It's late August, the time of year when the garden can be just as likely to flourish as it is to fizzle out. I know all too well the rollercoaster of emotions we gardeners feel at this point in the season: you're hot, tired, maybe a little bit over it, and those early-season mistakes are showing their faces. But don’t give up!
Today on Just Grow Something we dig into the common issues that crop up during these steamy late-summer days, like overwatering, overcrowding, plant pairings gone wrong, and, of course, the power of keeping a garden journal. You’ll get practical advice on fixing, tweaking, and even letting go of certain garden habits so you can set yourself up for a better harvest now and an even more successful season next year. Let’s dig in!Now's the time to save 20% and order your new rose from HeirloomRoses.com! Use code JUSTGROW to save!
For complete show notes, visit https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/what-to-fix-tweak-or-stop-doing-in-your-garden-late-summer-ep-264
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It is late August, It's hot, it's humid, and everything in
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the garden is either booming or busting.
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Sound familiar? Yeah.
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Mistakes made earlier this season often show up now.
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So today we're going to tackle the host of issues that can pop
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up in the late summer garden with very little warning.
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And a lot of the time, it's all our own fault.
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So today on Just Grow Something, we're talking over watering,
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overcrowding, poor plant pairings and yes, the oh so
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handy garden garden journal that might just save your sanity next
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season. So grab your garden journal and
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a cup of coffee, or your iced tea or cocktail, whatever you
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want, and let's talk about what to fix, what to tweak, and what
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to stop doing entirely in your garden right now.
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Let's dig in, hey? I'm Karen and what started as a
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small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
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passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
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horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
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On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
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evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and
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build confidence in your own garden space.
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So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
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just grow something. I know that this time of the
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year might very well be the time of the season where a lot of us
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are just over it, like we're done.
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We don't want to mess with it anymore.
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We've we've been dealing with the heat, we've been dealing
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with the humidity and the bugs and the weeds and the plant
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diseases and all of the things. And if you haven't been dealing
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with these things, well, congratulations because that
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makes for a very lovely gardening season.
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But most of us aren't that lucky.
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Most of us have dealt with something or another during the
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season and we may just be ready to just give it up and walk
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away. Let's not do that.
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Let's, you know, work our way through some of these issues
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that we might be having right now because I promise you, once
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we get through it, we're going to be better off in terms of the
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fall garden. And if you're not growing a fall
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garden, that's fine too. Your current summer plants can
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actually continue a lot further into the fall than you think.
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So let's start with watering. OK, here's the thing.
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Especially in the summer heat, a lot of us think, you know, more
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heat means our plants need more water.
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And while our plants are definitely thirsty, too much
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love in the form of water can actually backfire.
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Over watering is one of the biggest mistakes home gardeners
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make at this time of the year, especially when maybe we hit
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that sort of daily watering schedule and we forget to check
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and see if the soil actually needs it.
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Now, I don't know about where you've been, but you know, we
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had one of the rainiest Julys that we have ever seen.
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We actually had a little bit of flooding out here on the farm.
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And I generally am not a proponent of being on a fixed
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watering schedule in terms of like set it and forget it
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because you don't actually get the opportunity to figure out
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whether or not your plants actually need that soil or need
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that water. The other thing is that, you
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know, if you are watering daily, you likely are not leaving that
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water running long enough for it to really get down in there and
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soak down into the soil. So we don't know if the soil
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actually needs it. We don't know if the plants
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actually have any airspace down in there because when we over
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water, the roots actually get soggy and we're filling all of
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that soil airspace with water, which means that oxygen can't
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get in and the plants need, the roots need oxygen.
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So the plants get stressed and then you just get really sad
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tomatoes, OK? Plus you also get diseases that
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start like root rot and fungal diseases.
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They absolutely love swampy soil.
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So if you had a ton of rain and then all of a sudden the rain
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stopped and you felt like, oh gosh, now I needed to go ahead
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and start watering. The first thing that you always
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want to do is do a finger test, right?
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Stick your finger down a couple of inches into the soil.
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If your soil is moist, skip the watering, right?
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Your water, your, your root zone is generally, you know, between
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two and four inches. So if you can get your finger
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down that deep into the soil, if it is damp at all, skip the
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watering. And if it's dry, then we want to
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water very deeply. I would love to see people
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watering to where it gets moist all the way down to like the six
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inch depth #1 the roots are going to go down to look for
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that water. So this is training them to go
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away from the surface of the soil, which is the hottest area,
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right? So we want them to get down in
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there and #2 it means that you know the plant is going to get a
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nice long drink, not just a little shallow, shallow sip and
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then have to wait for more water again.
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OK, If you're doing this in a raised bed, yes, the raised beds
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tend to dry out a little bit faster, but the same rule
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actually applies. Deep watering, not just a daily
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little sprinkle. OK, for both of these instances,
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mulch. Mulch is your best friend right
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now. OK, so I even if you have not
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had mulch on your garden at all all season and you have
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completely ignored me when I have said mulch, now is still a
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good time to add mulch. It is never too late to cover
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that soil. OK, so go ahead and do that.
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If you're growing in containers, smaller containers, they
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absolutely dry out fast and so they do need regular attention.
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But don't just assume that they are thirsty, OK, water those
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pots until the water drains out the bottom.
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Let it sit for a hot minute and then water again until the water
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drains out the bottom. Then we know that that soil has
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been saturated, that pot should feel heavy, and you just kind of
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want to make sure that the drainage holes are doing their
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job. Always make sure that they
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aren't blocked. Then you don't have to water
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again until once again you check that soil, check down in there
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at about that 4 inch, 2-3 to 4 inch, you know, depth to see
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whether or not that container needs to be watered or if the
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container starts to feel light again, then it's time to water.
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Obviously the bigger the container, the more soil content
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you have, which means the more water you can hold.
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So that's the less frequently that you have to water.
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OK, so that's our first problem is the over watering.
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The second problem would be overcrowding.
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And I know, I know I talk a lot about interplanting, but there
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is a delicate balance there. We do want to make sure that we
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are leaving gaps between the roots of our plants and a little
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bit between the leaves depending on what it is.
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So I mean, yeah, raise your hand if you planted too much in a
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small space. OK, I do it.
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I do it all the time because I'm trying to take advantage of the
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space that I have in my garden and I'm trying to give those
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plant companions the opportunity to help each other.
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But sometimes it's easy to get a little over ambitious in the
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spring when the plants are itty bitty.
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And then by the late summer we're seeing the consequences
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because we have a jungle in there and some of the plants
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might be stunted, there might be some poor airflow, we might see
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some more pests and diseases than what we normally would.
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And, you know, so nobody's comfortable, right?
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It's time to maybe thin out some of those plants.
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So check your spacing. If you've got a tangle of
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tomatoes and Peppers, it might be time to prune some of that
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stuff back, or even pull a plant out to save the rest of them.
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If you have to do this, there's nothing that says you can't take
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that plant out and transplant it into a pot and keep that pot,
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you know, near the rest of the plants, or near a raised bed or
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near your patio or whatever. Don't be afraid to make changes
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in the garden if you think that things are just not doing well
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and that airflow ends up being a problem.
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This also may not necessarily mean that you did plant them too
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closely together. It also could mean that the
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weather conditions this season have been different for you.
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So if you normally, you know, tuck your plants in really
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tightly together and it's not a problem, but then this year it
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suddenly is again, it could be excessive humidity that you're
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not used to or excessive amounts of rainfall or a lack of a
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breeze. You know, sometimes you're just
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not getting the breezes that you normally do in your garden and
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that is causing problems. So don't think that it's
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necessarily something that you did.
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It might be just the weather has changed a little bit and so you
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can take steps to remedy that. If you're doing this in raised
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garden beds are really good way to kind of mitigate this is by
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using square foot gardening guidelines.
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It's, you know, a good reference for how many plants you can fit
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in that sort of 12 inch by 12 inch space and still be able to
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have a good amount of air flow, right?
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We want the proper amount of air flow and we want the proper
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amount of sunlight too. If you're growing in containers,
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one tomato plant per 5 gallon bucket and then maybe you can
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put some, you know, lettuces or something around the bottom of
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it as you prune that up, OK? We're not going to try to cram
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like 3 tomato plants into one bucket, OK?
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If you've got them positioned next to each other on your deck
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or on your patio or wherever it is that you're keeping them, if
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you're starting to see that maybe they're looking a little
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overcrowded, it's OK to kind of pull those pots apart a little
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bit and give them a little bit more airflow.
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Don't be afraid to thin or to, you know, harvest aggressively
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some of these plants to give the remaining plants room to breathe
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and to sort of dry out a little bit and maybe stretch their
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little plant leaves so that they can continue to produce for you
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and grow in a manner that is productive for the rest of the
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summer. If you have thought at all about
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adding roses to your garden, now is the time.
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As you heard Robin from Heirloom Roses say last week, fall is the
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perfect time to be planting roses.
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It's when I planted mine last year, and I can attest to just
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how well it performed right out of the gate this past spring.
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Head to heirloomroses.com and use my code Just GROW to save
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20% on your order, and you can get your Rose in thyme to get it
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planted six weeks before your first fall frost.
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That means it will have time to stretch its little roots out
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into the soil and get itself established so it can take off
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full force in the spring. And even if you prefer to plant
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in the spring, you can order now and delay shipping until the
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ideal time for you up to 8 full months from now.
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So if you're one of my gardeners in zone 3, and yes, they have
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roses for zone 3, where maybe your first fall frost is about
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as predictable as the lottery results, you can order now,
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still save the 20%, and have your rose plants delivered.
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When it's the perfect time for you to plant, just head to
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heirloomroses.com. Use code Just grow to save 20%.
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The link is in the show notes. So one of the things that you
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might be seeing right now is maybe the additional
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consequences of companion planting.
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So we talk about inter planting in terms of what we're pairing
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together and what we're planting in the same space in terms of
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saving space or in terms of, you know, that high, low, fast, slow
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kind of pairing to get the most bang for our buck in in out of
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our garden. But when we're we're creating
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these companions, sometimes we cover that things just aren't
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working out the way that we had hoped.
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So when it works, it works really well.
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It's almost magical. But when it doesn't, sometimes
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it ends up being kind of chaotic.
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You know, some plants love each other, others not so much.
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You know, basil and tomatoes generally go together really,
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really well. Beans and onions, no, not so
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much. You know, this is all about
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resource competition and what kind of pests they attract, what
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kind of alelopathy one has, you know, when 1 plant chemically
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inhibits another one, you know, and I have some resources for
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that I will go ahead and put into the show notes.
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But sometimes it's just about you've, you've tried something
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new in the spring and or maybe in the early summer and now
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we're getting to the late summer and you're realizing that maybe
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that combination wasn't the best.
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So maybe you mixed some plants together that were, you know,
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really, really thirsty with some that like the conditions to be
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more dry, you know, or, you know, you combine something
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because you thought, OK, this is a tall plant and this is a short
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plant and they're going to go to better really, really well.
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But the tall plant began to shade out the other things and
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it just isn't working. So at this instance, it might be
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time to sort of suss out which one you want to keep and which
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one you want to get rid of. Make a note in your garden
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journal that this pairing did not work.
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And that way you don't repeat it again.
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I'll give you a really good example of this.
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I tried some new combinations in my planter box direct planters
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out in the kitchen garden this year and some of them did
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fabulously, fabulously well and some of them did not so great
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and some of them were OK, right? I don't think there were any
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complete and total disasters, although they might have been
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close. So the first thing that I did
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was I planted my kale and in between my beets.
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So I had the beets come up first and then I planted the kale.
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I transplanted the kale and the idea was, OK, the kale is going
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to get tall, but by the time it gets tall enough to shade out
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the beets, then the beets will have already been harvested and
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the kale will get to stay in place in the bed.
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And I harvest kale from the bottom and they end up looking
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like these, you know, cute little palm trees eventually.
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And that pairing worked really, really well.
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It did exactly what I thought it was going to it it, you know,
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the, the beets were done and out of the bed by the time the kale
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really needed to take over the entire thing.
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And then I just threw in some straw mulch and called it good.
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I did the same pairing of the same type of pairing with the
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kohlrabi. So I planted the beets.
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I let them come up. I planted the kohlrabi in
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between with the idea that by the time the kohlrabi would get
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too big and shade out the beets that they would be ready to
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harvest. I would pull them out and then
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they the beets could continue to go.
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This one didn't work as well as it could have.
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It wasn't a complete disaster, but I did find that the
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kohlrabi's stayed in the bed a little bit longer than what I
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anticipated. And they got bigger.
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Like the leaf cover got huge really, really quickly and it
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very quickly shaded that bed. And so the beets that were in
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there were way behind the beets that were in the other beds
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where the kale was. But once I harvested all that
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kohlrabi and those beets all got the full sun, they had the
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opportunity to go ahead and and catch up.
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So even though they weren't harvested or ready to harvest
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the same time as the other beds that were combined with the
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kale, they were ready to harvest about 3 weeks later, which
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worked as an accidental succession planting.
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I didn't do that intentionally and I probably would not pair
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those two together again, but it wasn't a total disaster.
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Now what did not work very well was some other pairings and some
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of my other beds. I started the collard greens
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along the South side of the beds and then as those were growing
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up, I was planting cucumbers in the north side with the idea
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that the cucumbers would grow up the trellises.
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And then in the next set of beds I did the same thing, but I had
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all of my lettuces in there on the South side of the bed and I
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planted the cucumbers on the north side.
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The problem that it worked great with the lettuces.
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The lettuces were done and out, and that's the same beds where I
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have my living mulch of the mint.
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So the mint sort of started to take over, and the cucumbers
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have grown up this side of the trellis, and that has all worked
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beautifully. Well.
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I will do a separate episode about that because there are
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some things that I learned that might help you.
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But in those beds where the collard greens were, the
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collards just were too big. They were huge and there was no
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way #1 for the cucumbers to be able to get the amount of light
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that they needed. And they also, I think we're not
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getting enough nutrients. I think the collards really were
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sucking up all that nitrogen in the early stages, and that
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prevented those cucumbers from getting the nitrogen that they
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needed to really get going and be able to start climbing.
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So at some point I had to make the decision which one of those
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plants that I want to keep. Did I want to keep the collards
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and have the collards keep going?
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Or did I want to pull the collards and allow the cucumbers
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the opportunity to be able to continue to grow?
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And so ultimately, I chose the cucumbers.
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The collards were already starting to.
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I had been harvesting collards for weeks and weeks and weeks #1
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#2 they were starting to attract the insect pests.
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So the cabbage moths and the cabbage butterflies were coming
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in and laying their eggs. And of course, then we would end
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up with the cabbage worms. And the collards were so big
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that they couldn't even be covered completely by the insect
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netting anymore. And so I just made the decision
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that you know what, it was time to sacrifice the collards and
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allow the cucumbers to take over.
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So if you experience these types of things in your garden when
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you're trying new companions or you're trying new inter
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plantings and it seems like it sort of pencils out on paper, it
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makes sense. But in reality, when you look at
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it, it's not working out for you.
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It is okay to change that. It is okay to, you know, modify
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the planting, modify what's in the bed to suit your needs right
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now. You just have to, unfortunately,
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sometimes make some sacrifices to figure out which one of those
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plants you actually want to keep.
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And of course, all of these problems that we might be seeing
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in the late summer garden need to be written down.
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I know sometimes writing things down feels like homework, but
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trust me, future you in the garden is going to thank you.
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Your garden journal is how you remember what worked, what
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didn't, what cucumber variety you loved or or didn't like,
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which basil did really, really well and which one did not.
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It's your record of your planting dates, your watering
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schedules, how your harvests have done, what pest problems
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you have. It's like your garden's diary,
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right? And it doesn't matter how you do
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this. It could be a notebook, you
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could be using an app, you can put it in a spreadsheet,
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whatever. We just want you to track these
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things because it is going to help you figure out what worked
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and what didn't. If you are having a ton of
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problems in your late summer garden, write it down.
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Identify which crops are having the problems, what they were
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paired with, which bed they're in.
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And that way at the end of the season or the beginning of next
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season, you can go back and you can look and you can figure out
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what failed, what succeeded. You know, whether it was the
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heat or shade or the pests, right?
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Because you should also be, you know, entering the weather
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conditions too, if they are unusual for you for this time of
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the year. The more you do this, the more.
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Years you do this, the more information you're going to have
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to go back and look on, right? So if you can do this weekly,
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especially after a rainfall or after a harvest or after a very
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long period of 0 rainfall. Late summer especially is a
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really good time to capture results and lessons.
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What you have figured out in the garden, you're seeing what's
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worked and what has not. And so if you can take 5 minutes
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a week just to write it down, bonus points if you're like
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drawing diagrams or taking photos, then next season you're
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going to be off to an even better start right away and you
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might be able to eliminate some of these late summer problems
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altogether. OK, So what can we do right now
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to help us with these late summer problems that we might be
00:21:00
seeing? OK, spend 10 minutes this week
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just checking your soil moisture and thinning out any crowded
00:21:06
plants that might need to be thinned.
00:21:09
Switch over to some drip or soaker hoses if you're still
00:21:11
using the sprinklers right. Pull out your garden journal or
00:21:16
start 1 whatever log. What is blooming, what yields
00:21:19
you're getting, what issues you're having.
00:21:22
Review this year's varieties that you are using and see
00:21:26
whether or not you think they're doing well for you.
00:21:30
They might be, you know, some varieties that are doing really,
00:21:34
really well for you right next to some that really are not.
00:21:38
Specifically if you're talking like cucumbers or squashes or
00:21:41
something that maybe 1 variety you bought actually has a
00:21:45
resistance to say powdery mildew and the other one doesn't.
00:21:48
And maybe you're seeing that side by side in your garden.
00:21:51
All of these different things, right?
00:21:53
If you are over water, make sure that you are shifting to less
00:21:57
frequent, more thorough waterings.
00:21:59
Mulch is your friend here. Okay, let's look at the
00:22:02
overcrowdering. Make sure that we have the
00:22:05
mature spacing properly and that's something else that we
00:22:09
can note to make sure we don't repeat that next season.
00:22:12
Figure out which of your plants are not compatible with each
00:22:16
other and maybe fix that problem.
00:22:17
And then just make sure that you are tracking and you are
00:22:20
reflecting and you can plan with notes on the varieties and the
00:22:25
type of care and the outcomes that are going on in your garden
00:22:28
right now. OK, Late summer can be
00:22:31
absolutely a time of reflection, but also correction in the
00:22:36
garden. There is still plenty of
00:22:38
gardening season left, so a few small changes can make a big
00:22:44
difference in your harvest going forward.
00:22:46
If we can just make a few little tweaks right now.
00:22:49
OK, that's all I got for you today.
00:22:51
If you find this episode helpful, hit a follow, right,
00:22:55
leave a review, share this with a friend, do something.
00:22:58
We're still growing this podcast and I would love to have more
00:23:01
people along for the ride. Until next time, my gardening
00:23:05
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
00:23:07
talk again soon.