July 2026 Edible Garden Planner

July harvest-peppers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers

Sunday, July 5, 2026

July is the time of year for harvesting the heat lovers like tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, all types of peppers, basil and other Mediterranean herbs.  With the hot, dry weather here, watering and fertilizing are key to on-going harvests.  It is also the time to plant for fall harvests.

I got my summer garden in mid May this year.  Most of my summer vegetables I started indoors and transplanted when it got warmer.  The large seeded transplants like squash, beans, and melons I started in pots outdoors in early May.  Now, we are having a long string of 90's at the end of June/beginning of July and it is forecasted to remain above average for the next 15 days.  The peppers, eggplant, cucumber and squash are loving these temperatures and growing quickly.

Typically all my summer veggies are being harvested at this time-peppers, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, and green beans.  This year, I have harvested 1 summer squash, a couple of eggplant, many tomatoes, both sweet and hot peppers, blackberries, raspberries, huckleberries, husk cherries and tamarillo fruits.  The pole beans, zucchini and cucumbers are way behind.  3 of my summer squash vines have already died.  Not sure why.  Did not see any sign of disease or squash vine borer but vine borer is the most likely.  Only one eggplant is flowering so far and producing well.  My other 2 eggplant are growing quickly.  There are many baby tomatoes, many baby peppers, and husk cherries.  The winter squash and melon vines are really running and have started flowering.  I got my okra started late so it is still quite short and will be a while before it is flowering.  I put in 2 plants so I should get enough for the year even if they are running late.  They all love thrive in hot weather so should be producing within the month of July. 

Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

Growing zucchini and summer squash

Peppers are for every taste and garden

Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

Cucumber info and tips for growing

By the end of the month, there should be more summer veggies than we can eat and we will start preserving the extra for winter and spring eating.  I will start freezing extra tomatoes tomorrow as they are producing more than we can eat now.  Preservation garden

For salads, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, Perpetual Spinach, sprouting broccoli, Blue Feather lettuce, chard and orach are growing robustly and I have been harvesting from them for daily salads and sandwiches.  Red Malabar and New Zealand spinach greens love summer heat and humidity so are great substitutes for cool loving spinach.  Hilton Chinese mustard and Chijimisai greens are growing nicely and volunteer multi colored Chinese amaranth plant has sprouted in a pot.  All are tasty all summer in salads.  Growing summer salads

The spring lettuce has flowered and is producing seed.  When you see the white fuzzies on lettuce stalks, they are ready to save the seed.  I just pull the seed heads, break apart, put in a ziplock freezer bag, label with type and date, and store in the refrigerator.  I will re-seed my self watering pots with some of the seeds by cutting off the seed heads and placing in pots.  If I don't have time to gather the seed, I just let the seeds spread throughout the garden and move the volunteers to pots or garden spots that I want them.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds  

It is best to start new lettuce seed every 3 weeks to keep yourself supplied for salads.  This time of year, do start the heat tolerant varieties.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces  Next round will be the fall and winter varieties that have cold tolerance.  Succession planting is key for keeping lettuce in the heat of the summer.  Start your lettuce seeds in a cool spot as they won't sprout when the ground is above 75 F.  You can start them in a pot indoors and then take outside when they have sprouted.

Pole green beans on trellis

I have put the yard long beans, pole snap and lima beans in the garden bed this year.  I went to yard long beans for snap beans again this year because they are so prolific in our climate.  When snap beans start producing, harvest them daily to keep them producing.  I keep a quart bag in the freezer and add mature green beans as they are ready for picking.  Any storage beans like lima beans will stay on the vine until the pod dries.  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer

 The garlic plants now have garlic scapes and flowers so they are doing well.  The garlic, onions and shallots are all starting to die back so harvest time is here.

Garlic harvest time is typically this time of year.  When the tops start dying, it is time to harvest.  After pulling, be sure to harden off in a shaded area.  If your soil has alot of clay, you will have to dig them.  Try to not cut into the cloves when digging.  After two weeks hardening, the cloves can be brought indoors for storing.  Hardening is critical for the garlic to not rot when stored.  I love elephant garlic as the cloves are as their name suggests, they are huge!  Save the biggest cloves for replanting in the fall.  Garlic harvest time is near!  My favorite way to preserve garlic is to pickle them in apple cider vinegar with a few hot peppers and store in the frig.  Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!

I am growing Yukon Gold potatoes this year in potato boxes.  Yukon Gold is supposed to be a good storage potato and should be ready to harvest this month.

Blue Spice basil is growing great.  Purple Bush and Cardinal basil are further behind.  I can harvest as many leaves as I want for cooking.  The Cardinal Basil need to get bigger before I will cut them back to make pesto.  I have switched to mainly Cardinal basil for harvesting as it doesn't get woody like Genovese basil.  I still grow Genovese basil because the bees love the flowers.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Oregano, dill and thyme have been blooming for a bit.  Garden chives have flowered but garlic chives have not flowered yet.  The bees love these small herb flowers!  All can be cut and dried now, but I love the dainty flowers, too, and will wait until fall.  Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

I fertilized all the flowers and vegetables again to keep them growing a couple of weeks ago.  Pots lose nutrients at a much higher rate than garden beds so I supplement them with liquid fertilizer.  I am using a liquid fertilizer for all the potted plants about every other week and using a solid fertilizer monthly around each plant.  I like Espoma or ReVita since both are all natural products.  I use tomato fertilizer for all fruit producing plants and their general purpose vegetable fertilizer for all other veggie and herb plants.  If the plants need just nitrogen (leaves are yellowish and not dark green), I use blood meal, alfalfa meal or a liquid fish emulsion.  Decorative container gardening for edibles

I have been using a mineral supplement in spring for my plants for the last few years, both the garden bed, pots and the potting soil I make.  Right now I alternate between Azomite and kelp meal each year.  So many soils are low in minerals and micronutrients.  Your plants can't absorb what the soil does not have.  Kelp has growth hormones in it as well.  They can cause your plants to outgrow their pot.  If your plants get a big boost when you add minerals to the soil, you know that it was needed.  Adding minerals to the plants and soil will significantly increase the minerals in the plant itself, giving you minerals in the veggies you eat.  The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

A key to keeping the garden productive this time of year is to keep even moisture to all the beds and containers.  Inconsistent moisture can cause tomato fruits to crack and blossom end rot.  Water the beds weekly and deeply if there hasn't been a good rain; they need a good inch of water a week.  During hot, dry periods, your containers may need watering every other day.  Self-watering pots with reservoirs in the bottom or very large catch pans are the trick to extending time between waterings.  Summer garden tips

If you are getting higher than normal rainfall, you'll need to fertilize more often as the rain can wash away the nutrients.  Keep an eye on the growth of your veggies and if they are not growing and producing as expected, they may need some extra food.  

Strawberries are done for the season.  Blackberries, raspberries, husk cherries, huckleberries and tamarillo fruits have been producing for a bit now.  My thornless blackberry looks like it is done for the season; the thorny one is still producing.  Back yard strawberries 

Finally, there are many summer flowers in bloom.  The daylilies, petunias, echinacea, carrots, fairy lilies,  zinnias, celosia, sunflowers, morning glory, mums, gladiolus, as well as many herbs are all in full bloom.  The hummingbird vine, sedum, jasmine vine will be blooming sometime this month.  The early spring mustard, carrots, lettuce and broccoli have all bolted and are flowering.  The bees just love their tiny flowers!  Flowers are not only beautiful, but attract pollinators making the garden more productive.  

A butterfly on zinnias in the edible garden

At the end of this month, it will be time to start your seeds and seedlings for fall and winter harvests.  You have to start early so they are at full size before frost.  Time to plant for fall and winter harvests! 

Pests and fungus can also be a problem during this time of year with the hot temperatures and high humidity.  I have been finding which vegetables aren't bothered by our heat and humidity and making these my standbys.  Trombetta squash is one that can be used as zucchini but doesn't overwhelm in production.  It's an heirloom variety from Italy.  In my garden, it resists powdering mildew and squash bugs unlike zucchini.  Preventing and treating powdery mildew

You can try and stay ahead of pests by monitoring the garden closely and picking off the pests.  If they do get the best of you, here are some natural ways to combat them.  Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays    If you want to let pests come into natural balance, the rule of thumb is that it takes about 7 years for the "good" bugs and other "bad" bug predators like toads, birds, lizards, to take up residence in your garden to keep the "bad" bugs in check.

Cabbage worms still decimate my sprouting broccoli.  And the flea beetles chow down on my orach and amaranth.  I keep hoping this will be the year it comes into balance, but it has not happened yet.  I first tried to use BT sprays or dust that needs to be reapplied after a heavy dew or rain or inspect and squish daily, but those did not solve the problem over the long term and it was a lot of time to do religiously.  The cabbage worm starts in June.  If I harvested all my mustard, cauliflower and broccoli by the beginning of June, this would eliminate the problem.  I don't because sprouting broccoli leaves are ones that stay sweet all summer long so I use them in summer salads.  I have enough volunteers that there is always a plant to harvest from.  Maybe later this year, they will come in balance. 

Have homegrown salads all summer

Potted Red Romaine with amaranth and morning glory

Saturday, June 27, 2026

It has taken me years to figure out what the best greens are to keep salads going through our hot and humid summers.  Lettuce is a crop that loves cool weather and moisture.  As soon as the temperatures start hitting the 80's, they sprout a stalk and flower, called bolting.  As soon as that stalk starts growing, most lettuce leaves turn bitter.  So, what are you to do to keep sweet greens going through the dog days of summer?  This is what I have found to work in my Zone 7 summer garden.

I read descriptors and articles on the most heat tolerant lettuces there are and I keep trying new ones to find the ones that last the longest in my summer garden.  There are some that even after they bolt still stay sweet if you harvest first thing in the morning or right after a nice cooling rain.  For my garden, the best summer lettuces have been Royal Oakleaf, Butter King, Bronze Beauty, Giant Blue Feather and Red Sails.  Grand Rapids does decent. Red Romaine and Giant Blue Feather seem to be the best self-seeders. 

A few years ago, I started growing different types of greens that have the sweetness of lettuce but can survive the dog days of summer.  So far, the ones that have done well as Hilton Chinese Cabbage, Chinese Bicolor Spinach (an amaranth), any color orach, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, sprouting broccoli florets and leaves, young kale and sweet mustards Komatsuna Tendergreen and Giant Leaf.  The Giant Leaf and Red Malabar spinach are prolific self seeders.  I also get a few New Zealand spinach volunteers.

The other trick you can do is to practice succession planting.  Planting a few lettuce seeds every 2-3 weeks will keep you in young lettuce leaves through the seasons.  I do do this.  I let my lettuce go to seed and replant the volunteers that sprout while planting out a few seeds if I need to.  I always have various sized lettuce plants going.  How quickly they go from sweet to bitter depends on how dry they get, how much shade they get, and how hot it gets.  Sometimes they will bolt when they are only 4" tall!  

Keeping the greens moist helps they to stay sweet.  If you can plant them in a shadier spot of the garden in summer to give relief from the pounding sun or plant in pots that you can move to a cooler spot, this definitely helps, too.  Make sure in early April you switch to only heat tolerant varieties.  Come mid-August, it will be time to switch back over to the cold, winter hardy types to be ready for fall and winter harvesting.

Some nice green adds to summer salads are tarragon leaves, chives, parsley, thyme, oregano, mint and onion tops.  I always grow Radish Tail because it is just fun and the tender seed pods are fun additions to salads.

All amaranths and celosias are edible, even those grown as ornamentals like Love Lies Bleeding and Cockscomb.  So, if you have an abundance of leaves, they make great salads, too.

Doing these things makes sure that I have all the salads I want all the hot summer long.

Garlic, onion and shallot harvest time!

Garlic in foreground, starting to die back

Monday, June 22, 2026

Garlic is rich in lore.  This allium has been around for thousands of years.  It originated in Asia, was cultivated in Egypt and has been a Mediterranean cooking staple for centuries. Over the ages, garlic has been reputed to repel vampires, clear the blood, cure baldness, aid digestion.  Onions and shallots also have a long history of health and a staple in cooking.  

Today’s studies have shown garlic has antibacterial, anti-fungal, antiviral properties. And, it tastes great!  It is easy to grow and has little pest issues.  All you do is put them in the ground in the fall and by early to mid summer, they are ready to harvest.

Most onions are planted in the spring.  Garlic, potato onions and shallots I plant in the fall.

Garlic puts out roots in the fall.  Depending on how warm the winter is, there can be green shoots showing through the cold months.  Garlic will be some of the first greenery to start growing in early spring.  The stems resemble onion greens.  The hard neck garlic flower, or scape, has a cute little curl in it.  They are great in salads.  Harvesting them also gives you bigger bulbs.

For more on fall planting and growing garlic, Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

Soft neck and hard neck garlic are slightly different in telling you when to harvest.  For soft neck garlic, you wait until the tops fall over and die off.  Onions are the same.  They are ready to harvest about a week later.  Typically this is mid-summer.  Hard neck garlic is ready to harvest when about half of their lower leaves have turned brown.  Try digging one up and see if the bulb is large and firm.  If it's not ready, just wait another week or two.

                                               Garlic ready to harvest           Freshly harvested garlic

It is best to dig your garlic, onions or shallots when the ground is dry.  When you go to dig up your garlic, proceed carefully.  If you cut the bulb, it will not keep and needs to eaten soon.  Alliums should be left in dry shade for 2-3 weeks or brought inside and stored in a cool, dry location with good air circulation.  They can be hung or placed in a perforated bin or paper bag to dry and store.  I keep mine in a paper bag on the covered deck.

After they are hardened, I will cut off the dry stalks above the clove/bulb and trim the roots.  Onions and shallots I put in the basement in a cardboard box in a dark area.  Garlic I'll keep them in a bag with good air circulation indoors until I am ready to peel them.

If you planted a combo of elephant garlic (which is actually a type of leek), hard neck and soft neck garlic and are wondering how to tell them apart now,

Leek flower

Garlic scape

you can tell the difference in the them by looking at the flowers.  Leeks and soft necked garlic have a onion type flower while hard neck garlic has a curly scape flower.

Your soft neck garlic will have a much smaller stem than the elephant garlic does.

For the longest storage, soft neck garlic is the ticket.  It is also the strongest flavored.  Hard necked is milder and easier to peel.  I like elephant garlic because you get so much from each plant and little peeling needed.

My garlic did great and shallots did well this year.  Last year, I put in many different types of onions in the spring and they did not do that great.  The bulbs stayed small.  I didn't harvest them and will see what their bulbs look like now for harvesting.  Most of my potato onions that I planted 2 falls ago disappeared.  I'll dig where they were at to confirm if I lost them or they have just gone dormant.  If they are still there, I will plant them in a different spot since they are not growing where they are at.

Onions-everything you need to know to grow 'em

For onions, make sure you are getting the right type of onion based on the amount of daylight you get.  Long day onions are for northern states, short day onions for southern states and intermediate onions for the center of the country where I live.  I only did one long day onion and the rest were intermediate.  

What's up with long day/short day onions?

To preserve my garlic, I peel them and put them in apple cider vinegar with a few hot peppers for pickled garlic.  A trick I saw recently for quick peeling is to just stab the clove with a paring knife and pull out of the skin.  Another trick is to put them in a bowl with a lid and shake them until the peel comes off.  I keep my pickled garlic in the frig and they have stayed firm for me for two years.  I had tried keeping the dried, fresh cloves in years past, but always lost some.  By pickling, I don't lose a single clove!

I use my garlic for garlic cheese bread, cooking, and salsa.  Quick, homemade salsa

Everyone knows of garlic in sauces and on cheese bread.  A few years back, we tried roasted garlic.  It dramatically mellows the flavor.  I just put a few heads in a small baking dish, add chicken stock to just about level to the cut heads, and let bake covered at 350 for 30-45 minutes, until soft.  It is a great spread on French bread!

For those on keto diets or have gluten issues, I found a recipe for bread that takes about 3 minutes to make with almond flour.  I mix in a small pyrex storage bowl, 3 tablespoons of almond flour, 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1 egg.  Microwave for 90 seconds and you have instant, hot bread!  You can use butter or coconut oil as a substitute for olive oil.  I also add about a teaspoon of dried herbs and mix in with the other ingredients for a more savory bread.

You can still start an edible garden in June!

June edible garden in the flower bed

Saturday, June 20, 2026

Some think you can only start an edible garden in the spring.  You can actually start a garden at any time in spring, summer or fall.  If you are deciding to start your garden in the summer, there are a few techniques to use to figure out what to plant and help your plants survive and flourish through the heat and humidity.  Most of the vegetables and herbs we associate with backyard gardening are the ones that love summer weather. 

Step 1-I think the best way is to make a list of what you like to eat, then see which of your favorites are best to start right now in your garden!  This is the time of year of the heat lovers like eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and many herbs.  There is no time like the present to get moving on your gardening dreams.  A summer edible garden  Culinary herb garden for beginners 

Summer garden veggies

Step 2-Now that you have your list, take a look at your garden, patio, deck, porch, front yard to see how much space you have that gets 6 hours of sun a day.  Even the summer lovers appreciate afternoon shade this time of year.  There are so many dwarf varieties of every kind of vegetable to grow in pots or small spaces that you should not be put off thinking you don’t have enough space!

Get the most from your space-plant intensively!  
How to decide what to plant for small spaces? 
Companion planting tips    Edible shade gardens shine in summer

Step 3-Buy your gardening supplies for your garden bed or pots.  Pots are easy-just buy some organic potting soil and the decorative pot.  Most potting soils come with fertilizer already mixed in.   You do not want to use garden soil as it is too dense for pots.  Make sure you buy the right size pot for the vegetable you are growing.  If planting in the garden bed, use your flower beds to tuck veggies and herbs around your flowers.  Mulched beds help keep the soil temperature cooler and hold in moisture; just what plants need in summer.

Make your own all natural, complete fertilizer  Re-energize your potting soil!
Decorative container gardening for edibles  Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds  

Step 4-Buy your plants.  I prefer to buy plants that are raised without chemicals so I look for an organic nursery to see if they have what I want.  The brand carried at many big box stores started carrying organic last year.  My next stop is my local nursery or big box hardware store.  Choose the plants that are green and look sturdy.  If they already have blooms, be sure to remove them.  You want all the energy of your plants going into good roots initially.  Plants will be ready to go directly into the garden or pot.  

The heat lovers like tomatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and melons will also sprout from seed easily this time of year.  They sprout in just a few days.  I transplant sprouts into larger pots to give them room to grow sturdy.  I'll transplant them into the garden when they are around 5" tall.  Or just sow the seeds in their final spot and keep the soil moist.
What to plant in the June edible garden

Newly started seeds

Step 5-Plant!  Water each plant well before planting.  The best time to plant is before a rain or cloudy days.  Gives the plants a little time to get their roots jump started.  I add plant starter and fertilizer to each hole, mix with the soil and then place the plant.  Water again after planting.

For potted veggie or herbs, fill the pot with organic potting soil, water to get the potting soil settled, plant the veggie, and water again.  You can top with mulch to keep lengthen the time between waterings.  I also plant flowers in my pots to add color and attract beneficial insects.

Decorative container gardening for edibles

If planting in your flower bed or garden, the best thing to do is a soil test (you can buy a kit or take it to your local co-op extension office).  If this just seems too much trouble, use an organic balanced fertilizer following the directions on the bag. 

The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

I like to put a handful of worm castings and char into each hole with the new plant along with a balanced organic fertilizer like Espoma.  Worm castings have lots of beneficial microbes in them that helps the plants absorb nutrients from the soil.  Compost is also a good option.

Newly planted pepper plant started from seed

Step 6-Monitor and water.  Keep an eye on your plants.  They may look sad the first week if it is really hot when they first go into the ground.  Consistent water is the key for success.  Like a lawn or flowers, the best time to water is in the mornings.  When you water your flowers, water your veggies and herbs.

One watch out on watering, many summer crops are susceptible to leaf fungus, like cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes.  Be sure to water at the base of the plant and not the leaves.

Tips for the summer edible garden

Here are a couple of garden ideas:

If you have a picky eater, try the kid’s pizza/spaghetti garden.  If they grow it, they want to eat it!

Tomatoes-any you can’t eat, you can easily freeze for winter pizzas

Basil, oregano, chives, garlic for seasoning

Onions-you can grow Egyptian walking onions in a pot or ground and they are perennials to boot

Kale, arugula, and sprouting broccoli for a little green in your pizza toppings (easy to freeze for later)

Green peppers, eggplant, zucchini for summer pizzas (maybe some hot peppers for the adults)

For those that are real adventuresome, you can get mushroom kits to grow mushrooms.

Pizza garden for the kids

Here is an Italian/Sicilian garden that you can grow in as little as a 6’ x 6’ space or pots:

Herbs (1 each)-thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, and flat leaf parsley

3 basil plants (for pesto and seasoning)

2 tomatoes-1 Roma type for sauces and 1 slicer type for salads

2 sweet pepper plants

1 zucchini

1 eggplant

8 red onions (you can substitute Egyptian walking onions for a summer garden)

8 garlic plants (planted in the fall for summer harvest)

Arugula, spinach and lettuce scatter sown

Heirloom Sicilian kitchen garden

It is great fun, a time saver, and nutritious to grow your own food in your yard!

Growing beans 101

Marigold on left, squash on right with bean vines on trellis behind

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Beans have been cultivated for thousands of years all around the world.  Fava type beans hail from the Old World while the types used for dry and green beans are from the New World.  Pole beans were part of the Three Sisters of Native Americans along with squash and corn.  Not only do they taste great, but they add nitrogen to the soil and are easy to "put away" for winter eating.  

Beans are some of the easiest and most productive vegetable to grow in the garden.  They have little to no pests or diseases, and require little care.  With a trellis or pole, you can get a lot of beans from very little space in the garden with pole beans.  Pole beans can also be grown on a trellis in a pot.  Yard long beans need a very long trellis as they can grow 20'.

Beans love sun, well drained soil, and a side dressing of fertilizer or compost when planted.  Don't get carried away with fertilizer during the growing season or you will have all greenery and no pods.  Be sure to not water the foliage; stick with watering at the ground to avoid fusarium wilt.

Beans are part of the legumes which include fava beans, shell beans (like the popular red, kidney, Great Northern beans), green beans, lima beans, peanuts, lentils, and soybeans.  Legumes have some of the highest protein in the plant world.  When combined with grains, you get a complete protein like you do from meat or eggs.

When you plant beans, be sure to use a rhizobial bacteria inoculant.  You just moisten the seed and coat with the rhizobial powder and plant.  Nitrogen accumulates on the roots of the legume.  Just be sure to not pull the plant when you are done harvesting from it so that the nitrogen stays in the soil!

Beans are summer crops and there are many bush and pole varieties.  Bush varieties come into bear just before pole types and usually have one major flush of beans.  Pole beans produce continuously all summer to frost.  Both require soil temps of at least 60 degrees F.  Start after all danger of frost has passed. Plant 1” deep and as close as 4” apart for pole types and 12” apart for bush types.  Seedlings emerge in 7-14 days.

Fertilize at the time of planting with a balanced fertilizer and then when beans appear.  If growing pole beans continue fertilizing monthly as pole beans produce until the frost gets them in late fall.  

I planted my seeds in peat pots and transplanted into the garden a couple of weeks ago and my 1500 Year Old Cave Bean and Christmas Speckles are about 6' long.  My yard long beans are only about a foot long.  It has been cooler than normal this May which is putting many of the summer lovers behind their normal schedule.  It is now in the upper 80's and 90's so they should really move.

Trellis on right completely covered in pole beans

The pole vining types typically grow to 8 foot long and some as long as 15 feet so a trellis is needed.  If you don't have a trellis that tall, just snip the vine when it gets to the top of the trellis or just let them fall over.  They will do just fine that way, just makes it a treasure hunt to find the beans!  I think the most efficient trellis design is one that you can tilt at an angle.  Then the weight of the beans will cause them to hang down, making them a breeze to pick.  If you have the room for this design (you can use one that you can lean against a building), just be sure that it is situated so the vine greenery gets maximum sun.

I grow ours on a 5 foot trellis in the garden bed or large pot.  If growing in a pot, pinch the tops off when the reach the top of the trellis. 

Since beans are growing during the hotter time of year, watering is important to keep them productive.  Just be sure to not water the foliage; they can get fungal diseases.  Vining type beans produce over a long period of time, right up until frost.  To keep them making beans, be sure to harvest frequently. 

Runner bean pods are edible and produce beautiful flowers in red, white or peach.  Some are even perennial in Zone 6 and higher.  If you harvest just when the bean seeds begin to swell, you can eat as snap beans.  If you wait, you can dry and eat the bean seeds like any dried bean.

I prefer to grow the “stringless” types so I don’t have to remove the string when I put them up.  Most varieties grown today are stringless if harvested on time.  It takes much longer and you get less per plant if you let the pods dry on the vine for dried beans.  I have started growing yard long beans for my snap beans because they are so productive and stringless.  Chinese Red Noodle has done great for me.  I am trying 2 additional types this year, Taiwan Black and Yancheng.

I freeze my extra green beans.  By freezing, I can harvest every other day and just add the new ones to the freezer bag.  Freezing the extras for winter   If you decide you want to can beans, you'll need a pressure canner as green beans are low acid veggies.  You can pickle beans with just a big pot.  Easy, low tox canning of summer's bounty  If you are growing storage beans, just be sure they have dried thoroughly before storing in something like a Mason jar so they don't mold.

Purple podded bean

You get the most beans from those that you eat the whole bean versus shelling type beans.  So, if space is limited, "green bean" types are the best.  I tried storage beans in the past and got one quart out of 10 plants.  I got many, many quarts of beans from the vines I picked for freezing as green beans from half the number of vines.

For watering, the rule of thumb I use is that the garden should get a deep watering once a week.  If we haven't gotten a nice drenching rain in more than a week, then I water.  We have a drip hose that runs throughout the garden bed that is covered by mulch.  This keeps the moisture going into the ground instead of evaporating.  Summer Edible Gardening Tips

What's happening in the mid June garden

Zinnias, basil and tomatoes planted in garden bed

Saturday, June 13, 2026

 

Most of my summer edibles have gotten off to a good start this year. All of the pepper and tomato plants are flowering and most have baby fruits.  The large tomato that we bought from a local greenhouse two months ago has several ripe fruits.  The bean, okra, eggplant and cucumber plants are growing.

  

My garden is planted.  Tasks now are fertilizing, watering, pest and weed control.  There are a few seeds that didn't sprout that have been resown.  Soon enjoying the lush growth and harvesting of the summer veggies will be the biggest "task" in the garden.

This last week, I fertilized all my plants.  It is good to fertilize when your edibles start flowering.  My peppers, tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries, huckleberries and tamarillo were flowering and fruiting.  To keep it simple, I just did them all.  Fertilize about monthly in the growing season.  Water when you are getting less than inch of rain during the week.  Pots need 2-3" per week.

Summer Edible Gardening Tips

Squash-Both the summer and winter squash seeds were sown in peat pots and transplanted in the garden.  They are all green and growing.   Growing squash 101

Melons-I started both my melon varieties, Kajari and Prescott Fond Blanc,  in peat pots and have transplanted them to the garden.  Melons like it when it's hot so if you sow seeds and it stays cool, they can rot before they sprout.  Growing melons 101

Eggplant-I started them all from seed this year.  I moved them to their large pot summer home about a month ago.  I have Rotanda Bianca, AO Daimaru, and Shiromaru transplanted.  The AO Daimaru is quite large but no flowers yet.  Should be soon!  Growing eggplant 101

Beans-I started vining types from seed in peat pots and transplanted last month into the garden.  I have Christmas Speckles lima, 1500 Year Old Cave bean, and 3 varieties of yard long beans.   All you need know to grow green (or purple or yellow) beans

Cucumber-I am growing all vining cucumber in the ground this year on trellises-Aonaga Jibai, White Heron, Shintokiwa and Poinsett 76.  All are disease resistant. Growing cucumbers 101   

Tomatoes-I planted all my tomatoes in a new bed my husband put in, except for a large Better Boy we bought at a local greenhouse in April which is in a large pot.  The Better Boy has ripe tomatoes for the last 3 weeks.  I just picked 2 Chocolate Pear tomatoes today.  The rest all are flowering and have baby tomatoes-Italian Red Pear paste, Cherokee Purple, 3 different Brandywines OTV, Pink and Purple, Long Keeper storage tomato and 2 disease resistant varieties Tropic VFN and Mannon Majesty.  Tomatoes 101, How to Grow Great Tomatoes

Snow peas-I only had 1 vine germinate.  I did get several pods but they are winding down.  They love cool temperatures and lots of moisture.  When heat moves in, they give it up.  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer

Greens-All the chard, spinach, mustards, sprouting broccoli and lettuce that overwintered and those planted in March has bolted.  I found some volunteer lettuces and sprouting broccoli in the yard that I dug and transplanted into the garden bed.  I should sow some more lettuce seed.  In warm weather, harvest first thing in the morning or after a rain for best tasting, juiciest leaves.  Put in a bowl of water to plump up the leaves. 

The amaranth and orach volunteers have sprouted.  They will remain sweet all summer long.  There are volunteer sprouting broccoli in a range of sizes.  They will stay sweet all summer, too.  Volunteer Red Malabar and New Zealand spinach love the hot temperatures and are growing quickly.  Their leaves can be harvested all summer long as spinach substitutes.  Carefree summer salad greens

Herbs-The herbs are growing well-dill, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, horseradish, onions, and basil.  Dill, Egyptian walking onions, sage and thyme have put on flower heads.  All do well right to winter except for basil; it dies as soon as the first frost comes.  Most winters in our Zone 7 garden, the sage, thyme, oregano, onions can be harvested throughout the winter.  I am growing papalo to use as a cilantro substitute.  It loves warm weather and is doing great!  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Fruits-We got a few quarts of strawberries last month.  They are ever bloomers so should get fruits throughout the summer.  All my potted blueberry bushes had some berries.  Blackberries are producing right now.  Have gotten about 3 quarts so far off our 2 bushes.  One raspberry bush has had a few fruits.  The red goji berry bush is loaded with green fruits and I have gotten many red berries.  It will produce until fall.  I have a few potted huckleberry plants and they all have ripe berries.  This is my first year trying them so not sure how long their season will be.  Husk cherry has several green fruits on them.  They will also produce until frost.  The dwarf tamarillo is blooming.  It doesn't produce a lot in its pot.  It would be more productive in the ground but I bring it indoors for the winter so I just keep it in a pot for convenience.

Flowers-Celosia, daylilies, hydrangeas, petunias, spiderworts, blue morning glory, Sweet William, purple and Amadeo echinacea, lavender, lantana, jasmine, mums and zinnias are all blooming in my garden.  Many carrots have bolted, creating tall white flowers that look like Queen Ann's Lace.  Pollinators just love the small flowers on herbs and carrot flowers.  Bee balm, blunt mountain mint, sunflowers, glads, Jerusalem artichokes, basil and oregano flowers should be coming soon.

My pollinator bed has filled in nicely.  It took 4 years to get it full.  It gets a good deal of shade so natives don't grow as quickly as they would if it was a full sun location.  Most of the flowers I started from a pollinator mix.  I'd sow a few seeds in a pot and when they got big, I'd transplant them.  I'd get in 1-2 sowings sowings each summer.  Since the seeds were free, it only cost me time and patience.