July gardening tips from expert Meg Cowden

EMILY BRIGHT: For Minnesota's gardeners, the start of July means that the summer harvest is just getting underway. And we wanted to check back with our resident gardener, Meg Cowden, about what she's seeing in her garden and, of course, her latest tips. Meg is the author of the book Plant Grow Harvest Repeat and the founder of the website, Seed to Fork, and the advice group, Modern Garden Guild. Hey, Meg. Welcome back.

MEG COWDEN: Hi, Emily. Thanks so much for having me.

EMILY BRIGHT: I love the point where it shifts from just watering all the time to actually being able to harvest some things from your garden. So what's in season for you right now?

MEG COWDEN: Yeah, it's exciting. We've got a lot in season because I love to push my season and succession plant, from cherry tomatoes to started harvesting my first pickling cucumbers over the weekend and green beans. We're actually done with our spring peas now. We've got broccoli, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, and even some celery. And our blueberries are just about ready to be harvested as well, so.

EMILY BRIGHT: Oh, blueberries.

MEG COWDEN: I know. It's maybe the greatest time of the year, right, for us gardeners.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yep. So tell me about, I know you're interested in succession planting. You mentioned that. Remind people what that means.

MEG COWDEN: Yeah, so succession planting is kind of the idea of really blending your timelines in your garden. And so what I mean by that is really thinking about when different things are going to mature and try to make that as interesting as possible for you in your kitchen. It helps a lot in reducing garden overwhelm that a lot of people will get if they just plant a garden once in May or June here, and everything comes into season by the end of August.

We've got food in season starting in May. And it'll go all the way well into winter with how we preserve things and have a root cellar. So I sometimes will stagger things. So I grow tons of cabbage. But some cabbage has already been harvested. But my red cabbage and my savoy cabbage haven't been. So all my green cabbages and my Napa cabbages are done. But I still have cabbage. So it gives us this way of keeping the garden interesting and diverse instead of just being completely overwhelmed by a countertop of cucumbers and tomatoes, say.

EMILY BRIGHT: Well, that is brilliant. So how do the plants that you have in your garden, how are they working together right now?

MEG COWDEN: Yeah, so I do a lot of interplanting too. And that's another way you can succession plant. So I had a lot of flowers interplanted for beneficials and just to make the garden really beautiful. I've got lettuce and basil and sweet alyssum under my tomatoes. I've got beets growing in with my cauliflower. Dill has come up in all kinds of interesting places this year, and I've let a lot of them go just as much as I can.

But then there's some things where I don't interplant, and I block them. And so things like your onions and your garlic and your potatoes and your peanuts, those need their own square footage and their own space. But once they're through, I have a wonderful clean slate to replant. And so a lot of those spaces are spaces I'm planning for right now to be open later in July and August for my fall garden.

EMILY BRIGHT: So you mentioned planning right now. So for folks who are just going, oh, man, I'm finally thinking about gardening, is it too late? Can people plant things still?

MEG COWDEN: No, it's never. OK, it is too late once your garlic's in the ground. You're done for the season. But for me, that's November. Up until then, it's fair game. Right now, this morning, I just sowed another succession of snap beans. I put some beet seedlings in the ground and some more basil in the ground. I just planted some corn last week, and it germinated in four days. It's a very fast-maturing sweet corn.

I'm still planting carrots and heat-tolerant lettuce. Broccoli is a great thing to plant right now. And then I try to sow cilantro every other week in summer just because it's one of the real heavy hitter herbs in our kitchen. And there's nothing worse than having to go to the grocery store for cilantro when I have everything else in my garden.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yeah, that's definitely one of those that I know of that you have to keep planting regularly because it will bolt and move on to becoming coriander--

MEG COWDEN: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

EMILY BRIGHT: Is there anything that should be planted later in the season, like you always hold off till later in July or even August before planting it?

MEG COWDEN: Definitely. I have this stepwise approach. You're thinking of the longest maturing crops. And then as we get closer to, dare I say, the first fall frost-- I hate talking in those terms, but that is the way I think, right? So right now, I'm thinking through things that-- I'm still planting warm season crops. And we talked about that.

But some things that are too soon, I haven't planted my fall peas yet. I know it's going to sound crazy to people. But once my spring peas come out-- I plant those in early April. Once they come out in July-- those came out early this year-- I usually plant my fall peas by the middle of July. So that's something that if you want peas in the fall, definitely consider trying to get some of those in. But not quite yet.

And then the other big things that it's too soon for are things like your watermelon radish and your daikon and your turnips. And even, interestingly, things like spinach, the soil is too warm for that to germinate right now. So that's something you really have to wait much longer, more like closer to September to be able to get that to germinate in our gardens.

EMILY BRIGHT: OK. So we were talking with Sven earlier this hour. And I imagine much of this growing season has been about just making sure your plants are getting watered. And then yesterday, we had a round of storms come through, for many of us at least. So how have you been protecting your plants from dry weather and from heavy storms?

MEG COWDEN: Yeah, we got a little over half an inch here on our property yesterday, which was so welcome.

EMILY BRIGHT: Yes.

MEG COWDEN: We do a lot of heavy mulching in all of our beds. We have a drip irrigation system, and it goes on every other day. It's on a timer for about a half hour or so. Every bed gets about, I think it's an inch of water a week. It's one to two inches, I'm sure, is what we aim for. And then we top dress with compost. I don't mix it in. I just put it right on top.

And in a year like this, that top layer is actually pretty dry because my irrigation lines are a little under that. I will admit, I'm a little lazy. And if I can't see the irrigation, I just throw the compost on top in the fall. And so the irrigation has gotten a little buried. And so it really is helping, I think, to even promote deeper roots, if that makes sense--

EMILY BRIGHT: Sure.

MEG COWDEN: --because less water is evaporating. And we water very, very early in the morning too. But plant spacing is a big one. If plants are planted too closely together, they're going to be competing for resources. So be smart about your garden and maybe give things more room than you want to.

EMILY BRIGHT: And I'll bet you are having some delicious fresh food right now. Do you have any favorite seasonal recipes to share?

MEG COWDEN: Oh, my goodness, yeah. So one thing that we've gotten back into is our summer coleslaw. It's an Asian fusion coleslaw recipe. And it was inspired off a Saveur magazine recipe years ago. I got the dressing in the fridge. And I just chop up a pepper and some carrots, shred some carrots and some cabbage, all from the garden, and pop it in the fridge. And it's a quick go-to snack. But, I mean, it's vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner right now, honestly.

EMILY BRIGHT: Well, yeah, absolutely. So I understand you're getting ready to use your garden this Saturday for the Learning Garden Tour through the University of Minnesota. Is that right?

MEG COWDEN: That's correct, yeah. I'm one of nine gardens featured this summer on July 8. It's from 8:30 to 4:30. And yeah, my garden is all about succession planting. So that'll be our education station here. This is my first year participating as a garden, as a host. But it is hundreds of hours of amazing volunteers that work pretty much year-round to pull this event off. And it's one of our large fundraisers that help. We have several employees that help support our program here in Hennepin County. So it's a wonderful fundraiser. Tickets are $15 advanced and $20 in person.

My site, because we have terrible parking on our street, my site's the only site that has a shuttle bus. But I promise you, it's worth the hassle, if you consider that a hassle to get to the property. And you can get tickets ahead of time at hennepinmastergardeners.org. And anyone who can buy a ticket in advance, we really appreciate it because it just helps us on the day of the event.

EMILY BRIGHT: Absolutely. Well, have a lovely time. And, Meg, thank you for your expertise.

MEG COWDEN: Thank you so much, Emily. Have a great month. Take care.

EMILY BRIGHT: You too. That was gardening expert Meg Cowden. She's author of the book Plant Grow Harvest Repeat and founder of the website Seed to Fork and the advice group Modern Garden Guild. And as always, you can see photos of her beautiful garden on our website, mprnews.org.