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Summer Lovin’ Veggies

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Wikimedia Commons

Some vegetables love the heat - if you can keep them watered, they thrive. Others struggle through the hot days no matter how tenderly they’re cared for.

Consistent Moisture is Key

Tomatoes and peppers are heat lovers. I’ve heard the hotter the weather the hotter the jalapeno. Consistent moisture is the key to these fruiting crops.  Irregular water causes the black sunken spot on the bottom of peppers and tomatoes. It’s called blossom end rot. The fruit is still edible just cut off the bad area. 

Vine crops also like the heat. You can almost see Zucchini and other squash vines grow in the heat, if they’re getting plenty of water. Squash stressed from lack of water or poor soil abort flowers and fruit. 

Beans need more water than any other vegetable, especially in their flowering and fruiting stage. If flowers are falling off or the pods are curved, the beans need more water. 

How to Conserve Water

To conserve water around heat loving crops use mulch. Organic mulch is a double benefit to vegetable gardens. It holds in moisture and adds organic matter as it breaks down. Grass clippings and compost are great organic mulches. 

Some cool season crops just don’t grow in the heat but this makes them great in mountain gardens. Peas become pale green and stunted. The hotter it gets the quicker spinach and lettuce goes to seed. This is called bolting and makes these leaf crops bitter. Peas and salad greens love to grow in the sunny days and cool nights of high elevation gardens.

Most annual flowers are heat lovers. With regular water and fertilizer nicotiana, petunias, geraniums and cleome will be a blast of color until the first hard frost.  Pick off the old flowers. The more old flowers you pick the more new flowers you get. 

Flowers to Keep in the Shade

Keep impatiens, pansies, begonias and sweet peas in the shade. These shade lovers grow in full sun in the high country. Most winters pansies bloom until the ground freezes.

tom@throgmortonplantmanagement.com          

Tom has been offering garden advice on KUNC for almost two decades. During that time he has been the wholesale sales manager at Ft. Collins Nursery, Inc. Since January of 2005 he has been the owner and operator of Throgmorton Plant Management, LLC., a landscape installation and maintenance company as well as a horticultural consulting firm. He lives in northern Ft. Collins with his wife and two kids.
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