Epstein: Here’s how to grow vegetables successfully this summer
There are several quick and easy tips which can help your garden thrive all season long.
Growing your own food is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have in the garden. While perennials, annuals, trees and shrubs are also wonderful to nurture, the idea you can actually feed yourself from your own yard is extremely satisfying.
Of course, if your vegetables aren’t doing well then there’s reason for concern. It’s disappointing putting all that work into a garden only to have it fail.
While I can’t know exactly what’s wrong with each plant in your garden, there are some common problems to look for.
1. Test your soil. If it’s not healthy, do this.
A plant gets its nutrients from the soil. If you have poor soil, your plants won’t thrive—and your vegetables won’t reach their full potential.
There are three things you can do right now if you have poor soil. First, add some compost around the plants. Even in a container, a few cups of compost mixed into the soil will go a long way. Next, feed your plants some organic liquid fertilizer. If you give them something synthetic with a lot of nitrogen the plants can actually burn or just become very leafy. This isn’t what you want, especially for things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and squash. I use a fish fertilizer which works well for me. There are several varieties on the market, including Neptune’s Harvest from Gloucester. Finally, add some slow release, well-balanced granular fertilizer, following the directions on the bag. More isn’t better, so stick with what is recommended.
2. If you have bugs, don’t carpet bomb your garden.
There are all sorts of insects that love to eat your lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and anything else you might have planted.
Spraying the entire garden with some harsh chemicals will certainly kill the bad bugs, but it will also destroy the good ones. If you have an infestation of aphids, thrips, leave miners or some nasty caterpillar you can treat for that particular infestation, but don’t spray the entire garden. A healthy garden can actually weather a few bad bags.
Look into growing certain things—such as cucumbers—under row cover to protect them from beetles. If you educate yourself about row cover you can avoid a lot of insect issues by using the product properly.
3. Let there be light.
I can get a nice crop of tomatoes with 5 hours of direct sun. The garden is exposed to full sun around 10 a.m and is in dappled shape (but still bright) after 3 p.m. If you have less light—and you have early morning or late day sunshine—then you need to either move the garden into a sunnier area (if it’s portable) or take down some trees. Lettuce, parsley and sorrel can be grown in partly sunny areas, but a lot of other things just won’t thrive.
4. Water your veggies, but water them the right way.
If possible use drip irrigation on your garden. Don’t get the leaves wet and never water in the middle of the day or evening. Midday watering can burn leaves and much of the water evaporates.
Evening watering leaves the garden wet and susceptible to disease; you’ll want to water between 4 a.m and 8 a.m if possible.
5. Check your garden every few days.
I think many of the problems gardeners end up facing stem from the fact they just plant them and leave them too long. You should be spending a few minutes each morning looking at the garden.
Ask yourself these questions: Is your soil too dry or too wet? Are some vegetables spent for the season and need to be removed? Are you weeding? Have you harvested and not let your plants go to seed? When was the last time you fertilized, and are there some new plants or seeds you can put in the ground?
A healthy vegetable garden takes patience and work. I learn something new every year that helps me have a better garden. I hope you find these tips helpful.
Fava beans in June.
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