vegetable garden for tomatoes. Forseeing problems with Tomatoes this year, we got a little carried away. The terribly wet spring and early summer on the East Coast of Australia this year wreaked havoc with our seedlings, most of which were really struggling and normally would have been selectively removed, but, with nothing better to persist with, we now have over 120 tomato plants in the garden bed. Roma, Cuor di Bue, Marmande, Marglobe and Principe Borghese. We also have a smattering of unknown cherry tomatoes that we allow to grow "wild" each year. They pop up in unlikely places and produce fantastic, fat sweet cherry tomatoes. With all the rain this year, attention to preventing mould outbreaks will be critical to success as will ensuring that the plants get enough calcium. Even though we prepared the beds, the excessive rain can cause leaching and excessive dilution of calcium in the soil, so we will side dress with some more lime/gypsum before fruit set gets under way. Out of interest, our approach to Chillies this year is twofold. We have new seedlings growing in quadrants in a raised vegetable garden bed, plus, we retained some of the mature plants from last years crop of 20+ varieties. Most have reshooted after going dormant over winter and some are already flowering and fruiting, putting them ahead of the new plants this year and extending our crop/yield. The eggplant this year is limited to just one plant, a black beauty, currently buried in the middle of a garden, it's already setting fruit. I just don't seem to keep up with all the fruit that comes seemingly at once, so have only the single plant to provide for our summer needs.
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