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Time to plant your garlic!

For most gardeners, things have quieted down in the garden. It’s a time to clean and to review our successes and failures from the past growing season… but don’t put up your spade forks, shovels, and trowels just yet! It’s time to plant one of the easiest, healthiest, and tastiest of all garden vegetables: Garlic.

Garlic is grown on a different schedule from other vegetables. Late summer is the time to source seed garlic, choose a site and start preparing a garden bed. Mid-late October provides the window to divide bulbs, plant cloves, and mulch heavily before the cold weather sets in for good. Spring will see garlic emerging early along with spring flower bulbs. Some watering and side dressing will ensure a good harvest in July.

What makes garlic so easy to grow? Heavy mulching at planting time greatly reduces weed growth the following spring and summer, so weeding is usually not a problem.  Not only are garlic pests and diseases uncommon, but they can actually deter garden pests. A well-balanced soil high in organic matter and some occasional watering provide all your garlic will need. Let’s dig into the details of growing garlic successfully. Read more Time to plant your garlic!

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Ensuring a bountiful fall harvest with succession planting

Mid-July and August are a great time to be a gardener. Many Of our crops are in full production and vegetables such as lettuce, scallions, peas, beans and beets have become a regular part of our table fare. Our early broccoli and cauliflower are finishing up as we eagerly anticipate harvesting our first cucumbers, new potatoes, and (yes!) ripe tomatoes. Yet even as we celebrate our summer harvest, we can look forward to continuing this harvest into late summer and throughout the fall by succession planting. Succession planting is a method that creates a continuous and extended harvest through seeding and planting multiple times in the spring and summer. This method is a valuable way to make efficient use of limited garden space and the limited growing season available to North Country gardeners.

You may have noticed over the past few weeks that your lettuce and spinach are becoming bitter and sending up flower stalks. We call this process “bolting.” Likewise, unharvested broccoli heads will suddenly open up with yellow flowers and cauliflower heads will lose all their appeal… now is the time to replant parts of the garden to secure a fall harvest. Vegetable plants that are over-mature, or no longer producing or inedible should be pulled and composted to make space for your fall crops.

What can you plant in mid-July? You can start summer cucurbits like yellow squash, zucchinis, and cucumbers; brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower and kale; as well as many direct seeded veggies like bush beans, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets, radishes and peas. Read on for information on starting each of these for fall. Read more Ensuring a bountiful fall harvest with succession planting

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5 Garden Watering Tips

It is nearly impossible to have a successful garden without watering. There may be times when the perfect amount of rain falls, but nearly every growing season brings a stretch of hot and dry days when garden irrigation is essential.

Under drought stress, plants may produce small fruit, such as undersized tomatoes or melons, or they may produce no fruit at all. They may become tough, fibrous, or bitter, as with cabbage and turnips. They may bolt, sending up a flower stalk and stopping growth, as with lettuce and spinach. Or they may wilt and die. For the best and tastiest yield, it is important to pay attention to the watering needs of your plants.

But watering is a no-brainer, right? You simply follow common watering rules like “gardens need 1 inch of water per week” or “water once or twice a week“… that works, doesn’t it?  Well, the truth is, when it comes to watering there are no hard and fast rules that apply in all situations.

Here are some factors to consider when deciding when to water:

Read more 5 Garden Watering Tips