August 26, 2025 • 23 mins
It's late August, the time of year when the garden can be just as likely to flourish as it is to fizzle out. I know all too well the rollercoaster of emotions we gardeners feel at this point in the season: you're hot, tired, maybe a little bit over it, and those early-season mistakes are showing their faces. But don’t give up!
Today on Just Grow Something we dig into the common issues that crop up during these steamy late-summer days, like overwatering, overcrowding, plant pairings gone wrong, and, of course, the power of keeping a garden journal. You’ll get practical advice on fixing, tweaking, and even letting go of certain garden habits so you can set yourself up for a better harvest now and an even more successful season next year. Let’s dig in!Now's the time to save 20% and order your new rose from HeirloomRoses.com! Use code JUSTGROW to save!
For complete show notes, visit https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/what-to-fix-tweak-or-stop-doing-in-your-garden-late-summer-ep-264
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It is late August, It's hot, it's humid, and everything in
the garden is either booming or busting.
Sound familiar? Yeah.
Mistakes made earlier this season often show up now.
So today we're going to tackle the host of issues that can pop
up in the late summer garden with very little warning.
And a lot of the time, it's all our own fault.
(00:22):
So today on Just Grow Something,we're talking over watering,
overcrowding, poor plant pairings and yes, the oh so
handy garden garden journal thatmight just save your sanity next
season. So grab your garden journal and
a cup of coffee, or your iced tea or cocktail, whatever you
want, and let's talk about what to fix, what to tweak, and what
(00:44):
to stop doing entirely in your garden right now.
Let's dig in, hey? I'm Karen and what started as a
small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and
(01:05):
build confidence in your own garden space.
So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
just grow something. I know that this time of the
year might very well be the timeof the season where a lot of us
are just over it, like we're done.
We don't want to mess with it anymore.
We've we've been dealing with the heat, we've been dealing
(01:27):
with the humidity and the bugs and the weeds and the plant
diseases and all of the things. And if you haven't been dealing
with these things, well, congratulations because that
makes for a very lovely gardening season.
But most of us aren't that lucky.
Most of us have dealt with something or another during the
season and we may just be ready to just give it up and walk
(01:49):
away. Let's not do that.
Let's, you know, work our way through some of these issues
that we might be having right now because I promise you, once
we get through it, we're going to be better off in terms of the
fall garden. And if you're not growing a fall
garden, that's fine too. Your current summer plants can
actually continue a lot further into the fall than you think.
(02:11):
So let's start with watering. OK, here's the thing.
Especially in the summer heat, alot of us think, you know, more
heat means our plants need more water.
And while our plants are definitely thirsty, too much
love in the form of water can actually backfire.
(02:32):
Over watering is one of the biggest mistakes home gardeners
make at this time of the year, especially when maybe we hit
that sort of daily watering schedule and we forget to check
and see if the soil actually needs it.
Now, I don't know about where you've been, but you know, we
had one of the rainiest Julys that we have ever seen.
(02:52):
We actually had a little bit of flooding out here on the farm.
And I generally am not a proponent of being on a fixed
watering schedule in terms of like set it and forget it
because you don't actually get the opportunity to figure out
whether or not your plants actually need that soil or need
that water. The other thing is that, you
know, if you are watering daily,you likely are not leaving that
(03:15):
water running long enough for itto really get down in there and
soak down into the soil. So we don't know if the soil
actually needs it. We don't know if the plants
actually have any airspace down in there because when we over
water, the roots actually get soggy and we're filling all of
that soil airspace with water, which means that oxygen can't
(03:39):
get in and the plants need, the roots need oxygen.
So the plants get stressed and then you just get really sad
tomatoes, OK? Plus you also get diseases that
start like root rot and fungal diseases.
They absolutely love swampy soil.
So if you had a ton of rain and then all of a sudden the rain
(04:01):
stopped and you felt like, oh gosh, now I needed to go ahead
and start watering. The first thing that you always
want to do is do a finger test, right?
Stick your finger down a couple of inches into the soil.
If your soil is moist, skip the watering, right?
Your water, your, your root zoneis generally, you know, between
(04:23):
two and four inches. So if you can get your finger
down that deep into the soil, ifit is damp at all, skip the
watering. And if it's dry, then we want to
water very deeply. I would love to see people
watering to where it gets moist all the way down to like the six
inch depth #1 the roots are going to go down to look for
(04:47):
that water. So this is training them to go
away from the surface of the soil, which is the hottest area,
right? So we want them to get down in
there and #2 it means that you know the plant is going to get a
nice long drink, not just a little shallow, shallow sip and
then have to wait for more wateragain.
OK, If you're doing this in a raised bed, yes, the raised beds
(05:10):
tend to dry out a little bit faster, but the same rule
actually applies. Deep watering, not just a daily
little sprinkle. OK, for both of these instances,
mulch. Mulch is your best friend right
now. OK, so I even if you have not
had mulch on your garden at all all season and you have
(05:30):
completely ignored me when I have said mulch, now is still a
good time to add mulch. It is never too late to cover
that soil. OK, so go ahead and do that.
If you're growing in containers,smaller containers, they
absolutely dry out fast and so they do need regular attention.
But don't just assume that they are thirsty, OK, water those
(05:53):
pots until the water drains out the bottom.
Let it sit for a hot minute and then water again until the water
drains out the bottom. Then we know that that soil has
been saturated, that pot should feel heavy, and you just kind of
want to make sure that the drainage holes are doing their
job. Always make sure that they
aren't blocked. Then you don't have to water
(06:14):
again until once again you checkthat soil, check down in there
at about that 4 inch, 2-3 to 4 inch, you know, depth to see
whether or not that container needs to be watered or if the
container starts to feel light again, then it's time to water.
Obviously the bigger the container, the more soil content
you have, which means the more water you can hold.
(06:35):
So that's the less frequently that you have to water.
OK, so that's our first problem is the over watering.
The second problem would be overcrowding.
And I know, I know I talk a lot about interplanting, but there
is a delicate balance there. We do want to make sure that we
are leaving gaps between the roots of our plants and a little
(07:00):
bit between the leaves dependingon what it is.
So I mean, yeah, raise your handif you planted too much in a
small space. OK, I do it.
I do it all the time because I'mtrying to take advantage of the
space that I have in my garden and I'm trying to give those
plant companions the opportunityto help each other.
But sometimes it's easy to get alittle over ambitious in the
(07:20):
spring when the plants are itty bitty.
And then by the late summer we're seeing the consequences
because we have a jungle in there and some of the plants
might be stunted, there might besome poor airflow, we might see
some more pests and diseases than what we normally would.
And, you know, so nobody's comfortable, right?
It's time to maybe thin out someof those plants.
(07:43):
So check your spacing. If you've got a tangle of
tomatoes and Peppers, it might be time to prune some of that
stuff back, or even pull a plantout to save the rest of them.
If you have to do this, there's nothing that says you can't take
that plant out and transplant itinto a pot and keep that pot,
(08:04):
you know, near the rest of the plants, or near a raised bed or
near your patio or whatever. Don't be afraid to make changes
in the garden if you think that things are just not doing well
and that airflow ends up being aproblem.
This also may not necessarily mean that you did plant them too
closely together. It also could mean that the
weather conditions this season have been different for you.
(08:26):
So if you normally, you know, tuck your plants in really
tightly together and it's not a problem, but then this year it
suddenly is again, it could be excessive humidity that you're
not used to or excessive amountsof rainfall or a lack of a
breeze. You know, sometimes you're just
not getting the breezes that younormally do in your garden and
that is causing problems. So don't think that it's
(08:47):
necessarily something that you did.
It might be just the weather haschanged a little bit and so you
can take steps to remedy that. If you're doing this in raised
garden beds are really good way to kind of mitigate this is by
using square foot gardening guidelines.
It's, you know, a good referencefor how many plants you can fit
(09:08):
in that sort of 12 inch by 12 inch space and still be able to
have a good amount of air flow, right?
We want the proper amount of airflow and we want the proper
amount of sunlight too. If you're growing in containers,
one tomato plant per 5 gallon bucket and then maybe you can
put some, you know, lettuces or something around the bottom of
it as you prune that up, OK? We're not going to try to cram
(09:30):
like 3 tomato plants into one bucket, OK?
If you've got them positioned next to each other on your deck
or on your patio or wherever it is that you're keeping them, if
you're starting to see that maybe they're looking a little
overcrowded, it's OK to kind of pull those pots apart a little
bit and give them a little bit more airflow.
(09:50):
Don't be afraid to thin or to, you know, harvest aggressively
some of these plants to give theremaining plants room to breathe
and to sort of dry out a little bit and maybe stretch their
little plant leaves so that theycan continue to produce for you
and grow in a manner that is productive for the rest of the
summer. If you have thought at all about
(10:13):
adding roses to your garden, nowis the time.
As you heard Robin from HeirloomRoses say last week, fall is the
perfect time to be planting roses.
It's when I planted mine last year, and I can attest to just
how well it performed right out of the gate this past spring.
Head to heirloomroses.com and use my code Just GROW to save
20% on your order, and you can get your Rose in thyme to get it
(10:36):
planted six weeks before your first fall frost.
That means it will have time to stretch its little roots out
into the soil and get itself established so it can take off
full force in the spring. And even if you prefer to plant
in the spring, you can order nowand delay shipping until the
ideal time for you up to 8 full months from now.
(10:58):
So if you're one of my gardenersin zone 3, and yes, they have
roses for zone 3, where maybe your first fall frost is about
as predictable as the lottery results, you can order now,
still save the 20%, and have your rose plants delivered.
When it's the perfect time for you to plant, just head to
heirloomroses.com. Use code Just grow to save 20%.
(11:21):
The link is in the show notes. So one of the things that you
might be seeing right now is maybe the additional
consequences of companion planting.
So we talk about inter planting in terms of what we're pairing
together and what we're plantingin the same space in terms of
saving space or in terms of, youknow, that high, low, fast, slow
(11:45):
kind of pairing to get the most bang for our buck in in out of
our garden. But when we're we're creating
these companions, sometimes we cover that things just aren't
working out the way that we had hoped.
So when it works, it works really well.
It's almost magical. But when it doesn't, sometimes
it ends up being kind of chaotic.
(12:07):
You know, some plants love each other, others not so much.
You know, basil and tomatoes generally go together really,
really well. Beans and onions, no, not so
much. You know, this is all about
resource competition and what kind of pests they attract, what
kind of alelopathy one has, you know, when 1 plant chemically
inhibits another one, you know, and I have some resources for
(12:29):
that I will go ahead and put into the show notes.
But sometimes it's just about you've, you've tried something
new in the spring and or maybe in the early summer and now
we're getting to the late summerand you're realizing that maybe
that combination wasn't the best.
So maybe you mixed some plants together that were, you know,
(12:51):
really, really thirsty with somethat like the conditions to be
more dry, you know, or, you know, you combine something
because you thought, OK, this isa tall plant and this is a short
plant and they're going to go tobetter really, really well.
But the tall plant began to shade out the other things and
it just isn't working. So at this instance, it might be
(13:13):
time to sort of suss out which one you want to keep and which
one you want to get rid of. Make a note in your garden
journal that this pairing did not work.
And that way you don't repeat itagain.
I'll give you a really good example of this.
I tried some new combinations inmy planter box direct planters
out in the kitchen garden this year and some of them did
(13:36):
fabulously, fabulously well and some of them did not so great
and some of them were OK, right?I don't think there were any
complete and total disasters, although they might have been
close. So the first thing that I did
was I planted my kale and in between my beets.
(13:56):
So I had the beets come up firstand then I planted the kale.
I transplanted the kale and the idea was, OK, the kale is going
to get tall, but by the time it gets tall enough to shade out
the beets, then the beets will have already been harvested and
the kale will get to stay in place in the bed.
And I harvest kale from the bottom and they end up looking
like these, you know, cute little palm trees eventually.
(14:19):
And that pairing worked really, really well.
It did exactly what I thought itwas going to it it, you know,
the, the beets were done and outof the bed by the time the kale
really needed to take over the entire thing.
And then I just threw in some straw mulch and called it good.
I did the same pairing of the same type of pairing with the
kohlrabi. So I planted the beets.
I let them come up. I planted the kohlrabi in
(14:40):
between with the idea that by the time the kohlrabi would get
too big and shade out the beets that they would be ready to
harvest. I would pull them out and then
they the beets could continue togo.
This one didn't work as well as it could have.
It wasn't a complete disaster, but I did find that the
kohlrabi's stayed in the bed a little bit longer than what I
(15:04):
anticipated. And they got bigger.
Like the leaf cover got huge really, really quickly and it
very quickly shaded that bed. And so the beets that were in
there were way behind the beets that were in the other beds
where the kale was. But once I harvested all that
(15:26):
kohlrabi and those beets all gotthe full sun, they had the
opportunity to go ahead and and catch up.
So even though they weren't harvested or ready to harvest
the same time as the other beds that were combined with the
kale, they were ready to harvestabout 3 weeks later, which
worked as an accidental succession planting.
(15:48):
I didn't do that intentionally and I probably would not pair
those two together again, but itwasn't a total disaster.
Now what did not work very well was some other pairings and some
of my other beds. I started the collard greens
along the South side of the bedsand then as those were growing
(16:11):
up, I was planting cucumbers in the north side with the idea
that the cucumbers would grow upthe trellises.
And then in the next set of bedsI did the same thing, but I had
all of my lettuces in there on the South side of the bed and I
planted the cucumbers on the north side.
The problem that it worked greatwith the lettuces.
The lettuces were done and out, and that's the same beds where I
(16:31):
have my living mulch of the mint.
So the mint sort of started to take over, and the cucumbers
have grown up this side of the trellis, and that has all worked
beautifully. Well.
I will do a separate episode about that because there are
some things that I learned that might help you.
But in those beds where the collard greens were, the
collards just were too big. They were huge and there was no
(16:55):
way #1 for the cucumbers to be able to get the amount of light
that they needed. And they also, I think we're not
getting enough nutrients. I think the collards really were
sucking up all that nitrogen in the early stages, and that
prevented those cucumbers from getting the nitrogen that they
(17:15):
needed to really get going and be able to start climbing.
So at some point I had to make the decision which one of those
plants that I want to keep. Did I want to keep the collards
and have the collards keep going?
Or did I want to pull the collards and allow the cucumbers
the opportunity to be able to continue to grow?
And so ultimately, I chose the cucumbers.
(17:37):
The collards were already starting to.
I had been harvesting collards for weeks and weeks and weeks #1
#2 they were starting to attractthe insect pests.
So the cabbage moths and the cabbage butterflies were coming
in and laying their eggs. And of course, then we would end
up with the cabbage worms. And the collards were so big
that they couldn't even be covered completely by the insect
(17:59):
netting anymore. And so I just made the decision
that you know what, it was time to sacrifice the collards and
allow the cucumbers to take over.
So if you experience these typesof things in your garden when
you're trying new companions or you're trying new inter
plantings and it seems like it sort of pencils out on paper, it
makes sense. But in reality, when you look at
(18:21):
it, it's not working out for you.
It is okay to change that. It is okay to, you know, modify
the planting, modify what's in the bed to suit your needs right
now. You just have to, unfortunately,
sometimes make some sacrifices to figure out which one of those
plants you actually want to keep.
And of course, all of these problems that we might be seeing
(18:44):
in the late summer garden need to be written down.
I know sometimes writing things down feels like homework, but
trust me, future you in the garden is going to thank you.
Your garden journal is how you remember what worked, what
didn't, what cucumber variety you loved or or didn't like,
(19:08):
which basil did really, really well and which one did not.
It's your record of your planting dates, your watering
schedules, how your harvests have done, what pest problems
you have. It's like your garden's diary,
right? And it doesn't matter how you do
this. It could be a notebook, you
could be using an app, you can put it in a spreadsheet,
whatever. We just want you to track these
(19:30):
things because it is going to help you figure out what worked
and what didn't. If you are having a ton of
problems in your late summer garden, write it down.
Identify which crops are having the problems, what they were
paired with, which bed they're in.
And that way at the end of the season or the beginning of next
(19:50):
season, you can go back and you can look and you can figure out
what failed, what succeeded. You know, whether it was the
heat or shade or the pests, right?
Because you should also be, you know, entering the weather
conditions too, if they are unusual for you for this time of
the year. The more you do this, the more.
Years you do this, the more information you're going to have
(20:14):
to go back and look on, right? So if you can do this weekly,
especially after a rainfall or after a harvest or after a very
long period of 0 rainfall. Late summer especially is a
really good time to capture results and lessons.
What you have figured out in thegarden, you're seeing what's
worked and what has not. And so if you can take 5 minutes
(20:37):
a week just to write it down, bonus points if you're like
drawing diagrams or taking photos, then next season you're
going to be off to an even better start right away and you
might be able to eliminate some of these late summer problems
altogether. OK, So what can we do right now
(20:58):
to help us with these late summer problems that we might be
seeing? OK, spend 10 minutes this week
just checking your soil moistureand thinning out any crowded
plants that might need to be thinned.
Switch over to some drip or soaker hoses if you're still
using the sprinklers right. Pull out your garden journal or
start 1 whatever log. What is blooming, what yields
(21:19):
you're getting, what issues you're having.
Review this year's varieties that you are using and see
whether or not you think they'redoing well for you.
They might be, you know, some varieties that are doing really,
really well for you right next to some that really are not.
Specifically if you're talking like cucumbers or squashes or
(21:41):
something that maybe 1 variety you bought actually has a
resistance to say powdery mildewand the other one doesn't.
And maybe you're seeing that side by side in your garden.
All of these different things, right?
If you are over water, make surethat you are shifting to less
frequent, more thorough waterings.
Mulch is your friend here. Okay, let's look at the
(22:02):
overcrowdering. Make sure that we have the
mature spacing properly and that's something else that we
can note to make sure we don't repeat that next season.
Figure out which of your plants are not compatible with each
other and maybe fix that problem.
And then just make sure that youare tracking and you are
reflecting and you can plan withnotes on the varieties and the
(22:25):
type of care and the outcomes that are going on in your garden
right now. OK, Late summer can be
absolutely a time of reflection,but also correction in the
garden. There is still plenty of
gardening season left, so a few small changes can make a big
difference in your harvest goingforward.
(22:46):
If we can just make a few littletweaks right now.
OK, that's all I got for you today.
If you find this episode helpful, hit a follow, right,
leave a review, share this with a friend, do something.
We're still growing this podcastand I would love to have more
people along for the ride. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
(23:07):
talk again soon.
It is late August, It's hot, it's humid, and everything in
the garden is either booming or busting.
Sound familiar? Yeah.
Mistakes made earlier this season often show up now.
So today we're going to tackle the host of issues that can pop
up in the late summer garden with very little warning.
And a lot of the time, it's all our own fault.
(00:22):
So today on Just Grow Something,we're talking over watering,
overcrowding, poor plant pairings and yes, the oh so
handy garden garden journal thatmight just save your sanity next
season. So grab your garden journal and
a cup of coffee, or your iced tea or cocktail, whatever you
want, and let's talk about what to fix, what to tweak, and what
(00:44):
to stop doing entirely in your garden right now.
Let's dig in, hey? I'm Karen and what started as a
small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong
passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and
horticulturist, I want to help you do the same.
On this podcast, I am your friend in the garden teaching
evidence based techniques to help you grow your favorites and
(01:05):
build confidence in your own garden space.
So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to
just grow something. I know that this time of the
year might very well be the timeof the season where a lot of us
are just over it, like we're done.
We don't want to mess with it anymore.
We've we've been dealing with the heat, we've been dealing
(01:27):
with the humidity and the bugs and the weeds and the plant
diseases and all of the things. And if you haven't been dealing
with these things, well, congratulations because that
makes for a very lovely gardening season.
But most of us aren't that lucky.
Most of us have dealt with something or another during the
season and we may just be ready to just give it up and walk
(01:49):
away. Let's not do that.
Let's, you know, work our way through some of these issues
that we might be having right now because I promise you, once
we get through it, we're going to be better off in terms of the
fall garden. And if you're not growing a fall
garden, that's fine too. Your current summer plants can
actually continue a lot further into the fall than you think.
(02:11):
So let's start with watering. OK, here's the thing.
Especially in the summer heat, alot of us think, you know, more
heat means our plants need more water.
And while our plants are definitely thirsty, too much
love in the form of water can actually backfire.
(02:32):
Over watering is one of the biggest mistakes home gardeners
make at this time of the year, especially when maybe we hit
that sort of daily watering schedule and we forget to check
and see if the soil actually needs it.
Now, I don't know about where you've been, but you know, we
had one of the rainiest Julys that we have ever seen.
(02:52):
We actually had a little bit of flooding out here on the farm.
And I generally am not a proponent of being on a fixed
watering schedule in terms of like set it and forget it
because you don't actually get the opportunity to figure out
whether or not your plants actually need that soil or need
that water. The other thing is that, you
know, if you are watering daily,you likely are not leaving that
(03:15):
water running long enough for itto really get down in there and
soak down into the soil. So we don't know if the soil
actually needs it. We don't know if the plants
actually have any airspace down in there because when we over
water, the roots actually get soggy and we're filling all of
that soil airspace with water, which means that oxygen can't
(03:39):
get in and the plants need, the roots need oxygen.
So the plants get stressed and then you just get really sad
tomatoes, OK? Plus you also get diseases that
start like root rot and fungal diseases.
They absolutely love swampy soil.
So if you had a ton of rain and then all of a sudden the rain
(04:01):
stopped and you felt like, oh gosh, now I needed to go ahead
and start watering. The first thing that you always
want to do is do a finger test, right?
Stick your finger down a couple of inches into the soil.
If your soil is moist, skip the watering, right?
Your water, your, your root zoneis generally, you know, between
(04:23):
two and four inches. So if you can get your finger
down that deep into the soil, ifit is damp at all, skip the
watering. And if it's dry, then we want to
water very deeply. I would love to see people
watering to where it gets moist all the way down to like the six
inch depth #1 the roots are going to go down to look for
(04:47):
that water. So this is training them to go
away from the surface of the soil, which is the hottest area,
right? So we want them to get down in
there and #2 it means that you know the plant is going to get a
nice long drink, not just a little shallow, shallow sip and
then have to wait for more wateragain.
OK, If you're doing this in a raised bed, yes, the raised beds
(05:10):
tend to dry out a little bit faster, but the same rule
actually applies. Deep watering, not just a daily
little sprinkle. OK, for both of these instances,
mulch. Mulch is your best friend right
now. OK, so I even if you have not
had mulch on your garden at all all season and you have
(05:30):
completely ignored me when I have said mulch, now is still a
good time to add mulch. It is never too late to cover
that soil. OK, so go ahead and do that.
If you're growing in containers,smaller containers, they
absolutely dry out fast and so they do need regular attention.
But don't just assume that they are thirsty, OK, water those
(05:53):
pots until the water drains out the bottom.
Let it sit for a hot minute and then water again until the water
drains out the bottom. Then we know that that soil has
been saturated, that pot should feel heavy, and you just kind of
want to make sure that the drainage holes are doing their
job. Always make sure that they
aren't blocked. Then you don't have to water
(06:14):
again until once again you checkthat soil, check down in there
at about that 4 inch, 2-3 to 4 inch, you know, depth to see
whether or not that container needs to be watered or if the
container starts to feel light again, then it's time to water.
Obviously the bigger the container, the more soil content
you have, which means the more water you can hold.
(06:35):
So that's the less frequently that you have to water.
OK, so that's our first problem is the over watering.
The second problem would be overcrowding.
And I know, I know I talk a lot about interplanting, but there
is a delicate balance there. We do want to make sure that we
are leaving gaps between the roots of our plants and a little
(07:00):
bit between the leaves dependingon what it is.
So I mean, yeah, raise your handif you planted too much in a
small space. OK, I do it.
I do it all the time because I'mtrying to take advantage of the
space that I have in my garden and I'm trying to give those
plant companions the opportunityto help each other.
But sometimes it's easy to get alittle over ambitious in the
(07:20):
spring when the plants are itty bitty.
And then by the late summer we're seeing the consequences
because we have a jungle in there and some of the plants
might be stunted, there might besome poor airflow, we might see
some more pests and diseases than what we normally would.
And, you know, so nobody's comfortable, right?
It's time to maybe thin out someof those plants.
(07:43):
So check your spacing. If you've got a tangle of
tomatoes and Peppers, it might be time to prune some of that
stuff back, or even pull a plantout to save the rest of them.
If you have to do this, there's nothing that says you can't take
that plant out and transplant itinto a pot and keep that pot,
(08:04):
you know, near the rest of the plants, or near a raised bed or
near your patio or whatever. Don't be afraid to make changes
in the garden if you think that things are just not doing well
and that airflow ends up being aproblem.
This also may not necessarily mean that you did plant them too
closely together. It also could mean that the
weather conditions this season have been different for you.
(08:26):
So if you normally, you know, tuck your plants in really
tightly together and it's not a problem, but then this year it
suddenly is again, it could be excessive humidity that you're
not used to or excessive amountsof rainfall or a lack of a
breeze. You know, sometimes you're just
not getting the breezes that younormally do in your garden and
that is causing problems. So don't think that it's
(08:47):
necessarily something that you did.
It might be just the weather haschanged a little bit and so you
can take steps to remedy that. If you're doing this in raised
garden beds are really good way to kind of mitigate this is by
using square foot gardening guidelines.
It's, you know, a good referencefor how many plants you can fit
(09:08):
in that sort of 12 inch by 12 inch space and still be able to
have a good amount of air flow, right?
We want the proper amount of airflow and we want the proper
amount of sunlight too. If you're growing in containers,
one tomato plant per 5 gallon bucket and then maybe you can
put some, you know, lettuces or something around the bottom of
it as you prune that up, OK? We're not going to try to cram
(09:30):
like 3 tomato plants into one bucket, OK?
If you've got them positioned next to each other on your deck
or on your patio or wherever it is that you're keeping them, if
you're starting to see that maybe they're looking a little
overcrowded, it's OK to kind of pull those pots apart a little
bit and give them a little bit more airflow.
(09:50):
Don't be afraid to thin or to, you know, harvest aggressively
some of these plants to give theremaining plants room to breathe
and to sort of dry out a little bit and maybe stretch their
little plant leaves so that theycan continue to produce for you
and grow in a manner that is productive for the rest of the
summer. If you have thought at all about
(10:13):
adding roses to your garden, nowis the time.
As you heard Robin from HeirloomRoses say last week, fall is the
perfect time to be planting roses.
It's when I planted mine last year, and I can attest to just
how well it performed right out of the gate this past spring.
Head to heirloomroses.com and use my code Just GROW to save
20% on your order, and you can get your Rose in thyme to get it
(10:36):
planted six weeks before your first fall frost.
That means it will have time to stretch its little roots out
into the soil and get itself established so it can take off
full force in the spring. And even if you prefer to plant
in the spring, you can order nowand delay shipping until the
ideal time for you up to 8 full months from now.
(10:58):
So if you're one of my gardenersin zone 3, and yes, they have
roses for zone 3, where maybe your first fall frost is about
as predictable as the lottery results, you can order now,
still save the 20%, and have your rose plants delivered.
When it's the perfect time for you to plant, just head to
heirloomroses.com. Use code Just grow to save 20%.
(11:21):
The link is in the show notes. So one of the things that you
might be seeing right now is maybe the additional
consequences of companion planting.
So we talk about inter planting in terms of what we're pairing
together and what we're plantingin the same space in terms of
saving space or in terms of, youknow, that high, low, fast, slow
(11:45):
kind of pairing to get the most bang for our buck in in out of
our garden. But when we're we're creating
these companions, sometimes we cover that things just aren't
working out the way that we had hoped.
So when it works, it works really well.
It's almost magical. But when it doesn't, sometimes
it ends up being kind of chaotic.
(12:07):
You know, some plants love each other, others not so much.
You know, basil and tomatoes generally go together really,
really well. Beans and onions, no, not so
much. You know, this is all about
resource competition and what kind of pests they attract, what
kind of alelopathy one has, you know, when 1 plant chemically
inhibits another one, you know, and I have some resources for
(12:29):
that I will go ahead and put into the show notes.
But sometimes it's just about you've, you've tried something
new in the spring and or maybe in the early summer and now
we're getting to the late summerand you're realizing that maybe
that combination wasn't the best.
So maybe you mixed some plants together that were, you know,
(12:51):
really, really thirsty with somethat like the conditions to be
more dry, you know, or, you know, you combine something
because you thought, OK, this isa tall plant and this is a short
plant and they're going to go tobetter really, really well.
But the tall plant began to shade out the other things and
it just isn't working. So at this instance, it might be
(13:13):
time to sort of suss out which one you want to keep and which
one you want to get rid of. Make a note in your garden
journal that this pairing did not work.
And that way you don't repeat itagain.
I'll give you a really good example of this.
I tried some new combinations inmy planter box direct planters
out in the kitchen garden this year and some of them did
(13:36):
fabulously, fabulously well and some of them did not so great
and some of them were OK, right?I don't think there were any
complete and total disasters, although they might have been
close. So the first thing that I did
was I planted my kale and in between my beets.
(13:56):
So I had the beets come up firstand then I planted the kale.
I transplanted the kale and the idea was, OK, the kale is going
to get tall, but by the time it gets tall enough to shade out
the beets, then the beets will have already been harvested and
the kale will get to stay in place in the bed.
And I harvest kale from the bottom and they end up looking
like these, you know, cute little palm trees eventually.
(14:19):
And that pairing worked really, really well.
It did exactly what I thought itwas going to it it, you know,
the, the beets were done and outof the bed by the time the kale
really needed to take over the entire thing.
And then I just threw in some straw mulch and called it good.
I did the same pairing of the same type of pairing with the
kohlrabi. So I planted the beets.
I let them come up. I planted the kohlrabi in
(14:40):
between with the idea that by the time the kohlrabi would get
too big and shade out the beets that they would be ready to
harvest. I would pull them out and then
they the beets could continue togo.
This one didn't work as well as it could have.
It wasn't a complete disaster, but I did find that the
kohlrabi's stayed in the bed a little bit longer than what I
(15:04):
anticipated. And they got bigger.
Like the leaf cover got huge really, really quickly and it
very quickly shaded that bed. And so the beets that were in
there were way behind the beets that were in the other beds
where the kale was. But once I harvested all that
(15:26):
kohlrabi and those beets all gotthe full sun, they had the
opportunity to go ahead and and catch up.
So even though they weren't harvested or ready to harvest
the same time as the other beds that were combined with the
kale, they were ready to harvestabout 3 weeks later, which
worked as an accidental succession planting.
(15:48):
I didn't do that intentionally and I probably would not pair
those two together again, but itwasn't a total disaster.
Now what did not work very well was some other pairings and some
of my other beds. I started the collard greens
along the South side of the bedsand then as those were growing
(16:11):
up, I was planting cucumbers in the north side with the idea
that the cucumbers would grow upthe trellises.
And then in the next set of bedsI did the same thing, but I had
all of my lettuces in there on the South side of the bed and I
planted the cucumbers on the north side.
The problem that it worked greatwith the lettuces.
The lettuces were done and out, and that's the same beds where I
(16:31):
have my living mulch of the mint.
So the mint sort of started to take over, and the cucumbers
have grown up this side of the trellis, and that has all worked
beautifully. Well.
I will do a separate episode about that because there are
some things that I learned that might help you.
But in those beds where the collard greens were, the
collards just were too big. They were huge and there was no
(16:55):
way #1 for the cucumbers to be able to get the amount of light
that they needed. And they also, I think we're not
getting enough nutrients. I think the collards really were
sucking up all that nitrogen in the early stages, and that
prevented those cucumbers from getting the nitrogen that they
(17:15):
needed to really get going and be able to start climbing.
So at some point I had to make the decision which one of those
plants that I want to keep. Did I want to keep the collards
and have the collards keep going?
Or did I want to pull the collards and allow the cucumbers
the opportunity to be able to continue to grow?
And so ultimately, I chose the cucumbers.
(17:37):
The collards were already starting to.
I had been harvesting collards for weeks and weeks and weeks #1
#2 they were starting to attractthe insect pests.
So the cabbage moths and the cabbage butterflies were coming
in and laying their eggs. And of course, then we would end
up with the cabbage worms. And the collards were so big
that they couldn't even be covered completely by the insect
(17:59):
netting anymore. And so I just made the decision
that you know what, it was time to sacrifice the collards and
allow the cucumbers to take over.
So if you experience these typesof things in your garden when
you're trying new companions or you're trying new inter
plantings and it seems like it sort of pencils out on paper, it
makes sense. But in reality, when you look at
(18:21):
it, it's not working out for you.
It is okay to change that. It is okay to, you know, modify
the planting, modify what's in the bed to suit your needs right
now. You just have to, unfortunately,
sometimes make some sacrifices to figure out which one of those
plants you actually want to keep.
And of course, all of these problems that we might be seeing
(18:44):
in the late summer garden need to be written down.
I know sometimes writing things down feels like homework, but
trust me, future you in the garden is going to thank you.
Your garden journal is how you remember what worked, what
didn't, what cucumber variety you loved or or didn't like,
(19:08):
which basil did really, really well and which one did not.
It's your record of your planting dates, your watering
schedules, how your harvests have done, what pest problems
you have. It's like your garden's diary,
right? And it doesn't matter how you do
this. It could be a notebook, you
could be using an app, you can put it in a spreadsheet,
whatever. We just want you to track these
(19:30):
things because it is going to help you figure out what worked
and what didn't. If you are having a ton of
problems in your late summer garden, write it down.
Identify which crops are having the problems, what they were
paired with, which bed they're in.
And that way at the end of the season or the beginning of next
(19:50):
season, you can go back and you can look and you can figure out
what failed, what succeeded. You know, whether it was the
heat or shade or the pests, right?
Because you should also be, you know, entering the weather
conditions too, if they are unusual for you for this time of
the year. The more you do this, the more.
Years you do this, the more information you're going to have
(20:14):
to go back and look on, right? So if you can do this weekly,
especially after a rainfall or after a harvest or after a very
long period of 0 rainfall. Late summer especially is a
really good time to capture results and lessons.
What you have figured out in thegarden, you're seeing what's
worked and what has not. And so if you can take 5 minutes
(20:37):
a week just to write it down, bonus points if you're like
drawing diagrams or taking photos, then next season you're
going to be off to an even better start right away and you
might be able to eliminate some of these late summer problems
altogether. OK, So what can we do right now
(20:58):
to help us with these late summer problems that we might be
seeing? OK, spend 10 minutes this week
just checking your soil moistureand thinning out any crowded
plants that might need to be thinned.
Switch over to some drip or soaker hoses if you're still
using the sprinklers right. Pull out your garden journal or
start 1 whatever log. What is blooming, what yields
(21:19):
you're getting, what issues you're having.
Review this year's varieties that you are using and see
whether or not you think they'redoing well for you.
They might be, you know, some varieties that are doing really,
really well for you right next to some that really are not.
Specifically if you're talking like cucumbers or squashes or
(21:41):
something that maybe 1 variety you bought actually has a
resistance to say powdery mildewand the other one doesn't.
And maybe you're seeing that side by side in your garden.
All of these different things, right?
If you are over water, make surethat you are shifting to less
frequent, more thorough waterings.
Mulch is your friend here. Okay, let's look at the
(22:02):
overcrowdering. Make sure that we have the
mature spacing properly and that's something else that we
can note to make sure we don't repeat that next season.
Figure out which of your plants are not compatible with each
other and maybe fix that problem.
And then just make sure that youare tracking and you are
reflecting and you can plan withnotes on the varieties and the
(22:25):
type of care and the outcomes that are going on in your garden
right now. OK, Late summer can be
absolutely a time of reflection,but also correction in the
garden. There is still plenty of
gardening season left, so a few small changes can make a big
difference in your harvest goingforward.
(22:46):
If we can just make a few littletweaks right now.
OK, that's all I got for you today.
If you find this episode helpful, hit a follow, right,
leave a review, share this with a friend, do something.
We're still growing this podcastand I would love to have more
people along for the ride. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
(23:07):
talk again soon.
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