Late Summer Vegetable Garden

The late summer vegetable garden is an especially busy and beautiful place. Many crops are harvested in late summer, while some fall bearing crops are planted at this time.

Plant fall vegetable crops in late summer.

After the initial spring and early summer rush to get your plants and seeds into the garden, you may be tempted to sit inside sipping lemonade in late summer. Don't get complacent. Head outside and tackle these late summer vegetable garden tasks.

At first you may have picked every vegetable that your plants produced, but now you're getting sick of them and you haven't been harvesting them as frequently. Harvesting tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, eggplants and all the other goodies as soon as they are ripe ensures that the plant will continue producing them.

Plants rely upon their seeds to reproduce. They sense when the seeds are gone. Nature encourages them to produce even more seeds when they sense their seeds are gone, so when you pick flowers or vegetables, the plant strives to produce more. Keep harvesting those vegetables. If you're inundated with one particular vegetable and you cannot preserve, dry or freeze it, think about donating them to a non profit such as Ample Harvest or Plant a Row for the Hungry, which donates backyard garden produce to food pantries that feed the hungry.

Late summer in the vegetable garden in most parts of the country means hot weather. Be sure to water frequently and apply a layer of mulch to help retain water. If your area is under a drought watch, observe local ordinances dictating when you can water and for how long.

Nobody likes to weed, but it's essential. Weeds take water and nutrients from the garden that your vegetable plants could otherwise use. Weed frequently to remove invaders.

Fertilizer during the late summer gives plants an extra boost. Often soil gets a bit depleted from the first burst of growth in spring and summer. Use an organic fertilizer such as seaweed or compost tea, or try a balanced fertilizer such as a 5-10-5.

Check your vegetable garden in the late summer to make sure plants are still getting enough light. Often gardeners start their vegetable gardens when neighboring trees' leaves are still small. As time passes and the trees grow, the light changes. You can trim trees or simply note the problem and move your garden to a sunnier spot next year.

Conversely, the strong late summer light may actually be scorching your plants. If your plants are starting to wither and turn brown, consider shade cloth. Shade cloth is a special cloth used by greenhouse managers and growers to block out a bit of sunshine. It's spread over hoops or a wooden frame. Check your local garden center for special shading cloth and other material to use if strong, hot sun bothers your plants.

For most areas of the country, planting fall vegetables in late summer is a great idea. Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts taste sweeter when they mature after a hard frost.

To plant vegetables in late summer, start with seeds. Plant them deeper in late summer than you would in spring to ensure they remain cooler. Keep well watered throughout the first several weeks until they establish themselves in the garden.

Vegetables to plant in late summer include:

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Brussels sprouts
• Lettuce
• Spinach
• Chard
• Broccoli rabe

In very southern areas of the country, usually zones 7-9, many fall plantings last well into the winter. Southern gardeners may be able to grow and harvest spinach, chard and broccoli well past Thanksgiving and sometimes over the winter, depending on how cold it gets.

While late summer may seem like the time to kick back and relax, caring for a late summer garden ensures that the delicious harvest continues well into the fall, and sometimes beyond.

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