5 Edible Garden Maintenance Tips for Beginners
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So you’ve planted your edible garden (perhaps for the first time), and now it’s summer and your plants are starting to grow. What an exciting time it is to be in this stage of the growing season! It’s truly a joy to watch these plant babies get established in my garden beds. When I first started gardening sometimes those plants took off and produced the most beautiful and flavorful produce I’ve ever had. Other times, crops looked beautiful, but tasted bitter - which is always a let down. And I’ve definitely grown a lot of crops that died without producing anything at all, or were devoured by pests before I could fix the problem. Yikes! Yes, there’s a lot that can still go wrong in the garden. I’ve had many years of trial and error, but now I know the best actions to take in order to grow the most abundant, healthy, and delicious edible garden ever. If you are new to gardening or lack confidence in growing a bountiful and nutrient rich kitchen garden, then these summer garden maintenance tips will not only help you keep your garden healthy, but make sure it thrives and produces a delicious harvest all summer long.
Monitor your garden daily
Walking through the garden each day is the best way to monitor the growth and health of your plants so that you can catch and mitigate problems quickly. Allow your daily walks to be an opportunity to relax in the garden and observe the garden ecosystem at work. Be on the lookout for insects in the center and underside of leaves, leaf discoloration, plant damage, and overall plant vigor. Insects in the garden are a sign of a healthy garden ecosystem, however an outbreak of pests devouring edible crops is an issue that needs to be addressed before irreparable damage occurs. Pest infestations can be removed by hand or mitigated with an organic pesticide, like neem oil or a homemade organic pest deterrent. Discoloration in leaves and reduced plant vigor can be an indication of improper watering, lack of soil nutrients, or the spread of an infectious disease. Regular monitoring through daily walks will help you stay ahead of your garden tasks in order to keep your garden thriving.
2. Keep up with weeding
While this is the most obvious summer garden maintenance task, it is still very important. Getting behind on weeding is a recipe for frustration and overwhelm on your part and the weeds will stunt the growth of your prized edible crops because they’ll be competing for resources (like water, nutrients, and sunlight). When crop growth is stunted, they’ll more easily become infested with diseases and pests. To avoid this, spend a quick 15 minutes outside each day pulling weeds. Weeding a little bit every day can transform this chore into a relaxing meditative escape in nature, and it will keep your garden growing strong.
3. Water properly
This is perhaps one of the most important summer garden maintenance tasks because proper watering is critical to plant health. Plants often don’t need as much water as we think. Yet, as gardeners, watering is often how we show our love for our plants. Overwatering is usually the culprit to diseased, pest-ridden, and dying plants for beginner gardeners. Plus, overwatering is extremely wasteful and removes valuable nutrients from the soil, ultimately depriving plants of food. My watering rule of thumb is that you can never water plants too much at one time, only too often. It’s best to water deeply, but less frequently. In order for plants to thrive, soil should only be as moist as a wrung out sponge - not over-saturated and soggy, and not dry.
Watering cadence and volume vary widely depending on environmental factors such as rainfall, humidity, and soil type. However, gardens that are established oftentimes only need to be watered once every 2 -10 days. At the time of watering, soil should become thoroughly saturated at least 8-10 inches down into the soil where the lower part of the root profile extends. The goal is to saturate the soil as deep as the plant’s root system extends, then allow days to pass so plants can soak up that water. Applying that amount of water in one deep watering, less frequently, will encourage deeper rooting which leads to stronger and healthier plants.
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4. Harvest and prune at the right time
Both annual vegetables and perennial herbs need regular pruning and harvesting in order to grow into robust and productive plants. Whether they produce a flower, fruit, or leaves, a little cutting can go a long way in maintaining their health and vigor. Skipping this particular maintenance task can leave plants vulnerable to infectious diseases and pest infestation, as well as hamper new growth.
Prune herbs after their first flowering in early summer (when flowers are spent) to inspire a second round of flowering and to prevent them from becoming sparse and leggy. Prune out dead, damaged, or yellowing parts of plants, as well as spent flowers to inspire new growth. Harvest edible leafy greens at the base of the leaf, so they continue to produce more leaves throughout the season. You’ll also want to harvest leafy greens before they bolt (flower) in the hottest part of the season. After they bolt, their lifespan is over and that area of the garden can be resown with another edible crop. Harvest vegetables and fruits when they are ripe on the vine so the plant continues to grow more fruit and doesn’t become susceptible to disease and pest infestation from rotting fruit.
5. Fertilize frequently
It’s important to provide enough nutrients to your edible garden so they can produce an abundant harvest that has a high nutrition value. Edible gardens require applications of fertilizer as frequent as once every 2-4 weeks because they are producing a nutrient-dense edible crop. Apply a fertilizer that has equal, or near equal, ratios of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) so that all parts of the plant are supported in it’s growth. Nitrogen helps with leaf production and greening. Phosphorus helps with root, flower, fruit and seed formation, and Potassium inspires root development and overall plant vigor. If plants receive an abundance of one nutrient, yet it’s deficient in another, then it’s not likely to thrive and produce very much. Additionally, plants lacking nutrients in the soil are much more susceptible to pest and disease infestations. When fertilizing edible gardens, follow the directions on the fertilizer label as closely as possible to ensure the best results. I recommend using an organic fertilizer that is meant for growing organic vegetables. Non-organic fertilizers often contain toxic chemicals that should not be ingested through our edible crops.
