Summertime Vegetable Garden Tips to Protect Your Plants (2024) #25

[@Montanavintagemarket]

I love your videos! I always look forward to Thursdays!

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Aww, thanks so much! That's nice to hear.

[@krazedvintagemodel]

I'm glad to hear of your recovery Susan. Peace and Blessings to you 🌻🌱🐝

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Thank you. It was scary but it's also made me smarter about being out in the sun.

[@dianegougelet1829]

Hi Susan~ I enjoyed this video immensely. Thanks! **May you continue to garden safely... protecting you & your bounty from the sun's harmful rays.** Irrigation infrastructure is at the top of my Garden "TO DO" List this year. Our daily afternoon rains have yet to start here in FL. So, watering twice a day by hand has continued at the times you've encouraged. THIS also allows me time to pull tiny weeds that hide at the base of taller plants. This season, nasty tiny black ants & ugly grubworms are a new challenge!🤷‍♀️ It's always something! Happy Gardening.🙋‍♀️

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Hi, Diane. I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. This has definitely been a very challenging growing season. Take care.

[@barbkenas5663]

Great, basic info!

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Glad it was helpful, Barb.

[@trishallen]

😊

[@dustyflats3832]

We had severe drought last year and the irrigation saved the garden and no mosquitoes. We had a heat dome and air quality issues that kept us inside a number of days also. This year is complete opposite. What I’ve noticed is rust on hollyhocks that I’ve never had before. It been a jungle atmosphere including an inordinate amount of mosquitoes which that and the heat/humidity is keeping us indoors like last year. But the main thing is some plants seem to be advanced by 2 weeks although I’m seeing slow growth on tomatoes. The height isn’t there and they are producing already. It’s not from lack of nutrients I’m sure nor water. I thought this heat and humidity would’ve made them take off 🤷‍♀️. They look healthy, maybe I’m rushing them as it isn’t July 4th yet. Just don’t remember tomatoes starting on such short plants and I have grown some of these varieties before. Really concerned about fungus issues this year. Z5a, WI. I wish there was an easier way to shade tomatoes. We use a large cloth and it bellows up and down radically in storms. I think I will try a prototype I’ve been thinking of that would be a heavy duty clothesline poles of 4x4 posts and run it on cables. It would still allow some sun to sneak through but not blast them. It’s very nice to work under shade cloth and conserves moisture. I tried a very nice variety of cauliflower this year from Johnnys called Fujiyama. I was determined to grow cauliflower and started under low tunnels on 4/15. As I was planting fall starts I happened to notice the harvest date was only 45 days 😮😮 and we ran out to harvest immediately. I need to create an easy check list for harvest days and fertilizing. A couple were a little overdue but edible. This variety is heat tolerant also. Most cauliflower are 75-80 days. Trying your Supremo tomatoes and I should put cages on them as I forgot that determinates are shrubby and you don’t prune. We made it through a tornado that didn’t touch down and everything was leaning south. It was a close one as the trees were doing the hula. We righted everything quickly and they are all doing well. Things I still struggle to grow are beets and peas. They just don’t take off. Kohlrabi is slow to get going also. Maybe I need to switch to better fertilizer as some organic seems too low. I quit using fish fertilizer as it called in nocturnal animals and we lost a rooster. Maybe I need shade for them. I noticed Sweet Peas were slow also in pots. All had more than enough water and early planting. Was a bit jealous of Veggie Boys harvesting kohlrabi already the size of softballs. It could be the variety they use and fertilizer as theirs is out in an open field. If I waited for mine to get that big they would be woody. Any suggestions on slow growth is appreciated. Thank you!

[@SusansInTheGarden]

I'm glad you got through the tornado OK. Very scary! Re: the slow growth, it sounds like you really know your stuff so it's a bit baffling. This year, almost everything is growing slowly in our garden.

[@dustyflats3832]

@@SusansInTheGarden thank you for sharing, I won’t worry then.

[@trudyschaffer8016]

Great advice, as always! 🥵

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Thank you, Trudy! I hope your books arrive today!

[@Micah6-8walk]

Your garden is growing beautifully! Thanks for the tour and tips. We are wondering if you and Bill have a chipper/shredder. We are looking for one that handles about 2" diameter branches. Do you have any recommendations or can share what you have if you like it?

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Hi, Micah. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. We do have a chipper/shredder made by Troy-Bilt. But to be honest, it jams just like the rest of them so I don't necessarily recommend it. But we do use it primarily at the end of the garden season to chop up plant debris and add it to our compost pile.

[@nancyrasmussen2016]

How do you combat the weeds? I see that your raised garden beds look great! Nancy from Nebraska

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Thank you! I always try to keep up with the weeds since they compete with our veggies for moisture, nutrients and space. So whenever a see one (or a few), I immediately pull them. Also, the pathways between the beds have landscape fabric with a few inches of bark mulch on top. We get very few weeks on the paths, but if we do, they're really easy to pull out.

[@ronniebrace2917]

Your video was very helpful-thanks! Currently we’re battling too much rain and slugs-do you have any suggestions? Thanks

[@SusansInTheGarden]

Oh, that's so frustrating. Well, I can't help with the rain but there are ways to keep slugs away. I have a page on my website with all sorts of way for dealing with slugs. Here's a link to it: www.susansinthegarden.com/guides/organic-pest-control/solutions-insect-name/slugs/. I hope one (or more) of the methods will help you win the battle!

[@ClickinChicken]

Makes me want to get a steak or Burger and a salad buffet!

[@cbak1819]

I hooped and netted my brassicas and they turned pail... the were big but tasted awful. Didn't produce heads.

[@SusansInTheGarden]

That is really odd. I've been using either floating row cover or ag insect netting for decades and the plants have always produced flavorful heads. I wonder what happened in your case? What kind of fertilizer did you give them? And what type of light were they getting? Were the plants getting watered regularly?