Posted by Sidra Forman on Thu, May 28, 2009
I've been writing about my early spring planting, and although it's still too early to harvest many things, we have been able to enjoy a few items from the garden already.
We've had a continuous supply of salad greens since mid-March, for example. Up until this point, it has been arugula and other tender greens that thrive with cool nights and mild days. As we pick the greens, we replace with new lettuce seeds, most recently with heat-tolerant greens, such as special summer mixes, chard, wild arugula and pursalane. We continue to enjoy salads daily and plan to until the first freeze. Tonight for dinner, for instance, I plan to roast some chard. The leaves are still
small but with chard, you can cut it and it will grow back on the same
plants, often for two years in a row.
Last week we had our first homegrown strawberries of the season. Although the yield was quite small—six berries to be exact—they were absolutely delicious and my daughter was excited to see that the plants we had planted several years ago were going to bear berries again. Hopefully we'll get more in the next few weeks.
This weekend, we pulled up a carrot to check the progress and found that it was still quite small—probably another few weeks before they're ready to eat. The broccoli will be picked sometime this week.
Last week we also planted some of the seeds that need to be planted in warm soil, such as cucumbers, eggplant and string beans. I expect to see sprouts from these new plantings within the next week or so. Can't wait to try some new recipes and dishes once they're ready!
For more tips on growing your own produce and eating healthfully, check out TheBestLife.com.