Vegetable Gardens

It’s too early for tomatoes yet, but you should be harvesting green beans, lettuce, peas, beets, chard and onions among others. Plant a new row of lettuce, carrots, beets and chard to extend the season for those. Replant zucchini and green beans when the first batch blooms, keeping the new plants under floating row covers to exclude squash borers and bean beetles. Though row cover looks opaque, they allow over 90% of the sunlight and water into the plants.

Drought watch

New England received desperately needed rain at the end of June. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we’re still significantly below average for the year. Also, with that rain, you will need to spend some time removing the weeds that took advantage of the additional moisture to pop up in flower and vegetable gardens and perhaps in your lawn. Weed killers are a particularly bad choice when ‘good’ plants are also battling heat and drought. Use cool mornings or overcast days to hand-weed flower, shrub and vegetable beds.

Add native plants to your landscape

Native plants require less maintenance than lawns, mulch tree, shrub and perennials bed. Once established, they require less water, no fertilizers and no pesticides. An additional benefit is they attract native birds, butterflies and admirers.