A generous vegetable garden until frost

At the end of July, beginning of August, the vegetable garden enters its magic phase. Tomatoes, cucumber, Swiss chard, peas, zucchini and many more are in full production. A delicious happiness. But at the same time, the lettuces show a fatal weariness, the beans are much less generous, the radishes have given everything. So many free spaces to prolong your vegetable pleasure until frost. Come on, let’s sow again.

Pierre Gingras
special collaboration

A regular collection

Before giving a second life to the vegetable garden, you have to make sure you get the most out of the plants that are already in production, explains horticultural author and seed producer Yves Gagnon, of the Jardin du Grand Portage, in Saint-Didace, in Lanaudière, a model vegetable garden open to the public. “A plant bears fruit to ensure its offspring,” he says. If you don’t pick your beans regularly, say every two or three days, then the plant will stop producing. Quite simply because she will have achieved her goal. It is therefore necessary to carry out regular picking to stimulate and prolong its production. This is particularly the case for peas, cucumbers, courgettes and aubergines. Another advantage of harvesting frequently: a better taste and a more pleasant texture of the fruit due to its young age. Too old, the bean is fibrous, the cucumber and the zucchini, much less tasty.

A healthy shadow

A host of plants lend themselves to mid-season sowing for a fall harvest. It is important to choose varieties that produce as quickly as possible. Each seed packet indicates the required growing time from sowing to the start of harvest. It should be remembered that this delay was established according to optimal conditions. From August the days are shorter, so the growth is a bit slower. In addition, it is necessary to avoid sowing in the middle of a heat wave unless you provide watering that keeps the soil moist or even sow seeds in a semi-shaded place. The situation will be appreciated in particular spinach, lettuce, turnips and peas, even if the norm of five or six hours of daily sunshine is not respected, indicates for his part the renowned seed company Jean-François Lévesque, of the Jardins de l’Écoumène, in Saint-Damien, in Lanaudière.

Fewer insects, more flavor

Other advantages of mid-season planting: many insects have completed their devastating cycle at this time of year, which increases the gardener’s chances of success. The foliage of bok choi (or bok choi), for example, is highly prized by hungry flea beetles. Not only will periods of coolness be very favorable to it, but the foliage will also be impeccable. Best of all, like most plants picked late in the season, they will be much tastier after experiencing the chilly September or October nights. Kale (kale), it will even reach maximum flavor after a night or two of light frost.

What do we sow?

Many vegetable plants require at least two months of growth before a first picking. But some grow a little faster and offer a better chance of success than others. Leaf lettuce, spinach, radish, turnips (not rutabagas), fall radish (watermelon, black, daikon type), kohlrabi and Chinese, green onion as well as several fine herbs (coriander, dill, mustard, etc.) are of these. Lettuce and radishes also grow very well in planters. You can also sow early varieties of carrots, beets, beans, peas, Swiss chard, kale. The maturity will probably be incomplete at the end of September, but they will be all the more delectable. Yves Gagnon also advises not to plant the same species in the same place, the second sowing being deprived of the mineral resources already used, which will reduce production accordingly, he says. In a plot of lettuce, for example, he will then plant a plant from another family such as turnip or radish.