Caring for Your Vegetable Garden

You may be able to get another crop of quick-maturing, cool-season vegetables (such as radish, lettuce, or spinach) if you sow the seeds early this month and live in cooler parts of the Northeast.

Here's a hint: If your summers get hot early, plant lettuce, spinach, and other greens in the shade. They'll stay cooler -- and that can keep them going longer.

If you didn't harvest all of your cool-season crops and they sent up a flowering stem (called bolting), toss them in your compost pile. Unfortunately, once they bolt they become too bitter to eat.

Once you've passed your average last frost date, it should be safe to plant your warm-weather vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, corn, squash, and pumpkins.

During dry spells, water your vegetable garden deeply, but infrequently. That way your plants grow deeper root systems so they can weather, dry periods easily.

Reduce your watering bill and help protect your vegetables from fungal diseases by using a soaker hose.

Stop harvesting your rhubarb and asparagus; they need to produce a healthy crop of leaves for the rest of the summer to gather energy and give you abundant harvests next year.

Get more tips for maintaining a healthy vegetable garden.