It’s not too late to plant!

It was a long cold winter and a late spring, so many garden planting dates have been pushed forward. Far in beyond  what traditional wisdom would lead one to believe! It’s still not too late to plant a great vegetable garden, and there are many flowers you can plant into July too.

For edible gardens I’ve provided a short list of everyone’s favourite veggies and herbs to start growing now and enjoy all summer long.

Broccoli: it can be planted now and will provide crop right into fall.

Carrots: a mid july crop will keep your garden providing delicious keratin filled meals into October.

Herbs: heat loving herbs will thrive at this time of year; oregano, basil and dill are great choices.

Peas: start with a well established pea plant at this time of year, these plants will start producing quickly so expecting to start eating in early August.

Cucumbers: these crops need a fair bit of space so keep this mind when planting fast growing cucumber plants.

For flowers there are several varieties that will tolerate the stress of transplanting in the early summer. Add colour to your borders with marigolds, zinnias and nasturtiums. Height can be added with sunflowers and cosmos. Many of these blooms will normally be burnt our by late summer, so by planting them late it guarantees you’ll have a marvelous second flush of flowers for labour day bouquets.

The key things to remember with late summer flowers is a layer of mulch is critical for keeping moisture in place in the heat of summer. Ensure you keep water levels up to reduce transplant shock.