The 4 Seasons of an Apprentice Gardener: What to Do in the Garden During Summer

What should you do in July–August in a permaculture vegetable garden? Summer vegetable harvests, essential tasks, and tools to maintain a market garden in summer… Gilles Degroote from the Ferme Nature & Découvertes in Versailles shares the key actions and tasks to carry out during the summer season on a microfarm cultivated using permaculture principles.
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After planning crop succession, starting early sowings under cover in spring, and transplanting after the Ice Saints, it's now time to care for and harvest summer vegetables.
Weeding and Mulching
• In summer, weeds (or volunteer plants) can compete with vegetables. Good mulching helps limit the growth of unwanted plants and reduces soil evaporation, which is crucial during dry spells.
Proper Tools
• Gilles Degroote uses various tools for weeding his garden beds, especially the wheel hoe. Already featured in a previous video, this wheel cultivator comes with a set of blades that can be used for soil work or hoeing.
• In this case, depending on how the tool is set up, the wheel hoe allows the gardener to weed rows of beans without pulling up the vegetables.
Succession Sowing and Fall Planting
• In summer, you can still directly sow crops like lettuce, beans, and beets to stagger harvest periods.
• Fall and winter vegetables should be sown toward the end of August.
Diseases and Pests
• Pests such as cabbage white butterflies or diseases like powdery mildew can begin attacking crops as early as July. It's important to monitor the development of fungal diseases and insect pests to prevent and treat them (using horsetail or comfrey teas, pruning, and greenhouse ventilation…).
Timeline
0:00 – Summer in Permaculture
0:17 – Harvesting Summer Vegetables
0:29 – Weeding and Mulching
1:11 – Summer Sowing
1:21 – Watering
1:27 – Crop Health Monitoring
2:22 – Monitoring Tomato Crops
4:49 – Harvesting