While your baskets are filling with long-awaited tomatoes, zucchini and peppers, you might not be thinking about the months to come. But the garden season doesn’t have to end when the weather cools off. Midsummer is the perfect time to start plants for a second harvest. Here are five crops you can grow right now and enjoy in a couple of months. Happy harvesting!
You Might Also Like: Best Places to Buy Garden Seeds OnlineCalculate How Many Vegetables to Plant Cool-Season Vegetables to Plant in Fall
Bush Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)Bush beans are super easy to grow, don’t require trellising like pole beans do, and mature faster. This makes them perfect for a second quick crop before a frost shuts them down.
When to plantDepending on the variety, bush beans take 50 to 60 days to mature, so to give yourself time to harvest, count back at least 75 days from your average first frost date to find the best time to plant seeds. They germinate best between 70 and 80 degrees F. If you’re going through a hot, dry spell when it’s time to plant, you might choose to start seeds indoors and transplant seedlings into the garden when outdoor temps are regularly between 65 and 85 degrees F.
Which varieties to growLook for bush bean varieties with shorter maturity times, such as ‘Tenderpod’, which takes 50 to 55 days from germination to maturity. Varieties with the word “early” in the name are usually good choices for a fall crop.
Bush bean growing tipsExpect to harvest bush beans for up to 2 weeks. If a light frost is in the forecast, protect plants by covering them with
Read more on gardengatemagazine.com