{"id":21883,"date":"2025-06-23T09:54:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T13:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?p=21883"},"modified":"2025-06-23T09:54:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T13:54:27","slug":"welcome-the-summer-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome the Summer Solstice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first &#8220;official&#8221; day of summer. The word &#8220;solstice&#8221; comes from the Latin <em>solstitium<\/em>, meaning &#8220;sun stands still.&#8221; The summer solstice occurs at the point in Earth&#8217;s orbit when the sun shines most directly on the northern hemisphere. Astronomers consider this the beginning of Summer in the northern hemisphere. While it marks the start of summer in the north, in the southern hemisphere, where sunlight is at its lowest angle, it&#8217;s the beginning of winter.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">What Summer Means for Your Garden<\/h3>\n<p>This is the time of year for us to focus on maintaining our gardens. It&#8217;s the time to focus on keeping our gardens weeded, watered, and fertilized, as well as enjoying the first of the season&#8217;s summer veggies, like green beans, cucumbers and squash, maybe even a few tomatoes.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Saying Goodby to Spring Veggies<\/h3>\n<p>It&#8217;s also the time to get ready to say goodbye to most of your spring veggies like lettuce, broccoli, kale, etc. Once the heat makes them bolt, or go to seed, that&#8217;s it for them. However, you can plant them again late summer for fall.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">How to Fertilize Those Summer Plants<\/h3>\n<p>Now is the time to double-check your fertilizer and make sure you&#8217;re using the correct fertilizer for your plants. Flowers, fruits, and vegetables need a fertilizer where the middle number (phosphorus) is higher than the first number, which is nitrogen.<\/p>\n<p>Nitrogen is for foliage growth\u2014this would be the one for your lettuce, kale, collards, etc. Most of our summer veggies, however, have to bloom in order to set fruit so a fertilizer for blooming plants is better. I use <strong>Espoma Organic&#8217;s Tomato-tone<\/strong>. The numbers are 3-4-6. Yes, it says Tomato-tone but you can also use it on cucumbers, squash, beans, etc.\u00a0 Follow the directions on the package and do exactly what they say. NEVER overfeed. If you overfeed you can actually burn the roots and kill your plant.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Get After Weeds and Water Properly<\/h3>\n<p>Definitely stay on top of your weeding. Long sunny days and warm temperatures make weeds grow faster. Put off weeding even a week and they can double in size.<\/p>\n<p>Make sure when you water, you water correctly. A good deep watering every few days is better than a light sprinkle every day. That light sprinkle does not encourage the roots to grow bigger and deeper. That good deep watering does. Also, a garden hose directed at the roots or a soaker hose is way better than a sprinkler that gets the foliage wet and can invite powdery mildew to move in.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">And Most Important&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>Finally, ENJOY that produce. Fresh produce is WAY better than buying produce that was grown in California ten days ago.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\">To read more posts from Bonnie, visit our blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/meadowsfarms.com\/hours-locations\/big-great-greenhouse-in-richmond-virginia\/\">Return to the Great Big Greenhouse homepage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first &#8220;official&#8221; day of summer. The word &#8220;solstice&#8221; comes from the Latin solstitium, meaning &#8220;sun stands still.&#8221; The summer solstice occurs at the point in Earth&#8217;s orbit when the sun shines most directly on the northern hemisphere. Astronomers consider this the &#8230; <a title=\"Welcome the Summer Solstice\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\" aria-label=\"More on Welcome the Summer Solstice\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bonnies-garden","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Welcome the Summer Solstice - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first &quot;official&quot; day of summer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome the Summer Solstice - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first &quot;official&quot; day of summer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-23T13:54:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bonnie Pega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bonnie Pega\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/165aa856045298541985d8783e9b9aac\"},\"headline\":\"Welcome the Summer Solstice\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-23T13:54:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\"},\"wordCount\":488,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Bonnie's Garden\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\",\"name\":\"Welcome the Summer Solstice - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-23T13:54:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first \\\"official\\\" day of summer.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667,\"caption\":\"It's the official first day of summer! Summer solstice is here\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Welcome the Summer Solstice\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\",\"description\":\"The plants you expect. The people you know. The experience you\u2019ll remember.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":315,\"caption\":\"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/165aa856045298541985d8783e9b9aac\",\"name\":\"Bonnie Pega\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Welcome the Summer Solstice - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","description":"This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first \"official\" day of summer.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Welcome the Summer Solstice - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","og_description":"This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first \"official\" day of summer.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/","og_site_name":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","article_published_time":"2025-06-23T13:54:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Bonnie Pega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/"},"author":{"name":"Bonnie Pega","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/165aa856045298541985d8783e9b9aac"},"headline":"Welcome the Summer Solstice","datePublished":"2025-06-23T13:54:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/"},"wordCount":488,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg","articleSection":["Bonnie's Garden"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/","name":"Welcome the Summer Solstice - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-06-23T13:54:27+00:00","description":"This past Friday was the Summer Solstice\u2014the longest day of the year and the first \"official\" day of summer.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/summer-solstice.jpeg","width":1000,"height":667,"caption":"It's the official first day of summer! Summer solstice is here"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/welcome-the-summer-solstice\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Welcome the Summer Solstice"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/","name":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","description":"The plants you expect. The people you know. The experience you\u2019ll remember.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#organization","name":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GBGH-logo.png","width":400,"height":315,"caption":"The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/165aa856045298541985d8783e9b9aac","name":"Bonnie Pega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21883"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21885,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21883\/revisions\/21885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}