Plant these easy-to-grow summer veggies to enjoy a delicious harvest.
Summer vegetable gardens can be both bountiful and easy to grow.
Green Beans
Bob Stefko
Homegrown green beansare one of summers savory treats.
Credit:Bob Stefko
Bush beans are compact and easygoing.
Sow beans directly into the gardentheyll sprout in a few days and grow rapidly.
Youll just need a little patience for them to change color and get sweet.
Credit: Bob Stefko
A few large sweet pepper plants will give you plenty of peppers once the harvest starts.
A great way to use them up is with thesestuffed pepper recipes.
They love heat, and their dark-colored fruits lend themselves tolots of tasty recipes.
Credit: Matthew Benson
Water eggplants consistently, from below, if possible, and mulch under the plants.
To grow larger eggplants, pinch off all but half a dozen flowers per plant.
The vines can be trained to climb up a trellis or cattle panel to save space and look fantastic.
Credit:Carson Downing
Okra
Jay Wilde
Gumbo, anyone?
Harvest the pods when they are about 3-4 inches long.
If they get much larger or too old, their quality lessens.
Credit:Carson Downing
Red varieties are also available.
These plants are typically direct-seeded and will produce heavily if kept weed-free in fertile soil and with adequate moisture.
Water from below with asoaker hoseor drip tape and mulch around the plants toreduce powdery mildew.
Credit:Jay Wilde
Sweet Corn
Freshly harvested cornfrom your garden is a sweet summer treat.
Corn has shallow roots, so double-check to water it during dry periods.
Tomatoes
No list of summer vegetables would be complete withouttomatoes.
Credit:Robert Cardillo
Yes, technically, they are a fruit, but they’re more often thought of as vegetables.
There are seemingly endless varieties of tomatoes to choose from, and most are easy to grow.
Certaintypes of tomatoes are more suited to specific useslike slicing,canning for sauces, or juicing.
Credit:Bob Stefko
To make your summer gardening even easier,apply mulchunder these vegetables.
Mulch will suppress weeds and keep the soil covered and cool, reducing watering needs.
Also consider installing asoaker hoseor drip tape irrigation system to make watering more manageable.
Credit: Scott Little
Summer Veggies for Fall Harvest
Dont forget summer vines grow fall squashes.
