It’s Not Too Late …

By Kristen Boyesen

THE BEDFORD STANDARD

It’s not too late … to plant a vegetable garden.

I know the days are now getting shorter and most people, if they were to do a garden, bought all their plants, seeds and supplies and created their gardens on Memorial Day weekend. This is the first year that I have had my garden in before the beginning of July, and I had plenty of fresh vegetables on those years when I was planting in July. If you have never tasted a fresh tomato picked from the vine and popped warm from the sun right into your mouth, then you have never tasted the full rich taste of a tomato! There is really nothing like it. Another fresh tomato treat is to slice ripe fresh tomatoes in thick slices and to quick sauté them in butter or olive oil … just long enough to heat them through, but not enough for them to fall apart. Serve with fried or poached eggs. There is magic in the mixed flavors of egg and freshly warmed tomatoes seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper.

Here are some tips for starting a garden in July. Everything is on sale! You can find tomato plants with flowers and young tomatoes already on the vine. Cucumbers and squash plants are also on sale, but I have usually had more luck starting right from the seed. These vine crops, when confined to a small cell pack too long, never seem to recover to produce bountiful crops. Seeds work best.

Pole beans produce a lot of beans in a small amount of garden space. I planted Blue Lake pole beans this year, maturing in 60 days. Planting in July will provide plenty of time to harvest the bounty before the frosts come in September or October. In addition to green pole beans, I also like to plant purple bush beans and yellow bush beans. It is a taste treat to pick some of each fresh and to sample the differences in taste between green, yellow, and purple beans. All beans do not taste the same!

Lettuce and chard may be planted now if they are shaded from the intense midday sun. I plant lettuce seeds 1/2” apart to insure germination, then thin out the extras to plant in large pots if I do not have enough garden space for transplanting. Transplanted seedlings do well if covered with a flowerpot hat while they recover. White ones work best.

Pots are great ways to garden. When I first moved to Ohio I lived in an apartment with a blacktop driveway and no lawn at all. I purchased the large tubs that are used for toy storage or chilling drinks at picnics and drilled holes in the bottom for drainage. These were lined up next to the apartment building on the blacktop and filled with flowers and vegetables. It changed the whole atmosphere of the street!

This year much of my garden is in large pots that are sunk halfway into the garden soil. There are several reasons for this: the soil in the garden is on the heavy side and the area is too wet in the spring and too dry in August. So far this method is producing really fine plants. When I water, the moisture stays where I want it. I water well so it seeps beyond the bottom of the pot into the ground to encourage the plant roots to go there, too. The sinking halfway also helps to keep the roots cool, but is not so deep that they get into too much moisture when it is wet. The large pots are the kind people throw away on trash day that held large perennials or small trees.

When purchasing plants at this time of year, avoid those that are yellow, or have small leaves that are uncharacteristic of the plant. If you cannot immediately plant your vegetable (or flower) plants into the ground, immediately plant each into a slightly larger pot. A good fertilizer is Garden Tone, an organic mix that I have found to work really well. A small amount added to the soil of the step-up pots will give the plants a boost until they can be planted in the garden or larger tubs.

An enjoyable morning ritual is to visit the plants to see how they are progressing and to water those looking dry. The fresh produce will soon be at your fingertips to add to your every meal. The flowers you plant here and there will delight the eye.

Kristen Boyesen, Life Learning & Creativity Coach and resident of Bedford, offers art and meditation-based classes and workshops for core creativity training and empowerment for change. She belongs to the American Holistic Medical Association Speakers Bureau, the Bedford Senior Network, and Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio. She gives rehabilitation workshops at the Brecksville VA Medical Center and is a graduate student in Art Therapy and Counseling at Ursuline College. Contact her at Kboyesen@thebedfordstandard.com.

Visit www.Art-Experiences.blogspot.com to see accompanying photos.