In this weekend’s gardening column, Conor Gallinagh discusses some key tasks that should be carried out in the vegetable garden.
At this stage of the season, the vegetable and fruit garden should be in full swing with crops ripening quickly.
Here are five tasks for your weekend in the garden
- Harvesting: This should be carried out on a regular basis. This help prevents any problems with pest and diseases.
It will also ensure that other crops on the plant get to ripen quicker. They are so many uses and techniques for storing various vegetables (this will be covered in the next column.
- Weed and Pest Monitoring: As you can imagine with the weather conditions been so variable recently this optimum conditions for weeds to grow and pest populations to expand.
Ensuring the problem is dealt with before it gets out of hand is key. Weeds will add competition to your crops and can cause problems with ripening and growth. Pests can wipe out an entire crop.
- Watering: Again, with the weather been so variable of late there have been days of dry weather and very hot. So even though we have had a lot of rain of late be careful.
- Succession Planting: We still have time to grow and sow more plants before the season has finished. Depending on your growing environments will greatly depend on what you can grow. We can still get crops of salads such as lettuce, Pak choi and others.
- Feeding – Giving your vegetable plants a boost at this stage will help strengthen their immune system against diseases and also help quicken the ripening process. A liquid feed is most suitable at this stage. Either a comfrey drench or seaweed would work best.
Happy Gardening!
Conor Gallinagh
BAgrSc Horticulture, Landscape, Sportsturf Management
MCIHort
