Keep on planting

Follow-on crops to those spring and quick maturing crops already harvested from the garden are the order of late June. Don't let recent above average temperatures in the mid to upper nineties F deter you. If you use hot weather seed germination techniques, summer direct seeding in the garden isn't hard.

Carrot seedlings germinated under
polyester floating row cover fabric.

I recently germinated notoriously slow-to-germinate carrots under germination fabric. This is the same material that many people call floating row cover fabric, simply used for a different purpose. It is readily available in garden centers and will last for many seasons.

Plant seed shallowly as normal, cover bed with cloth, bury edges with soil and/or use bent wire U pins punched through fabric to hold down the middle from winds. Water frequently but in small amounts right through the fabric. Remove fabric upon germination. My carrot seed germinated in 10 days.

If you are interested in more follow-on gardening techniques for late summer and fall growing, join me for my July 10 class at Denver Botanic Gardens (see class list at right).

Photo credit: Carrot seed and Carrot seedlings under row cover fabric - both Carl Wilson

Roots time

With colder weather setting in Thanksgiving week, it’s a good time to explore your underground growing success by digging root vegetables. Beets are a good example, the cool weather causing them to be extra sweet.

‘Chioggia’ beets named for a town across the bay from Venice are pictured here. They are a 65 day, Italian home garden variety with festive red and white striped interior rings. Try them roasted with feta cheese. Sweet!

Carrots are another mainstay. ‘Nelson’ (pictured) is a half-long variety well adapted to growing in our shallow, clay soils. A Nantes type, it grows 5 to 6 inches long in 58 days. It consistently produces smooth, high quality roots with great uniformity.

Make fresh harvested roots a part of your November vegetable menu.

You can store roots in the garden longer into December and even January by covering them with a blanket of mulch. A foot deep layer of fallen tree leaves weighted with wire fencing or staked with netting to hold them in place should do the trick.


Photo credits: Dug 'Chioggia' beet root, 'Chioggia' beet slices, dug 'Nelson' carrot - all Carl Wilson