Gardeners Checklist: Here Is What to Do on the Week of June 23

By Ron Kujawski

* Soak a bandana in water and wrap it around your neck when working outdoors in hot weather. This has a very good cooling effect, and it beats soaking your head, something my friends often tell me to do.

* Water the soil around vegetables and annuals daily during very hot weather. Plants in patio pots, hanging baskets, and window baskets may have to be watered several times a day since the soil in containers tends to dry more quickly than garden soils.

* Apply fertilizer to plants growing in containers. If you are applying a water-soluble fertilizer, use it at quarter strength and apply it every two weeks. As an alternative, apply a slow-release fertilizer (e.g., Osmocote) or an organic fertilizer once per month or as directed on the product label.

* Remove all but one stem from tomatoes that are staked. Though I grow most of my tomatoes in cages I still prune some of the suckers or stems that arise from the base of each plant, leaving only three or four main stems. Otherwise, the cages become crowded with an excess of shoots and foliage, a situation that reduces air flow around plants and increases their susceptibility to certain foliar and fruit diseases.

* Carefully probe for new potatoes in the soil under potato plants that are now in bloom. Early varieties such as ‘Red Norland’ are most likely to have potatoes large enough (one to two inches in diameter) to dig as so-called new potatoes. If the plants are not disturbed too much, they’ll continue to produce potatoes for later harvest.

* Cut off spent pea plants rather than pulling them up. By cutting off the plants, the roots remaining in the soil decompose, adding nitrogen to the soil. Dispose of the severed plant shoots by burying them in a trench dug in a vacant area of the garden. This method, called trench composting, is a good way to add organic matter to garden soil. Do the same with spent bean plants.

* Make another planting of sweet corn. Sow seeds of a variety that matures in 60 -70 days. Other vegetables that can be planted now include summer squash, beets, carrots, kohlrabi, and turnips.

 * Protect lettuce from the heat and sun by shading the plants and giving them lots of water.

* Shear back catmint after it has completed flowering. The resulting compact plant with its gray-green leaves makes an attractive foliage plant in the flower border. Also shear back maiden pinks, candytuft, and moss phlox by half their height.

Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service. He serves on Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Advisory Committee. His book, Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, is available here.