What's Growing in the Garden - August 2022
By Zac Hoppenstedt | Fruit and Vegetable Production Agent
July was hot and dry (understatement of the year) and up until July 25th we actually hadn’t accumulated more that 7/10 inch of rain—with several 4 day+ stretches without any precip. Great weather for curing onions and ripening blackberries, of which we had an abundance, but hard on tomatoes, leafy greens and unirrigated tree fruit. Nonetheless, at the time of writing we’re enjoying some much needed rain and cooler temperature to close out the month.
Tomatoes in this Heat…
Everyone’s asking when will we have our first big bumper crop of tomatoes. Because of space constraints (i.e. over planting the garden to spring crops) we didn’t get our tomatoes planted until May 12th –which is actually pretty early based on the schedule of previous years. Through our participation with the statewide Master Gardener Variety Trial program we received over 60 transplants from the greenhouses in Manhattan and planted at least 3 samples each for 5 hybrid determinate and indeterminate varieties respectively. Varieties include Celebrity, Mt. Gem, Resolute, Red Snapper, Red Deuce, Jetstar, Tough Boy Gold, Better Boy Plus, Mt. Rouge and Big Beef –look for our variety evaluations this fall.
Unfortunately by the time the plants were established and really flowering temperature were 90°F and above on a fairly regular basis. Temps above 85°F interfere with tomato pollination and unfortunately we have not had great fruit set up to this point. We’ll hopefully start some harvests of significance here in early august and if current cooler weather prevails we’ll look forward to some late August and early September fruiting.
Planning for Fall
Following several bouts of heat exhaustion last month we were tempted to walk away from the demonstration garden forever—some of us looking for a new profession and/or hobby. But we had to keep in mind some of the best outdoor growing weather is still ahead of us. As we discussed in last month’s article, there is still time for a second planting of Irish potatoes (if you saved any of your seed pieces from the spring) but more commonly squash, beans and cucumber—this is especially good strategy if your first planting looks worn by now. We’ve already started seeding and will continue to sow indoors some of our cabbages, broccoli, scallions spinach and lettuce for transplanting around mid-August. The rain at the end of July helped us get a head start on succession plantings of carrots, beets, and turnips which we will continue thru the end of the month for anything with less than 60 days to maturity. And even if you don’t open up this newsletters until early September remember you can still get in some radishes and baby salad greens.
Seeding Cover Crops
At the same time that while we sit in front of our Farmers’ Almanac to plan out dates for our fall vegetable plantings we are also mindful to save some space and leave time to establish cover crops in the garden. These are plantings almost always started from bulk seed broadcasted over the beds in the garden that would otherwise be fallow. Fallow beds are especially common over the late fall and winter so we try to get “cover” them with cover crops. When we establish thick stands of cover crops like rye grass, winter peas, and oats late summer/early fall we smother weeds, protect the beds from erosion, nutrient loss, and build organic matter. The next spring we terminate these plantings by mowing them short and incorporating the residues back into the soil with our tiller, broadfork and/or silage tarps to speed up decomposition. It’s like growing your own mulch and compost for the garden.
Upcoming Farmers Market
Just two more WIC Garden Farmers Markets left, the next being held August 11th 10am-1pm at the WIC Community Garden (11875 S. Sunset – East side of the Olathe Health Services Building) These are come-and-go events that are free and open to the public. The Market Includes garden tours, recipe testing to highlight seasonal produce and of course attendees can pick up fresh organic vegetables to take home from the market stand (donation suggested to support the WIC Community Garden). This is a great opportunity to see in person the urban agriculture techniques we discuss in the newsletter, to get outside and take home some delicious food!
