Act now to allow soil a second chance to yield

Two weeks ago, our small bed of edible-pod peas stopped producing. Reilly, our Brittany, was as disappointed as any family member to see the end of peas as she had long mastered her own version of harvest, tugging at a pod until either it or the entire plant dislodged. She looked forlorn as Marjorie began to chop the vines into the soil, but soon turned her attention to the cherry tomatoes; they are still green, but that does not deter Reilly if no one is looking.

After two weeks, the pea plants have completely decomposed, slowly releasing their fixed nitrogen to the soil. Soon it will be time to plant this bed with broccoli transplants, our eye on a late September-early October harvest.

Starting with transplants, rather than direct sowing the seed, is the only way that we will produce a fall broccoli crop. Slugs, abundant in Marjorie’s garden this year, devour entire broccoli and lettuce seedlings as fast as they germinate, despite efforts to stop them in their slimy tracks with diatomaceous earth.

We are growing our own transplants of Waltham 29, a drought-tolerant broccoli variety developed to mature in cold weather. It continues to produce small lateral heads for 6 to 8 weeks after harvesting the main head, ensuring a long harvest period that will be halted only by hard freeze.

Waltham 29 matures about 74 days from sowing. Since we sowed the seeds for our transplants on July 17, and because broccoli can tolerate light frosts, our harvest should start in late September and continue until the first hard freeze, even longer if we provide some protection for the plants.

Mid- to late summer is the beginning of the vegetable garden’s second season. In addition to starting seeds of broccoli and the other brassica crops, including kohlrabi, cauliflower and cabbage, this is the time to plant beets, peas, green onions, radishes and turnips. And it is the time to plant leafy herbs such as basil, dill and cilantro, fast-growing herbs that will be ready for harvest about a month after sowing the seed. You can harvest the young leaves as needed until the plants are killed by frost; basil is very frost-sensitive but cilantro will tolerate the first light frosts.

Leafy vegetables such as spinach, Swiss chard, kale, mustard greens and leaf lettuce are second-season crops that should be harvested before their leaves reach full size. The small leaves are often more tender and tasty than mature ones. These crops can be planted in succession every few weeks as small spaces open up in the garden to provide a steady supply of young leaves.

Planning your vegetable garden’s second season begins with an estimate of the first frost date for your garden’s location. Using this date, along with the length of time it takes each crop to mature (or start producing harvestable leaves), you can schedule a sowing date for each crop. Also, if you incorporate the residue of the first crop into the soil, as we did with the peas, you should wait an additional two weeks before planting or direct sowing the second crop.

Remember that many of these second-season plants, including most of the leafy vegetables and turnips, can survive and even improve in flavor after a light frost. Beets, green onions and peas will survive 28 F, while the hardiest varieties of brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale are cold hardy to 20 F.

Don’t tarry in this planning! The number of frost-free days remaining is uncertain, but steadily decreasing.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to rmanley@ptc-me.net. Include name, address and telephone number.