August may be hot, hot, hot, but it’s the time to plant cool-season veggies like Swiss Chard.
Photo by L.A. Jackson
It’s August and, of course, hot, but this is still a time of opportunity in the veggie patch.
Even with fall right around the corner, there are plenty of growing days left for another round of summer vegetables, and, in spite of the heat, many cool-season edibles can come out and play in your garden, too.
At the beginning of this month, tuck in the seeds of green beans, summer squash or cucumbers. In eastern South Carolina, I wouldn’t be afraid to give peppers a shot as well, but use starter plants to fudge on the time it takes for them to mature. Ditto for tomatoes, but go for popular, easy-to-find selections such as Roma or Celebrity, which are determinate varieties, meaning they will produce their main crop over a short period of time.
Sure, frosts and freezes in the fall can wreck a warm-season veggie patch, but personally, it has been quite a while since I got caught with my plants down in the garden by a killing cold snap in September or even into October.
The coming chilly times won’t bother many cool-season vegetables, and because most need warm soil to sprout and mature quickly, this month is also a good time to start planting such delectables as cauliflower, Swiss chard, beets, kale, cabbage, rutabagas, collards, turnips, carrots, spinach, broccoli, radishes and mustard greens.
If you already have a vegetable garden, replacing pooped-out plants with new ones is a no-brainer. However, if you didn’t start a veggie patch this spring or don’t have room for one, grow small by adding edibles to containers 10 inches in diameter or larger that have holes in their bottoms for drainage. Or, for an instant small garden, just plop a bag of commercial garden soil flat on the ground, poke drainage holes in the bottom, cut open a large rectangle in the top, and insert seeds or starter plants.
Naturally, you are going to have to deal with the hot, arid reality that is late summer. Mulching garden, potted or “bagged” plants will help deflect excessive heat and conserve soil moisture, but if the rains don’t come on a regular basis, break out the garden hose. Maturing veggies typically need about an inch of water a week. Also, it is best to irrigate early in the morning, so leaves will quickly dry to lessen the chances of diseases and fungi causing problems.
August in the garden
• Now is a good time to prepare planting sites for fall-planted, spring-blooming bulbs. Dig the beds at least 12 inches deep and mix in gobs of compost or commercial soil conditioner to fluff up the growing ground for your pretties-to-be.
• Keep leaves and fallen fruit raked up from under crabapple trees to help control a fungal disease known as scab. Wear long pants for this chore because yellow jackets, hornets and other wasps like to imbibe on the fermented juice of overripe fruit, and flying insects packing stingers with a buzz on is a big “Ouch!” waiting to happen.
Tip of the month
If you see what looks like dull-brown, oblong ornaments hanging in needled evergreens such as pine, juniper and arborvitae, it’s not Christmas coming early—they are the homes of bagworm eggs, which can range from 500 to 1,000 per bag. In the spring, the eggs will hatch small, pesky caterpillars that crawl from their dangling domiciles and start munching on the host foliage. While insecticides will be effective in the spring, they won’t be of much use now, but you can still help curb the bagworms’ garden party this month by snipping off the dangling casings and trashing them.
L.A. Jackson is the former editor of Carolina Gardener magazine. Contact him at lajackson1@gmail.com.