The Day I Plant Late-Summer Seeds and Rip Out Poor Performers

Alan Gorkin, organic gardening
expert, gives us the rundown
on his own community garden bed  

I am impatient with my community garden. While the tomatoes grow prolifically -- I even pulled off two big red tomatoes today -- the other vegetables do not fare well. The cucumber hybrid bush, which looked healthy two weeks ago, today looks beat. Carrots produce nothing but fronds and weedy stalks. Bell peppers grow flowers but produce no new fruit. And the pattypan squash colorfully throw off blossoms, but yield no squash. What gives? What's next? Experienced gardeners, what do you do at this stage of your summer garden? 


On an overcast and humid Sunday, Alan Gorkin, organic gardening expert at Sleepy Cat Farms in Greenwich, visits the Bible Street branch of Greenwich Community Gardens. He walks us through which vegetables can be replaced and which can be newly planted. 

With his advice in my head, this morning at 7am I head to the garden and clear out frond-ridden carrots. Three months after planting carrot seeds, only one in five carrots are orange. The others are long, stringy and anemic. With the carrots stripped from the garden, I plant red-globe radishes, taverna green beans, blue lake bush beans and red beets. Still to come are arugula seeds and lettuces, which should tolerate the heat and deliver leaves through September. 

Tomatoes -- abbondanza!

As we near August, I make a few decisions to prepare for next year:

• No carrots. Carrots occupy too much space and yield inconsistent results. I see few carrots elsewhere in the community garden, so my decision appears to be prudent.
• Plant peppers on the opposite side of the garden from the tomatoes. Tomatoes grow well, but they block the sun. The peppers work too hard.
• Plant big tomatoes in the community garden. I planted four tomato plants -- two big tomatoes, two cherries -- and I inherited two "volunteer" cherry tomato plants from a neighboring plot or a previous gardener. Big tomatoes fit on BLTs better than cherries.
• Plant the pattypan squashes early. I followed the instructions on the seed packet and planted the pattypans in early June. The squash plants are blossoming, but I see no squash. Suggestions, anyone?

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