Do These 3 Things NOW To MEGA BOOST Your Garden!

Summer gardening season is at its midpoint, and heat has taken its toll on our plants. Don’t give up! There is still plenty of growing season left. These smart gardening tips will renew your summer garden, transition your plants into the fall garden of your dreams and unlock huge harvests. Do these 3 things now to mega boost your garden!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Summer Garden Challenges
0:43 Garden Task #1: Succession Planting
5:04 Garden Task #2: Garden Cleanup
7:52 Garden Task #3: Protecting Garden Soil
12:57 Smart Garden Advice
15:01 Adventures With Dale

I use the following products* for growing a garden and growing fruit trees:
Insect Netting: https://amzn.to/40wJ5dE
Waterproof Tarps (Many Sizes): https://amzn.to/4nXuCBh
Shade Cloth (Many Sizes): https://amzn.to/49bqveh
Weed Barrier: https://amzn.to/4mj7nkl
Pruning Snips: https://amzn.to/4eZxCrM
Bypass Pruning Shears: https://amzn.to/45PEzKJ
Watering Wand: https://amzn.to/3OkgnG5
Grow Bags (Black): https://amzn.to/4a0MHa5
Grow Bags (Tan): https://amzn.to/4dqSsAD
Heavy Duty Nursery Pots: https://amzn.to/4jhLpM8
Plant Saucers: https://amzn.to/4nvzUnu
Surround WP Kaolin Clay: https://amzn.to/4jVhVDV
4 Gal Battery Backpack Sprayer: https://amzn.to/3HyCBUU
True Organic All Purpose Fertilizer [5-4-5] (4lb): https://amzn.to/4mroKji
Espoma PlantTone Fertilizer [5-3-3] (36lb): https://amzn.to/4lgP9PW
Espoma PlantTone Fertilizer [5-3-3] (50lb): https://amzn.to/4lgPbr2
Espoma Bone Meal (10lb): https://amzn.to/4ieYapY
True Organic Blood Meal (3lbs): https://amzn.to/3DvlzVJ
Alaska Fish Fertilizer [5-1-1] (Gallon): https://amzn.to/4d9c1x7
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (1.5lb): https://amzn.to/4iRWtRc
Jack’s All Purpose [20-20-20] (25lb): https://amzn.to/3ZSJeGW
Jack’s Blossom Booster [10-30-20] (1.5lb): https://amzn.to/3IcO4d0
Jack’s Blossom Booster [10-30-20] (25lb): https://amzn.to/3Iatz0G
Azomite Trace Minerals (44lb): https://amzn.to/4eHwf24
Full Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener

If you are looking for easy garden tips for maximum harvests, have questions about growing fruit trees or want to know about the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden guides and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!

*******
VISIT MY AMAZON STOREFRONT FOR PRODUCTS I USE MOST OFTEN IN MY GARDEN*
https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener

*******
VISIT MY MERCHANDISE STORE
https://shop.spreadshirt.com/themillennialgardener

*******
SUPPORT MY SECOND CHANNEL!
https://www.youtube.com/c/2MinuteGardenTips

*******
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow Me on X (@NCGardening) https://x.com/NCGardening
Follow Me on INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/millennialgardener/

*******
ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B

*******
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
© The Millennial Gardener

#gardening #garden #gardeningtips #vegetablegardening #vegetablegarden

Is it just me or has this summer been a lot hotter than usual? Well, if you are like me, the heat has really beaten up your garden and much of what you planted in spring is reaching the end of life, if not already gone from your garden. Don’t give up. Summer is barely half over. It’s going to start cooling down in a few weeks, and there is still ample opportunity for huge harvests. On this video, I’m going to help you unlock those harvests. If you do these three things right now, you will give your garden a mega boost. If you’re new to the channel, please subscribe. Hit the bell for notifications, and check out my Amazon store and Spreadshop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom apparel and gear. The first thing you should do is succession plant another wave of fast growing summer crops. I’m talking about things like cucumbers, zucchini, and other summer squashes, small melons, herbs like basil, dill, and parsley, potatoes, string beans, and corn if you grow it in your backyard. If you are planting only one single crop of most traditional summer vegetables, you are making a big mistake because the summer growing season is simply longer than the lifespans of most of the crops that we grow. Trying to keep them alive all summer long is a waste of time. Just plant another wave instead. This garden bed right here used to be full of cucumbers and zucchini that I planted out in early April. But the zucchini was long ago killed by vine bores. And the cucumbers were long ago killed by powdery mildew. There’s just no point in trying to keep those old vines alive all summer. Almost all my initial planting of cucumbers and zucchini are long gone from my garden. Save the odd vine here or there that is still showing a little bit of vigor at the top. If this doesn’t flower soon, I’m just going to remove it because these things are beat. It’s my second wave of zucchini that is producing right now. Had I not planted a second wave a month behind my first wave, I would have none at all because honestly, these vines are finally starting to see a little bit of damage from the vine bore. You can see that things are starting to die back on me a little bit. That signifies that there is some type of pest pressure that is getting to them. But hey, there’s still a few zucchinis and some flowers in there, so it’s doing okay for the time being. Look at that little guy right there. It’s Geico, not gecko. I’m just kidding. That’s a Carolina anol lizard. So, here we are in mid July and I am already planting out my third wave of cucumbers and zucchini and my second wave of small melons. Cucumbers and zucchini for the most part germinate in about 3 to 4 days and they will produce their fruits within about 40 to 55 days depending on the variety. So, if you sew new cucumber or zucchini seeds in late July, you will have fruit, believe it or not, ready for picking come the first half of September. And I know virtually everybody watching this video doesn’t see frost until at least midepptember. So, you have plenty of time to start another crop of cucumber and zucchini. In fact, most of you watching this probably don’t see frost until at some point in October. for you guys. There is ample time for two entire new crops of cucumbers, zucchini, and other smaller summer squashes. Then we have small fruited melons like honey rock cantalopes or kajari melons. These produce very quickly in as little as about 2 months. They germinate in only 3 to 4 days. So again, if you plant these from seed right now, you should be picking melons off of them at some point in September. Now is also the perfect time for many of us to direct sew another wave of string beans in our garden. And if we plant them now, they should germinate in only a matter of a few days, and we will be picking from them in September. If you like growing corn in your backyard garden, now is also a great time for the vast majority of us to direct sew another wave of an early variety of corn. I also just started another wave of basil plants a couple of weeks ago. These germinate in no time. They grow like a weed. So, if your basil plants are starting to get beat up, start another wave. have young, fresh plants in their peak production going into fall. Now is also the perfect time for many of us to start another round of potatoes to harvest in the fall. I actually just harvested my spring potatoes about a week and a half ago, and some of them were starting to sprout when I pulled them out of my grow bags. It’s the perfect opportunity to take those that were showing eyes on them and just replant them and get them growing again so you can pull them before frost. And if you’re like me and you don’t see frost until mid to late November most years, you may even be able to start yourself another wave of tomatoes and peppers. For example, you can grow yourself a very early determinant variety tomato and a very early pepper like a banana pepper. These things produce very quickly. So if you don’t see frost until November, you can expand your horizons on what you can begin right now. And that’s really just a small fraction of summer crops that you can start right now from seed and get them out into your garden for a second harvest. The point is, if your garden is suffering and things are beat up, you’re not stuck with what you have. There is still plenty of growing season left. So, replace those plants. The second thing you want to do in your garden right now is to begin the garden cleanup process. And I’m specifically talking about removing any fallen fruits that are lying on top of your garden soil and also removing any dead, dying, or diseased old plants. This raised garden bed right here was where I planted my first wave of indeterminant tomatoes back in very early April. And on top of this garden soil, I have lots of old tomatoes right there. And right now, they’re not really causing any problems. But if I let them fester, all of those seeds will ferment and I will start getting tomato germination everywhere. And I’ll actually develop a weed problem over time. Because while one or two tomatoes that germinate from seed is a volunteer, hundreds of them is a weed problem, you also run the risk that each of these fallen fruits can contain hundreds, if not thousands of insect pest eggs. So, we really want to get rid of them. If you’re also like me, scattered around your garden, you probably have a number of plants that are in the dying process, if not completely dying. For example, in this raised garden bed right here, I have all of my old brassacica plants. Most of them have been ripped out, but these Brussels sprouts that never really panned out where they’re they’re just sitting here because they’ve been useless to me for a long time. Well, the problem is these plants are beginning to colonize an incredible number of brassasica pests. They’re covered in harlkan bugs. They’re covered in various different worms and things like that. Well, in the fall, I want to plant out another wave of things like broccoli, cabbage, and kale. Well, if I let these sit in my garden and fester, they are going to colonize all of these insects and they’re going to lay lots of eggs. And then I’m going to have a huge pest population when I plant out my very young plants come September or October when things cool down. So, I need to be preemptive here and get rid of all of these old plants and trash them because if I get rid of the plants, then the insect pests aren’t going to come into my yard anymore because I won’t be attracting them. So, when I plant out my brassacas in mid to late September, like I usually do, I should have little to no insect pest problems. I’ll just plant them underneath insect netting and I should be mostly good to go because I got rid of the problem early before it was allowed to fester. So, for most of these crops, I’m going to take my pruning shears and I’m going to cut the stalks back level with the ground and that will kill the plant. Then I will allow the roots to naturally decompose and refeed back into the soil using the natural composting process. So all of our old dead and dying brassica plants have been removed in their entirety as well as any weeds and fallen fruit that were in those beds. And all of these raised garden beds that you see right here are basically cleaned up and ready to go. So that is going to bring us to step number three. And the third thing we must do is we must protect our garden soil, especially in our unused garden beds where nothing is no longer growing. Soil isn’t some dead medium. It is a colony of trillions of microbes, fungi, bacteria, all sorts of stuff that work in harmony together to decompose organic matter and break it into the molecules that your plants actually need to uptake and use as nutrition. The problem is when we have nothing growing in our raised garden beds, the colony becomes very vulnerable to damage. It is actually the roots of the plants themselves that largely colonize a lot of the microbes. So when we remove all of those roots, well the soil microbiology, it decreases unless we add things to protect it. So right now we have nothing growing in this raised garden bed. So that already leaves the colonies vulnerable. But if we leave it exposed and just beating in the intense summer sun, well, the sun is going to bleach that top inch or so and just kill off all of the soil microbiology just like it would kill off your skin if you sat underneath the sun with no protection for 16 hours a day every single day. You’d get burned alive. Well, so is your soil microbiome. And you can effectively protect your soil in two different ways. And which way you prefer is kind of up to you. One way is by covering your raised garden beds that you’re not using in a very thick layer of natural mulch. Or you can use a large imperous weatherproof tarp and you can use that to cover your raised garden beds. And which method you select u kind of depends on you as a person and what you prefer. For me personally, I would use the mulch method if I were putting my raised garden beds to sleep for a long period of time. So, if I were resting them for the winter and I weren’t going to be planting anything in them for 4 to 6 months, I would bury the raised garden beds in 4 to 6 in of an allnatural mulch and just let that sit on top of my raised garden beds and slowly decompose all throughout the fall and the winter to plant in them in spring. In this case, I’m going to be quickly planting in my raised garden beds in about 3 to four weeks. So, because of that, because I’m going to have such rapid turnover, I actually prefer the tarp method. And here is why. In all of my raised garden beds right now, there is going to be a significant amount of weed seeds and insect pest eggs that have accumulated in the soil all throughout the growing season thus far. And because we are in the middle of summer and it is nice and warm, if all I do is cover everything at this point with a thick layer of mulch, insect eggs are going to hatch and weed seeds are going to germinate. Yes, the mulch will help to a degree, but the tarp is going to help a lot more because when I put a tarp on top of everything, today it was 98° out and it’s supposed to be that temperature most of the days for the rest of the week. Well, the tarp is going to bake in the sun and it’s going to get so hot underneath. It is going to kill some of those insect pest eggs as well as some of the weed seeds. For those that it doesn’t kill, well, insect pest eggs are still going to survive and hatch. Some weed seeds are still going to survive and germinate. Well, they’re going to germinate completely trapped. They’re going to suffocate. They’re not going to get any light, any air. So, it’s going to kill off that pest and weed seed population significantly more than if I just put down mulch at this point in the year. For me, I’m more of a mulcher in the winter time when we don’t have those weed seeds germinating, when we don’t have those pest eggs hatching. Right now, I think the tarp is the ultimate solution, at least for me and my situation. But regardless what type of soil cover you choose, the first thing I’m going to do is put down two bags of compost because I want to replenish the bacteria cultures of the soil and also have all that organic matter breaking down so it’s all ready for me to plant in in a few weeks. Then after I spread out that compost evenly along the soil line, I’m going to take my tarp. I’m going to pull the tarp over the soil, being sure to cover everything completely, and then stack some bricks or another kind of weight on top of it to hold that tarp down so it doesn’t blow away. And now our raised garden bed has been amended, protected, and it will be ready to plant in in a few weeks when my transplants are fully ready to go. And I have five or six more raised garden beds that are ready for the exact same treatment. And once I cover these all with tarps, basically these garden beds are out of sight, out of mind. And it will make it a lot easier for me to work in my garden because when they’re covered up, it’s like they’re not really there. And that makes things so much more manageable. And you don’t have to worry about any kind of weeding or anything like that because they will all be protected and they will be weed-free as long as you keep them covered. And that right there are three things you should do right now to give your vegetable garden a mega boost. Don’t let the heat get you down. Don’t let it beat you up. It is fleeting. It will be gone in a matter of a few weeks. Second summer is upon us. This is a fantastic time of the year to garden because whereas in the spring, everything is working against us. It’s getting progressively hotter and buggier and more humid. Well, at this time of year, everything is working with us. If we put in the work right now, we are rewarded because it is so much easier to garden in late summer. The insect populations are decreasing. The thunderstorms are going away. The humidity is dying down. It’s getting cooler both in the day and during the night. And you’re not going to get so sunburnt. It’s going to be so much more pleasant to work in the garden. And that’s something that so many people miss out on because they go gung-ho into gardening in spring and then they get beaten up by the summer and they don’t realize they’re missing out the best time of the year to garden, which is actually late summer into early fall. So, please take the advice in this video, start succession planting, start covering any of the raised beds that you aren’t using right now so you have them prepped to plant in in another 4 to 6 weeks. Start some more seed. Get growing. I’m telling you, you will love that you made that decision. So, everybody, I sure hope you found this video helpful. If you did, please make sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, and please ring the notification bell so you’re notified when I release more videos like these. For any of the products that I featured in this video, like the tarp, for instance, I’ll place direct links to them down in the video description. For everything I use in real life in my vegetable garden, all of that stuff is linked in my Amazon storefront. So, expand the video description, click on the Amazon storefront link, you’ll see everything I use in real life. And while you’re down there, please consider checking out my Spreadshop for custom merch if you want to support my channel. Thank you all so much for watching, and I hope to see all of you again on the next video. Somebody’s having a crazy dream. I don’t know if I should wake him up or not. What is going on, Dale Book? I’ve seen you have crazy dreams before, but this is a lot, buddy. I just want to make sure you’re okay. My little pumpkin. All right, I think he’s calm now.