July 5, 2010 Vegetable Garden Maintenance

 Emmie Sherry

 Herb and Vegetable Specialist

        Hello fellow veggie gardeners, I hope your gardens are in full swing. Now that July is here, it is important to monitor your garden's need for water. When it is hot and dry, it is necessary to water more often, even daily for container grown plants.

       The best way to know if you need to water is to actually check the soil. If it is light in color and hard or compacted, then a slow, trickling, steady watering is needed. Surface watering, or just watering the foliage is not sufficient. The goal is to emulate a slow, steady rain, thoroughly and deeply soaking the soil.

       The use of mulch alleviates some of the demand for frequent water. I used plastic and cypress mulch together and have only been watering my garden on a weekly basis until now. During July and August I expect to water two to three times a week, unless it rains, of course.

       Another thing to keep a close eye on in the garden this time of year is weeds. Weeds only steal important nutrients and water from your vegetable plants. It helps to pull weeds after watering, when roots are wet and don't hold on as tightly. It is also a lot easier to pull little baby weeds than large, overgrown ones.

       I recently lost some squash plants because I was not diligent enough with weeding. By not pulling the weeds, I allowed a great hiding place for about a thousand squash bugs. By the time I noticed the damage the bugs were doing to my plants, it was too late. Oh well, there is always next year.

       I hope that you are doing well with your own gardens, and are sustaining minimal losses. And don't forget; water and weed, water and weed!