Midsummer Garden Tasks: What To Do Before Fall

With the early summer rush behind us, there are plenty of midsummer tasks to keep the garden in top shape and get a jump start on fall. Watering, seed sowing, propagating cuttings, composting and pest control are all on the agenda.

We also have this season-by-season garden checklist covering the entire garden year.

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Midsummer Garden Tasks

If you have hot and humid summers like we do here in Ontario, Canada (zone 6b), garden tasks in July and August get divided into must-do and nice-to-do. Ultimately, the weather will determine how much gets done. Sometimes it’s just too hot—or unsafe—to spend much time outside. Other days, we savor these summer days as much as we can.

While we can’t skip routine daily tasks like watering newly planted plants or seedlings, the world will not end if weeds are not pulled or the daisies are not deadheaded.

One midsummer task I always make time for is starting seeds for late summer flowers and fall vegetables—something best done indoors since, just like us, most seedlings can’t tolerate extreme heat either. Then, as summer wanes, it’s a nice reward to have these plants ready for transplanting outdoors.

Let’s walk through some midsummer garden task ideas to inspire you to get things done on the nicer days ahead.

Contents

• Buy Plants
• Sow, Plant, & Harvest
  • Vegetables
  • Flowers
• Ongoing Plant Care
• Propagation By Cuttings
• Pests & Diseases
• Resources

Buy Plants

• Shop for plant bargains

This one is easy. It’s time to buy plants. Midsummer is often the time to find good bargains at plant nurseries and the seasonal sections at big box stores.

Pay attention to how long each shop stays open for the season and mark your calendar to check a couple weeks ahead. We’ve got plant nurseries that close up by the end of June (boo!) and others that continue all summer long but at some point most usually offer deep discounts.

To make the most of my budget, I browse the plant shops in spring, see what’s offered, and do my best to hold off buying until the summer sales begin. Obviously some hard-to-find or in-demand plants will go for full price all season long, but otherwise, the waiting game is most satisfying. This does require self-discipline and patience—things my younger, plant-smitten self could not conceive of—but if you can muster it—you sure get a lot more for your money if you are willing to wait and accept that selections may be limited.

Midsummer is also the time to preorder speciality plants like certain prized varieties of garlic that sell out by fall or some cold-hardy spring-flowering bulbs. It’s always nice to have this stuff scheduled for delivery just in time for fall planting.

Sow, Plant, & Harvest

• Start fall and winter vegetables from seed
• Sow fast-growing flowers

Vegetables

Midsummer in the vegetable garden is a time of departures and arrivals. We harvest early crops and start some more.

Harvest | If you started food crops in late spring or early summer, some like lettuces, radish, turnips, kale, beets, and carrots may be finishing up. As you harvest early crops, start planting or sowing the next round. This has a useful succession sowing plan that works for both containers and growing in garden beds.

This is also the time to harvest various young, tender faster growing potatoes, especially soft-skinned “new” potatoes you will consume right away.

Some food crops are “cut and come again” meaning, you leave the roots to continue growing while harvesting select other parts. Leafy greens are a good example of this.

Garlic scapes—the tender flower buds of hardneck garlic plants—are ready about a month before it’s time to harvest the garlic bulbs. Harvesting the scapes also allows the plant to direct its energy into bulb production. Plus, there are countless delicious recipes online to try.

Prevent Bolting | Summer heat is very hard on certain crops which will bolt (jump to premature seed production, skipping the edible stage) or die if temperatures are too high. This is common with lettuces and leafy greens like arugula. Sometimes adding shade with screens or covers or moving plant containers out of full sun is enough to prevent the problem.

Sowing & Planting | Now is the time to start seeds—some indoors (to avoid too much heat) and some outdoors to grow either a fall or winter vegetable garden. This has a printable list of vegetables to start midsummer.

Cool-tolerant options include broccoli, cabbage, chard, leaf lettuces, spinach, arugula, kale, bok choy, carrots, Swiss chard, and more.

Not only can the cool-tolerant crops be nurtured through the colder months but some crops like carrots and beets become sweeter with a touch of frost.

If you have 60 days until your average first frost in fall, you may also have time to sneak in a crop of green beans (look for 45 to 50 day varieties).

Flowers

Your average first frost date will also determine whether you have time to grow some fast-growing flowers.

This list of flower seeds to sow midsummer has suggestions based on how much time you have available.

Ongoing Plant Care

• Keep seedlings and young plants including trees watered
• Deadhead flowers (unless seed saving)
• Train climbers on trellis
• Fertilize if needed
• Maintain compost pile

Watering | Keeping up with watering is non-negotiable for vulnerable plants including freshly sown seeds and new transplants. Any young shrubs, vines, and trees may also need intentional watering. How you deal with drought conditions will depend on the regulations in your area.

Deadheading, which means to remove old flower heads and their stems, can encourage second and third blooming cycles.

If you want to save seeds, mark your best flowers while they are peaking so you know where to find the best seeds later on. The best flowers provide the best seeds—it’s all about the genetics.

Trimming & Trellis | Any vines or other climbing plants may need trellis or twine to guide the growth where you want it. It’s especially important to keep track of perennial climbers so they grow in the desired formation and won’t need severe correcting later.

The basic rule of pruning is you can remove any dead, damaged, diseased growth any time to maintain plant health. Pruning for good formation is generally done in winter when leaves have dropped (so you can see what you’re doing) and sap is not flowing.

Fertilizer | The need for fertilizer will depend on your soil and what you’re growing. Some flowering annuals have all they need for their single season of growth. Long-term potted plants like a fruit tree or flowering perennials may need intermittent doses of granular slow-release fertilizers.

Compost | Keep that compost bin or pile turned and watered (as needed) so you have lots of luscious compost ready to use in fall.

Propagation By Cuttings

• Take cuttings to propagate new plants

Propagation | For most plants that can be cloned this way, propagation by cuttings can happen any time during the growing season. The basic principle is to take cuttings when the plant is not currently budding or blooming so it will direct its energy toward root growth. This lists plant propagation suggestions from spring to fall.

Tomato Cuttings | If you have tomato plants now, you can take cuttings and grow them as new plants. Some fast-growing cherry tomatoes like Tiny Tims (45 days to maturity) may have time to fruit before fall. Alternately, you can grow them in pots indoors in a sunny location over the winter. This shows how to root tomato cuttings.

Pest & Disease Patrol

• Identify any pests or diseases to understand best action (if any)

I use the word “patrol” here because I’m always reluctant to take action for any pests or diseases in the garden unless I’m certain anything I do won’t cause greater harm.

For this reason, I try to grow a diverse selection of plants suited to my area to nurture a more sustainable ecosystem. Plus, procrastination is a great garden tool—so many problems take care of themselves if you leave them to it. Often a pest problem shows up and, with time, the predator appears. Or other symbiotic relationships deal with it.

That said, midsummer is often prime time for some garden challenges.

Properly identifying any (perceived) pest and understanding its life cycle is often your best tool. In an ideal setting, we could catch the squash borer moth or remove its eggs before the borers ever hatch and decimate our crops.

Common diseases like powdery mildew, while lurking all along, become evident midsummer on plant leaves like squashes. That’s an example where prevention and early action are your best bets.

Certain invasive pests like Japanese beetles can always be hand-picked. If volumes are high, it feels like a losing battle—and probably is—but sometimes that’s all we can do. Opinions are mixed about traps: yes, you catch a bunch but the pheromones (in the trap) are also attracting more of them to your garden. You can decide if it seems worth it.

If slugs and snails are owning the vegetable garden, this explains what works to slow destruction from slugs and snails in the garden.

Resources

Garden Tools & Checklists

• Fall Gardening Checklist
• Seasonal Garden Checklist
• Soil Calculator for Soil, Mulch, Compost, and Potting Mix

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛