Even in July, there are plenty of direct-sown vegetables you can harvest from your garden and have on the table before summer is over.
Here are four suggestions from a post on a website called “The frustrated gardener” (love this website name).
Salad vegetables — There are plenty of options, including spinach, kale and chard, and thanks to the warm soil and summer sun, they only take four to six weeks to go from seed to plate.
Kidney Beans — Because they don’t require a support structure and mature much faster, kidney beans can be harvested just seven to eight weeks after harvest.
Kohlrabi — Also known as German turnip, it has a slightly sweet and tangy flavor. With about six hours of sunlight per day, it takes about 50 days from seed to harvest, which means your kohlrabi will be ready to use in stews, soups, and curries by Labor Day weekend.
Herbs — especially dill, coriander and parsley, which will grow in any sunny spot in the garden.
Last week: Tips for beginners, how to get rid of mint plants, best tomatoes for Illinois
How to grow mint
Last week we had a question about how to get rid of mint in raised garden beds, and Jennifer from Wheaton asked, “What if I want to grow mint?”
There are about a dozen different kinds of mint, and they're super easy to propagate if you take cuttings. I found this great infographic on the website Sustainably Healthy that shows you three steps to propagate your mint: Take a mint cutting, peel off the bottom leaves, place it in water and wait for roots to grow.
Below is a photo from Sustainably Healthy.
Gerbera Plant Problems
Viewer Jobina was curious about the dying gerbera, commenting: “I received this plant as a gift and it was doing great until I noticed recently it had withered and was sprouting white fluff!!”
The white fluff in question.
It's unfortunate that one of the plants has already died, and I'm trying to figure out what caused it.
Powdery mildew infects this plant very easily, but at least for now this white fluff does not look like powdery mildew to me.
Judging from the photo you have, it looks like you are growing it in a metal trough container. Do they have drainage holes? If not, root rot is often the cause of death.
To my surprise, that was absolutely true! Jobina says that gerberas will thrive much better if kept in a home with good drainage.
An important thing to remember is that when you transplant something and check for root rot, you can feel the roots change from soft to hard – they need to be cut off with sterilized garden shears or scissors.
If you have any gardening questions, Tim is happy to answer them. Email your gardening question, along with a photo of the problem plant, to tjoyce@wgntv.com.
