The “dog days” of August are upon us. Summer’s splendor is at its peak, with warm, lazy days, and color surrounding us in the garden. By this point in the gardening season, you’re either giving vegetables away or canning and freezing them as fast as you can pick them. I know that I’ve canned two dozens jars of beets and almost a dozen jars of green beans so far, and the tomatoes are coming in faster than we can eat them. It’s one of the great joys of the gardening in August.
This August, pay particular attention to your watering habits. Avoid spraying the leaves of your plants with water, which only encourages black spot, powdery mildew, and other fungal diseases. Instead, water your garden at the soil surface level when at all possible.
Harvesting vegetable frequently encourages plants to produce more, so keep picking your vegetables. Consider donating extras to your local food pantry. Many food pantries around the country accept donations of fresh vegetables, fruit and other garden and farm produce. Call ahead and confirm that fresh produce is welcome before dropping off that bag of zucchini.
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
