Recently at the Hall County Farmers Market, we’ve seen the first of the tomatoes, corn, and cantaloupes – not to mention all the other great summer favorites like squash, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, and garlic. If you’ve yet to plant your garden, it’s not too late.

Or, if your first harvest wasn’t all that bountiful, make it spring again in your vegetable garden. Don't let the summer heat cheat you out of more fresh vegetables. Go for two crops this year.

We generally plant summer vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, sweet corn, snap beans, cantaloupes and eggplant in April and finish the harvest around July. However, Georgia has a subtropical climate, meaning you can squeeze in another round of summer crops before the first frost.

Some folks may plant at intervals from spring through midsummer, which is fine. Others may carry out harvests on tomatoes, squash and the like throughout the summer. However, rather than trying to keep the same plants producing indefinitely, you often get a better harvest by making a fresh start.

Transplant tomatoes, peppers and eggplant just as you did in the spring. For crops such as squash, cantaloupes and cucumbers, however, seeding them directly into the ground will work just as well, if not better.

Whether or not you’ve had disease problems in the garden this year, don't plant the same crop back in the same place. Rotating your crops will help to reduce potential disease problems. If you planted squash there this spring, plant peppers there for the second crop.

Rotate families of crops. Plant peppers, tomatoes or eggplant where you had squash, cucumbers or cantaloupes. But don't plant cucumbers on the same ground where you had squash.

Getting a crop established will be more of a challenge than it was in the spring. Because of the intense heat, you'll need to keep the garden watered enough to reduce heat and drought stress.

Keep your vegetable garden well watered, and fertilize with 5-10-15 or 6-12-12 at planting. If watering with sprinklers, water twice a week with 3/4 inch of water each time.

However, if you have the resources, utilize drip irrigation or soaker hoses. Drip irrigation is ideal for vegetables. It puts the water at the soil surface thereby reducing disease and encouraging good plant growth. Drip irrigation uses about one-third of the water a sprinkler uses.

Soaker hoses provide the same benefits – more efficient water use. Install soaker hoses a few inches off the center of the row, or once your plants are in, place them on the ground next to your crops under a layer of mulch.

From late July until the first frost will be roughly 120 days, so crops that mature in less than four months will usually make in the fall, barring an early frost.

Veggie gardening – round 2!

- Billy Skaggs, Hall County Extension Agent