Month-by-Month Guide to Vegetable Gardening

August

The bottom line: It’s the dog days of summer, and both you and the garden need a break. Kick back and enjoy.

Preparation

Make some notes about your successes and failures. (You may not remember those ravishing radishes or sickly heirloom tomatoes come January when you start to plan next year’s garden.)

Planting

If you haven’t planted for the fall harvest yet (see July), it’s not too late to start now.

Maintenance

Monitor moisture, insects, and disease; if there’s an issue, deal with it right away. Pick up and discard fallen or decaying fruit—leaving it encourages diseases and insects.

Harvest

Keep picking! Cut fresh herbs for freezing or drying to use over the winter.