Time for Harvesting Many Spring Crops

It is that time of the year when spring crops are ready for harvesting which include radishes, lettuce, pea pods, broccoli, and soon to be harvested potatoes.  These are all cool weather crops but are best harvested when the weather gets just a little bit warmer.  You don’t want to pick them in very hot weather because they will most likely start to bolt and no longer be edible.  May to June is the perfect months to harvest these kinds of vegetables.

Let’s start off with lettuce which is usually the first plant to be harvested right next to radishes.  I have had just one harvest so far, but I know there is plenty more lettuce in the garden.  I like to space out harvests especially if I have many lettuce plants.  There is only so much I can store in the fridge and so much I can eat each day.  This way we have plenty of time to eat it without being overloaded with lettuce.
 

Radishes are also another springtime vegetable that is great to have through the cool weather months.  I grew about a half a row this season planting two different kinds of radishes.  One of them was supposed to be a traditional radish while the other was supposed to be much larger.  The key to radishes is to keep them covered with dirt and don’t forget to water them otherwise they will crack and possible rot in the ground.  I was able to get some good sized radishes from this harvest which I have been enjoying in many salads this year.

Last but not least comes my strawberries.  They had been growing this entire season and when they started producing many flowers I was excited to starting picking and enjoying them.  Since these are June bearing strawberries it is a good bet that they will fully ripen in the month of June.  This is the first good harvest I got from them since I started planting them years ago.  It takes a few years before you get a bountiful harvest from these plants

Running out of Time Planting Seeds into the Garden

It looks like time is starting to run out and I only have a couple of weeks to get all my plants and seeds into the ground.  Weather and other factors have prevented me from getting everything in on time and this can happen from time to time.  I will just have to work as fast as possible in order to get everything done before the month is over.

I do have my spring crops in the ground which I placed in the garden about a month ago and they are thriving with this cooler weather.  I am hoping to start picking the leaves off my lettuce real soon because they are growing really good.  Both my green and red plants are just about ready for harvesting which may be done by this week.

Even though I haven’t picked any lettuce leaves I did pick some of my strawberries that were ripe enough to eat.  I picked about four pounds worth of strawberries which is large for a first harvest of these berries.  I am hoping to get another harvest from these plants within the next week or so, then I can start focusing more on plants that need to be transplanted right away.

 Along with transplants there are some seeds that must be planted in the garden including beans, carrots, and corn.  I have planted my corn already and they have been sprouting and I have thinned them out this week.  Now I just need to till some more of the garden and get my beans into the ground before planting any other seeds.  My pole beans need a little bit more time to grow and produce beans and that is why I like planting them in May rather than June.