While your baskets are filling with your long-awaited tomatoes, zucchini and peppers, you might not be thinking about the months to come. But the garden season doesn't have to end when the weather cools off. Midsummer is the perfect time to start plants for a second harvest. Here are five vegetables you can plant right now and enjoy in a couple of months. Happy harvesting!
SWEET BASIL
Ocimum basilicum
By midsummer, basil is usually sending up flowers and setting seed, causing the flavor to decline. Although basil isn’t a cool-season crop, now is the perfect time to plant another round so you can keep the harvest going until temperatures regularly drop below 50 degrees F, when plants start to decline.
WHEN TO PLANT If you start seeds, sow them 60 to 90 days before you want to harvest, depending on the variety. If you can keep the seed bed moist, sow directly in the garden. If not, start indoors and move transplants outdoors later. Even easier, just pick up a few packs of seedlings from the garden center and plant them in the garden in summer so you can keep harvesting into fall.
WHAT TO CHOOSE Lemon basil (O. basilicum var. citriodorum) and ‘Purple Ruffles’ (Ocimum basilicum var. purpurascens) are two of the best cool-weather performers and can handle temperatures below 50 degrees F.
GROWING TIPS Plant in a warm, sunny spot and apply a 2-inch layer of mulch to the base of the plant to help keep soil and roots warm when air temperatures begin to drop. Or grow basil in pots and bring plants indoors to keep them going longer.
BUSH BEANS
This story is from the Issue 172 - August 2023 edition of Garden Gate.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Issue 172 - August 2023 edition of Garden Gate.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Backyard Tornado
\"HE WHO SEARCHES FOR SPRING WITH HIS KNEES IN THE MUD FINDS IT, IN ABUNDANCE.\" - ALDO LEOPOLD
Front-of-the-Border "Wow!" Power
When it comes to easy-care plants that bring a lot of punch to the border, 'Ivory Queen' Turkestan onion should be near the top of your shopping list.
GARDEN ESSENTIALS
MAKE GARDENING EASIER THIS YEAR
Elevate an Evergreen Hedge
Although an evergreen hedge looks suitable all year on its own, it's perfectly poised to become something even greater: a backdrop to a garden where flower after flower will unfurl with such drama, you just might find yourself stepping outside and offering your applause.
One Garden, Two Worlds
In this colorful and welcoming garden, sunny, flower-filled front borders transition to a shady backyard hideaway.
on edge
Four garden pros share their go-to edging techniques.
DIANTHUS
Add fragrance, vivid color and timeless charm with this reliable, cold-hardy perennial.
2025's Best New Plants!
Are you ready to start planning for next year's garden? A few new plants might be just what you need to bring those dreams to reality.
Solve Garden Problems With Ground Covers
Are you tired of coaxing turfgrass to grow in difficult spots? In her book Groundcover Revolution, Kathy Jentz says that ground covers can be the solution to these struggles.
The Romance of Spring
With the arrival of spring, emerging perennials fill the garden with soft texture, restoring life to the harsh, often barren landscape of winter.
