What to Plant Now

July brings some of the hottest weather of the season to most gardens throughout North America. Sultry days, humid nights, and long periods without rain…gardeners battle drought, insects and summer heat and humidity, nurturing their plants along. It's the time to pick ruby ripe tomatoes and giant bell peppers, to much sweet corn directly off the cob and enjoy fresh picked watermelon and cantaloupe. In July, there's so much produce in bowls all over my kitchen that I look as if I could open a fruit stand!

So it may come as a surprise to you that I'm suggesting you begin thinking about planting again. Like Mother Nature herself, the garden goes through cycles, and following the rich harvest will be lean times. To keep your garden producing well into the fall, it's time to start thinking now about planting fall vegetables as well as replacing spent vegetables.


Replacing and Replenishing

Some vegetables produce for only a short time before exhausting themselves. Cucumbers come immediately to mind. I love nothing more than a big salad of cucumbers, onion and tomatoes freshly picked from the garden and drizzled with a bit of olive oil and vinegar, but after a few weeks of producing cucumbers the vines begin shriveling up and dying. Replant and replenish. You can put a few more seeds in the ground near your original plants after working in some fresh compost, or start seeds indoors in a little pot and transplant them outside when they have at least two sets of leaves.

At this time of year, I'm pulling up the spring carrots. Sow more carrot seeds in the garden. Depending on your first frost date in the fall, you can probably get another crop of carrots from the garden this year. A little frost makes carrots taste sweeter.

Green beans can also be replenished if you've harvested as much as you can from the original plants. Start a new patch, or add a few seeds among the dying plants.

Although lettuce is typically a cool weather crop, later in the summer you can sow new lettuce varieties marked suitable for hot climates. These varieties tolerate heat better with fewer tendencies to bolt or go to seed, which turns the leaves bitter tasting.


Cool Weather Vegetable Plants

In many parts of the country, the garden centers will begin stocking cool weather vegetables as early as July. If you're not sure which among those listed here you can plant, check with your County Cooperative Extension office. Garden centers typically get plants in several weeks ahead of the season to entice shoppers but you can use the supply at the local nursery as a rough guide, too.

Cool weather vegetables need the cooler daytime temperatures of fall to ripen to maturity. Most of the Brassicas – broccoli, cauliflower, and others – are like this.  Begin planting cool weather vegetables in the garden in July, according to the timeline for your area. Brussels sprouts need a head start and will taste best if a frost nips the plants once the sprouts have matured. Other vegetables to plant now Chinese cabbage, collard greens, kale, and certain radish varieties.




About the Author
Jeanne Grunert is a writer and marketing consultant who moved from New York City to a 17 acre organic farm in rural Virginia. She writes about gardening, health and raw foods for many publications, and her gardening book, Get Your Hands Dirty – A Beginner's Guide to Gardening is available in paperback and as an E book on Amazon.com or Lulu.com, the publisher's website. Her new book, Diet from the Garden, will be available this summer and focuses on how to change to a fresh, living foods diet. For more about Jeanne, her books and writing, please visit www.sevenoaksconsulting.com

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These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration.  The preceding information and/or products are for educational purposes only and are not meant to diagnose, prescribe, or treat illness. Please consult your doctor before making any changes or before starting ANY exercise or nutritional supplement program or before using this information or any product during pregnancy or if you have a serious medical condition.


Written by:  Jeanne Grunert
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