FREE online courses on Vegetable Gardening - Maintaining Vegetables
If your garden gets enough sun, then about all you really
need to do is make sure your veggies get about an inch of water every week,
supplementing rainfall with watering as needed.
But to keep the soil relatively moist and cool and to keep
down weeds, we mulched between our plant rows with a layer of newspaper (which
decomposes) covered with grass clippings to hold the paper down. That also keeps
you from churning up mud when you work in the garden. Certain vegetables will
grow better with a little boost of fertilizer during the summer:
Tomatoes
benefit from a low-nitrogen mix high in potassium and phosphorus to promote
flower and fruit growth. Just work a small amount into the soil around the
plant's roots. Corn will grow faster
with a couple feedings of a high-nitrogen fertilizer, once at about a foot high
and then at about 2 feet high.
And here's a tip we picked up: Give your tomato plants a
gentle shake once the flowers appear to help the pollination process that leads
to juicy tomatoes.