Dormant in the Summer Garden - Planning a New Beginning

I've harrowed, and planted, and watered the seeds.
Now things in my garden are growing like weeds!
There's only one problem I've noticed by far:
Weeds are what ninety percent of them are!

OK - I know I'm not the only one! And you know who you are, so it's time to talk about the mid-summer doldrums and the overgrown garden. As we head into the full-frontal assault of heat and humidity that will stretch from the late days of July into the end of September, there are a few simple things we can do to help our gardens cope. The best strategy after that is to use our "down" time in the garden the way gardeners in Minnesota use the months of January and February - preparing for the NEXT garden!

If you have your sprinklers running (and on a rain-gauge timer), and everything is weeded and mulched, then make a big glass of sweet tea, sit back in the A/C, and pull out your seed inventory! It's time to plan for a grand and wonderful fall garden!

Fall and winter are the best gardening seasons along the Gulf Coast. Many of the annuals that we love to admire in those 4-color, glossy plant catalogues that arrive every December will actually grow very well for us over the winter. While many perennials such as peonies, lilacs, and most hostas will not survive for long in our hot, humid summers, annuals such as petunias, violas, and thunbergia*, and vegetables like cabbages, kales, carrots, etc. do very well throughout the winter. They don't mind being seeded in during the hot days of August, and by September, they're up and ready to go to work.

If you have not encorporated vegetables and herbs into your gardens, this is the year to try it! And the good news is that it's easy, because these plants are not only wonderful to eat, but they're great to look at as well. I recommend starting small, and putting in only one or two plants of maybe three different vegetables or herbs to start - it's easy for garden rookies to get caught up in the the excitement, and lose sight of the hard work. One or two tomato plants - maybe a cherry tomato, and one standard ball-shaped red, like "Celebrity" would be enough. Add a couple of basil plants and maybe two sweet pepper, and you're set! Remember that vegetables and herbs like full sun, so plant them where they receive shade ONLY in the late afternoon, if possible.

The best possible conditions for a small vegetable garden - one that will easily support a family of four people with minimum work and effort, will be provided by what I call a "four-square." This garden of four raised beds sits on a plot of 9 X 9 feet. The design uses two intersecting walkways (a cross) of 3 feet each - this is wide enough to push a wheelbarrow down, so don't skimp here! In each corner is a 3 X 3 foot raised bed (at least 12 inches high). Design the cross walkways on a North/South axis, if you can, which will allow you to plant tall things on the north side of the garden that will never shade out the smaller plants on the south side. For more information about building raised beds (they're very easy!) go to this page at the Missouri Extension Service for instructions. There you will see a drawing of a "four-square" with a garden cart in the middle! Be sure to lay landscape fabric in the walkways, and cover with a good layer of mulch - you will be using glycophosphate (like Roundup) on them soon enough, but take time now to make that job as easy as it can possibly be. Gravel works best, but small pine bark nuggets or straw work as well - they just have to be replaced every few months.

This simple design can be dressed up with a trellis or two on the north side (tall vines will shade out other plants, so plant them on the north!), arbors, tepees, and all sorts of other garden acoutrements! What could be better?

To the novice gardener, a 9 X 9 foot plot may seem small, but these beds, when filled with good soil and compost are the ticket to great food for the whole family. Once the beds are constructed and pegged in securely, they need filling. The whole point of using the raised beds is to develop a no-dig zone, where the plants and soil nurture and replenish each other on a regular cycle, and you never (OK - almost never) have to dig them up again. What this means is DON'T SKIMP with the good stuff when you first fill these beds.

If you live where the water table is high, and the ground floods regularly, the first 3 inches of the beds need to be filled with gravel and sand to improve the drainage. Most plants won't grow roots in water, so getting the drainage right is essential. Top the drainage mix with 6-8 inches of GOOD garden soil - not "Top Soil" - this is another thing completely. Add another 6 inches of soil amendments - bagged or composted manure, composted leaves and garden waste, mushroom compost, and what Lowes' calls "soil amendments" which is a finely-ground pine bark product. At this time I add an organic, slow-release fertilizer (read the directions on the label, and don't over -apply - you'll burn your seedlings!). Then mix the stuff up in the beds as best you can. Now, those of you who are math geniuses will realize that the beds are supposedly 12 inches tall, and we just put a quart of beer in a pint glass. It's OK! Just mix it up, and leave the beds mounded in the middle. You will be surprised how quickly the soil is depleted in the beds, and you will have to add more compost! If you have added raw manure to these beds, you will need to wait about 2 weeks before planting. If you used composted manure, they're ready to plant!

My next blog will contain a simple planting plan for a fall vegetable and cut flower garden - stay tuned!


*Thunbergia grows as a perennial up north, but I grow it as a winter annual in pots.