By JEFF LOWENFELS
One of many greatest errors gardeners make isn't beginning to harvest their vegetable gardens early sufficient.
You don’t have to attend till the announcement of an impending frost earlier than reaping what you've sown. Vegetable gardens ought to be harvested over an extended time period beginning as early as late spring.
By now, you need to be in full harvest mode, gathering the fruits (if you'll) of getting a vegetable backyard. In case you do the chore correctly, you should have an extended season of contemporary produce.
Begin with thinnings. All crops want room to totally develop, so consuming the thinned crops is the primary of the backyard’s harvest. Thinning begins in spring, but it surely ought to proceed as crops develop.
Carrots, beets, radishes and leafy lettuces comparable to romaine and arugula, for instance, have to be thinned or they are going to be stunted. Collards, turnips and even Brussels sprouts must be thinned, too.
Many new gardeners are scared to skinny out seedlings. How a lot house to supply? Nicely, you know the way large these crops are while you purchase them on the grocery store. In the end, there ought to be sufficient room between your seedlings for them to succeed in that measurement.
Ah, however don’t skinny abruptly. The trick is to offer seedlings an inch or so between one another to start out. Then skinny a number of extra instances because the crops develop. This fashion you get greater and thus extra thinnings to eat.
Subsequent, some greens must be harvested earlier than they get too mature and cease producing. Snap peas, snow peas and inexperienced beans, for instance, gradual after which cease flowering if their pods get too outdated. So don’t let that occur. Frequently harvest younger pods, and crops will proceed flowering.
If you'd like precise peas as an alternative of pods, cease harvesting just a few weeks earlier than the tip of the season, or dedicate just a few crops to it.
Then there are the “grow-back” crops. These are greens that may produce a brand new crop after the earlier one has been harvested.
There are two varieties. The primary are these greens you don’t wish to flower, as a result of as soon as they do, they consider seed growth and the harvest ends. Mustard greens, arugula, garlic chives, romaine lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard are on this group. They are often frequently harvested by rigorously slicing leaves again so to not injury the crown. Because the plant grows again, there's new harvestable materials.
The second group of grow-back crops requires flowering, however slicing again the flowers encourages new ones to develop.
Broccoli is the prime instance. Lower the flowers off the primary stalk (earlier than they open, ideally), however let the plant proceed to develop. New flowers will seem, and you may harvest these the identical means till the tip of the season. Equally, indeterminate tomatoes, those that vine, will proceed to supply higher in case you harvest tomatoes as they mature. The plant is inspired to develop new flowers and thus tomatoes.
Lastly, there are these crops that merely can’t wait till the tip of the season to be harvested. Kohlrabi and radish develop into pulpy in the event that they get too mature. Cucumbers can develop into bitter.
You understand how large a vegetable is meant to be. Harvest yours after they attain that measurement, even whether it is in the course of the season.
I'm betting there's something in your backyard that wants harvesting proper now. Personally, I at all times have a pointy knife and a basket with me after I exit to water and fuss round in ours. Isn’t this what the backyard is for?
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Jeff Lowenfels writes commonly about gardening for The Related Press. His books embrace “Teaming With Microbes,” “Teaming With Fungi,” “Teaming With Vitamins” and the upcoming “Teaming With Micro organism” (Timber Press, September 2022). He could be reached at jeff@gardener.com.