Planting More Summer Crops

Things are getting exciting around the garden these days.  The weather has suddenly become very warm and it is time to finishing filling in the garden with the heat loving crops.  The last frost date is behind us now so I took a couple of busy mornings to finish planting my summertime crops.

Some of the crops are directly sown as seeds into the garden bed.  I direct sow cucumbers and squash  in my garden because they don't always transplant well and they grow fast enough to produce a crop before the first frost.  This year the cucumbers are occupying two full beds in hopes that I can make enough jars of pickles to bring a little side income this fall.

Other crops that require a longer growing season were started indoors in January and February.  My tomato and pepper seedlings will be happy to stretch their "legs"  in their spacious new accommodations out in the garden.  The tomatoes were planted on either side of the trellis that runs down the middle of the bed and then mulched in with straw.  The straw will help protect them from any extreme temperature changes and also discourage the growth of weeds around them.   I also planted basil seeds in between the tomatoes.  Basil doesn't take up much space and they will be great to use fresh when I am cooking meals straight from my back yard. 

The peppers were planted on either side of the bed and I planted a mixed row of cilantro and carrots down the middle of the rows of peppers.  I intend this planting of carrots to be my winter storage carrots so they will not be harvested until after the first frost kills off the peppers in the fall.  I am hoping that the cilantro will be ready to use around the same time that the peppers and tomatoes are ripening for salsa making.