Make successive plantings of beets, beans, and carrots to be able to harvest 
into fall. Direct seed cool-season crops, such as broccoli, cabbage, and 
Brussels sprouts, into the garden. 
  Continue to monitor your squash vines for squash vine borers. The moths lay 
their eggs on the stems, then the emerging larvae bore into the vines, causing 
the squash vine to wilt and die. Contact your local Extension agent for control 
recommendations. 
  To obtain maximum pleasure and value from your vegetable garden, continue 
planting during the growing season. This provides a harvest until cold weather 
kills the plants. 
  Uncaged tomatoes can be damaged by sunscald. To prevent this, lean an old 
window screen over the plants to protect them from the sun. Be sure to stake 
your tomatoes well.
  Before you spray an insecticide on your vegetables, check the label. Each 
insecticide has a time you must wait before you can harvest. 
  To prevent okra from becoming slimy while cooking, leave the stem on the pod. 
The stem is edible, or you can remove it before serving. 
  Dry weather causes Swiss chard to bolt or go to seed. Water your plants to 
extend the season. 
  Cucumbers develop a bitter taste if the soil is not kept consistently moist. 
Harvest them for pickling whole when 2 to 4 inches; for table use, when longer 
than 5 inches. Remove any overripe cucumbers to encourage continuous production. 
  For bigger and better Brussels sprouts, pinch out the top of the plant when 
sprouts at the bottom are fully grown. The smaller, upper sprouts will grow 
larger than they would otherwise. 
  Okra, one of the most showy blooms in the vegetable garden, bears flowers that 
last only one day. If the flower has been pollinated, a miniature okra pod can 
be seen beneath the wilted flower. 
  Leave the casaba melon on the vine until the blossom end softens and rind 
turns yellow. Crenshaw melon is ripe when the dark-green skin develops yellow 
streaks. Pick honeydew when the blossom end softens and white skin turns cream 
color. 
  Most of your spring crops are out of the garden, and weeds are beginning to 
encroach on what once was a productive space. Plant another crop in those empty 
spaces to be harvested at the end of the growing season. Try beans, kale, 
turnips, mustard, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, or even corn varieties that mature 
in a short season. Remember to restore fertility to the soil before planting 
your fall crops by working in a light layer of compost or aged manure or a small 
application of a complete chemical fertilizer. 
  Shredded Chinese cabbage is a good, hot-weather substitute for lettuce in 
salads and sandwiches. A second crop may be started now for fall harvesting. 
  Although tomatoes are self-pollinating, they need movement to transfer pollen. 
If it is hot and calm for several days, gently shake plants for assured pollen 
transfer and fruit set. Hot temperatures can also interfere with blossom set. 
  Over watered okra will produce more leaves than pods. 
  Water stress in sweet potatoes can result in cracked roots. A potassium 
deficiency causes long, slender roots. Too much nitrogen reduces yield and 
quality. 
  Drought and hot, dry winds can cause pepper and tomato blossoms to drop off. 
Try misting plants twice a day to cool them and help the blossoms set fruit. 
  Do you have too many cucumbers, zucchini, or tomatoes?  Think pickles, 
relishes, and tomato sauces. 
  Cucumbers have a very short "vine-storage time." Under warm, humid conditions, 
the fruits on the vine may remain in prime condition less than one day. So pick 
early and often. 
  For the best flavor, pick ripe tomatoes as needed; flavor peaks within three 
minutes of picking. If you must wait to use garden-fresh tomatoes, don't 
refrigerate them. Fruit texture and some aroma compounds deteriorate quickly in 
the cold. 
  You can prolong the storage life of fresh okra by dipping it in 500 ppm of 
ascorbic acid for five minutes. This concentration is approximately the same as 
dissolving 500 mg of vitamin C in a quart of water. Then air dry and pack in 
plastic bags for storage of up to one month in your refrigerator. 
  To get more vitamins out of your vegetables, keep the outer leaves on your 
cabbage heads. They are high in vitamin C. Grow yellow corn varieties; they are 
higher in vitamin A than those with white kernels. Wash, but don't peel, 
cucumbers -- most of the vitamin A is in the skin. Harvest some green leaves 
with broccoli heads and stalks; the leaves have more vitamin A than the head and 
are richer in vitamin C, too. 
  Most fertilizer recommendations are for 100 square feet, so keep your garden's 
square footage a simple fraction of that. For example, a 4 x 12 1/2 foot garden 
is exactly 50 square feet and would require exactly one half the fertilizer 
required by a garden of 100 square feet. 
  Intensive gardeners know that closely spaced plants may yield less per plant, 
but the yield per square foot is increased because so many more plants are 
grown. The same idea can be used in container gardening. USDA research has shown 
that tomatoes grown in 3 1/2-inch pots yielded smaller and fewer fruits than 
those grown in 11-inch pots, but the total yield per square foot was almost 
twice as high because three small pots could be grown in the space of one large 
pot. 
  Try a slippery plastic fence for keeping raccoons out of vegetables, 
especially sweet corn. Construct one by stapling plastic sheeting (6 mil 
thickness) to stakes spaced every 10 feet so that the stakes are on the inside 
of the plastic, toward the corn. The plastic should be 30 to 36 inches wide, and 
the lowermost 3 to 6 inches should rest on the ground. If you already have a 
fence around your garden, try using spring-type clothespins to clip the plastic 
to it. Put the fence up shortly before the corn is ripe to give the animals less 
time to figure it out. Raccoons trying to climb the slippery plastic soon give 
up. 
  A garden needs 1 inch of rain or water each week. Early morning is the best 
time to water. Evening watering is less desirable because leaves that remain wet 
through the night are more susceptible to fungal diseases. Mulch plants to 
reduce water loss and improve yields. 
  Keep peas, beans, and berries cool while you pick them by spreading a damp 
cloth over your harvest basket. 
  For a fall harvest of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts, 
set transplants in late July. For a fall harvest of lettuce, radish, carrots, 
beets, turnips, kale, and spinach, sow seeds in late July to early August. 
  Fall is the best time to grow Brussels sprouts since their flavor is enhanced 
by a mild frost. Sow seeds directly in the garden early in the month, or set out 
transplants. Brussels sprouts are heavy feeders so make monthly applications of 
5-10-10 fertilizers from the time the plants are 4 inches tall. Apply at a rate 
of 1/2 cup per square yard. 
  In summer, dry soil may make working the soil difficult and inhibit seed 
germination. Plant your fall vegetables when the soil is moist after a rain, or 
water the area thoroughly the day before you plant. Seeds may be planted in a 
shallow trench to conserve moisture. Cover the seeds about twice as deeply as 
you do in the spring. Early maturing varieties are best for late plantings. 
  One of the most important advantages of the home garden is the opportunity to 
have high-quality vegetables. Harvest your vegetables at the peak of maturity. 
Don't allow them to become too old before you pick them. Harvest summer squash 
when it's about 6 inches long. Use sweet corn as soon as it is picked. If it is 
held under warm conditions, the sugar changes to starch, and the corn is much 
poorer in quality. 
  Stop vine crops from taking over your garden or lawn by pinching off the fuzzy 
growing tips. This also directs the plant's energy into ripening fruit rather 
than producing more vines. 
  Implement all the best cultural practices to reduce pest problems, but be 
prepared to spray as needed to control insects and diseases. Some pest control 
usually is necessary to insure the production of healthful, high-quality 
vegetables. 
  Swiss chard can out produce the gardener. If it becomes over mature, cut it 
back to about 4 inches. After cutting, it will send out tender, new leaves. 
  Plant Chinese cabbage in July about 90 days before the average date of the 
first fall frost in your locality. This will allow crisp, firm heads to form in 
the cool days of early autumn. 
  Side dress crops like corn and cabbage with 2 pounds of 5-10-5 fertilizers per 
50 feet of row about a month after growth starts. Scatter the fertilizer between 
the rows and scratch it into the soil with a rake. If your garden is on an 
infertile sandy soil, side-dress all of your vegetables to promote vigorous 
growth. 
  If your potatoes are visible along the soil surface, the portion exposed to 
light will turn green. Green-skinned potatoes will taste bitter and can cause 
sickness, so protect tubers from light by covering them with soil or mulch. 
  Withhold water on storage potatoes when they begin to die down. Water and 
fertilizer late in the season may disturb dormancy necessary for good storage. 
They can cause re-growth or cause potatoes to crack prior to harvest. 
  When muskmelons are 1/3 to 1/2 their mature size, decrease watering. Over 
watering reduces sweetness and may cause the fruits to crack open. From half-
size to maturity, 1 inch of water per week from rainfall or overhead irrigation 
is plenty. Likewise, trickle irrigation should be reduced. 
  Dried onion flower heads make marvelous additions to winter flower 
arrangements. For this reason, you may want to allow some buds that appear in 
your onion patch to develop instead of pinching them out as is useful to ensure 
large bulbs. 
  Continue to make successive plantings of crops like beans, beets, cabbage, and 
sweet corn to provide a continuous harvest until fall. A small garden will 
produce a large quantity of vegetables if replanting is done throughout the 
summer. 
  Pumpkin and squash blossoms are both beautiful and edible. To prepare squash 
or pumpkin blossoms, pick them after they open. Remove insects and dirt by 
washing and draining. Dip the blossoms in batter and fry until golden. 
  Ornamental kales and cabbage are among the showiest of all winter plants, and 
as the weather cools, the color intensifies. Transplants of these beautiful 
winter ornamentals are available at garden centers and nurseries now. 
  Summer squash with a bitter taste should not be eaten as it may contain a 
natural toxin, curcurbitacin E, that can cause food poisoning symptoms, such as 
stomach cramps. Often these fruits are a result of self-seeded plants. Avoid 
this problem by not saving self-seeded squash plants. 
  Turning cabbage a quarter to a half turn if they start to crack will reduce 
the water uptake that causes splitting. Or use a shovel to cut through the roots 
on one side of the plant. If that doesn't work, better harvest them. 
  Daytime temperatures above 90 degrees F prevent snap bean flowers from 
developing. 
  Begin to sow cover crops between rows and in vacated beds now. Sow clover, 
rye, and vetch. These will return humus and nitrates to the soil when dug under 
later
