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By Laura Matter, Volunteer Site Leader at the Picardo P-Patch

Here are some tips to keep your garden, and you, thriving this time of year:

• Keep it hydrated! Water existing plants deeply and your seedling beds often. Deep watering encourages deep rooting and seedlings are very shallow rooted, small and tender and susceptible to drying out. You might need to be checking existing plants twice a week or more right now and certainly the seedlings more often. When the weather cools down again you can back off more frequent watering. Do continue to water deeply when you need to water. It just won’t be as often!

• Keep yourself hydrated, wear a hat and sunscreen to protect yourself from the sun. Rest in the shade of the pavilion! The garden is a deep bowl of dark soil that heats up efficiently and radiates back at you. Great for growing plants but hot and sometimes humid for you.

• Garden early in the morning. This is better for watering too as the plants get a chance to dry off before the sun sets and keeps them hydrated during the heat. Garden later in the day. If you are watering in the evening keep the water low and avoid getting the leaves wet to minimize disease issues. The evening air temperatures are still cool.

• Mulch your beds! Paths in your plots can be mulched with the wood chips that tree companies and Seattle Parks folks bring us periodically. You can also use these to top off your section of the community garden path to keep it weed free; part of your plot responsibility. The chips can be found on the corner of 25th NE and NE 82nd St or on the hillside by the west compost bins. (We need to get these chips off the hill so help yourself). Easiest path tothe corner is out the garden to NE 82nd and then take a left and head to the corner! A wheelbarrow and a pitchfork or shovel will do the job.

• Another great use for annual weeds, which are growing like gangbusters right now, is to pull them and drop them as mulch around your plantings. They will dry out quickly in the sun and make a good mulch around your plants. Keep it onsite; nourish your beds and keep them moist and weed free at the same time.

• Try other types of mulch; compost is great for water retention around new plantings, leaves are great for perennial plantings. Burlap laid between rows keeps soil moist and cool and weeds down. You can find burlap from coffee roasters or Seattle Burlap. 
  

• With warmer weather we are tempted to get our summer crops into the soil. Wait to plant them or be sure to provide protection for tender plantings like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash and eggplant. Cover new plantings with season extenders like Wall O’ Waters or cloches to protect them from cool night temperatures but be sure to also provide venting when cloching on hot days! Wait to plant that basil!!! Basil is one of the most tender of all summer crops.