A Wild Child Garden In August

By August, the Wild Child garden is growing itself. The vegetables that don’t mind the sun and the heat and the drought and the unpredictable rain events are thriving. Everyone else has found their way to the compost pile, and the garden is on her own…exactly how she likes it.

The wild child garden in August consists of lots of peppers, lots of okra, and lots of eggplant. I’m harvesting baskets full every couple of days. And as much as she gives, the planting this month is very minimal and very intentional.  What can I plant that will not succumb to the Louisiana heat? What can I plant that will not need to be watered four or five times a day to stay alive? What is disease resistant and heat tolerant? With those questions at the forefront of my mind, there are only a few options to plant this month.  But these few plants are a must for me in my garden and are highly recommended to the gardeners that I coach inside of my programs. The reason I love them so much is because they allow me to stay indoors while they thrive all on their own. 

Indoors, my attention turns to fall planning. What will I grow when the temperature changes? What do I want to eat this fall season? And most importantly, how do I want to feel? These three questions guide and direct me as I begin to choose what is going to be growing in my fall garden, and in the meantime, I add a few more plants, very intentionally, to the August garden that I know can take the heat. 

More Okra Is A Must

If there is one thing this summer garden shouts at me loud and clear, it is that okra is about the easiest plant you can grow this time of year. This month I will seed okra to not only harvest all the way to frost, but also to provide shade for my cool season vegetables that will need to go in the ground before the temperatures are worthy of being called “fall like.” 

Varieties like ‘burgundy,’ ‘orange jing,’ and ‘jambalaya’ will give me a beautiful and diverse color scheme in the garden as we make our way into fall. New for me this year is ‘Alabama red.’  I fell in love with this variety on a quick trip to Fairhope, Alabama at a restaurant called The Hope Farm. I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to have it. So when we arrived back home, I ordered the seeds immediately.  They will be amongst the few things getting the prized real estate in my garden this month.

The Great Pepper Come Back

A great delight of the August garden is the great pepper comeback. Every year Wild Child gardeners wait with anticipation for the beautiful rainbow of peppers to begin again. Peppers will slow down in the peak summer months, but usually in August they come back with vengeance! And I am here for it!  Every day, I will pick peppers and either pickle them, make jellies with them, or stuff them. In my family stuffed gypsy peppers are about as good as it gets. 

in addition to the coveted ‘Gypsy’ pepper, in my garden, I will grow ‘poblano,’ ‘jalapeño,’ ‘Sugar Rush Peach,’ and a few bell peppers all the way to frost. If you have peppers in your garden right now, don’t pull them up just yet. The great pepper comeback is going to happen any day!

Fall Beans Are A Favorite

One veggie, I simply cannot get enough off in my backyard garden is a snap bean. Beans do amazing in the spring and in the fall, but typically they will slow down and begin to show signs of their lack of heat tolerance in the peak summer months. I always come back in mid August and add more bush bean seeds to many of my corners and edges all around my garden beds. This will allow me to continue planning my fall garden, and I will even be able to plant it in September right on schedule, but these beans will produce for me all the way to frost, completely out of the way of my new fall veggies. 

Some of my favorite varieties are ‘contender,’ ‘calima,’ ‘royal burgundy,’ and ‘dragons tongue.’ I love a colorful variety of beans in my harvest basket as I strive to grow the rainbow in every season.

Using Arches For Fall Encore

In the cool season garden, nothing needs vertical support. This means that your arches and trellises and garden structures can either stay empty, or you can have an encore from spring. Cherry tomatoes, pole, beans, pumpkins, vining squash, and my favorite, another round of cucumbers for pickling are perfect for creating a magical space in your garden for the fall season. 

When planting an encore of cucumbers, do you want to make sure that you’re choosing of a variety that will not require pollination as the pollinators will begin to be more and more scarce as the temperatures cool down in the days become shorter. Good news for us is that not all cucumbers require pollination, and some of our favorites can be grown in the fall season. ‘Suyo Long,’ ‘Straight Eight,’ and ‘Beit Alpha’ are all excellent choices for a fall round of cucumbers.

These cucumbers are what we call parthenocarpic, meaning they produce flowers that do not need pollination to produce fruit. This means that as long as a frost does not destroy them, they will produce cucumbers.  And in years past, our frosts seem to get later and later, which means we may have cucumbers for Christmas!

In addition, one of my favorite things to plant on an arch for the fall season is a handheld mini-pumpkin. There is something so magical about pumpkins hanging from the arches in October that just is hard for me to resist. If you’re like me and love a pumpkin filled arch for fall, some of my favorite varieties are ‘Jack Be Little,’ Casperita,’ ‘Hooligan,’ and ‘Baby Boo.’  These small but mighty pumpkins will produce a beautiful showing for you all the way to frost, meaning that not only will they be beautiful in your garden for Halloween, but they will also be beautiful on your table for Thanksgiving! 

In the Wild Child garden, August is a month of transition. While the garden has been growing herself for sometime now, it is time to set our sites to fall. The goal of the wild child gardener this month is to set ourselves up for success in this transition.  How can we get the most out of our space and begin to turn the corner from summer to fall? We’re constantly thinking about our color choices, the flowers that we plant, the fruit that is producing. What colors will bring in the fall season and how can we make this transition as beautiful as possible.

And of course in August, we are focusing on our soil. Setting up our soil for a new season is the most important piece of the garden puzzle.  It doesn’t matter how beautiful your plants are or how great your ideas, if your soil is not full of life, you will spend a lot more time weeding and fighting pests than you will picking and enjoying your harvest.

Focus on your soil and love your garden all the more.  If you’d like to get my top five things that soil at the end of summer season click here!