Once you have harvested your beets, carrots and oignons, we encourage all of you to fill the empty squares in your garden with leafy-greens like lettuces and asian greens. This will help you maximize your garden space and the rest of the season.
These leafy greens need your love and attention. Cut back any branches from other plants that could be shading your new leafy-greens. They need lots of sunshine to grow. The well established plants in your garden and in the rest of your yard can create a lot of shade for your fresh new plants.
Slugs are also on the hunt for tender young things to eat. Your new leafy greens are especially susceptible. They can decimate your entire planting in one night. You can remove slugs manually from the garden, construct beer traps. If you have really voracious slugs in your garden, a ferrous sulfate product like Safer’s Slug and Snail Bait sprinkled among your seedlings can be a great way to protect your new plants.
At this time of year fruiting vegetables will start to focus their energy into ripening their fruits. Leaves may start to turn yellow, or some may start to wilt. This has been a particularly difficult year for diseases like Septoria leaf spot in Tomatoes and Powdery Mildew in cucumber and squash. This a good time to do a garden clean up. Remove dead or diseased leaves and plants and dispose of them in the garbage – not the compost. Keeping the garden clean reduces pests and disease. Slugs love debris so keeping your yard and garden clean will help to control slug populations as well.
The gardening season is not over! The fall is an even better time to grow leafy greens than spring as they love the cool weather, and this cool weather keeps them from getting bitter and going to seed