Summer in Indiana

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Winter and Summer Pears: What’s the Difference?

These vegetables grow best in warm weather and when the sun is intense. You must give them a place in your summer vegetable garden. If you don’t own a garden and space is limited, grow them in pots in your apartment balcony or patio.

It’s not that long since it was spring, and cold, and my young plants needed hardening off, but it has been long enough that both of my raised bed covers had been put away for the year. Their plastic covers are great for keeping out the weather, but once it’s warm they can become overheated death traps. I’m still using my Elho grow table, which has proved very useful. Like a propagator on legs, it has been looking after plants outside for weeks. Currently it’s home to my purple sprouting broccoli seedlings, doing a great job of keeping them safe from marauding cabbage white butterflies. It’s in a shadier spot, so it hasn’t overheated, and yet the plants in it get far more light than they did inside, so they’re happy.

August is many ways a time of reckoning in the garden, an impossible-to-avoid visual record of seeds sown or not sown, of plants that are flourishing and others that are lost or languishing. For the very same reason, it’s also a great time of year to take careful note of what’s failed, what’s succeeded, and the many reasons why. But just don’t rely on memory alone. Instead if you set aside an hour or two this month to jot it all down in a garden notebook, you’ll be forever grateful that you did.

Around here we’re not fans of the f-word. No, not that f-word. We’re talking about FALL. In our minds that cooler weather is still a long way off, so we’ve decided to celebrate the dog days of summer by talking about plants that really put on a show in August. When much of the garden is looking tired and bedraggled, these plants add a colorful punch to the scene. Some unexpected perennials and shrubs dominate our lists and for those who have been demanding it—Peter is back with his take on the end of summer. In true Peter fashion though, he’ll be discussing ice cream and…the solar system? Well, his segment will be entertaining, that’s for sure.

When the weather is warm, it is great to be able to reach into the freezer and enjoy a healthy treat. Better yet, popsicles, sorbets, or fruity ice creams can all be made using produce you have grown yourself in your garden. Hyper-local and packaging-free, making your own is the eco-friendliest way to go.

Even the most well-planned border can look a bit shabby or even colorless by mid to late summer. Gaps can occur for many reasons, such as long summer heat waves, extended periods of drought, or—as is my case this year—an unexplained overpopulation of rabbits. There is one more common reason: It’s easy for us gardeners to fall into the trap of buying perennials that bloom earlier in the summer, as that is when most of us visit garden centers, and we are more tempted into buying plants already in bloom rather than something that doesn’t bloom until later.

Enjoying the beauty of plants and flowers is the number one reason most of us love to garden, so it’s always fun to find new ways to help our plants look better and bloom longer. Over the years, I’ve picked up some tricks that can be used to help perennials bloom longer into summer. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Alice Fleurkens is welcoming us into her Sweaburg, Ontario, garden today.

We might be in the final weeks of summer, but that doesn’t mean all the perks of your summer vegetable garden are over. In fact, there are a ton of amazing ways you can prolong the use of your veggie patch—and keep enjoying the literal fruits of your labor—well into autumn. That’s why we turned to Ashley Nussman-Berry, founder of the Black Planters, and a few other amazing members of the Facebook Group, to ask for their advice. 

Basil is one of my favorite summer herbs, but I find it painful to have to buy basil to use in winter recipes when I grow it all summer. That’s why I freeze fresh herbs, so I can enjoy that fresh flavor if I don’t have an indoor herb plant at hand for my recipe. In this article, I’m going to share advice on how to freeze basil a few different ways.