Harvesting of Spinach for 2015 Completed Today

Although I picked my spinach leaves today I still have plenty of more harvests to come.  I pick my spinach leaves at intervals rather than all at once.  I find that I can enjoy my spinach leaves for so much longer and I won't be overwhelmed with all the leaves that I collect. 

This is a little bit different than with lettuce because with lettuce you can choose to pick them all at once or at intervals.  It is all your preference and what type of lettuce you grew as well.

I am going to have some of my spinach for dinner tonight and throw them in a salad that I am going to make.  I took some off the plants before picking them in order to make sure that they were ready and were not bitter.  This can happen with leafy plants such as lettuce, celery, and even spinach.  They were not bitter and were not going to get any bigger so I picked them today.

So far the plants are looking good and I hope to continue picking them throughout the season as long as they don't get any insect or animal pests attacking them.

My Onions and Spinach are Growing Like They Should

Every gardener likes to see positive results from their work that they have put into this hobby.  It is always a sigh of relief when you are not experiencing any difficulties such as diseases, pests problems, or any other type of situation that can occur.  For the most part my onions and spinach leaves are doing quite well.

Even though the temperature has risen over the past week or so they are still thriving with dark green leaves.  A week ago I added some wood ash around my plants to see what would happen when I put them around the weakest plants.  So far the wood ash has proven to be a good supplement for these plants.

A week ago not all the onion bulbs were growing yet.  Only some of them have been sprouting and growing stems.  Now that they have had time to sprout and with the past rain that we received they have been sprouting on a consistent basis.  I would say at least 99% of them have begun to grow stems while only a couple have not.  This is the usual percentage that you should be getting when planting onion bulbs.

As you know I also added some pelleted lime to the onions that will last throughout the rest of their season.  I added them before the rain came because this type of lime is activated whenever rain or water is placed on these pellets.  You can see below that they turned into a fine powder that will be absorbed slowly by all the plants.

Most of the totes look like this but I am not worried because when I start watering them the lime will be pushed down into the soil where the roots can use it.

Harvesting of Spinach Leaves Has Begun

If you thought that I forget about my spinach plants, then you though wrong because I have been keeping an eye on them for the right time for harvesting.  I took a look at them recently and I saw that many of the outer leaves have stopped growing.  This is the first sign that I look for when it is time to cut them as soon as possible.

I love eating larger spinach leaves rather than cutting them when they are small.  I think they are more healthier when they are at their peak size and color.  This is just my own opinion, but this is exactly what I do when it comes to picking spinach leaves.

Now that I have picked my first spinach leaves I find that it is a good idea to weed around the plants and get the soil loosened.  This provides the plant with air that it had been restricted from due to the dirt becoming compacted.

I also wanted to give them some lime that I thought would be necessary to facilitate delicious foliage for the rest of the season.  I also decided on using some wood ash I had collected this year and give it to five of my plants.  This is used by most gardeners and I thought that it might be a good way to help them stay healthy and strong throughout the rest of the season.

Here is what the soil should look like if you have weeded them properly.