What's happening in the garden right now...

We are in the heart of summer — which means your tomatoes are either making you very happy or making you very nervous, your cucumbers are producing faster than you can eat them, and your zucchini has probably already taken over at least one corner of the garden.

A few things worth doing right now: Water deeply, not frequently. In summer heat, shallow daily watering encourages roots to stay near the surface where they are vulnerable.

Water deeply two or three times a week instead and let the soil dry slightly between waterings. Your plants will be stronger for it.

A cucumber left on the vine too long signals the plant to stop producing.

A zucchini that grows to the size of a baseball bat does the same thing. Check your plants every day or two and harvest everything that is ready — your garden will reward you with more.

We used to slice and feed our overgrown zucchinis to our milk cow Buttercup. She loved them. But most of us don't have a milk cow that can recycle our overgrown produce! Watch for stress signs. Yellowing leaves, wilting in the morning, spots on foliage — these are your garden's way of asking for help.

We have added a new Care and Maintenance chart to the site that covers watering, weeding, feeding, pruning, and pest watching all in one place.

You can download it free. vegetable-garden-care.html

THINKING ABOUT FALL ALREADY?

But if you want a fall garden, now is exactly the time to start planning it. Broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, and lettuce all need to be started in the next few weeks to mature before frost.

These are the vegetables that actually taste better after a light frost — sweeter, more tender, more flavorful than their spring counterparts.

A fall garden is one of the most rewarding things a vegetable gardener can do and most people skip it entirely because they do not plan ahead. Visit the Seasonal Vegetable Garden section of the site for fall planting guides, or use the Zone Finder to get your first fall frost date so you can count back from there. fall-vegetable-garden.html

SOMETHING NEW — THE KIDS GARDEN CLUB

This is what I am most excited to tell you about. Over the past several months I have been building a free library of children's garden activities at Vegetable Gardening Online — and it has grown into something I am genuinely proud of. If you have children, grandchildren, or students in your life, these are all free to download and print.

Go Fish Card Games — six complete sets covering vegetables, fruits, berries, and flowers.

Print, cut, and play.

Children learn plant names without realizing they are learning anything at all. Vegetable Flash Cards, Plant Life Cycle Charts, Cut and Paste Activity Sets, Coloring Books, Crafts — the library keeps growing.

All free.

All at vegetable-gardening-online.com. Visit the Kids Gardening page to see everything we have added.

child-vegetable-garden.html

Children explore the garden like detectives, checking off everything they find.

My grandson's face when he found a ladybug on the exact item on the list was worth every hour I spent making these. Go Fish Card Games — six complete sets covering vegetables, fruits, berries, and flowers. Print, cut, and play.

Children learn plant names without realizing they are learning anything at all. Vegetable Flash Cards, Plant Life Cycle Charts, Cut and Paste Activity Sets, Coloring Books, Crafts — the library keeps growing.

All free.

All at vegetable-gardening-online.com. Visit the Kids Gardening page to see everything we have added.

A WORD ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

It has been a long time since you heard from me — too long, honestly.

Life on the farm has a way of keeping you busy, not to mention home, family and a business to take care of.

But the garden is growing, summer is here, and I have a lot to share with you! If you are reading this and wondering who sent it — I am Charlotte, and you signed up for this newsletter at some point because you love growing vegetables.

I hope you still do. I certainly do.

I have been growing them since 1961 and I am still learning something new every season.

I'm finally semi-retired, and can devote some time to my gardening website.

I've added lots of new information and many free charts and graph downloads, and also an abundance of new Kids Garden Club activities for preschool through middle school age children. I did not send one for years — life, the farm, grandchildren, and a major website rebuilding project all conspired against me.

The website has been through an enormous renovation and it is better than it has ever been.

More organized, more comprehensive, and with far more free resources than before. Thank you for still being here.

Even if your email address has changed and this finds you somehow — welcome back.