Shirley's Vegetable Garden™ 
By Shirley BarrigerAugust Have you been eating vegetables from your garden lately? The first vegetables I’ve been enjoying are leaf lettuce and spinach. I was able to cut my leaf lettuce the morning after a rain so it was already washed. Keeping it cut back will allow more lettuce to grow even if I can’t eat it all. Find a friend who likes it and give it away. My summer squash and zucchini are blooming and starting to produce.
I’ve been diligent about weed patrol and have removed the small weeds so now the vegetables can grow and shade the new small weeds wanting to exercise their rights to grow. If you can’t pull out all of the weeds that have become quite large, make a special effort to do the next best thing—keep them from going to seed. Use a grass whip to cut them down. Many weeds form seed heads that disperse and your problems with them will only multiply in successive years. Weed seeds never seem to die.
Don’t pick string beans when the foliage is wet! Rust and other diseases are always present and picking when wet is the best way to spread disease over the entire planting. To be safe, pick these delectable delights only when the foliage is dry.
If you want to grow whopper tomatoes, pinch off all of the suckers that develop between the branches. This will make the plant stronger and the fruit bigger.
Here’s a neat harvesting trick to remove the silk from your sweet corn. Rub a damp paper towel along the ear after removing the outer husks. The silk will cling to the paper, not the corn.
Have a great gardening summer and enjoy eating your own fresh vegetables!
