Revive A Tired August Vegetable Garden

By mid-August, vegetable gardens can look tired, bedraggled and ready to give up even as harvests continue. Recollections of tidy rows of seedlings, robust, growing transplants give way to the reality of the effects of pests, disease and heat.

Here are some tips to refresh your August garden from Resh Gala on Instagram as @reshgala.

Cut Feed Plant Prune Repeat

Task 1: Cut back herbs and perennials hard. They’ll grow back fuller than ever.

Task 2: Add compost around the base of plants to fertilize or use an organic liquid fish-seaweed fertilizer.

Task 3: Replant fast growing crops like zucchini, bush beans and basil if you have time before planting the cool season garden or the first frost. (Yank the zucchini covered in powdery mildew and replant if you’ve not tired of zucchini).

Task 4: Minimize pest damage by pruning brown and diseased leaves.