Gardening in April and May is easy. The season stretches out before you and the possibilities are endless. Weeds are a phantom and missing a planting is no problem. The increase in daylight hours allows you to catch up. Not so in August. Miss a planting date by a day may increase the harvest time by a week. The newly planted spinach is likely to be overwhelmed by a blitz of galinsoga seedlings. An unexpected stretch of cool weather and loss of daylight hours can mess up the most careful plans.
Welcome to fall gardening! I have continued to transplant lettuce seedlings and quick growing brassicas, but the first of Sept. is coming and anything planted after that date is a crapshoot in the North Country. The best case scenario is a light frost in mid October followed by a few weeks of Indian Summer. The worst...a hard frost followed by snow. Both have happened in recent years.
I spent most of Sunday keeping the fall weeds at bay and fertilizing newly planted beds. I have high hopes for late planted beans and the second planting of summer squash is producing well. The winter squash is disease free and looks to produce a bumper crop. That partially balances some of the drought caused disappointments earlier in the season. This may be my last hurrah at large scale gardening, so I intend to make the most of it.
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