Midsummer Garden

Keep those vegetables growing late into the year with these planting options and advice.

- DANIEL JOHNSON

It’s a good feeling to finally finish your spring garden planting. The beds are all prepared, the seeds are in the ground and the seedlings are transferred from pots to soil. Now you can just forget about the planting phase and move on to the rest of the growing season, right?

Sure, but by the time July rolls around, you may find yourself right back in the planting phase! This is because your short-season crops — your lettuce, peas, spinach, radishes and more — have by now run their course.

The pea vines are turning brown, the radishes are all eaten, and what little lettuce remains is starting to bolt. While that may be sad news for your salad, it can be a time of revitalization for the garden and the start of a second chance. Pulling out the spent crops gives you plenty of room for fresh options: new things to grow and a second helping of your favorites.

But by now the season is getting along and you have only perhaps half of the growing season left — so you have a few decisions to make. What crops should you select for this midsummer planting? What steps do you need to take before reusing a garden bed? And what’s the best way to make sure those crops reach maturity before the end of the season? Let’s answer some of those questions now.

TIMEFRAME FUNCTIONS

It may feel like there is plenty of time left in the second half of the growing season, but you do need to keep an eye on that critical date of your average first freeze. Using that date as a starting point and counting backward can help you make decisions.