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

What to do with Broccoli in the Summer?

That is what I did this past week is pick a single broccoli head.  I wasn’t sure if broccoli was going to last this long since it is made for the cooler fall months.  Although I grow a hybrid which is made for warmer temperatures and I want to see how far I can push it before it starts to flower and no longer produces large pieces of broccoli. 



I picked another two pounds of peas this evening and this will make it only the second harvest of peas for the season.  Flowers are starting to dwindle and it looks like it might be the end for them this year, but with the right nutrients they can continue growing with even more flowers hopefully. 



Strawberries are definitely done for the season and all that is left is dealing with the runners that come from all the plants.  If you don’t control them they can go wild and start planting new plants in all directions.  I will take some of them and put one in between all the plants that I have right now.  This should increase the amount of strawberry plants from 30 to 50 or more.

Blueberries are not that far behind and it should be harvesting time in the month of July.  I usually start picking them at the end of June, but it looks like this year that is not going to happen.  They are beginning to turn, but they still have some time before they are blue enough for picking and eating.

I wouldn’t mind starting to pick my lettuce this week.  Some of the plants are not ready, but my king crimson red lettuce is about time for them to be picked.  I don’t like picking plants all at once and instead pick leaves here and there.  I find I can get more out of a plant if I leave them in the ground and only pick leaves when they continue producing them.

A Look at My Garden Progress and First Pea Harvest

I just wanted to get you up to speed with what has been going on in the garden for this season.   I actually picked the first harvest of strawberries last week and had another harvest a couple of days ago.  It looks like only two harvests will come from these plants, but I will be adding many more plants this year for more berries next season.

Today was a good day because I had a second harvest from my pea plants.  This was just the first harvest from my pea plants and it was a small, but successful one.  Although there were not many that were ready for harvesting there still was enough to get a small yield.  I would say that this will last just one meal.  There are plenty of more peas on the plants which I plan on picking in the coming days.



Blueberries are looking good and I can’t wait to start picking them which happens at the end of this month.  July is when I get the bulk of these berries, but getting a little early would definitely be small taste of what is to come hopefully.



If I were to take a guess I would say that the next harvest will come from my lettuce plants.  Many of them are ready for picking and cutting, but I have held off for the moment.  My king crimson red lettuce is the best out of all of them for the moment.  I do have green lettuce that looks good as well and even a broccoli plant that is producing a head.  I would say real soon I will be cutting many of the leaves from my lettuce plants.



I also just wanted to mention my tomatoes have flowers on them and should be seeing tomatoes coming from them real soon.  I have staked them and all I need to do is tie my plants to the stakes to prevent them from falling over.  I will have to do this sometime this week at the latest or at least before tomatoes start to come through.