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| Garden in the morning |
Sunday, August 24, 2025
August usually sees the full repertoire of the summer garden harvests. This August has been hard on even the summer vegetables due to the extreme and prolonged heat July through last week. Usually there is late sweet corn (plant corn in succession and different varieties to lengthen the harvest), summer squashes (like zucchini), peppers of all types (sweet to hot, hot), tomatoes, Mediterranean herbs, cucumbers, okra, apples, peaches, pears, grapes, beans, melons, figs, eggplant, honey, artichokes, raspberries, onion, winter squash and fennel are all in season in the Midwest.
This year for warm season veggies, the heat put the brakes on tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and beans. Tomato pollen is sterile when temperatures average about 85F. The flowers will form but will fall off because they can't be germinated. Only our small tomatoes have continued to produce. The larger tomatoes have very few babies on them and those that do form do not get to normal size. Our temperatures have started to drop with highs in the mid 80's and lows in the mid 60's so they so be able to produce again.
My beans, winged and yard long, have just started to produce in the last week. My lima bean vines are still less than 12" long and not flowering. I think this is mainly because I put them in a new bed. I'll have to add compost this fall so it will be more fertile for next year.
My Trombetta squash vine hasn't produced any squashes but has started to flower so I should be getting squashes soon.
My cucumber vines both stopped producing. Only one is flowering but no fruits so far in the last couple of weeks.
My eggplant and pepper plants are doing just fine. The heat didn't seem to bother them.
I went and fertilized all my veggies with liquid fish fertilizer now that it has cooled down some to give them a boost. Summer veggies do love September weather so I should see a good increase in production in the next couple of weeks if the temperatures stay normal.
I am harvesting small tomatoes, snap beans, peppers, greens, sprouting broccoli, Giant Blue Feather lettuce, Egyptian walking onions, eggplant, goji berry, basil, melons, husk cherries, and herbs.
You can start a second round of summer veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash at the end of June to have more vigorous plants going into fall. I started 3 extra tomato slicer plants a week or so ago. They have sprouted but it will be a while before they are big enough to produce. This year I lost a couple of Cherokee purple plants last month but the rest (15) kept producing.
I have gotten all the cucumbers I need for pickles so I don't really need more. Since the Trombetta has just started flowering, it should do well all the way through fall.
If you are not growing summer veggies in your own garden, your local farmers market is a great place to pick up these seasonal veggies to either eat or preserve. The best buy on any fruit or vegetable is when it is in season. You can get even better deals on any produce that has a few blemishes which have no effect on the flavor. If you are going to can, freeze or dry them, just be sure to remove any blemishes first.
We grow many edibles in pots because our edibles are integrated into the flower beds. In pots, we have had great luck with Egyptian walking onions (which can be harvested year round), peppers, eggplant, bush zucchini, bush cucumber, dwarf tomatoes, greens, fig tree, columnar apple trees, dwarf moringa tree, kumquat tree, sweet bay, mint, goji berry, raspberry, lettuce and celery.
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| Spaghetti squash sitting on hummingbird vine |
I have tried sweet and hot peppers in pots and the garden. Overall, they seem to do the best in pots. I am growing a couple hot peppers-a pequin type Chiltepin and Anaheim. I use the tiny peppers in my season salt I make and Anaheim for chili powder. I have several varieties of sweet peppers-Habanada, Tricked You jalapeño, yellow, red and green bell peppers and a dark red snacking sweet pepper. The bell peppers are in the ground and doing well. The rest are in pots.
Weekly watering for plants in the ground is sufficient with monthly fertilizing. A pot with a water reservoir in the bottom is the best solution for lengthening the time between waterings when growing in pots. Otherwise, plan on watering your pots every 2-3 days and fertilize every other week. Summer garden tips
I grow all of our herbs in the ground except sweet bay. Sweet bay is a tender perennial and will not survive winters outside so I keep it in a pot to bring in each fall. I had one a couple of years ago that was supposed to be hardy in our zone and it didn’t make it. I put my new one in a pot and it has overwintered well in our unheated garage for the last four winters. Fall is a good time to plant perennial herbs, veggies, fruits and flowers.
Rosemary is also tender. I have tried the several varieties that are supposed to be able to survive a Midwest winter and have yet to find one that will last past 2 seasons. I have tried to also keep in a pot and bring in each winter. This is an herb I will buy each spring if overwintering does not work out, plant in the garden, then preserve for the winter by harvesting late in the season and drying.
Flowers are doing great right now in the garden. They are covered in beneficial insects, butterflies and butterfly caterpillars. The zinnias, marigolds, petunias, Hummingbird vine, lantana, and Cock's Comb are putting on a big show. The zinnias, marigolds and Cock's Comb are also edible. Flowers that are edible
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| Red zinnia |
I started my fall and winter edibles about 10 days ago. I'm keeping them on the covered patio so they stay as cool as possible for germination. About half are up so far.
A quick reminder, save the seeds from your best performers that have been disease free to plant next year. You can replant seeds from any heirlooms or open pollinated plants. What do the terms GMO, natural, heirloom, organic, hybrid really mean? Not only does it save you money, but it also gives you the plants that do the best under your garden and zone conditions.
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