The Zucchini Harvesting Season has Begun

That is right the time for harvesting zucchini has started and that is what I did this past weekend.  They always grow much faster than you would think, but as long as they get bigger each day it was only a matter of time before I picked them.  The first one of the season was three pounds and about average in size for my liking.

Now that it is time for harvesting other fruits and vegetables my lettuce season is coming to an end.  The plants lasted a long time and I was able to pick them throughout the Spring and well into the warm and hot summer season. 

Normally when it gets too hot they go to seed and that is pretty much the end.  Before the lettuce season ends I was able to get on more large harvest of iceberg lettuce.  My Ruby glow might have one more harvest in them as well, but I don't think I will be picking as many leaves as previously.  Below are 80 leaves of iceberg lettuce picked recently.

Picking Some More Iceberg Lettuce Leaves

Another day of picking iceberg lettuce which makes this only the second harvest of the season.  I did pick up some Ruby glow lettuce last week and I hope to pick some more of them in the future as well.  Today I only focused on my iceberg lettuce because the leaves were getting quite large and I don't think that they could get any bigger.

Once they reach a certain size I always like to pick them soon before the leaves start to turn brown and are no longer edible.  Luckily with these plants the leaves did not turn brown or go bad and instead they just kept on growing and stayed green for quite awhile.  Nevertheless it was time to pick them and I really want to eat them so I can enjoy the fruits of my labor.

I gathered 72 leaves today which is about the same as the first harvest.  I would normally be disappointed in the amount, but the size of the leaves definitely makes up for the amount.  The size and quality of the leaves easily beats the quantity.  Since they were so big I had to use five containers in order to collect them.

I would say that all the leaves were much bigger than my hand and could easily be double the size.  I was surprised when I started picking them off the plant.  I don't think I had any small leaves from any of the plants that I harvested from today.

You might not be able to see it, but underneath this leaf is my hand.  As you can see these leaves were very large and I can't wait to eat them.










Now that I discussed about my lettuce I picked today I want to let you know that I placed ropes on my bean trellis.  The bean vines should start growing and climbing the ropes that I placed in front of them.  Some of them have started to climb while others are not quite at that stage yet.  In a week or two all my bean plants should be climbing.

Picking Iceberg Lettuce Leaves for the First Time This Season

I finally just started picking my lettuce leaves today and I was able to collect quite a few for the first harvest of 2016.  In total I got 70 leaves from only my iceberg lettuce and my Ruby glow hybrid are not ready yet and I will begin picking those leaves or the whole plant within a couple of weeks or so depending on weather conditions. 

Since it rained yesterday some of the leaves got some dirt on them which is nothing to fret about because I usually wash all the leaves I pick.  Soaking them in water is a good way to remove all the dirt from the leaves if you have never picked lettuce leaves before.

I also decided on taking some pictures of one of my plants just before I started picking leaves from it.  I wanted to see the difference between before harvesting and just after harvesting them.

The plants still look good and I wouldn't be surprised if I get plenty of more harvests from these plants.  I also am looking forward to picking some of my Ruby glow hybrid leaves.  I didn't get to pick them last year and was hoping to pick them this season and see how good they taste compared to iceberg or green lettuce.

The Latest Progress of my Fruit and Vegetable Plants

I didn't want to write a long post and bore you to death, but instead I am going to give a small update on how some of my plants have been doing.  This month will start the garden season with tilling the entire garden, planting seeds of corn, beans and more, and transplanting many plants.  After May I should have everything that I need in the garden.  This includes some seeds that will be planted directly into the garden.

Most of my plants are doing well and I have given updates previously on onions, spinach, and many flowers.  Today I want to share with you all my other plants such as cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, lettuce, and more.  The pictures below are of plants that I have not given an update on this year.

My lettuce plants this season were not doing well outside and it might have been due to the weather.  I didn't think that they would come back at all, but they are now doing very good and I should be placing them outside before I till the entire garden.  As you know I grow both iceberg and the ruby glow hybrid lettuce.

Here are my tomatoes that were one of the first fruits that I started indoors.  They do take some time to grow indoors especially if there is limited amount of sunlight.  These are perfect plants to be grown in greenhouses.  Despite not having a greenhouse they are thriving.

I planted both zucchini and pumpkins which are both squash plants and that is what is pictured below.  Within a couple of weeks this plant is already thriving with several leaves.  I love how fast that these plants grow and how easy it is to care for them.  I hope to place them outside real soon.

The last one I want to show you are my cucumber plants.  They might not look exactly how they should, but once I get some good weather and harden them off I am sure that they will look healthy and vibrant.

Started the Process of Weeding Garden and More Lettuce Harvested

This week has been quite busy especially with all the weeding that needs to be done throughout the entire garden.  The only thing that doesn't need to be weeded is the onions that are in totes because they are all covered with mulch which keeps the weeds out and less work for me.  Luckily with all the rain that we received this week means more weeds in the garden need to be plucked from the ground.

The good thing about getting all this rain is that now I can collect more grass clippings from mowing the lawn which I can then use on plants that cannot compete with many weeds.  Some of the plants that can use mulch would include the onions in the garden or even my corn which have a shallow root system.  I can even use it for my tomatoes that do not like uneven watering and having a mulch to retain water can help that.  It all depends what I will use these grass clippings for.

I also collected some more lettuce leaves that needed picking which came after the rain.  Picking them in the morning is supposed to allow the leaves to create a more crisp and firm leaf and supposed to last long.  I am not sure if this is true, but I did pick over 50 leaves this week.  All of them came from my iceberg lettuce plants.

Two containers full of these leaves was a good amount to collect from about a dozen iceberg plants.  I still have my ruby glow plants that are continuing to grow and I hope to start picking these leaves in the very near future.  I know I have been saying this for awhile, but I want to pick them when the time is right which is quickly approaching.

As usual I had to compare these leaves to my foot in order to show you the average size of these leaves.  They are quite large and at least they are all green as compared to what you can get from the store.

Along with the picking of lettuce weeding was done throughout the entire garden.  This included tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, melons, peppers, beans, and corn.

Here are a few pictures of the weeded plants.