HOW TO KEEP YOUR SUMMER GARDEN LOW MAINTENANCE
1. Plant for Back to School harvests & lessons
These crops need plenty of water at first to germinate but once the plant is established, it will be okay with rain and mulch to keep the soil moist.
- Bush beans: approx 60 days to maturity from seed; will have mature bean pods for seed harvesting lessons/seed saving
- Melons: approx 80-100 days to maturity; needs a lot of space to spread
- Sunflowers: approx 90-120 days to maturity; there are dwarf varieties as well if looking for something not so tall
2. Mulch
Mulching will help retain moisture, suppress weed growth, and protect the soil during the summer. Vital when you have crops growing but also when there is nothing intentionally planted. Using straw, leaves, or other organic matter (not carbon-heavy woodchips) to layer on top of the bare soil will prepare a garden for fall planting upon returning from break!
3. Cover Crop
Selected plants that will cover and improve the soil rather than need continual harvesting to eat.
Cover crops help manage soil erosion, soil health, weeds, pests, and are low maintenance. Some summer cover crop options are:
- Sudangrass (grows tall & fun to shake when starting to bloom to illustrate wind pollination, left picture below ft. maze)
- Buckwheat (small white flowers, right picture below on the left)
- Sun hemp (clusters of yellow flowers, right picture below on the right)
