Re-green your garden
In many gardens, dwarf beans have done their dash, tomatoes are turning from green to red and salads crops are starting to look thin on the ground. While you continue to harvest now is good opportunity to revitalize your soil as it becomes clear. Rather than leaving it bake and harden in the sun, turn over soil immediately and dig it through. Soil may be tired and nutrient starved so give it a pep-up. There seems to be lots of seaweed washing up on beaches at the moment so use some of this freshly chopped if your home compost supply has dwindled.
Dig down to spade's depth and add in organic compost, rotted manure or seaweed. As this may take between 4 and 6 weeks to break down and improve your tired soil (when it will be ready for autumn crops of broad beans, brassicas and roots) you might like to sow some swift and satisfying shallow-rooted greens. Rocket, radishes, coriander, cress, mesclun mix and mizuna should all germinate well if their seeds are kept moist. Once they start to thicken up and grow well you can give them some liquid worm juice or seaweed every couple of weeks to nourish their shallow roots.
Quality vs. quantity
Long term crops like pumpkins and melons are entering the ripening stage around now as fruit start to swell and skins begin to thicken. If you are after quality produce rather than quantity then you might want to select the two or three best fruit on a pumpkin vine and remove all other fruit on the plant. Keep stems and foliage though as these are needed to get fruit to full size. With rock melons generally fruit are reduced to about three or four per plant once the largest fruits have got to about tennis ball size. This process of selection not only increases the size and quality of the fruit you keep but it helps to prevent plants from becoming exhausted - especially significant given current weather trends. Squashes are generally left to their super-productive habit, some producing up to 15 or so fruits. You could reduce numbers to 5 or 6 fruit per plant - still not a bad haul from just one small seed!
Gardeners on the go:
To overcome drought in your area sow herbs and fast salads in buckets, pots, troughs and boxes near to your house where they can easily be kept well watered and grow quickly to give you some fresh greens for these sunny salad days.
Keep an eye out for the first signs of mildew on tomato plants. If you see small whitish/grey spots or a powdery coating on leaves treat immediately with baking soda spray and repeat every 5 days.
