GARDENING NOTES FOR LATE SUMMER

by K.A. Linne, Gardening Editor
It’s still officially summer, but you can sure smell fall in the air – and sense it in your garden too, where everything still standing is doing its best to set seeds for next year before they, ahem, give up the ghost.
With any luck at all, you will be able to harvest tomatoes, cucumbers and squash until the first frost, but there are a few chores to tend to – and there’s still plenty of time to plant a few late-season crops as well.
First and foremost, make sure your garden does not dry out. While it looks like we’ll have a big increase in rainfall over the next month or so, all it takes is a few really dry hot days to set back your vegetables – and many of your annuals too – if you fail to give them water when they get too dry.
In the vegetable garden, now is actually a good time to plant more lettuces: the leaf lettuces and mesclun mixtures will do well all through the fall – as long as they don’t dry out. If you have a somewhat shaded spot, and can keep it moist too, a big row of spinach will also produce well through the fall. Arugula will do well if seeded now – and will likely last through Christmas, as will parsley if you don’t have enough already. Beyond that, we’d wait for the fall cleanup period to do much more in the veggie garden.
As to your flower borders, you really need to deadhead like mad right now – to keep them from going to seed – and with some good rains and cool nights many of your annuals will take on a “second life” and ideally bloom like crazy ‘til the first frost. If you have lost any plants to heat, drought, bugs or mildew, pull them out and discard, rather than compost the dead stuff, to prevent molds, mildews and insects from wintering over.
Weeds are running wild, of course – desperate to set seed too – which is exactly what you don’t want. So walk around your garden each day – and pull up as many as you possibly can.
And guess what? Labor Day is one of the days we always fertilize our lawn – with a weak, 10-10-10 fertilizer, and usually at half the usual rate per square foot. The coming rains will get the fertilizer down to the roots, where it’s most needed, which will greatly strengthen your lawn long-term, and help it choke out weeds – and fill in spots where this year’s weeds are now starting to die off.
It’s a little early to begin looking for spots that need new plantings, or major revisions in the landscape – or to check out the spring bulb catalogues – so enjoy the rest of summer, to get set for fall.