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While you spend time keeping up with heirloom tomato harvests (Paul Robeson continues to be a staff favorite) and green beans that seem to grow overnight (Fortex is a newly discovered variety that is surprising us with its tenderness and long, slender size), it is also the last call to direct seed and transplant for fall harvests. At Seedsong and Starr Collective Gardens, we've been succession sowing transplants of radicchio, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages, and fennel. Last week we direct seeded our last rounds of roots such as carrots, beets, turnips, and winter radishes (see photo description below for more details on radishes). Still awaiting our attention is another succession of cilantro, dill and scallion transplants - we are currently tending to these last trays in the Greenhouse at Landry Park, waiting until the heat wave and water conservation notices end before we transplant into the garden. And last but not least, we have early September as our seeding window for direct sowing spinach and claytonia for overwintering into next spring.
Here are three resources for supporting your succession sowing practices in August:
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Late Season Planting Guide Calendar by Hudson Valley Seed Company - we appreciate the beautiful illustration and we find the dates to be quite accurate to how we schedule succession sowing in our Burlington gardens.
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Vermont Public recently aired a short and informative video featuring Charlie Nardozzi planting cool-weather crops in August. We saw the video on Instagram.
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We are meticulous about using row cover or insect netting to protect our brassicas from swede midge damage. Over the years, as our budget allows, we have been investing in high quality insect netting such as ProtekNet.
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