Winter mulching will protect vegetables and other garden beds from the impact of wind, rain, and snow and prevent the loss of soil nutrients. Mulch for winter can be straw, chopped leaves, aged compost, or a cover crop. Clearing the garden of debris and weeds and putting mulch in place before winter will make getting
Garden raised beds can help you grow better, tastier, and bigger vegetables. Raised beds filled with rich soil and organic amendments will warm faster in spring for an earlier start and an earlier harvest. Use raised bed when the soil is poor—heavy clay or too loose sandy soil. Raised beds of rich, organic soil will
Onion seedlings Plant sets of garlic, onions, and shallots early in spring to get large bulbs at harvest. Start these crops indoors where snow or too much rain keeps you out of the garden early in the season. Garlic, onions, and shallots started indoors to give you a head start on the season. Set in
Fertilizer side-dressing gives extra nutrients to vegetable crops so that they can produce to their full potential. Side dressing is the application of fertilizers in a shallow furrow or band along the side of vegetable row crops or in a circle around individual plants. Side dressing gives extra nutrients to vegetable crops so that they
Pole beans growing on a fence July in the Northern Hemisphere is the month to begin enjoying the fruits of your labor in the vegetable garden. Warm-weather crops will start coming to harvest this month. Getting crops picked at the peak of ripeness is important if you want to enjoy the tastiest and most tender
Planting the fall garden in late summer Plant the autumn vegetable garden so that the crops come to harvest on or about the average date of the first frost in fall. Crops for autumn and early winter harvest are cool-weather crops—crops that like to get their start in warm soil and air but yield best
The sweet flavor of watermelon is well matched to herbal and sour flavors and to other sweet flavors. The key to matching watermelon to other foods is to find a taste complement or counterpoint. The way to do that is taste, taste, taste! Once you find the watermelon flavor matches right for you, you’ll want
Vegetables need water to grow quickly, tender, and tasty. Keep the soil evenly moist throughout the growing season—that means not too wet and not too dry. If the soil dries out, vegetables can become bitter-tasting and woody. If the soil is too wet, vegetable roots can become starved for oxygen and plants can die. Water
Aphids Insecticidal soaps kill soft-bodied pests including mites, aphids, immature scales, psyllids, thrips, and whiteflies. Soaps also kill the eggs and larvae of many pests. Soaps are contact insecticides; they must be sprayed wet directly on the insect pest to be effective. To treat a severe pest infestation, spray a plant or crop every 2
Light cultivation removes shallow-rooted weeds Integrated weed management (IWM) is the holistic approach to weed growth and suppression in the garden. IWM recognizes that the complete eradication of all weeds from the garden now and for all time is not only impossible but probably not desirable. What Weeds Are Weeds are plants growing any place
