Vegetable Gardening for Beginners: A Simple Guide to Growing Vegetables at Home by McSheehy Jill

Author:McSheehy, Jill [McSheehy, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rockridge Press
Published: 2020-04-06T16:00:00+00:00

Harvesting and Storing Your Produce

You’ve worked hard on planning, planting, and maintaining your garden, and now harvest time is approaching. What to do?

First, you need to know when a vegetable or herb is ready to harvest. Some crops have a short window for optimum harvest—sometimes only one day! Corn, okra, and squash fall into this category. Specifics are listed in the plant profiles in part 2 . The time of day to harvest is also worth considering. Herbs are usually best harvested in the morning after the dew dries off. Vegetables can be harvested any time of day, though I recommend not harvesting when foliage is wet, simply so you can avoid spreading disease via drops of water.

Some crops are easily picked by hand, such as peas, green beans, cantaloupe, some tomatoes, and leafy greens. Grasp the stem with one hand and the vegetable or fruit with the other and snap it off. Others, such as peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, yellow squash, and okra, require cutting the stem just above the fruit with pruning shears or micro-tip pruners. By doing this you’ll avoid damaging the plant. Larger-stemmed vegetables such as zucchini, broccoli, and cabbage are best cut with a knife. Use a trowel to harvest root crops such as carrots, beets, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions. Dig straight down a few inches away from the plant and loosen the soil, being careful not to nick the vegetable underground (if you do, eat it within a few days).

And if you harvest more than you can eat? Most popular preserving options include canning, freezing, and dehydrating. Though these methods of preservation each have a slight learning curve, they are easily grasped.

What to Do at the End of the Growing Season

Toward the end of your growing season, your garden may look worn out. You might be feeling the same! But before you and your garden take a well-deserved winter break, set your garden up for success next season.

Remove all diseased and pest-infested plants. Removing them from the garden reduces the chance of compounding infestation next season.

Feel free to leave nondiseased plants in raised beds or in-ground gardens. Though you might not prefer the aesthetics, leaving some plants can boost productivity next season. Root networks decompose naturally, feeding soil life. Beneficial insects can overwinter in plant debris. Large plants with deep taproots, such as okra, do not budge easily in the fall but will come out with a one-handed tug in the spring.

Cover the soil on raised beds and in-ground gardens. Do not leave your soil bare over the winter. The most nutritious layer of the soil is found in the top few inches, and uncovered soil erodes in heavy winter rains and snow. Add a layer of compost on top to replenish nutrients, or at the very least leave the mulch on top to protect the soil and break down over the winter.

Empty containers, sterilize them, and put them away. Containers left out in the elements over the winter may crack and degrade. Place soil from nondiseased plants in a large bin with a lid.

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