Don’t let space go to waste in your vegetable garden

If there’s one rule of vegetable gardening, it should be to never let space go to waste.

The last of the spring-planted lettuce is threatening to go to seed, and the Music hardneck garlic, growing since October, is on the cusp of being harvested. The sugar peas are just about done producing as well, so I, like many area gardeners, have some garden space to fill up.

Figuring out what to plant requires a delicate balance of how long it will take to harvest a crop and how much heat it can handle. No one likes to think about the math until the end of the growing season, but there’s only about 90 days until the average first frost, and ripening slows dramatically in the weeks before that, so forget any notion of starting something with long maturity dates unless it is cold hardy.

And crops like lettuce, which have quick turnaround times, will be very unhappy in the August heat, so you’ll have to hold off on planting those as well.

But there are plenty of other vegetables that can make use of the newly found space in the garden.

Although lettuce and argula won’t tolerate the head, other greens such as mustard, collards, chard and kale are up to the challenge. These will not only beat the heat, but some will improve as the nights get cooler and be at their peak when the rest of the garden has been harvested.

Some of my empty space will be dedicated to succession sowings of snap beans, which usually take about 55 to 60 days to mature. I opt for bush beans, which leaves my vertical growing space free for cucumbers and some squash, and I’m thrilled to have more to harvest toward the end of summer.

It’s a great time to plant carrots, which will happily withstand the cool late-season temperatures and get sweeter as the soil cools. I find carrots to be a bit of a hog for space in the garden — if you want more than a few meals’ worth, anyway — so they do a good job of making the most of that empty space.

Carrots are one crop that absolutely must be thinned and are nearly impossible to sow thinly enough, so it’s the perfect time to try seed tape, either purchased or homemade.

Other roots crops, such as parsnips, turnips and rutabaga can be direct sown now for a fall harvest perfect for soups and stews, and another crop of beets can be started as well.

There’s a good chance your basil might start looking a bit a raggedy soon, and sowing more of it now will lead to quick, fresh growth perfect for making late-season pesto and caprese salads with all the tomatoes yet to come.

Of course all this direct seed sowing means that watering becomes even more important, but at this time of year, and this year especially, most of us are watering our gardens frequently anyway.

Don’t let that bare space in your garden haunt  you late in the season. Plant something now and you’ll thank yourself later.