The Best Vegetables to Plant in Your Summer Garden
There’s nothing better than watching a summer garden flourish. While many focus on what they can accomplish in the spring, there’s ample opportunity to cultivate a thriving vegetable garden in the hotter months. Successful gardens can provide months of delicious and nutritious crops. Not only does a prosperous garden let you enjoy the fruits of your labor, but those vegetables you harvest offer a purer alternative to what you can get at your local grocery store. In this blog, you’ll discover the best vegetables to plant in your summer garden and learn valuable tips that help you ensure your garden reaches its full potential.
How to Grow Plants in the Summer Heat
Gardening is challenging no matter the season. However, summer presents unique hurdles threatening your garden’s health and potential harvest. The biggest include exposure to extreme heat and low soil moisture levels. Fortunately, you can easily avoid those problems with proper planning and technical know-how.
The key to success is to start early with high-quality soil. Watering is the best way to mitigate heat stress, but low-quality soil with inadequate drainage and water retention properties will dry up faster, putting your plants at a higher risk. When starting your garden, invest in a premium potting mix. Our Pay Dirt potting mix is a great option. In addition to offering superior water retention and drainage, it’s a mix that you can reuse time and time again for optimal crop production.
Vegetable Plants That Thrive in the Summer
There are many factors to consider when choosing plants for your summer garden, including space requirements and culinary preferences. Luckily, there’s no shortage of options. Here are ten of the best vegetables to plant during the summer:
- Cucumber: Cucumbers are the quintessential summer crop. They’re refreshing and ready to eat straight off the vine.
- Eggplant: Eggplants do well in hot temperatures. When planted in the late spring, most are ready to harvest by late summer.
- Okra: Okra is another plan that thrives in heat. Okra is one of the best summer garden vegetables because they continue to produce the more you harvest.
- Sweet Potatoes: There are many sweet potato varieties, and most require warm summertime soil to grow.
- Tomatoes: Tomatoes are among the easiest summer crop to grow. With many varieties available, there’s plenty of room for experimentation.
- Beans: Whether you choose pole, bush or runner varieties, beans are a fundamental summer crop.
- Squash: While most consider squash a fall crop, many summer varieties thrive in the heat.
- Greens: Swiss chard, amaranth, Malabar spinach and more are perfect for summer gardens.
- Peppers: Most pepper varieties, from sweet bell peppers to spicy poblano peppers, do best in the summer heat.
- Sweet Corn: If you have the room, sweet corn plants can provide huge harvests throughout the season.
Summer Gardening Tips for a Bountiful Harvest
Whether you have a green thumb or not, follow these tips to help your vegetable plants reach their full potential.
- Water Strategically: Great soil goes a long way, but you must water often and at the right time for best results. In the summer, hydrate your garden in the morning when the weather is cooler.
- Weed Often: Weeds can deprive your vegetable plants of much-needed nutrition, and they spread fast in the summer. Pull weeds often to minimize their impact.
- Feed Your Plants: A boost of nutrition can pave the way to explosive growth and production. Consider using an all-natural plant food product like Superlicious from Supernatural Brand. When used as an additive or foliar spray, it encourages aggressive flowering.
Tasty Food Grown Right at Home
Starting a summer garden can be a rewarding experience. In addition to playing an active part in helping your plants reach their full potential, you can enjoy a season’s harvest that keeps you full, happy and healthy! Try these vegetable plants this summer season and see what you can grow.
