Pluck, pickle, preserve and enjoy

August is a busy month for vacations, back-to-school activities and keeping the landscape looking spiffy. Remember to take time to enjoy your garden — drink your morning coffee as you watch the pollinators dance and pirouette among blooming plants, or set up a table and dine outdoors as the sun sets.

• Check out this excellent, onestop fruit and vegetable preservation website at Preserve Smart Colorado: bit.ly/2N1Vuyd. You’ll learn about freezing, drying, canning, pickling, and making jams and jellies.

• The best time to harvest produce is early in the morning after the dew has dried, or in the cool of the evening.

• Harvest and enjoy bulbing onions at any stage of growth or wait until fully mature. If harvesting now, use them within a week and store in the crisper part of the refrigerator. Onions will be fully mature when the tops fall over at the end of summer and can be stored for use through into winter.

• Protect winter squash and pumpkins from moist soil and rot by placing them on a small piece of wood, cardboard, or a soaped and rinsed foam grocery tray.

• Peppers can be harvested when small — 3-4 inches. Red, yellow and orange peppers need time on the vine to turn color, but it’s OK to harvest them while still green. Wear gloves when harvesting hot peppers.

• Tomatoes should be left on the vine until ripe. Toward the end of August start plucking off the top blossoms on plants that won’t have time to fruit and mature before the end of the growing season. Removing new flowers helps focus ripening on existing fruit.

• Harvest tomatillos when the husks turn brown and papery.

• Beans, cucumbers, eggplant and summer squash taste best when picked often and slightly immature. If left too long on the plant or vine, fruits/vegetables can get seedy and turn bitter.

• Most corn cultivars are ready to harvest 20 days after the silks appear.Look for dried brown silks and plump kernels at the top of the ear. A crushed kernel will be milky if ripe, clear if immature. Give ears a sharp, downward snap to remove.

• Pull carrots (depending on the variety) when they are 3/4 to 1 ½ inches in diameter at the top. Green tops won’t hurt you; they just received too much sun. Carefully loosen the soil along the top with a garden fork before pulling. After harvest, remove the tops, leaving a 2-inch stem.

• This is a great time to direct seed leafy greens, beets, carrots and radishes in containers or in the ground. Keep the seeds wellwatered on hot days or they’ll quickly dry up.

• If disease or insects were a problem in vegetable containers be sure to toss old soil, disinfect the container with one-part bleach to 10 parts water and rinse thoroughly. Use fresh planters mix.

• Harvest strawberries, raspberries and blackberries often, avoid letting fruit rot on the plant.

• Herbs can be harvested throughout the growing season and have the best flavor before flowering. Trim the ends of parsley, oregano, mint, basil and cilantro and place in an inch of water. Leave them on the counter; they’ll last up to a week.

• Try harvesting and preserving bundles of edible flower herbs (that haven’t been sprayed with chemicals). A culinary blend includes marjoram, sage, oregano and thyme. Tea blend includes anise hyssop, lemon verbena and balm and mint. Twine each group in bundles, then hang upside down in a dark, cool place. When the leaves are crisp (a couple of weeks), strip the leaves and flowers and store them in airtight containers.

• Many people have plants they need help identifying. Colorado State University faculty and extension specialists have created a free app. Look for “CO Woody Plant” on iOS, Android and Google Play.

• Finish fertilization of warm season grasses (buffalo grass, blue grama, Dog Tuff ) this week. Yellowing of grass could be iron chlorosis. Supplemental iron may be helpful.

• Roses benefit from one final summer fertilizer application. Do so now to finish the season strong with colorful blooms.

• Consider treating lawns now to kill Japanese beetle white grubs. Do this after the lawn is mowed and any blooming weeds (clover, dandelions) are removed. View lawn products and pollinator cautions at bit.ly/2s5gA4t.

• It’s not too early to evaluate your garden and write notes on plants that need to be transplanted, divided, or moved this fall or next spring. Keep the camera handy and take frequent photos to admire during the cold months.

• Container-grown plants are easily stressed during hot weather and require some extra attention. Poke a finger into the soil 2 inches. If soil sticks to your finger then no water is needed.

• Empty water from the catch tray to prevent salts from being absorbed by the plant or providing a mosquito breeding ground.

• Regularly fertilize vegetables and ornamentals through the growing season. Time released granular fertilizers only last a few weeks, so apply again or use half strength liquid fertilizer once a week to keep the blooms coming.

• Tidy up your flower containers by pruning for shape and getting rid of spent flowers and leggy growth. Swap out dead and nonperforming bloomers for new plants to finish out the summer.