8 Crops You Can STILL Plant in August RIGHT NOW!
Summary
TLDRIn this gardening video, host Kevin and guest Meg Shanny discuss planting strategies for August, focusing on artichokes, broccoli, root crops like carrots and radishes, and green beans. They emphasize variety selection for heat tolerance, direct seeding, and companion planting. Tips for planting flax and snap peas are also shared, along with advice on tomato cultivation for a mild fall season. Eric highlights fennel as a triple threat plant for mild climates, offering tips for successful growth.
Takeaways
- 🌱 August is an ideal time to plant artichokes, especially in warmer climates like San Diego Zone 10B.
- 🌼 Artichokes are perennials in zones 7 and above, meaning they can regrow year after year.
- 🍃 In mild climates, plant artichokes in the fall to establish them before winter and get a spring harvest.
- 🥦 Despite the heat, August is the right time to start planting broccoli for an early fall harvest.
- 🌡 To grow broccoli in hot weather, select heat-tolerant varieties like Bellstar and Kylon.
- 🥕 Carrots and radishes are excellent companions for 'chaos gardening' and can be planted together in August.
- 🥬 Beets and turnips are another good root crop combination to plant in the fall for a cool weather harvest.
- 🌱 Green beans are easy to grow and can be direct-seeded in the soil, with care to not damage their shallow roots.
- 🍆 Smaller tomato varieties like 'chocolate cherries' are recommended for humid and disease-prone areas.
- 🌿 Flax is both a beautiful garden plant and a source of edible seeds and oil, and it's tolerant of heat and drought.
- 🥒 Snap peas are a versatile cool-weather crop that can be grown vertically on trellises for an attractive garden feature.
Q & A
What is the best time to plant artichokes in San Diego Zone 10B?
-The best time to plant artichokes in San Diego Zone 10B is in the fall, specifically in August, as it allows the plant to establish before the mild winter and produce in the following spring.
How long does it take for artichokes to become established and produce in San Diego's climate?
-Artichokes in San Diego Zone 10B can become established and produce within 3 to 5 years after planting, with the first harvest expected the following spring.
What are the steps to maintain artichoke plants in a mild climate?
-To maintain artichoke plants, cut the main trunk off to allow the plant to go dormant during the fall season, enabling offshoots to emerge the following spring.
What is the strategy for growing broccoli in hot summer months?
-The strategy involves selecting heat-tolerant varieties like Bellstar and Kylon, starting seeds in shaded areas, and transplanting them to the garden once seedlings emerge.
How long does it typically take for broccoli seedlings to be ready for planting in the garden?
-Broccoli seedlings usually take about 2 to 4 weeks to be ready for planting in the garden after seeds are started.
What is the benefit of planting root crops like carrots and radishes together?
-Radishes grow quickly and can be harvested before carrots, loosening the soil and aiding in thinning, which benefits the growth of carrots.
What are some tips for planting green beans in the fall?
-Directly sow green beans about 1 inch deep, space bush beans 3 inches apart and thin to 6 inches, and for pole beans, space seeds 4 to 6 inches apart.
Why is flax seed an interesting plant to grow in the garden?
-Flax seed is interesting because it is both edible and produces beautiful flowers. It's also heat and drought-tolerant, making it suitable for many climates.
How should snap peas be planted for optimal growth?
-Snap peas should be planted directly into the soil at the base of a trellis about an inch deep, spaced about 2 inches apart for optimal growth.
What are some tips for successfully growing tomatoes in the fall in the Deep South?
-Choose small-sized tomato varieties like chocolate cherries, start seeds in a cool place, and transplant them with adequate spacing and good air circulation to prevent diseases.
Why is fennel a good choice for planting in August in a mild climate?
-Fennel is a good choice because it is a 90 to 100 day crop that can be used for its bulb, seeds, or as a pollinator plant, and it thrives in mild climates.
Outlines
🌱 Planting Artichokes in August
The script discusses planting artichokes in August, particularly in warmer climates like San Diego Zone 10B. It highlights that artichokes are perennials that can regrow year after year if left in the ground in zones 7 and above. The video suggests planting artichokes from seed trays, buying starts, or direct seeding. It emphasizes the ornamental value of artichokes, with their silvery green spiky leaves and purple flowers attracting bees. The speaker also explains the process of cutting the main trunk to allow the plant to go dormant in the fall and produce new offshoots in the spring. For colder climates, the advice is to start the plants indoors and transplant them after the last frost, protecting them with mulch over winter.
🥦 Starting Broccoli and Root Crops in Late Summer
The paragraph focuses on the counterintuitive advice of starting broccoli in August despite the heat, with a strategy involving heat-tolerant varieties like Bellstar and Kylon. The speaker outlines the process of starting seeds in a shaded area and transplanting them into the garden once they emerge. The video also touches on the concept of 'chaos gardening' with root crops like carrots and radishes, which are planted together for companionship and ease of thinning. The script mentions the importance of harvesting radishes early to loosen the soil for carrot growth. Additionally, it discusses planting green beans directly into the soil, with specific spacing instructions for pole and bush beans, and the importance of not transplanting them due to their delicate root systems.
🥕 Planting Root Crops and Flax for Fall Harvest
This section of the script covers planting root crops like beets and turnips together for a successful fall harvest. It also introduces flax as a dual-purpose plant for both its edible seeds and its ornamental flowers. The speaker demonstrates how to start flax seeds both directly in the ground and as transplants, noting that the seeds need light to germinate. The paragraph also discusses planting snap peas, with a preference for varieties like 'Sugar Daddy' and 'Sugar Magnolia', and provides instructions for direct planting at the base of a trellis. Lastly, the script talks about the best time to plant tomato seeds for a mild fall season in Florida, recommending smaller varieties like 'Chocolate Cherries' and providing tips for successful growth and disease prevention.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Artichoke
💡Perennial
💡Broccoli
💡Chaos Gardening
💡Root Crops
💡Green Beans
💡Flax
💡Snap Peas
💡Tomatoes
💡Fennel
Highlights
August is an ideal time for planting artichokes, especially in warmer climates like San Diego Zone 10B.
Artichokes are perennials in zones seven and above, returning year after year.
Artichoke flowers, if not harvested for eating, can bloom beautifully and attract bees.
In mild climates, planting artichokes in the fall allows them to establish before winter.
For colder climates, start artichokes indoors and transplant after the last frost.
Broccoli can be started in August despite the heat with specific heat-tolerant varieties.
Planting broccoli in late summer can lead to an early harvest in the fall.
Chaos gardening is recommended for cool weather root crops like carrots and radishes.
Radishes grow quickly and can be harvested before carrots, aiding in soil loosening and thinning.
Beets and turnips are another excellent root crop combination for fall planting.
Green beans are a favorite for fall gardens, with recommendations for planting and spacing.
Flax seed is not only useful but also a beautiful plant that can be grown for its flowers.
Snap peas are perfect for vertical gardening and can be planted in late summer for a fall harvest.
Tomatoes can be started in August for a mild fall season, with tips for variety selection and care.
Fennel is a triple threat plant that can be used for its bulb, seeds, and as a pollinator.
Fennel is recommended for planting in August in mild climates.
Botanicals.com is mentioned as a place to shop for seeds, owned by Eric.
Transcripts
it's August my garden is cranking and
I'm still planting so in today's video
myself shock Meg Shanny and a special
unnamed unseen guest are going to show
you exactly what you should be planning
right now in August this Barren
Wasteland in my sidey yard is actually
my pick for August especially in my
warmer mild climate of San Diego Zone
10B and that would be artichoke what you
see before you is the start of something
new a new artichoke offshoot coming from
something old these old artichoke stumps
that I planted almost 3 years ago every
single year in zones seven and above
aroke is a perennial it can be left in
ground and it will come back year after
year in fact in about 5 or 6 months this
entire area will be covered in beautiful
sort of silvery green spiky almost
prehistoric looking leaves and then
beautiful artichoke flowers of course
when you have an artichoke what you're
eating is an unopened underdeveloped
flower but if you let that bloom and you
can do that cuz you do this right you'll
have more order chokes than you know
what to do with you have this beautiful
purple that all the bees really like to
flock to and it's quite an ornamental
beautifier to your garden but if you're
in a mild climate like myself now is the
time to plant your artichoke you can
start them in seed trays or if you want
to you can go buy some starts from the
nursery or start them from seed directly
but the beautiful thing about it is it's
time to plant in Fall if you have a
milder winter it lets the plant plant
establish and you will get 3 to five
arter choke your very next spring and
then for many years after that you'll
continue to get AR choke what you have
to do with these plants to keep them
maintained though is do what I've done
you can see a little saw Mark there I've
cut that main trunk off to allow the
plant to kind of go dormant during that
fall season so that little offshoots
like this can come up next spring now if
you are in a colder climate you're
saying hey Kev you forgot about us I did
not what you need to do is start them
indoors and then put them out after your
last frost of the Season grow them
through that spring and you can even
protect them over Winter in zones below
seven if you cut them down and throw a
bunch of mulch on top to keep that
temperature buffered so artichoke to me
is one of those beautiful perennial
edible plants that's very tasty but also
ornamental if you don't want to harvest
it to eat it's Midsummer and if you're
anything like me you're thinking about
tomatoes day in day out but right now
I'm starting get a little bit too hot
and I'm thinking about those delicious
crisp cool fall nights we're not having
tomatoes on the table we're eating
something else and that is broccoli now
you might think I'm absolutely crazy to
tell you to start broccoli at this time
of the year in August when it's so hot
but there is a two-part strategy here
they will guarantee that you'll get some
broccoli maybe earlier than anyone else
growing broccoli at this time of the
year is all about variety selection so
here I have bellstar a more traditional
standard heading broccoli and kylon a
Chinese style broccoli both of these
have been bred to tolerate some amount
of heat and will give you a much better
chance of success when growing them in
the summertime like we are right now so
what I'm going to do is start all these
seeds and then place my tray somewhere
where it gets a little bit of shade in
the afternoon and once those seedlings
emerge we can move on to the next step
it'll take about 2 to four weeks for
those seedlings to be ready to go out
into your garden so try to think about a
spot that soon will be harvested out and
free right here I have a bush bean
section in my raised bed by that point
I'll be done with these I'll Harvest
them out and I'll swapping my broccoli
and the great thing about doing a small
amount of broccoli at this point of the
year is that if the summer is actually
cooler towards the end I'll have a
massive Harvest of broccoli come fall if
it's too hot all I'm going to lose are
those six plants and nothing else guess
what it is finally time to start chaos
gardening again here in zone 8A and one
of my absolute favorite things to chaos
Garden are your cool weather root crops
in my experience I feel like root crops
love to just be thrown on the ground and
forgotten about until they start to pop
up and if you've been around long enough
you know that one of my favorite chaos
planting combos are your carrots and
your quick growing radishes I absolutely
love growing these two together I do it
every spring and every fall and your
radishes are going to be so quick
growing that they're going to be ready
to harvest before your carrots even
really get going so that act of
harvesting the radishes kind of loosens
up the soil so that the carrots can grow
a little bit better and it helps out
with the task of thinning so they are
great companion plants this is just an
example of an entire bed that I chaos
gardened with carrots and radish and the
radish have been harvested for quite
some time now but the carrots continue
to grow all spring into the summer
they're fully mature now they're ready
to harvest and it's actually getting a
little bit too hot for them now so I
really need to get in here and get to
harvesting so August is the perfect time
to mix some of these up and if you're
not a lazy Gardener like myself you can
mix these up in an old herb Shaker or
something like that and then Shake them
onto the soil and that kind of just
helps with a more even seed distribution
than with your fingers and that can help
with thinning later on but if you're
like me you're just going to mix them up
in your hand and just use your fingers
anyway and I'm going to be sprinkling
these anywhere in the garden that I can
find Space honestly I kind of have a
little bit of a planning issue so
there's not that much open space but I
will find some after sprinkling I'll
just run my hands through the soil just
to give them a little bit of like seed
to soil cont contact and then I'm done
my carrots and radishes are planted for
the fall another really great root crop
planting combo that I love are beets and
turnips planted together I planted these
together back in the spring and I had a
lot of really great success with it so
I'm going to be planting them together
again this fall it's August I have made
it through a long hot summer of
surviving on tropical and subtropical
perennial vegetables and it is time for
me to finally plan out my fall garden
and pivot over to my more temperate
climate loving annual veggies so one I
am so excited to get started are my
green beans that's it just the standard
common phasal is vulgaris french green
bean I've been craving it I cannot wait
to get it planted there's a reason that
most of us learned how to grow beans in
elementary school as our science
experiment they're very easy to
germinate so we're going to sew them 1
in deep in the soil or about twice as
deep as they are big
and we are going to space our beans out
differently depending on whether they
are a pole bean or a bush bean I usually
like to sew my seeds about 3 in apart
thinning them to a final spacing of 6 in
apart this can differ depending on my
trellis style and how much space I'm
working with a good rule of thumb in the
Deep South is to space your plants out a
bit further to promote better air
circulation I always direct seed by
green beans green beans are known to
have a shallow and delicate root system
that's easily damaged by being
transplanted so if you do choose to
start your beans indoors and Transplant
them out just be super careful with that
transplanting you don't want to damage
those delicate shallow roots and the key
is to keep picking those pods readily as
soon as those pods start to mature and
the beans start to harden it sends a
signal to the plant to slow production
so we want to keep those pods picked as
quickly as we can there are a ton of
different things that we consume or
maybe use on a day-to-day basis without
having any idea of what that plant
actually looks like and one of those
that recently shocked me was actually
flax seed flax is not just a extremely
useful thing for the edible seed or the
oils that you can produce from it it's
also an extremely beautiful plant so let
me show you how to start them in ground
and as transplants because you'll want
to have this in your garden this variety
is called Scarlet flax for its Scarlet
colored flowers and it's not actually an
edible seed variety but we do have one
called blue and Breezy that makes
wonderful blue flowers that is also
edible the nice thing about flock is
that it's extremely heat and drought
tolerant whether you started in spring
or in summer for late fall and the way
you want to grow it is actually directly
in ground if you can I like to start by
roughing up the soil getting it all wet
scattering seeds watering it again and
then once you've done that your seeds
should be good to go but let me show you
how to do it as a transplant in case you
want to transplant them later on the
reason why we're starting the seeds in
such a weird way both in ground and now
for a transplant is because these seeds
need light to germinate so that's why I
didn't bury them back there when I put
them in the ground and when I do them in
the seed tray I'm likewise not going to
bury them instead what I'm going to do
is scatter the seeds on the surface just
like this and then what you could do is
either press them in using your finger
that'll help give them good soil contact
or if you're worried that they will dry
out before they germinate you could use
something like vermiculite scattered
over the surface which holds on to water
while letting some light through to
ensure a good germination but flax
regardless of how you start it is going
to be a wonderful Beau F plant and a
beautiful flower in your garden this
next crop loves the cool weather just a
little bit more than the others so if
you live in a warmer climate you're
going to wait until the later half of
August maybe even the end of August to
plant it and that is snaap Peas I
absolutely love growing snaap peas in
the fall because if you can't tell I
love growing vertically I love the look
of an arched trellis or any kind of
trellis just full of plants not only are
they beautiful growing up at trellis
they're also extremely tasty I love
eating them just as like a snack walking
through the garden but they're also
delicious in stir fries salads you can
pickle them you can really do anything
with them they're really versatile two
of my favorite varieties of snap peas
are sugar daddy and sugar magnolia and
they grow pretty differently sugar daddy
is more compact they only grow like 2 to
3 feet tall so this is really great for
like a balcony Gardener somebody short
on Space whereas sugar magnolia grows
pretty long pretty vigorous vines that
you do need a decent size trellis for
I'm really digging this A-frame trellis
that's new to Epic this year it's really
tall I'm growing cucumbers up it right
now but they're almost finished because
we are in our rainy season our powdery
mildew season here in North Carolina so
as soon as I rip these out I'm going to
be replacing it with some sugar snap
peas to plant snap peas you want to
plant them directly into the soil at the
base of a trellis I never start these in
Sea trays because they don't really like
root disturbance at all so just directly
into the soil will do you want to make
sure you're planting them about an inch
in depth and you can space them pretty
close together about every 2 in apart or
so and then in a few months you'll see
what they're named after and you'll
start hearing those snaps when you're
harvesting them right off the vine
August is the perfect time to sew your
tomato seeds to transplant out for a
more mild fall season best tomatoes that
I've grown down here in Florida have
been the ones I started in August and
grew throughout the fall proper variety
selection is so essential for growing in
these humid and disease prone areas of
the Deep South I stick to the smaller
sized Tomatoes I love chocolate cherries
anything Cherry sized is a great bet for
this region I tend to avoid the beef
steaks the super large Tomatoes as they
don't often ripen before they get hit by
Pest and disease I start my tomatoes in
Fall just like I would any other time of
year so I sew those seeds an eighth to
1/4 in deep pretty shallow I like to
keep my trays in the coolest place
possible because I'm starting them in
such a hot time of year and I absolutely
don't let those trays dry out they're
not going to be soggy but I'm going to
make sure that the water is consistent
Kevin recently shared a really handy tip
about finishing your Tomatoes ripening
process in the window sill try that one
out especially if you grow in the Deep
South because it's going to prevent
getting attacked by certain pests that
love your ripe Tomatoes I'm going to
grow those tender little seedlings on in
a shady and cooler environment until it
is is time to transplant them out I'm
going to use a Florida Wei they also
grow beautifully with a tomato cage or
up a trellis the key is that we make
sure to space our Tomatoes adequately
apart 2 and 1/2 3 ft is perfect that way
we're getting some air flow between our
plants and we're preventing some of
those diseases that love high humidity
it's also not a bad idea to prune some
of that lower foliage so that we've got
better air flow to the plants as
[Music]
well ah finally my time to shine Eric
here San Diego Zone 10B little known
secret I'm really the brains behind this
epic gardening operation Kevin as you've
seen for years has been stealing my work
for a very long time so I'm here I've
got two picks for you actually one pick
two varieties fennel that's what you
should be planting right now in August
Kevin's been keeping this one under apps
for a very long time so it's time for me
to take the cat out of the bag fennel
the perfect plan to be putting in the
garden in a mild climate right about now
in August why fenel is the ultimate
Triple Threat my friends ever had those
Good and Plenty candies as a kid I used
to have them all the time they're so
tasty if you eat the unopened flour of a
fennel it tastes exactly like Good and
Plenty candy but if you let it keep
going what do you have here fenel seed
that's a spice that's our second thread
what's the third thread to make fennel a
triple threat it's the bulb down below
it's a 90 to 100 day crop you're going
to take take that bulb out of the ground
cut it in half roast it you've got so
many dishes that you can make with that
and you can just let it grow it looks
beautiful you can turn it into a little
sort of candy popper or you can use the
seed or you can simply just use it as a
pollinator plant what you want to be
doing is probably sewing it indoors or
probably sewing in some seed trays
transplanting it out bury it about a/4
of an inch deep give it ample water and
it will Rip just like this so my first
tip here on the scene on the channel
even though really every tip's been
coming from your boy Eric not Kev thanks
for watching guys if you want to see
some more planting guys and chores check
out this video right here any of the
seeds you see you can shop at kev's
company botanicals.com I actually Own
100% of that company but uh yeah thanks
for watching guys good luck in the
garden and keep on growing
[Music]
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