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| Chinese cabbage, "Hilton" |
This is the in-between season in our garden. The spring veggies have wound down and the summer veggies are just starting to fruit. The spring flowers are long gone and the summer lovers are just beginning to bloom.
Garden Harvests
Right now, we are harvesting peas, greens, herbs and onions. Great for cooking, salads and preserving.
We are getting creative in salads since the lettuce and spinach has bolted. We are still using the lower leaves of lettuce and adding in other greens like purple orach, Hilton Chinese cabbage, plantain, chard, cultivated dandelions, New Zealand spinach, celery leaves, arugula, kale and parsley leaves. I like to add snow peas, Dragon's tail radish, tarragon, and chives or chopped onion tops. You can even add sweet clover, purslane, and chickweed for flavor and nutrition. Growing summer salads For fun, you can add edible flowers. Flowers that are edible
Kale and the Chinese cabbage are large enough now to start freezing the leaves. Greens need a quick blanch to keep their flavor in the freezer. Freezing the extras for winter
All the herbs are going strong. Many are large enough now to cut and dry for preserving like tarragon, dill, fennel, coriander, bay and oregano. Harvesting and drying herbs The rest can be used to flavor dishes or make teas. Sage has not yet bloomed, but it will put on lots of lavender blue flowers that the bees and butterflies love. My mother read recently that you can use sage tea to help with hot flashes. You can have up to 5 cups of tea a day. Make your own teas from garden grown herbs
Garden Maintenance
With the spring crops bolting, sprouting broccoli already have seeds ready to re-sow. Spinach is close and so is the lettuce. After flowering, pick the seeds and re-sow or let nature do it for you. I do a combination, letting parsley, dill, fennel, mustard and cilantro self-sow. I harvest the lettuce, spinach and some of the sprouting broccoli to re-sow in pots. Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver
We are getting creative in salads since the lettuce and spinach has bolted. We are still using the lower leaves of lettuce and adding in other greens like purple orach, Hilton Chinese cabbage, plantain, chard, cultivated dandelions, New Zealand spinach, celery leaves, arugula, kale and parsley leaves. I like to add snow peas, Dragon's tail radish, tarragon, and chives or chopped onion tops. You can even add sweet clover, purslane, and chickweed for flavor and nutrition. Growing summer salads For fun, you can add edible flowers. Flowers that are edible
Kale and the Chinese cabbage are large enough now to start freezing the leaves. Greens need a quick blanch to keep their flavor in the freezer. Freezing the extras for winter
All the herbs are going strong. Many are large enough now to cut and dry for preserving like tarragon, dill, fennel, coriander, bay and oregano. Harvesting and drying herbs The rest can be used to flavor dishes or make teas. Sage has not yet bloomed, but it will put on lots of lavender blue flowers that the bees and butterflies love. My mother read recently that you can use sage tea to help with hot flashes. You can have up to 5 cups of tea a day. Make your own teas from garden grown herbs
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| Purple orach, we use as salad greens |
Garden Maintenance
With the spring crops bolting, sprouting broccoli already have seeds ready to re-sow. Spinach is close and so is the lettuce. After flowering, pick the seeds and re-sow or let nature do it for you. I do a combination, letting parsley, dill, fennel, mustard and cilantro self-sow. I harvest the lettuce, spinach and some of the sprouting broccoli to re-sow in pots. Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver
Now is a good time to do a another sowing of lettuce. Be sure to sow seeds of heat tolerant varieties; every three weeks is optimal to be able to have continuous lettuce harvests. Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces
The summer vegetables are just now putting on baby fruits. Summer squash, eggplant and tomatoes all have fruits. They should be ready by the Fourth of July. Winter squash has baby fruits as well, but they aren't harvested until fall. I got a late start on peppers and cucumbers this year. They may delay into mid-July for start of picking.
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| Zucchini plant in bloom |
Garlic is about ready to harvest. Soft neck and hard neck garlic are slightly different in telling you when to harvest. Soft neck garlic is ready to harvest a week after their tops fall over and die off. Hard neck garlic is ready to harvest when about half of their lower leaves have turned brown. Try digging one up and see if the bulb is large and firm. If they are not, just cover back up and try in another week. After pulling, keep in a warm shady spot for 2-3 weeks for the bulbs to harden. Hardening lengthens the storage time. Save the biggest cloves for planting in the fall. Garlic harvest is here!
We are now into summer temps; most days in the upper 80's. The garden will soon need supplemental watering. Summer garden tips For veggies I am growing in pots, I am watering them twice a week now. The best veggie pots are those that have a reservoir in the bottom. This will allow you to probably get away with watering once a week. At some point, I'll remember and take the time to add a reservoir to my existing pots over the winter to cut down on the summer watering time! Decorative container gardening for edibles
The hard part of gardening is over now. There is minor weeding, occasional fertilizing along with watering and keeping an eye out for pests. I have a few more transplants to get into the garden. I will do that before they call for a nice rain. Most of the time from here out is just harvesting, enjoying and preserving. For more tips on preserving the extra, see Preservation garden
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