With Memorial Day weekend kicking off the unofficial start of the summer planting season in Northeast Ohio, lots of folks will be setting up their summer vegetable garden. Here are some ideas and tips:
Several readers have asked about weed suppression in vegetable garden beds. I have been using weed-free straw to cover the bare soil between plants in my raised beds. No straw is entirely weed free, as far as I can tell, but the weeds that do emerge are shallow-rooted grasses that are easily identified and pulled. In addition to suppressing weeds, the straw helps retain warmth and moisture.
if you receive a print edition . Whichever you choose, put the mulch down now as you plant your vegetables and you will thank yourself throughout the growing season.Companion planting to attract pollinators. Another frequent question is why a garden’s zucchini and cucumber plants have a lot of flowers but never set fruit. The answer is that there is not enough cross-pollination happening, which requires the help of bees, beetles, wasps, moths, and butterflies. To attract these friends to the garden, companion planting of flowers near or even among vegetable plants is an effective—and beautiful—technique. Widely available choices include marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, and snapdragons.
This year I will be trying nasturtiums, which have edible flowers and attract aphids. While that may sound like a bad thing, gardeners use nasturtiums as “trap plants” for aphids and discard of the parts of the plant that have been attacked—better to lose a nasturtium or two than an entire melon plant. Another intriguing companion plant is borage, which is an old-timey herb that seems ready for a comeback.
If you are not ready to plant your summer vegetables yet, all is not lost for the season. Depending on the weather, June growth can be slow for many heat-loving vegetable plants like tomatoes and peppers in Northeast Ohio, and squash borer activity is at its peak, so plants that go in the ground over the next few weeks are likely catch up quickly.If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.
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