You’ve planted seedlings, added compost to your beds, and sown seeds throughout, but your vegetables aren’t growing. Or, perhaps your summer garden crops have stopped thriving after a brief period of abundance. What’s going on? It’s most likely a range of cultural issues, which are easily fixable with time and patience. We’ll look closely at your soil, crops, and growing location to ensure your garden has all it needs to flourish.
Summer brings with it lots of pool parties, county fairs, and time commitments. Sometimes we gardeners lose track of our crops in the hustle and bustle of the hot season. Aim to walk through the garden twice a week during the warm season—it’ll help you keep an eye on struggling plants before it’s too late.
The causes for decline depend on the varieties you’re growing and the site they’re in. Summer’s intense sun, occasional droughts, and warm temperatures invite pests and diseases onto our tender ornamentals. Under or overwatered roots struggle to take up water and nutrients, leading to shriveled or yellowing leaves.
These are the top five reasons your garden has stopped thriving this summer, with identification tips and solutions for each. By the end of this guide, you’ll know exactly what you must do for happy, healthy vegetables, fruits, and flowers.
Watering Irregularities
Too much water causes plant roots to drown but too little makes them shrivel from thirst.
Adjusting your watering schedule to the different seasons may be difficult, but it’s necessary to create a green space. Too much water causes plant roots to drown but too little makes them shrivel from thirst.
Both overwatering and underwatering make it impossible for roots to suck up moisture or nutrients. Each has slightly different symptoms that clue you into moisture struggles.
Too Much Water
If you notice wet soil, cut back on watering completely until dry.
Gardens with summer rainfall often experience issues from too much moisture. It also happens in daily irrigated gardens with sprinklers. You’ll notice wet soil around the base of beds. Certain weeds thrive with excess irrigation—you’ll see them creeping into neglected, wet spaces.
Plants sitting in water start to yellow their leaves before dropping them altogether. They’ll look sickly or limp. When you lift them out of the soil, their roots will fall off in places. Roots may have symptoms of root rot, with white, gray, or black growth on them. The good news is you’ll most likely notice these symptoms before they’re too severe.
It takes multiple days of standing water for infections to occur. If you notice wet soil, cut back on watering completely until dry. If you experience heavy summer rainfall, consider using a tarp or waterproof covering above your beds. Use wet-loving shrubs or trees in ornamental spaces so they’ll thrive on their own.
Too Little Water
Entire sections of plants die off with continued water stress.
More often than not, too little water is the issue in our gardens. Most of us experience drought, heat waves, and long, sunny days during summer. This evaporates water from our soils—over time, they’ll become uninhabitable for garden specimens.
Low water stress shows up in dry, crackly foliage. Their leaves crumble when you touch them. Entire sections of branches or leaves can die off with continued water stress. Catch it quickly with water; your garden annuals will bounce back with little damage.
Avoid water inconsistencies with an irrigation system. It can be as simple as a hose attached to a sprinkler head, or as complex as drip irrigation. Using a timer means you’ll never forget to water! The sprinkler system does all the work for you.
Ollas (pronounced “oi-yuh”) are terracotta vessels that drip water into the soil slowly. As the surrounding area dries, through osmosis water is drawn out from out of the olla into your soil where plant roots can access it. Use these pots with other methods for a cohesive watering strategy; you’ll have to water less often with ollas in your dirt.
Heat Waves
Avoid pruning or transplanting perennials during heat waves.
Temperature is the most common villain for a summer garden that has stopped thriving. But it is also the one we have the least control over. Heat, like rain, descends on us as it wants to. There’s nothing we can do to prevent it from arriving. Heat waves are now common in most of the U.S. during summertime, so protecting our tender plants has never been more important.
Instead of trying to banish extreme heat, you’ll want to mitigate its effects. Shade cloths are smart fabrics that let some light through while blocking the most intense sun rays. They come in triangles, circles, or greenhouse lengths; you can cut them to fit perfectly in your growing space. String them up during the hottest hours, or leave them up during multiple-day heat waves.
Higher than normal temperatures mean crops need additional water to stay cool. Many people mistakenly assume they can use the same irrigation schedule all summer, but this approach can cause your garden to stop thriving. Containers and raised beds evaporate more moisture than in-ground beds, so watch for wilting leaves as a telltale sign of water stress. Avoid pruning or transplanting perennials during heat waves—they react better in spring or fall, or during mild summer weather.
Not Enough Nutrients
Too little nitrogen leads to stunted growth and yellow leaves.
If you’re watering plenty and temperatures are cool, your summer garden may stop thriving because of nutritional deficiencies. Just as we need minerals to be our best selves, plants do as well. Fertilizer availability may dwindle later in the season. Some nutrient deficiencies have telltale signs, while others are hard to address.
When in doubt, try a soil test. Many universities offer soil tests, with some allowing you to mail in your sample from out of state. They’ll test for the major plant nutrients like phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium, as well as trace nutrients like calcium, magnesium, and others.
Plants use nitrogen for leafy growth, potassium for strength, and phosphorus for flower and fruit production. Without enough nitrogen, plants exhibit stunted growth and fully yellow leaves. Potassium deficiencies show yellowing on leaf margins, and phosphorus as purple leaf spots or low flower formation.
Excess nutrients also hurt plant growth. This typically occurs in areas with too much fertilizer or ones near agricultural runoff. Water soil well to leach some nutrients out, and get a soil test to determine what nutrients you have too much of. Then, transplant plants that use up lots of those specific nutrients this year—by next year your soil will have a better balance.
Mulch or Fertilizer?
Mulches like compost contain necessary plant nutrients.
I used a lot of fertilizer in my beginner days of gardening before I learned the benefits of organic mulch. Mulches like compost contain necessary plant nutrients—they’re chock full of microorganisms that continue making nutrients available. These microscopic critters take big molecules and break them into smaller ones that plant roots can access.
After correcting nutrient deficiencies in your soil, consider adding a healthy helping of compost annually. Organic mulches with decaying matter also work well. With time, continued compost applications create the disease-resistant soil your garden plants crave.
Blossom End Rot
These nightshade family crops show clear signs of nutrient deficiencies in their fruits.
Are you growing peppers, tomatoes, or eggplants? These nightshade-family crops show clear signs of nutrient deficiencies in their fruits. If you see brown or black mushy spots on these fruits’ undersides, your plants are most likely experiencing a calcium deficiency.
This condition goes by the name blossom-end rot, as it shows up as rot on the blossom’s end side of the fruit. If you’re watering consistently but tomatoes or peppers still exhibit end rot, consider adding a liquid fruit and flower fertilizer. Within two weeks, new fruit should be blemish-free.
On the other hand, if your soil has enough calcium, it may not be available to the crops because of inconsistent watering. Supplementation and proper irrigation are essential to fix the problem.
Overcrowding
Though it seems good at first, overcrowding can lead to more infestations.
This is a common beginner’s mistake contributing to dwindling end-of-summer gardens that stopped thriving like they were a few months ago. We all want to cram as many plants as we can in our gardens, but it often sets us back. Overcrowding, though it seems good at first, leads to more infestations later in your growing season. Without enough airflow or direct sunlight, annuals and perennials grow slowly before succumbing to outside pressures.
Avoid overcrowding by following spacing requirements for every plant you grow. Some vegetables like radishes fit in easily amongst other crops; others, like tomatoes, need plenty of space to flourish.
You’ll also want to thin crowding seedlings as they sprout. It may be difficult to cull your baby plants before they reach adulthood—just remember that a few deaths now ensure a bounty later. Follow seed packets or online growing guides for proper spacing and thinning dimensions.
Pesky Pests and Summer Diseases
Avoid overhead irrigation if you have fungal issues.
Although challenging, pests and diseases are incredibly common in garden spaces. Overhead irrigation, hot temperatures, and weak plants invite natural forces that decimate your plants. Fear not, as most garden varieties are more resilient to attacks when they’re healthy.
Diseases tend to stick around when they like their current situation. Tackle them by remedying the cultural conditions that invited them in the first place. Do you see wet-loving fungi? Cut back on watering. Watching spider mites suck the life out of your tomatoes? Spray them with water daily until they go away. By tending your garden, you can effectively remove these problems without any damage to the environment.
These are some of the most common summer pests and diseases within garden ecosystems. Let’s figure out how to identify them, as well as how to get rid of them forever.
Aphids
Aphids attract ladybugs, insect-eating birds, and pirate bugs into your garden.
I find aphids annually—there are dozens of species with unique characteristics and hosts. Most aphids are small, fleshy insects. Some are translucent green, while others are black, gray, or brown. They congregate in groups because they’re stronger together than they are apart.
Aphids attract ladybugs, insect-eating birds, and pirate bugs into your garden—these predatory species eat this pest so you don’t have to do any maintenance. If you see them, leave them be and let them have their feast.
In severe infestations without predator critters, you can use a strong hose stream to knock them off your plants. Once knocked off, aphids lack the protection they hold on your tender plants. Wash them off daily until they go away completely.
Beetles
These insects feed on plants in their adult form; their wormy larvae feed on roots, trees, or fruit.
Squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and weevils are all part of the beetle group. These insects feed on plants in their adult form; their wormy larvae feed on roots, trees, or fruit. Some beetles are harmless in low numbers like the North American native spotted cucumber beetle.
Like aphids, beetles have a range of predators. Invite them by planting more flowering plants—they’ll lure pollinators and pest eaters to your site. Beetle damage shows up as holes in leaves, weak plants, and tunnels in stems. On trees, watch for a sudden decline in health during summer. This is a clear sign that your tree doesn’t have its proper defenses. Look for prematurely falling leaves, holes in the bark, and dying branches.
Keep beetles at bay by planting resistant cultivars, especially for ornamental trees or shrubs. Seal off all entrances in your house so they can’t come in and stay warm through the winter season. Remove severely infested plants, hand-picking the critters as you see them. Chickens love grubs—if you tend a flock, let them eat all the beetles for you.
Cutworms and Borers
Keep the adult moths from laying eggs in the first place.
These separate species do similar things—they tunnel into susceptible plants, causing damage and rot. Cutworms “cut” plants at the base of their stems, and borers tend to carve their way through forming fruit. Both types are larvae of moths that hatch from eggs.
Keep the adult moths from laying eggs in the first place with row cover or mesh coverings. They’ll pass over your young crops to lay their eggs elsewhere. Remove netting once flowers appear so that pollinators can fertilize them.
If you notice cutworms or borers on your plants, pick them off. In severe infestations, use a spray with Bacillus thuringiensis, also known as B.T. spray. Apply it with caution, spraying when winds are low to avoid harming other bugs. Follow the instructions on the bottle for best application guidelines.
Blight
With additional spore sites, blights quickly overrun vegetable and ornamental gardens.
All blights are terrible diseases—they threaten mature plants forming fruit! Blights are fungi that spread via spores. When water or wind hits them, they dust up onto susceptible leaves, multiplying. With additional spore sites, blights quickly overrun vegetable and ornamental gardens.
Keep blight away in the first place by using lots of mulch or compost on your soil’s surface. This prevents spores from splashing up, helping your plants stay strong. Keep bushy plants like tomatoes off the ground with vertical stakes or cages. Practice crop rotation every three to five years to remove host plants from the site. Prune away damaged leaves as they appear.
Powdery and Downy Mildew
They use spores to propagate themselves, launching attacks on nearby crops.
Another two fungi, powdery and downy mildew are similar fuzzy afflictions. Downy mildew occurs on the undersides of leaves, while powdery mildew spreads everywhere. They use spores to propagate themselves, launching attacks on nearby crops.
These two diseases take hold with high humidity, heat, and moisture. They spread as sprinklers spray droplets that splash spores, moving them into new areas. Prevent mildew by promoting good air circulation. Remove diseased or excess foliage at will to increase airflow, minimizing mildew spread.
Note that chemicals may make mildew disappear temporarily, but they’ll almost always create conducive conditions for stronger ones to come in. Mildews are fungi, and they adapt to fungicides with repeated sprayings. Because fungi thrive in unique conditions, when you remove those damp, warm factors, they quickly go away.
Rust
Rust looks orangish-brown on leaves.
Rust affects a multitude of ornamental and fruiting plants. It is also a fungus, and it spreads through spores. Watch for orange-brown spots that spread from plant to plant. Rust harms perennials, although it’s rarely fatal. Simply remove rusty foliage as you see it, and the disease should dissipate with the changing seasons.
For severe takeovers, you can use an organic fungicide with copper or sulfur. Note that fungicides, even organic ones, have unintended consequences in our ecosystems. They also cause chemical resistance, as diseases evolve defenses to them over time. Try improving airflow, cutting foliage, and watering low to the ground before bringing out strong sprays.
Key Takeaways
If your summer garden stopped thriving later in the season, try these fixes:
- Check your watering levels before considering other garden problems: most cultural conditions come from too much or too little water.
- Take a soil test to know exactly which nutrients the dirt needs, and which ones it has too many of.
- If you’re having trouble identifying pests or diseases, consider looking for local universities or laboratories that can properly identify a myriad of garden issues. Take samples into them so they can see what’s going on.
