Some plants are ready to harvest, but there's still much you can plant in your garden in many regions of the United States.

Odds are good you’ve already transplanted your tomatoes and peppers and harvested lettuce or other greens to serve up fresh for dinner. Yes, your garden has sprung to life, but if you’re interested in more than just weeding and watering, plenty of crops are still ripe for planting in many regions of the United States.

June is the month to sow heat-loving crops, including beets, carrots, corn, cucumbers, okra, summer squash, and watermelons. Just don’t forget both to enrich your soil with compost before you plant those crops and to keep your soil moist once your plants are in the ground. Dry soil will impede quick and even growth, which is essential for reaping a good harvest.

So take inventory of what you have already sown—and ponder what else you might like to grow, eat, and even share. No matter what you choose to plant, remember that when you grow historic and heirloom varieties, you are helping to preserve our garden heritage.

Not sure what to order? Try these five varieties from Seed Savers Exchange:

Colorful rings make the Chioggia Beet as eye-catching as it is delicious.

Beet, Chioggia
This pre-1840 Italian historic variety takes its name from a fishing town near Venice. Its eye-catching sweet flesh is ideal for both fresh eating and pickling.

Carrot, St. Valery
In 1924 James Vick and Sons Company of Rochester, New York, described this productive, sweet variety as “the best and most handsome main crop carrot.”

Cucumber, Jelly Melon
With origins in semi-arid Africa, this unique variety boasts succulent greenish-gold flesh with a flavor reminiscent of pomegranate and citrus.

Okra, Clemson Spineless
This uniform, vigorous 1939 All-America Selections winner remains the most popular open-pollinated variety of okra on the market.

The moderately sweet Chris Cross Watermelon was Iowa-born.

Watermelon, Chris Cross
And we end the list with a variety made (almost) straight south from Seed Savers Exchange in Montrose, Iowa. This moderately sweet family heirloom draws its name from a cross between the Hawkesbury and Dixie Queen watermelons made by a Montrose farmer named (you guessed it!) Chris in 1950.

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