“I planted too much!”
At the start of the planting season, the young vegetables are so small, and our planting area seems so large. Yet once the weather warms most plants start to explode and that once-spacious raised bed is now crowded.
What should you do when your summer squash is covering the beets and the kale has overtaken the carrots? Many of your plants can be made more vertical, so start there. Stake any tall kale, broccoli, eggplants, and peppers that are leaning over and smothering the neighboring crops. If your summer squash is near the edge of a bed, let it drape over raised boxes or grow into the surrounding area. And if some of your plants are just too close together, thin them out by pulling or cutting every other one to give remaining crops more space. Remember that the lettuce, kale, chard, and similar leaf crops you’re thinning are all edible, so bring the plants you’ve cut into your kitchen.
“What about all these weeds?”
The weeds that seemed insignificant in June can explode into gigantic plants in July. Even experienced vegetable growers will walk into their garden and say, “Where did that huge weed come from?” Some heat-loving weeds prosper close to the ground as well, so during your summer maintenance, you might be seeing crabgrass, carpet weed, and purslane in the garden. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand for this. They need to be pulled.
I highly recommend the cup-of-coffee-glass-of-wine approach to weeding. Go out in the morning or evening with your favorite beverage and pull weeds, pausing occasionally to take a sip and enjoy the day. Once your beverage is done, stop. The weeds will be there tomorrow, and you can go out with your drink once again. Needless to say, if you live in a very hot part of the country, the early morning is the best time for weed control. Don’t overdo it and this will help make this summer maintenance so much better!
Also, the use of mulch can suppress the growth of a majority of weeds, and it makes summer maintenance so much easier! It’s not too late to add a couple of inches of chopped leaves, straw, hay, or other organic material to cover bare soil.
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