Why The Spring Season Makes or Breaks Your Summer Vegetable Garden?

A summer vegetable garden is the supreme joy of the home gardener. Heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, and many more varieties that bring memories of cookouts, family BBQs, and sunset gatherings. Often, once the weather warms and summer is in full swing, the home gardener will begin to prepare their garden. Why is this an issue? Timing!

Summer garden growing in beautifully! 

Vegetable and herb plants take time to mature. For many of the summer season favorites, the plants will grow vegetative growth (leaves) for the first few weeks to months before producing the prized reproductive growth (fruit). The more time the plants have to produce leaves and extend their roots deep into the soil, the more opportunity a plant has to produce high-quality fruit all season long. For example, a tomato plant planted in August may grow a couple feet tall before the weather begins to cool and production slows. The plant may produce a handful of tomatoes but not baskets of fresh tomatoes on a weekly basis. However, for those who plant their tomatoes in the spring, the plants have the necessary time to establish and support fruit production for the summer months.  

Fresh weekly harvest of tomatoes, basil and more! 

Planting seedlings in the more temperate spring season, before the extreme heat of the summer, allows the plants to acclimate to their new location. Some gardeners may be familiar with the disappointment of planting a crop to see it wither in the following days. Planting a crop in the summer heat can be a difficult environment for the young plants to thrive. Extreme temperatures make it difficult to manage consistent soil moisture and may even sunburn young leaves. The partially cloudy days and temperate nights of the spring season make the perfect environment for new plants to establish in the garden.

Cucumbers planted early are well established before the summer heat. 

In addition to planting your summer crop in the spring, starting with seedlings gives the home gardener a head start. Especially for those who have not started germinating their seeds in the early months of the year, seedlings allow the home gardener to plant their garden with plants that are already established and ready to thrive. Revival Roots Nursery ships organically grown vegetable and herb seedlings directly to our customer's doorsteps, providing the home gardener a time advantage and removing much of the risk associated with germinating seeds. We always suggest giving your seedlings the best environment to thrive. Avoiding any stressful events early in a seedling’s maturity, such as a heat wave or lack of water, will allow your plants to thrive and produce higher quality harvests. We recommend planting all of your summer season crops in the spring to ensure they have the necessary time to grow and mature. 

A newly planted spring garden ready to grow!

For those who have not yet planted their garden or have open space available, now is the best time to prepare your garden for the summer. Large harvests of fresh heirloom tomatoes and crunchy cucumbers are in sight. Put simply, planting your summer vegetables and herbs in the spring is the single best thing the home gardener can do to have a successful and bountiful summer garden.

To order your seasonal, organically grown seedlings, you can view our current selections here.