It’s time to plant summer veggies! If you didn’t start transplants early there is no time now — get to a garden center or farmers market and purchase some tomato, eggplant, pepper, artichoke, celery, sweet potato (slips), herbs, and tomatillos before they’re all gone (or stressed from neglect). For beans, cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins, okra, corn, and amaranth greens you should get seed packets and direct seed them… they’ll come up quick and easy!
I’m sure I’ll be adding lots of food growing articles this season but here’s the ones I have so far. I hope they help your garden grow!
Photo Caption: One of my day's harvests from a previous gardening season.
Vegetable Gardening on Appalachian Feet:
- How to Get Peppers Off to a Good Start (w/More Fruit that Ripens Faster)
- How to Grow Eggplants Faster than the Flea Beetles Can Kill Them
- How to Select and Use Basil Varieties (w/Stuffed Artichoke Recipe)
- How to Plant Tomatoes (and Get the Best Root System)
- How to Increase a “Tomato Problem” (with Gratuitous Photos)
- How to Grow and Use Papalo (w/Recipes & Sources)
- How to Grow ‘Zephyr’ Summer Squash
- How to (Easily) Grow Celery at Home (w/Recipes)
- How to Grow Yardlong Beans
- How to Grow More than “Green” Beans (Other Colors of Snap Beans)
- How to Grow and Use Amaranth Greens (w/Recipes & Sources)
- How to Grow Mini-Melons on a Trellis
- How to Grow Globe Artichokes in the Southeast
- How to Grow Slow-Bolting Cilantro ‘Delfino’ in the Hot and Cold Months
- How to Use Fennel (or Dill) to Keep Caterpillars Off Your Vegetable Plants
- How to Start a Raised Bed Garden Without Buying Anything
- How to Make Your Own Slow-Release Fertilizer
- How to Use Compost Well
I don’t think people have to rush to the feed store for transplants for all of those vegetables. Basil is easily seeded at the frost-free date, tomatoes will still bear (if a bit late, but more likely to survive the blight) if planted now from seed, ditto with peppers if you get a quick variety. I’m always leery of those feed store transplants — they just cost so much!
Anna´s last blog ..Anna: Adding supers before a nectar flow
Twitter: Appalachianfeet
I have trouble with critters eating young seedlings so I lean towards transplants. The thicker stems seem to give me a better success rate against insect and invertebrate mouths. But you’re right, if you don’t mind later harvests you can certainly try direct seeding some of the “transplant” veggies I listed.
Sustainahillbilly´s last blog ..How to Grow Vegetables (Archive Directory)
Twitter: Appalachianfeet
Oh I should add: one of the reasons I try to get tomatoes and basil in on time (with the head start of a transplant) is that they are both susceptible to diseases that tend to hit later in the season. Sometimes eggplants and peppers can have similar problems. But if I’m already getting nice harvests by the time a crop succumbs, I don’t mind it as much.
Up until last year I wouldn’t have included basil in the “late season disease” list. Basil downy mildew is really new for our area but apparently here to stay. It seems to be a bigger problem commercially, since you can still eat the affected leaves. But if they are really yellow or hairy with spores it isn’t that appetizing.
I agree that transplants are ridiculously expensive and it is better to begin your own when you have a head start. If I have to buy them commercially I search for places that still sell them for $0.99 a piece. It’s getting harder. In my city that is the Rutherford Rd state farmers market, some feed & seeds, and a nursery chain called Country Boys (the veggie transplants are the ONLY cheap thing at Country Boys).
Sustainahillbilly´s last blog ..How to Grow Vegetables (Archive Directory)
I’m glad you explained about basil — I think of it as a throw-the-seeds-in-the-ground-then-be-overwhelmed-with-food-until-frost crop. I hope your blight stays down there!
Some folks tell me that direct seeded plants often almost catch up to transplants since they don’t have to deal with transplant shock. That said, I still start my tomatoes, broccoli, and cabbage and transplant them — I’m just afraid to lose the harvest of favorites!
Anna´s last blog ..Anna: Adding supers before a nectar flow
Twitter: Appalachianfeet
Basil downy mildew has been found in NC, PA, NJ, NY, MA, NC, KS, MO, CA, & SC. Maybe more, since this article seems to be a year or two old:
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/NewsArticles/BasilDowny.html
My garden was, sadly, the first confirmed case in my city. There’s nothing you can do, it’s spread by wind.
Sustainahillbilly´s last blog ..How to Grow and Use Papalo (w/Recipes)
Eliza, thank you for this! I’ll be checking all of these out over the next week or so, as I really value your experience and advice. I’m especially looking forward to the eggplant article. We did have an okay crop of eggplant last year — but flea beetles remained a problem for most of the season, and I’m sure the plants could have done better.
I planted fennel this year as a companion plant for the first time. We’ll see how it goes.
Meredith´s last blog ..wordless wednesday: wisteria
Twitter: Appalachianfeet
I’m waiting for a new lightweight row cover to arrive in the mail before I put out my eggplant seedlings. A friend of mine is having a hard time with flea beetles this season and I don’t want to risk it.
Cool about the fennel! Dill works, too.
Sustainahillbilly´s last blog ..How to Grow and Use Papalo (w/Recipes)