Gardening

By following a few simple steps, you can enjoy fresh herbs and vegetables while avoiding common disease and pest problems

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The Boston region has finally reached an important weather milestone, and I am not talking about 95 degrees in May. Rather, we have passed the spring frost date, calculated to measure the historic average latest date of the last frost. Gardeners can now move ahead with confidence. In our vegetable garden in Framingham, the onions, garlic, and potatoes planted last fall are all growing nicely; the peas, kale, chard, and seeded carrots, too, are putting on growth, unfazed by the cooler nighttime temperatures of early May.

Few things taste better than produce and herbs grown right at home and eaten fresh. What can be planted now? A mouth-watering lineup: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, melons, squash, okra, basil, tulsi, dill, cilantro, and summer savory, to name a few. This week’s column will go over planting, mulching, pruning, and staking/trellising tender annual vegetables, herbs, and flowers. By following a few simple steps, you can enjoy fresh herbs and vegetables while avoiding common disease and pest problems.

Staking and trellising

The main purpose of providing structural support for your vegetables is to keep the fruit (e.g., tomatoes, squash, cucumbers) off the ground. This will drastically help reduce rot issues and, if done well, make it easier for you to harvest along the way. For plants with a sprawling habit, such as squash, melons, and cucumbers, providing something to climb on keeps them out of pathways. Some of our best butternut squash last year came from vines trained onto our deer fence. The materials needed for effective support can be as simple as stakes and twine or as complex as a gourd tunnel made with wire mesh sheets. We like metal T-posts because they are durable and can be reused year after year, but bamboo or even wooden stakes are great too. Be sure to anchor the stakes well into the ground, as they will need to bear the weight of your vegetables during the fury of summer thunderstorms and heavy rain. For T-posts, a post pounder is a worthwhile investment.

Tomatoes

For tomatoes, I tend to avoid using tomato cages as they are thin and flimsy, and the cage supports are not anchored deep enough into the ground. I prefer to use panel staking for our tomatoes. Begin with well-anchored T-posts, then stretch a section of chicken wire between them. I love how easy it is to configure this system. You can create a single-, double-, or triple-panel system, depending on the volume of tomatoes you want to grow. Leave a 12-16 inch gap between the soil and the bottom of the wire, and attach the wire mesh firmly to the posts. As your tomatoes grow, simply attach the main stem to the wire panel.

An important note for tomato growers: Tomatoes produce adventitious roots, which means the roots emerge from the stem rather than just underground. Although this may sound counterintuitive, we plant our tomatoes deep to encourage adventitious root development, which helps them anchor more securely in the soil. Make sure, however, that the foliage does not touch the soil to prevent foliar diseases from soil splashing.

Pruning

How many gardeners have been confronted by a jungle of tomato foliage, obscuring the fruits and making it hard to harvest? Pruning your plants is a key technique for avoiding foliar overload. Pinching off or cutting off the side shoots results in better airflow around the plants, and fewer but higher-quality fruits, especially for larger fruits like slicing tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. For herbs like basil, pinching the top shoots helps form bushier plants with more foliage. Be sure to continue pinching off any developing flower stalks as the plants redirect sugars into the flowers and the foliage becomes less sweet and flavorful.

Mulching

Mulching your vegetable garden helps keep the soil moist and reduces weed pressure. The best materials are broken-down leaf mold, salt hay, or old, spent straw. Butcher paper can also be very effective for smothering weeds; just weigh it down with soil and thoroughly wet it before planting into it. Avoid using fresh wood chips, fresh straw (due to weed seeds), or fresh manure. These materials will draw nutrients from the soil as they break down and may introduce weeds and pathogens. I recommend using an organic fertilizer like fish emulsion right after planting and again mid-season to ensure healthy, vibrant plants.

Pollinator plants

No matter the scale of your vegetable garden, diverse plantings will attract and support a diverse community of organisms, including pollinators and beneficial insects, to help mitigate pest pressure. We surround our plots with strips of native wildflowers, flowering herbs, and tender annual flowers. Not only does this brighten the garden with color, but it also draws pollinators to the edges, encouraging them to explore deeper and guiding them to our crops. A recent study from the University of Kentucky found that native perennials such as mountain mint and monarda attract more than a dozen beneficial insect families. Flowering herbs like calendula, chamomile, and borage support insect life while providing medicinal and culinary uses. Carrot family members like lovage, dill, and fennel are excellent choices to attract swallowtail butterflies and a host of small bee and wasp pollinators, including parasitic wasps, which help defend your tomato from hornworms. You can use annual flowers like phacelia or partridge pea as cover crops or companion plantings to intersperse among the crops. Since most gardens have fences, due to deer, rabbit, or groundhog pressure, make use of these vertical walls with perennials like a climbing rose, an old-fashioned clematis, or an annual vine like cypress vine, whose bright red, tubular-shaped flowers keep local hummingbird birds coming back to your garden all summer long.

A little bit of effort at the beginning of the season with emphasis on well-anchored support for your vegetables, combined with regular pruning, a good layer of mulch, and a plethora of herbs and flowers, will mean delicious food for your table and a thriving ecosystem in your garden.

Ulrich Lorimer is the director of horticulture at the Native Plant Trust in Framingham. Send your gardening questions, along with your name/initials and hometown, to [email protected]g.