When the soil warms up and the days get longer, you know the summer season is rapidly approaching. Summer is truly the time of abundance. Flower buds swell, and pollinators pollinate. And as the season goes on, we have the pleasure of harvesting ripe fruits. 

The key to a summer garden is knowing what to grow and when to seed. There is a huge variety of summer crops that can be direct seeded into the garden. This means you don’t have to start them indoors, you can simply plop those seeds in the ground and keep them watered as they mature! This is by far the easiest way to grow food and it requires almost no pre-planning or materials. You could easily fill your garden with seeds you direct sow, but there are some beloved crops, like tomatoes and peppers, that do require some pre-planning and must be started indoors. However you decide to plan your summer garden, there are an infinite number of wonderful crops you could grow. Here are some of our personal favorites.

Warm Season Veggies for Summer Planting

Different growing zones are often distinguished by the length of the growing season, peak temperatures, and hours of daylight. In all USDA growing zones however, the summer season stands out as the warmer end of the growing season scale. This means we can grow crops that prefer warmer weather or are frost sensitive. While fall and spring have no shortage of wonderful crops to grow, there’s just something about the juicy fruits of summer that really stand out to most gardeners, ourselves included. 

Seeds to Direct Sow

Direct seeding seeds is one of the easiest ways to garden. There’s very little, if any, barrier to entry for new gardeners, and some crops even perform better when direct seeded than when they’re started indoors! 

Cucurbits

Cucurbitaceae is a large plant family that tends to contain annual vines, both domesticated and wild, in many parts of the world. In the garden setting, this family contains some of our favorite crops including cucumbers, winter squash, and melons! 

Summer Squash

In our garden, we know it’s the peak of summer when we’re attempting to pawn off summer squash on everyone we know. This crop truly grows in abundance and there’s about an infinite number of recipes you could make with it! We’re partial to the creamy, heirloom Cocozelle Zucchini, as well as the classic yellow squash, Early Prolific Straight Neck.

Cucumbers

Nothing cools you off in the summer heat quite like an ice cold, crispy cucumber. We love growing cucumbers for fresh eating, pickles, or sliced into a salad or sandwich. There’s a wide variety of cucumbers to choose from depending on your eating intentions but some varieties we rely on are the Suyo Long Cucumber and the perfect pickling variety, Homemade Pickles Cucumber.

Winter Squash

Summer is the perfect time to grow a lot of storage crops, including winter squash! Winter squash varieties include butternuts, delicata, acorn squash, and kabocha squash. These fruits cure and harden, making them great for storage for a few months and even up to six months! There are so many varieties of winter squash to try and they’re each delicious and beautiful in their own ways. We love to recommend folks try a new variety every year! But, if you’re new to winter squash, we always love to recommend the South Anna Butternut and the North Georgia Candy Roaster!

Pumpkins

Pumpkins are generally agreed upon to be a winter squash, but we like to distinguish them for their uniqueness! Pumpkins are typically singled out from the winter squash for their orange skin and round shape - but they also come in other colors! Our favorite baking pumpkin is the Small Sugar and our favorite carving pumpkin is Connecticut Field!  

Canteloupe

Canteloupe is considered an advanced crop by many growers - but it’s actually not that hard to grow as long as you’re able to offer it a little love and attention! Melons love lots of water, sandy, well-draining soils, and balanced nutrients. The Minnesota Mini melon is great for beginners and the Hearts of Gold variety is truly delectable eating. 

Southern Staples

Now, we’re an Asheville, North Carolina based seed company. And being that we grow food in the South, we’d be remiss to exclude these Southern staples. 

Watermelon

Who doesn’t love a bright red, or even a bright yellow (!) slice of watermelon in the heat of summer? These vines are prolific and require a lot of water, but, similar to canteloupes, with just a little love and attention they grow quite nicely. You’re sure to harvest a melon or two! Try the Sugar Baby watermelon for a reliable sweet treat or the Mountain Sweet Yellow if you’re feeling adventurous! 

Okra

Lightly battered and fried, pickled, or cooked up in a summer stew, okra has a special place on the dining table in many Southerners’ hearts. This plant is gorgeous also, with beautiful blooms akin to that of hibiscus. We’re partial to Clemson Spineless 80 and Aunt Hettie’s Red okra.

Peanuts

Growing peanuts is truly a delight. In very warm soil, plant your peanuts and watch them sprout beautiful flowers. These blooms will lean over into the ground where they will then root (on both sides of the plant) and produce peanuts. Truly remarkable! 

Corn

Corn has a variety of culinary uses including fresh eating, growing for grits or flour, or growing your own popping corn! Whatever you’re looking to grow, corn makes a great summer crop. The old companion planting practice of growing corn, beans, and squash together makes for a great space-aware garden. It’s also just impressive to see looming four to six foot-tall stalks growing in your garden! A gem, indeed. We love the Golden Bantam sweet corn and the Pennsylvania Dutch Butter Flavored for popcorn! 

Legumes

Legumes encompass all of our friends like beans, lentils, and even clovers! Clovers and Austrian Winter Peas are legumes used as cover crops. They fix nitrogen and build bio-mass to help support soil health. Legumes can also be grown in your garden as edible crops! 

Pole Beans

Pole beans grow on a trellis and produce continuously throughout the growing season until they are killed back by frost. Growing pole beans is a great way to sow one planting that will last you all season. Our favorite varieties are the impressive Rattlesnake pole bean, with its green pod with purple stripes. For something our Southern growers may know a little bit about, try a greasy bean like the Lazy Wife Greasy bean. Characterized by glossy pods, greasy beans are especially meaty and tender. 

Bush Beans

Bush beans, on the other hand, tend to mature all at once. They’re faster growing and will produce pods in one big flush, making them perfect for canning or drying as well as succession planting. Bush beans don’t require trellising and are very beginner-friendly. We love the Provider as a string bean and the Black Turtle as a drying bean! 

Southern Peas

Southern peas are sometimes used as a cover crop, but they can be planted in reasonable quantities as well! If you’ve ever eaten black-eyed peas, you’ve eaten Southern peas. This bush-type legume is highly resistant to lots of pests and diseases. It’s super low maintenance and very easy to grow! The California blackeye is going to be your classic Southern pea and can be eaten fresh or dried. The Piggot pea is a delicious heirloom that shows great drought resistance. 

More to Grow

We weren’t kidding when we said you could fill your garden with seeds to direct sow! If you need even more ideas, we’ve got them! 

Basil

Basil is a delicious and aromatic herb that carries its weight in the kitchen and in the garden! Companion planting principles suggest that, when grown alongside tomatoes, it can actually improve the flavor of the fruits. Try the classic Italian basil, Genovese, or the more unique flavored Thai basil. 

Chamomile

This gentle medicinal herb is also an easy grower. Chamomile is typically grown as an ornamental and the flower heads are harvested and dried for tea! Both German and Bodegold chamomile are great for this while the perennial Roman chamomile is best left as a steppable groundcover and ornamental. 

Calendula

Also known as pot marigolds, calendula is a sunshiney annual flower that will happily reseed itself - and we’d let it! The flower (technically the calyxes) are traditionally steeped in oil for salves and creams. The Erfurter variety has a bright orange color that was traditionally used to color orange cheese! 

Marigolds

Marigolds are beautiful and have pest repelling properties! Grow a wide swath of Nematocidal marigolds to address nematodes or some Naughty Marietta marigolds for that classic, delicious smell! 

Nasturtiums

For a spicy, edible flower, nasturtiums are ready to take the stage. The blooms and foliage of this flower look and taste great in a range of salads and sandwiches. We love the Alaska Mix for its variegated leaves! 

Sunflowers

Nothing quite screams summer the way sunflowers do! These stately flowers can loom tall (in the case of Mongolia Giant, 14 feet!) or sit serenely in the background (dwarf varieties like Sunspot sunflowers). Whatever your aesthetic tastes, sunflowers can fit the bill. 

Sweet Potatoes

While not technically a direct seed crop, sweet potato slips can be shipped to you, or purchased in store, and planted directly in the ground. This summer vine is essential in any garden, so we couldn’t leave it out! Give them lots of water and lots of room, and you’ll be rolling in tubers! 

Seeds to Start Indoors

Certain longer season crops need to be started indoors ahead of time. With just a few seed starting supplies and a basic understanding of starting seeds, you can grow your own! No time? Fear not, these crops can be easily found towards the end of spring at your local hardware store, or at Sow True Seed’s Garden Shop, as plant starts that are ready to go in the ground! 

The following crops are in the Solanaceae family. They are originally South American, warm season crops. But species in this family, also known as nightshades, have adapted to grow in all kinds of climates! For agricultural purposes, they’re all warm season crops and cannot be planted out until all danger of frost has passed.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes need a long season in order to mature. That’s part of the reason why we start them indoors so early in the spring! By the time we plant them out, when it’s safe, there’s enough time left in the growing season for the tomatoes to produce plenty of fruit! When you start your tomato seeds will depend on how long your growing season is, but here in zone seven, we usually start tomato seeds during the first week of March! 

Peppers

Peppers, similarly, need to be started ahead of time for the same reason as tomatoes. New gardeners tend to have an easier time growing hot peppers than they do sweet peppers. Whatever your vision, trying a wide variety of peppers is what makes this crop fun! 

Eggplant

Eggplant parmesan anyone? This crop comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Our best tips for growing eggplant is to start your seeds inside, and when you transplant them, keep them covered with row cover until they start flowering. Eggplants are vulnerable to quite a few pests. This will help them get established, so they’re stronger when it comes time to produce fruit!

Ground Cherries

Ground cherries are Solanaceous plants that grow in husks, and they’re vigorous growers and producers. So much so, that gardeners report having plenty of volunteer ground cherries the year after growing them that mature enough to produce fruit, even though they weren’t started indoors! Pretty amazing. Either way, we do recommend starting them inside - at least your first year! 

Tomatillos

The same way ground cherries grow in husks, so do tomatillos! Tomatillos are notably more savory, and larger, than ground cherries - perfect for a salsa verde, or salsa violeta if you’re using purple tomatillos. 

Cover Cropping in Summer

Looking to scale back your garden for a season? Or is your soil just really depleted? Cover cropping in summer is a great way to preserve and strengthen your soil quality even when you’re not growing crops in it. Integrating cover crops into your garden plan can result in healthier soil and less pest and weed pressure. 

Why Cover Crop

Cover crop is the umbrella term for plants that are used not exclusively for harvest or ornamental purposes, but mainly for the benefits they offer to the soils. Cover crops can add nutrients back into the soil, prevent erosion, protect microorganisms, retain moisture, and reduce weed pressure. Cover cropping is like growing your own compost in your very own garden bed! 

What To Plant

There are different cover crops that should be planted at different times of year. Summer cover crops can be selected based on their benefits, how fast they mature, or what kind of pollinators they benefit. Cover crops work best in conjunction with each other, so these are some of our favorites to mix together for summer planting.

Buckwheat

Buckwheat is a very fast growing cover crop. It matures in just six to eight weeks in warm weather. This is a great choice for holding down top soil or building some biomass when there is a short gap in between plantings. 

Oilseed Sunflower

Want to grow a field of sunflowers? This is for you! They produce a ton of biomass - making for great organic matter - and can even help reduce certain pests. Not to mention, the seeds support your local birds or can be pressed for oil!

Alfalfa

This beautiful legume is nitrogen-fixing and very cold hardy. Alfalfa is a great option to get established in your garden in the spring and allow it to do its thing in your garden beds all summer long. 

Summer Cover Mix

This diverse mix of Summer cover crops can improve soil health and attract pollinators. You’ll be able to harvest cut flowers from it through the summer and watch it die back in the fall when the frost comes. 

Flowers for Summer Planting

We covered a few of our favorite flowers and herbs for summer planting. However, if you’re really a flower fiend, here are a few more ideas! These flowers can be direct seeded easily. 

Cosmos 

These wispy and ethereal flowers grow tall and come in a range of colors. Cosmos are quite drought tolerant and offer whimsy to any cottage garden. 

Zinnias

In our opinion, zinnias are the most iconic summer flower. The bright colors and cheery shapes are just the perfect backdrop to a long day of working the garden. And you can treat yourself to a fresh cute bouquet on your way inside. 

Bachelor Button

A tall, brilliant blue flower that’s easy to grow just about anywhere? Done deal! Bachelor Buttons are just charming and abundant. They look great growing in the garden, fresh cut in a bouquet, or dried.

Borage

This small but bright bloom grows on stately, fuzzy-looking plants. Borage readily reseeds and will delight any gardener. The piercing periwinkle blooms are edible and taste lightly of cucumber! 

Spilanthes 

The multi-colored pom pom heads look like little cartoons in the garden! Also known as Toothache Cress, spilanthes historically have medicinal uses as well. Eating the flowers has a numbing effect on the mouth - kind of fun! 

Get Growing

Ready to start planting? Sow True Seed has everything you need for your summer garden from seeds to supplies to support you from planning to harvest.

	Article Written by: Hannah Gibbons
	About the Author: Hannah Gibbons, an employee at Sow True Seed since 2020, has over a decade of experience in the agricultural industry. Their passion for environmental education and regenerative agriculture has been the cornerstone of their work, aimed at making gardening accessible to all.