By Sally McCabe, PHS Associate Director of Community Education   

Despite the heat, we’re perched on the summer/fall cusp. It’s too late to plant summer crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, sweet potatoes, and winter squash; and it’s almost too late for beans and squash (60 days to maturity is the absolute outside limit.) However, we still have plenty of time to grow herbs from seed since you are not dependent on fruit. So August is the prime time to take a break from all but the most limited plantings and do some shady maintenance. 

Below are some timely tips to make sure your garden is on track this month! 

Seed Leafy Greens and Root Crops 

Once we hit around August 10 - 15, it's time to start thinking about seeding leafy greens, another round of root crops, and start planting cole crops from seedlings (like cabbage, cauliflower, collards, and broccoli.) You can also start some of these seeds indoors where you can regulate the temperature, or in a shadier part of the garden, making sure to keep them well watered. For cole crops, use a light-colored mulch to reflect some of the heat and keep the soil cooler. 

Inspect and Maintain Garden Hoses 

Be sure to get out in the garden this month to inspect hoses and fittings. Prolonged heat and UV exposure can weaken hoses, especially dark-colored ones, causing leaks. More common though, are leaky joints, where washers are faulty or missing – be sure to replace them and tighten the connections. One smaller leak can be strategically located to drip on specific plants that may need the extra water, but big gushers, or lots of small ones, will waste water, cause mud, and run up your water bill. When replacing hoses, remember: heavier hoses may last longer, but they are HEAVY. So, keep heavy hoses close to the spigot, leave that section in place, and cover it with mulch to keep out the sun. Then think about lighter-weight hoses or even the little collapsible ones to drag behind you. 

Invest in Pop-up Tarps and Rain Gauges 

The heat of the summer is also a great time to invest in a pop-up tarp and rain gauge. Pop-up tarps easily allow you to garden in all weather. Move them as needed to keep the sun off your work, or to keep rain from drowning you while you plant. Practice putting it up and down a few times before you take it out into the yard and weigh it down if you're trying to work in heavy winds.  

Watering is a challenge in the summer heat, but a rain gauge can help. It’s easy to tell people “Water if there’s been less than an inch of rain in a week,” but how are you supposed to know how much rain fell in your yard? Most commercial rain gauges (usually a tube with gradations on the side) are small and cute; but when the mouth of it is small, and the wind is blowing the rain around, are you going to get an accurate reading? Better to take a straight-sided bucket and place it in the garden. Then go out with a ruler after it rains, and record how much fell. Do the math, and if it doesn’t add up to an inch in a week, water! Empty the bucket and restart the count.  

Pick Fruit and Preserve Blueberries 

Picking fruit is another important task in the garden this time of year. Ripe fruit signals to the rest of the plant to start winding down; removing said fruit encourages the plant to start over, producing more flowers to make more fruit, and that makes us happy. Try to pick fruit in the early morning and when foliage is dry; this discourages fungus from spreading as you pick. Additionally, in this season of plenty, buy up all the local blueberries you can find and give them some space in the freezer. Rinse first, then allow to air-dry before sealing them in a well-labeled, dated airtight container, and use them up before next year. 

Care for Hanging Baskets 

Late summer is a critical time to care for your hanging baskets and keep them out of full sun. In this heat, they dry out fast, so they must be watered every day, sometimes twice a day.  However, when you water that often, it washes the nutrients out of the soil.  I recommend watering with a soluble organic-based fertilizer like fish emulsion, seaweed, or worm compost instead of the blue stuff, which is salty and will aggravate the dryness. Weekly, I take a bucket of water, add compost or worm castings, stir them up, and sink the whole basket to water and feed plants at the same time.  This technique is not just applicable to hanging baskets — any houseplant that can fit in the bucket will benefit from this treatment. 

Review Your Seed Collection 

Now is also a good time to sit in the air conditioning and go through your seed collection. Pull out the warm-season crops. Set aside the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, and look at the rest. Read the days-to-harvest and do the math: if we get our first frost around Halloween, that’s about 90 days from now... now that those last weeks will be cooler and darker, so subtract 2 weeks. And we’d like to harvest for a few weeks before frost, so subtract another 14 days. Now we’re just over 60 days. If you can find any beans, squash, or cucumbers that need 60 days or less to mature, get them in the ground as soon as possible.  

Deadhead Flowers 

Now is also the time for deadheading! With all the heat & rain, flowers are busting out all over! But remember — most plants flower so they can set seeds and die, or at least retire to Florida. If you want them to keep blooming, you must prevent the cycle's completion by removing flowers as soon as they are done. Snip off dead flowers, and the sticking-out stems as well, to make it all tidy. 

Eliminate Standing Water 

Get ruthless about standing water. Mosquitos are rambunctious this time of year and will breed overnight in any kind of standing water. This means buckets, rain barrels, birdbaths, the trays under your houseplants, even the sweat running down the middle of your back. Dump out everything you can and treat whatever is left with mosquito dunks or sprinkles. 

Garden in the Morning 

Late summer is a great time to take advantage of the early mornings. This amazing summer heat is dangerous for folks spending too much time outdoors, so try getting up early and gardening before you go to work. Water well in the morning and allow yourself the luxury of a little spritzing of leaves, since most moisture will be quickly absorbed, and the rest will burn off in the afternoon heat. If you must be out in the heat of the day, remember to wear a hat and sunscreen, and drink plenty of water. Take frequent breaks in the shade and think about places to plant shade trees for the future.

Picking flowers can also be done in the early morning before the afternoon heat wilts everything. Take a bucket of cool water with you to the garden; cut flowers and foliage with pruners or a sharp knife and plunge them into the water up to their necks to “harden them off.”  This means letting them soak up water until their cells are chock full, since this will make them last longer in an arrangement. Let them soak for an hour or two; once they are nice and crisp, take them out and remove the bottom few inches of leaves from the stems, since they will rot under water in a vase. Make a bouquet in your hands, wrap a rubber band around the bunch, and take it inside where you can enjoy it in the air conditioning. 

Harvest Garlic and Onions 

Harvest any garlic that might still be left in the garden. Once the leaves are dried and brown, there’s no more growth happening this season. This is also true with onions. Make sure to get all the little cloves that might have separated from the mother cluster. Inspect every clove to make sure there are no little maggots from the allium leafminer lurking there. They look like little white worms, or small apple seeds if they've gone to the next stage of development. Soak everything in Listerine (generic is fine, but the yellow, not the blue) for an hour to kill germs, let dry, and store in a dry place till it's time to plant them in September or October. 

Share Your Harvest with Neighbors 

Late summer is a wonderful time to get to know your neighbors better. Harvests reach record highs in the vegetable garden, just in time for us to go away on summer vacations and miss them. Strike a deal with the folks next door to pick your veggies in exchange for watering. With these tips in mind, you’re sure to have plenty to share!