How to make your ideal Summer Vegetable Garden happen

What food do you want to grow in your garden this year?

Tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, eggplant, corn, and melons?  These crops are more difficult to grow here in the Pacific Northwest.  They are native to parts of North and Central America with very warm day and night temperatures and regular summer rainfall.  They are difficult, but not impossible.  Here are some techniques that can help.

Cloches can help speed germination of directly-seeded plants like squash, cucumbers, and melons in May.  Our nighttime temperatures are usually rather cool for these warm-loving plants to get a good start.  Tomato starts can be planted out in May under a cloche also.  Using empty soda bottles, milk jugs, or even cake server tops help keep the garden budget modest for these garden assistants that can be used reused.  Cold frames or even greenhouses act like cloches, but can protect many more plants.

How do you introduce summer transplants into your garden?

Make the transition gradually from the greenhouse where transplants were grown to the garden with  direct sun in the day and cool temperatures at night.  Put the plants out for a couple of hours in the shade on the first day; two hours in a sunnier location on the second; perhaps four hours on the third day, etc., gradually working up to an overnight on the day before you transplant them into the garden.  Avoid the temptation to plant your tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and tomatillos in the garden until the last week of May or the first week of June. And remember to keep them well watered until they have adjusted to their new home. 

Food Action Team – Edible Garden Group