In the Garden Articles

Summer Vegetables

by Joan S. Bolton

The best reason to grow summer vegetables? Tomatoes, hands-down. From tiny cherries to giant beefsteaks, the flavor of a fresh-picked tomato is beyond compare. And while you're at it, there are plenty of other tasty vegetables to plant for summer harvest.

Start your vegetable garden now, and you'll have time to grow your plants from seed. Or proceed straight to the edibles aisles at your local nursery and buy transplants in six-packs or 4-inch pots.

Getting Started

Summer vegetables need at least six to eight hours a day of direct sunlight. Most, including sweet corn, pumpkins and squash, require a fair amount of space. But scout around and you'll find other veggies, such as cucumbers, beans and peppers, that have been bred to stay small and grow happily in a whiskey barrel or large container on a patio.

Whatever their home -- in a pot or in the ground -- vegetables demand absolutely perfect soil. Your best crops will come from soil with the best drainage, the fluffiest texture and the most readily available nutrients.

That means you'll need to expend some effort to prepare the plot. Dig down a foot and work in lots of organic material. Be sure to use fine-textured stuff. Coarse material won't break down fast enough. Also plan to top-dress with organic material several times during the growing season. This is better than blasting the plants with fertilizer at every turn, which can burn the leaves or promote too much foliage growth at the expense of blooming and setting fruit.

If you have the space, it's easiest to care for your vegetables if you plant them all together in one area of your garden.

Even if your yard seems full, there may still be room. For instance, you can set up a trellis of twine and bamboo stakes against a garage wall or fence, then squeeze in a row of runner beans or vining tomatoes. Or plant melons and pumpkins along a driveway or walkway, where the vines can encroach on the pavement. Or work some of the prettier crops, such as eggplant or peppers, into an ornamental planting bed.

About the only summer crop that should be grown in a traditional square or rectangle is corn. Its pollination relies on the breeze, so the stalks need to be clustered in a block.

If you do mix your veggies with other plants, be sure to avoid any areas that you spray, since you're growing the plants for human consumption.

Early on, you may need to net the bed so birds won't eat your emerging seedlings. Also be on the lookout for cats that view the freshly turned soil as a perfect litter box.

The Crops

Tomatoes and beans grow two ways: as bushes and vines.

Bush types are also called determinate. They're compact plants that fit well into smaller spaces. They've been bred for their crop to ripen all at once, usually for only a week or two.

That's convenient if you can your produce, so you get the bulk of the harvest all at once. It's also handy if you'll be away on vacation and don't want some of your crop to spoil while you're gone. Check the maturity date, then time your planting so that the veggies will be ripe either before you leave or after you return.

Note that even though determinate types stay relatively compact, it's still a good idea to cage them. Otherwise, they can topple under the weight of their crop.

If you'd rather harvest your tomatoes and beans from summer through fall, then look for vining, or indeterminate, types. They don't bear a huge crop, then die. Instead, they grow on and on, bearing a reasonable amount over a month or more.

Regardless of the type -- bush or vining -- be sure to follow the tag or packet instructions for spacing. Tomatoes and beans both need air circulation to help prevent disease.

Air circulation is important to corn, too, for pollination. The male flowers, or tassels, rely on the wind to carry them to the female flowers, or silks. Plant your corn in blocks or clusters for best pollination. If you run your stalks down a single long row, pollination may wane and the ears won't grow nearly as full.

However, be warned that if you grow more than one variety of corn, you should plant the crops several weeks apart and at opposite ends of your garden. Otherwise, the different males may inadvertently pollinate the wrong females and you'll harvest nothing but tasteless, starchy ears.

Peppers, eggplants and tomatillos love heat. They grow best with hot days, warm nights and nearly constant moisture. While tomatoes gain an intensity of flavor if you let the soil dry out between watering later in the season, don't even begin to think about trying that technique on this thirsty group. While the three don't like so much water that the soil turns into a boggy soup, they do like a feeling of continual dampness. You can help prevent the top layer of soil from getting dry and crusty by gently loosening the surface and sprinkling half an inch of fine mulch every few weeks.

Cucumbers aren't as fussy about irrigation. But the mild, crispy types grow best with heat, too. In cooler temperatures, they'll take longer to mature and risk becoming bitter.

Watermelons, cantaloupes and other melons typically prefer longer, hotter days than we get on the Central Coast. However, with a little searching, you should be able to find smaller, fast-ripening hybrids. Rather than going for 20-pounders on giant vines, look for smaller varieties that grow 3 to 8 pounds on vines only 6 feet long, and ripen in only 60 to 70 days, rather than 80 days or more.

If you're starved for melons as well as space, you can trellis the smaller vines, then create slings out of pantyhose or other stretchy fabric to support the fruit.

Most pumpkins, summer squash and zucchini are space hogs. You can economize by planting the three sprawlers between rows of corn, the way the Iroquois did.

The "Three Sisters" method calls for planting corn on hills in rows spaced a few feet apart. Once the corn has sprouted, plant your beans at the bases of the emerging stalks. Then sow your low-growing pumpkins and squash between the rows. They'll serve as a living mulch to retain moisture and help keep down the weeds.

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Sunflowers

Though technically not a vegetable, sunflowers are a wonderful addition to the summer garden -- for you as well as the birds.

The traditional, single-head-to-a-stalk types really do track the sun, so plant them so they'll face you at a reasonable angle.

Look for pollenless types if you plan to harvest the flowers for indoor arrangements. They won't stain your furniture or kick off a major sneezing attack.

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Seeds of Wisdom

Water your vegetables from below to avoid knocking off early blossoms and fruit, and to help prevent disease. Also water first thing in the morning, so your plants will stay well hydrated during the day.