Five things to do in the garden this week:
Flowers: The Electric Pink globe amaranth (Gomphrena globosa) will dazzle you with its flowers that explode like a fireworks finale – magenta shooting stars tipped in gold. This reseeding annual needs no deadheading as the plant thrives and flowers proliferate in summer’s heat. Electric Pink also contributes ongoing color to dry flower arrangements .
Fruit: Peppers (whether bell or chili) are the last of the summer fruit-bearing crops (peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, and squash are actually fruits) in the vegetable category that you can comfortably plant, although the harvest will not be as great as if you had planted sooner. You will still have time to ripen a crop since the first frost in our area does not typically come until late November, giving your plants three months to mature. An advantage of peppers is that they are actually perennial plants so that if the winter is not too cold and they persist until spring, they will produce a sizable crop next year.
Vegetables: Now is the time to plant seeds of cole crops, meaning cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, and collard greens. You will want to do this indoors, however, since the heat would be a menace to newly sprouted seedlings if they were growing in the ground. Sprout your seeds in the garage, if you wish, since cole crop seeds, like those of most vegetables, do not need light to germinate. In 4-6 weeks, your seedlings will be ready for transplanting into the garden. However, make sure to cover them after transplanting with floating row cover — a porous muslin material that allows sunlight and water to pass through but keeps white cabbage butterflies out. These butterflies utilize cole crop foliage for laying eggs, out of which hatch voracious larvae that decimate the foliage and put an end to your fantasies about a hefty cole crop harvest.
Herbs: Plant dill (Anethum graveolens) seeds now in slim pots 12 inches deep. These are referred to as tree pots but dill, due to its long tap root, benefits from them as well. If you wish to plant dill seeds directly in the ground, wait another week or two. After seedlings emerge, thin them to 10 inches apart. Pinch flower stalks as they emerge since they will decrease growth of leaves which are the reason for planting dill in the first place. Foliage is attractive and soft to the touch like that you see in most species of the umbellifer or carrot family. Dill is an annual that grows three feet tall, producing large clusters of flowers that will remind you of fennel, a dill relative. Allowing flowers to form and go to seed will assure you of more batches of crops later on.
Now is the time to order bulbs for fall planting. As soon as you receive them, put them in the refrigerator since bulbs all benefit from a 6-8 week chill, even though some of them do not require it to bloom. Still, a bulb that is chilled is bound to produce more flowers than one that is planted directly in the garden. Another reason to order bulbs now is that certain especially desirable varieties sell out by the time fall arrives.