Keep your garden thriving through the heat
🌞 Summer Garden Care
Summer is peak growing season! Your garden is producing abundantly, but it also needs consistent care to handle heat stress, pests, and rapid growth.
Essential Summer Tasks
💧 Watering
- Water deeply 2-3 times per week
- Early morning (6-10 AM) is best
- Provide 1-2 inches per week
- Check soil moisture daily in containers
- Use soaker hoses or drip irrigation
🌱 Harvesting
- Pick vegetables at peak ripeness
- Harvest daily to encourage production
- Morning harvest tastes best
- Don’t let vegetables over-mature
- Remove diseased or damaged produce
✂️ Pruning & Deadheading
- Pinch tomato suckers weekly
- Remove yellow/diseased leaves
- Deadhead flowers for more blooms
- Prune herbs to encourage bushiness
- Trim damaged plant parts immediately
🌾 Weeding
- Weed weekly when weeds are small
- Pull after watering (easier)
- Mulch to suppress weed growth
- Remove weeds before they seed
- Use a hoe for quick cultivation
🍽️ Fertilizing
- Feed heavy feeders every 2-3 weeks
- Side-dress with compost
- Use liquid fertilizer for quick boost
- Reduce nitrogen for fruiting plants
- Don’t fertilize during extreme heat
🐛 Pest Management
- Inspect plants daily
- Hand-pick large pests
- Spray early morning or evening
- Use row covers on vulnerable crops
- Encourage beneficial insects
🌡️ Heat Protection
- Provide shade cloth (30-50%) for sensitive plants
- Mulch heavily to cool soil
- Mist leafy greens on hot days
- Group containers for humidity
- Delay planting during heat waves
🌿 Succession Planting
- Plant lettuce every 2 weeks
- Sow beans for fall harvest
- Start fall brassicas indoors
- Plant quick-maturing varieties
- Fill gaps as spring crops finish
🦠 Disease Prevention
- Water at soil level only
- Space plants for air circulation
- Remove diseased plant material
- Rotate crops annually
- Apply organic fungicides preventatively
☀️ Summer Challenges & Solutions
Heat Stress
Signs: Wilting, leaf scorch, blossom drop, bitter taste
Solutions: Deep watering, shade cloth, mulch heavily, mist foliage, harvest early morning
Blossom End Rot
Cause: Calcium deficiency from inconsistent watering
Solutions: Consistent watering, add calcium (crushed eggshells, lime), mulch to regulate moisture
Bolting
Cause: Cool-season crops stressed by heat
Solutions: Provide shade, harvest immediately, plant heat-tolerant varieties, switch to warm-season crops
📅 Monthly Summer Schedule
June – Early Summer
- Finish planting warm-season crops
- Mulch all beds heavily
- Begin regular harvesting
- Start succession plantings
- Monitor for pest buildup
July – Peak Summer
- Harvest daily
- Water consistently
- Fertilize heavy feeders
- Manage pests aggressively
- Provide shade for stressed plants
- Start fall garden seeds indoors
August – Late Summer
- Continue harvesting
- Plant fall crops
- Remove spent plants
- Save seeds from heirlooms
- Prepare beds for fall planting
- Reduce fertilizing
💡 Summer Garden Tips
🌅 Timing is Everything
Do heavy work early morning or evening. Avoid working in midday heat – it’s hard on you AND plants!
🧊 Cool Season Break
Most lettuce, spinach won’t grow well in summer heat. Focus on heat-lovers: tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans.
🦟 Evening Pest Patrol
Many pests are most active at dusk. Check for hornworms, slugs, and beetles in evening.
🌊 Water Wisdom
Established plants need deep, infrequent watering. New transplants need daily attention for 1-2 weeks.
🍅 Prune for Production
Pinching tomato suckers directs energy to fruit production. Remove lower leaves for better air flow.
🌻 Keep Picking!
Regular harvesting tells plants to produce more. Leaving over-mature vegetables signals “stop producing.”
✅ Weekly Summer Checklist
Daily Tasks
- ☐ Check soil moisture
- ☐ Harvest ripe vegetables
- ☐ Quick pest inspection
2-3 Times Weekly
- ☐ Deep watering
- ☐ Weed garden beds
- ☐ Fertilize heavy feeders
Weekly
- ☐ Prune and deadhead
- ☐ Check supports and ties
- ☐ Treat pest/disease issues
- ☐ Succession plant quick crops