In the Garden Articles

Summer Vegetables

by Joan S. Bolton

Succulent tomatoes. Crispy snap beans. Crunchy sweet corn.

Other than haunting a different farmers market every day of the week, it's tough to beat the flavor of fresh-picked vegetables from your own garden.

May is a terrific time to start your summer vegetables. You can buy transplants or sow seeds. You should find a good variety of tomatoes, peppers and summer squash at local garden centers now. If you're seeking unusual melons, burpless cucumbers or pollen-free sunflowers, you may have to head for the seed packet aisle.

Getting Started

Sun, soil and water should be your first considerations when figuring out where to grow your vegetables.

Most summer crops need at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight a day, including full, mid-day sun.

The soil should be in tip-top condition. It should drain well and be exceptionally fertile. Most vegetables are annual plants that pull out loads of nutrients during their short lives. The more nutrients, the better the crop.

Be sure water is close at hand. In the early going, you may be watering once or twice a day, and hauling buckets gets old fast.

Also important is rotating your crops. Growing the same vegetable in the same spot year after year can deplete the soil of specific nutrients and allow pests and diseases to build up. By moving around your tomatoes, corn and beans every year, you'll break the life cycles of pests and diseases and give the soil a chance to recover.

A general rule of thumb is to wait three to four years before planting the same crop in the same place. If you grow your vegetables in containers, plan to replenish the soil every year.

Establish Boundaries

Most summer crops require a fair amount of space to sprawl. Think zucchini, pumpkins, vining tomatoes and corn.

Rectangular beds are the easiest to plant and maintain. But freeform shapes may better fit the overall configuration of your yard. Whatever the shape, keep your beds no more than 3 to 4 feet wide, so you can reach in from both sides. Making one giant square prevents you from tending interior plants without walking on and compacting the soil.

If possible, run the beds from north to south, so your plants will get even sun exposure. Plant taller plants, such as pole beans, corn and tomatoes, to the north, and low-growing bush beans and melons on the south.

Line the perimeters with edging material.

If your plot is at ground level, use redwood or recycled plastic bender board, bricks or stones. Avoid railroad ties, treated wood or old tires, all of which can leach toxins that can contaminate your crops.

If you're building raised beds, use redwood or recycled plastic panels at least an inch thick and 8 to 12 inches wide.

Between your beds, create pathways at least 1 foot wide.

Tend to the Soil

Prepare the soil by digging down a foot or more. Break up dirt clods, remove rocks and work in lots of organic material.

Regardless of whether you have sandy soil or heavy clay, amending with organic material will improve fertility and drainage. You can amend with compost, humus, finely chopped brown leaves, aged grass clippings, earthworm castings, decomposed manure or very fine shredded bark. If you do have clay soil, add gypsum to help improve the texture.

When you're finished, the soil should be loose, light and fluffy enough to sift through your fingers. It should smell good, too.

Note: when planting closely spaced crops, such as green onions, peas, beans, corn and tomatoes, go ahead and prepare the entire bed.

However, that's wasted effort with pumpkins, zucchini and full-sized melons, because their giant leaves and vines spread so far from their roots. Instead, prepare a circle about the size of a trash can lid. Mound the center 3 to 4 inches above ground level. Create a watering basin by shaping a berm around the perimeter so irrigation water doesn't roll away./p>

To finish off the area, pound in a few posts or sturdy stakes around the edges of each bed in order to hang netting if you're worried that birds will swoop in.

The posts may also come in handy if you need to set up loosely woven shade cloth to protect your vegetables from the wind.

Planting & Care

Plant -- and space -- your transplants or seeds according to their particular instructions.

Apply a thin layer of fine mulch or lawn topper to prevent the topsoil from drying out too quickly. The mulch will also help keep down weeds, shade the roots and moderate the soil temperature.

Water frequently early on. As your plants gain size, you can taper off a bit. But do follow the guidelines for the particular crop. For instance, I flood my corn every few days throughout the season. But I usually water my tomatoes only once a week, because too much water for them encourages lush, green growth, rather than full-flavored fruit.

Also match your fertilizer to the crop. For tomatoes again, high-nitrogen fertilizer promotes leaves instead of fruit. Yet gardeners with sandy soil may need to apply a little extra nitrogen to keep all their summer vegetables green and growing.

Some folks rake in slow-release fertilizer granules once they've finished preparing the soil, then apply a liquid fertilizer several times during the season. Others swear by only mulching with compost or applying a weak compost tea once a week.

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Vegetables in Containers

If you don't have much space, you can grow your summer vegetables in containers.

Most peppers and eggplants are naturally small, and will do fine in a large barrel. A single zucchini plant or shorter, specialty sunflowers also do well in pots.

For peas or beans, choose bush varieties, rather than vining or pole types.

Tomatoes also grow two ways. Determinate varieties grow a certain height, then stop and produce most of their crop at once. Indeterminate varieties send out long vines that continually produce fruit until frost kills them off. Some cherry tomatoes stay small enough to grow in hanging baskets.

Corn, pumpkins and all but the most diminutive melons are next to impossible to grow in containers. They're best left to grow in the ground.

Remember that soil in containers can dry out fast. And with extra watering, the nutrients can wash out fast as well. Plan to water and fertilize more frequently than you would if your crops were in the ground.

Seeds of Wisdom

It's a little late to start tiny seeds of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. However, you can sow larger seeds of beans, corn, melons, peas, pumpkins, summer squash and sunflowers directly in the garden anytime over the next couple of months.