July is all about watering, weeding, harvesting
It’s the moment for which we’ve all been waiting: fresh vegetables from our garden. No descriptive words adequately convey the flavor, aroma and texture of produce that’s picked, prepared and enjoyed within minutes of harvest.
Knowing what fresh is really like is the secret handshake between gardeners. Once fresh-picked is experienced, life will never be the same, and vegetables from the grocery store or national chain will forever taste second best. You’ve become a card-carrying member of a gardening group who doesn’t mind a little work when the carrot at the end of the stick is so tasty-fresh.
Many of us have been enjoying lettuce, radishes, spinach and green beans for several weeks, and even some early tomatoes. The main tomato crops are right around the corner, and beets, onions, and early potatoes are getting large enough to sample.
Lettuce and spinach often stretch into seed stalks in midsummer’s heat, and can become bitter. These can be pulled now, and instead of leaving their space blank, plant a second crop. Beets and radishes can also be seeded now, to enjoy a fall harvest. Most garden centers still have their seed racks in place.
Watering becomes a task of high importance in midsummer, and it’s no secret that rainwater makes plants grow better than “city water”, as my parents used to call it. If we receive one inch of rain per week, our watering task is easy.
How often should we water a garden? Plants grow well with about one inch of moisture per week, but we don’t often receive that consistently from rainfall, so we usually need to supply that preferred inch of weekly water ourselves. Instead of frequent, light sprinklings, applying one inch of water at a time soaks down deeply, encouraging deep, healthy root systems. If the soil in a raised garden is “light” and very well-drained, this one inch might need to be divided into two half-inch waterings per week.
How do we know how much water we’re applying? Set a straight-sided can, such as a soup or tuna can, on the garden soil. Whether you’re watering by hand or using a sprinkler, the soup can “rain gauge” will monitor how much you’re applying.
Although rainfall naturally comes from overhead, when we water, the best method is to wet only the soil, and keep the plants dry. Many foliage-type diseases are worsened when leaves remain wet. The less water on leaves, the less foliage disease, which is why overhead sprinkling is less desirable. Watering only the soil can be done by hand in a small garden, or using soaker hoses that slowly emit water directly onto the soil.
Besides watering, weeding is also an important mid-summer task. It’s easy to become complacent, as weeding often looses its appeal by now. But if weeds are allowed to grow and produce seed, the seed crop will fall onto the soil and create a “weed seed bank” that can persist in the soil for years, making our future weeding that much more complex and time-consuming. If the garden is kept clean of weeds, and none are allowed to produce seed, in future years the need to weed will be almost nil.
Enjoy!
Don Kinzler, NDSU Extension Agent, Cass County Horticulture