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ENLARGE
Steve Renquist
The hot days of July and August can be a little uncomfortable for gardeners but are often just what your warm-season crops need to ripen nicely.
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons and squash love this time of year, as long as they are getting a good soaking every three to four days. By using organic mulch such as old straw, compost or grass clippings to cover the ground around your plants, you will retain that expensive water much longer than bare soil when you water your garden.
When your plants are producing well, make sure you are out there picking frequently. Regular harvesting of your warm season crops sends a message to your plants to keep producing. Plants that produce fruits like squash, tomato, pepper, and melon do so to produce seed. By picking regularly, you keep the plant pushing to make new seed.
Late summer heat can also be a problem when you are trying to grow cool-season crops such as spinach, lettuce, cabbage or broccoli. If you start cool-season crops too late in the spring or early summer they will often bolt (send up seed stalks), before they have grown enough to eat. These cool-season crops are best seeded in April, or if you want a fall or winter garden, seed them in August.
Cool-season crops will not bolt if the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. Planting in August allows the seedlings good warmth to germinate and to get well established before the soil and air temperature in October gets cold enough to slow down growth. Crops grown for fall or winter harvest will often do most of their growing in August and September. The main problem they will encounter is being damaged by heavy fall rains. Covering your fall or winter vegetables with a simple plastic tunnel will allow you to harvest good quality greens well into winter, without the costs associated with a greenhouse.
If you have berry plants or berry bushes that have been harvested, don't forget to take care of them. Late summer and fall is the time that many of them are producing wood and fruit buds, or storing carbohydrate in the crowns and roots for next year's crop. After strawberries have finished producing, cut back some of the tops, fertilize and water well.
Give blueberry bushes a shot of fertilizer after harvesting the fruit and keep them well watered so they make good wood and buds into the fall. Raspberries should be pruned to remove the old fruiting canes, fertilized and watered well too to invigorate the new shoots and canes.
I also encourage you to let your lawn brown out a little in August by applying only enough water to keep the roots alive. This has a number of positive impacts. Your water bill will go down. The amount of disease and thatch in your lawn will be reduced. The crane flies will pass your yard by when looking for a nice green place to lay eggs. And your lawn will come back great when the fall rains return. This is a good step toward sustainable landscaping.
Steve Renquist is the Horticulture Extension agent for OSU Extension Service of Douglas County. Steve can be reached by e-mail at steve.renquist@oregonstate.edu or by phone at 541-672-4461.
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons and squash love this time of year, as long as they are getting a good soaking every three to four days. By using organic mulch such as old straw, compost or grass clippings to cover the ground around your plants, you will retain that expensive water much longer than bare soil when you water your garden.
When your plants are producing well, make sure you are out there picking frequently. Regular harvesting of your warm season crops sends a message to your plants to keep producing. Plants that produce fruits like squash, tomato, pepper, and melon do so to produce seed. By picking regularly, you keep the plant pushing to make new seed.
Late summer heat can also be a problem when you are trying to grow cool-season crops such as spinach, lettuce, cabbage or broccoli. If you start cool-season crops too late in the spring or early summer they will often bolt (send up seed stalks), before they have grown enough to eat. These cool-season crops are best seeded in April, or if you want a fall or winter garden, seed them in August.
Cool-season crops will not bolt if the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler. Planting in August allows the seedlings good warmth to germinate and to get well established before the soil and air temperature in October gets cold enough to slow down growth. Crops grown for fall or winter harvest will often do most of their growing in August and September. The main problem they will encounter is being damaged by heavy fall rains. Covering your fall or winter vegetables with a simple plastic tunnel will allow you to harvest good quality greens well into winter, without the costs associated with a greenhouse.
If you have berry plants or berry bushes that have been harvested, don't forget to take care of them. Late summer and fall is the time that many of them are producing wood and fruit buds, or storing carbohydrate in the crowns and roots for next year's crop. After strawberries have finished producing, cut back some of the tops, fertilize and water well.
Give blueberry bushes a shot of fertilizer after harvesting the fruit and keep them well watered so they make good wood and buds into the fall. Raspberries should be pruned to remove the old fruiting canes, fertilized and watered well too to invigorate the new shoots and canes.
I also encourage you to let your lawn brown out a little in August by applying only enough water to keep the roots alive. This has a number of positive impacts. Your water bill will go down. The amount of disease and thatch in your lawn will be reduced. The crane flies will pass your yard by when looking for a nice green place to lay eggs. And your lawn will come back great when the fall rains return. This is a good step toward sustainable landscaping.
Steve Renquist is the Horticulture Extension agent for OSU Extension Service of Douglas County. Steve can be reached by e-mail at steve.renquist@oregonstate.edu or by phone at 541-672-4461.
