August considerations

August brings with it the Dog Days of Summer. (This reference "The Dog Days of Summer" come to us from early Roman times. At that time people connected earthly events with Astronomical signs.) August is hard on a serious vegetable gardener. Your neighbors Zennias are beginning to express their stress with patches of powdery mildew. Despite your most earnest efforts with Daconil it eventually gets your cucumbers and squashes, vectored on the feet of insects. Your pole beans, that can produce till frost, begin to subcom as well.

Squash bugs begin their heavy duty infestations about now. Sabadilla, the only effective organic pesticide this gardener knows is no longer accessible. (Anyone know where it can be bought now?) The heat and high humidity encourage the blights and bugs to accelerate their development. The weeds seem to do better now, too. (A rose is a weed in a wheat field!) Even if you don't overhead water, a summer shower will stimulate weed development.

Now is the time to put out your fall cole crops, but they must be protected from the most intense summer sun. For some reason fall snap beans taste better. They need being planted now. Bean beetles are bad in the early summer, but they are out in force now. Watch closely your first set of true leaves. Your plants can survive having these leaves filigreed but, you might not get a crop if you loose them.

Pumpkins and winter squash and virtually all the melons are beginning to put on weight now. Because of their volume these vegetables need lots of water. A good deal of the water is lost through transpiration, a function of the heat, particularly at this time.

August presents many challenges to a vegetable gardener. Why not accept the ultimate challenge and enter the County Fair? Blue Ribbons, from the Fair, can't be beat for bragging rights!