What to do in your Sammamish-Issaquah kitchen garden in July

Gardeners don’t have the luxury of losing themselves in the present, even if that present consists of long days with summer crops ripening under the jewel-like atmosphere that envelops Issaquah when the sun comes out.

After two exceptionally cold, wet summers, who can't resist savoring long July days watching tomatoes ripen and bees touch down on the bean blossoms. As far as our kitchen gardens are concerned, however, autumn is barely a growing season away.

Cold autumn nights typically descend on Issaquah and Sammamish in October, and they come earliest to those gardens on the slopes of the Issaquah Alps or the Plateau. With the cold temperatures, the yields from our tomatoes, beans, squash, peppers, and eggplant decrease dramatically. Plants succumb to late blight, and with the first frost they wither and rot.

It’s a dismal image that we’d rather not consider right now.

Nevertheless, if we spend some time preparing for autumn in July, we can ensure that other crops are ready to harvest when our summer bounty is gone.

Sow your favorite autumn and overwintering crops

Year-round gardening is surprisingly easy in Issaquah and Sammamish, even in the higher elevations. If you want to have a fall harvest and get a jump-start on spring, you just need to sow autumn and overwintering crops shortly after you have transplanted your warm-weather crops to the garden.

_In early July, sow your beets, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, parsnips, and Swiss chard.  If you wait too long, these crops won’t have enough time to develop before the winter arrives.

_In late July, sow your lettuces, winter spinach, and radishes. These crops don’t take as long to mature, and are less likely to bolt prematurely if planted late in the month.

“Pull out and replace everything that is starting to bolt now,” says Seattle Tilth intern Jillian Louise Altizer. You can replace your spent arugula, peas, and lettuce with brassicas such as kale, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Parsnips and carrots can do well in vegetable beds that hosted any brassicas you may have overwintered last year.

And what if all your vegetable beds are full of summer crops in July? Seattle Tilth’s Falaah Jones recommends starting overwintering crops like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower in small containers or flats outdoors. You can transfer them to your garden in August. 

You can also engage in some strategic companion planting. “Carrots love tomatoes,” says Altizer, and lettuce can fill the spaces between parsnips and carrots. In warm summer months, spinach and salad greens can thrive in the filtered sunlight under beans and other vines.

Still can’t find any room in your vegetable beds? Many autumn and overwintering crops make attractive edge plantings in perennial beds.  “Russian kale can be a great addition to your decorative plantings,” says Altizer. “It gives you an opportunity to extend your backyard vegetable garden to your front yard.”

Altizer encourages us to do whatever it takes to find a spot for our favorite vegetable. “I would definitely find a place for broccoli,” she says.

Wherever you find room, it will be well worth the effort to be able to harvest overwintered chard and kale as early as April, taste that first bite of broccoli in early June, and show off large heads of cabbage before the summer arrives. 

Making the most of July

Meanwhile, don’t forget to make the most of your July crops!

The Washington State Climatologist reports that the odds are in favor of a drier than usual July, and the temperatures have a greater chance of being normal than last year. Under such conditions, some extra care is needed to encourage an abundant harvest:

_Keep your beds and containers well watered to prevent plants from going to seed prematurely.

_Employ shade cloth to keep your crops cooler.

_If you are doing container gardening, keep your plants well fertilized with a mix approved for organic gardening.

_Thin your rutabagas and beets to encourage large roots. Use the plants you remove to brighten a soup or a summer grill.

_Pick your peas, beans, tomatoes, squashes, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants frequently. Don’t let the fruit get too big or the plant will reduce its yield and begin to wither. And don’t worry about producing too much food. The Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank will welcome any extra vegetables your garden produces. 

Enjoy July’s abundance, but don’t forget to ensure that a plentiful harvest also awaits you on the other side of summer. 

For more tips on managing planting crops for autumn and winter harvest, contact the Garden Hotline at Seattle Tilth.

Seattle Tilth’s Falaah Jones coordinates volunteer and educational programs at the City of Issaquah’s Pickering Barn Community Garden, where intern Jillian Louise Altizer is serving as garden steward. Educational sessions and volunteer work parties provide a unique opportunity to play outdoors while learning about sustainable gardening. The harvests are donated to the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank. You are welcome to visit the garden at any time!

NOTE: Views expressed in this article are the author’s unless indicated otherwise.