What's happening in the late May edible garden

Potted lettuce

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Everything is lush and green this time of year.  The edibles are growing quickly.   Salad fixings are in their prime with the summer edibles just getting started.  Herbs are filling out nicely.  By this time of year, we no longer need to purchase produce from the grocery store and can get fresh herbs to add to dishes that make them taste wonderful and are chock full of antioxidants.

The greens we are eating-French sorrel, spinach, dandelion greens, winter cress, arugula, chick weed, sweet clover, celery, Ruby Streaks mustard, sprouting broccoli leaves, many varieties of lettuce and snow peas.  Many are overwintered or volunteers from last year.  I also started different varieties of lettuce and bought a few transplants from the store.  I like to have new lettuces coming on all the time so there is always plenty for salads.

I have many volunteer Red Malabar spinach, Blue Feather lettuce, carrots, sprouting broccoli, tomatoes, basil, zinnias, celosias, hummingbird vine and morning glory popping up all over the garden. I'll dig the tomatoes to give away.  I'll move the rest to where I want them and any not used I'll feed to the chickens.

Herbs to add to dishes and salads-garlic chives, garden chives, oregano, thyme, horseradish, Egyptian walking onions, tarragon, sage, young garlic, marjoram.  All are perennials or self-sowers so they come back year after year.  The rosemary transplant is doing well that I planted earlier in the spring along with the variegated sage and a variety of lavenders.

The fruits-wild strawberries, cultivated strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, aronia, goji berry bushes and blueberries all are growing well.  We have had a few hybrid strawberries and there are lots of wild strawberry fruits.  I've had 2 ripe blueberries off the potted blueberries I transplanted in the fall.  The wild blackberries have been flowering and have some green fruits forming.  The aronia bush has lots of green berries.

The flowers that are blooming-spiderwort, roses, hydrangeas, Heavenly Blue morning glory, zinnias, Sweet William, marigolds and petunias.  The herbs and veggies going to seed-yellow flowers of the sprouting broccoli, mustard and cress, yellow dandelion flowers, lavender chive flowers, yellow chard flowers and spinach.  Soon, the beautiful purple flowers of sage, the white flowers of thyme, and the white garlic chive flowers.  All veggie and herb flowers are edible.  A fun way to add flavor and beauty to salads or other dishes.

The overwintering and early spring planted lettuce is in full bolt so soon there will be the white, yellow and blue flowers from the different kinds of lettuce.  The overwintered carrots have bolted and have beautiful white flowers resembling Queen Ann's Lace, which are in the same family, that bees love.

The white and pink peonies, irises and lilacs have already come and gone.

This week, one of melon seeds sprouted.  I hope the rest come up this week with the warm and sunny weather forecasted.  Most of the bean, cucumber and squash seeds have sprouted.

It is a good idea to wait 10 days after planting new plants before you give them much fertilizer.  I'll add a diluted liquid fertilizer to all that have their first set of true leaves in the next week.  I fertilized all the other vegetables in the pots and garden bed as it has been a month and many are flowering and fruiting.

It's okay to just be getting started in the edible garden with the summer lovers.  You can plant a summer garden into June and still have a nice harvest.

Volunteer Red Malabar spinach and Chinese Multicolor amaranth

I have been harvesting the greens by taking only the outer leaves so that the plants will continue to grow.  By harvesting, it stimulates the plant to grow even more leaves.  If you have extra greens, besides lettuce, you can blanch and freeze them.  I still have plenty left in the freezer.  Preservation garden

For lettuce, it is a good idea to do succession sowing as they bolt quickly when it gets warm and to start heat tolerant varieties this time of year.  If you start seeds every 2-3 weeks, it keeps you in lettuce all the way until winter.   I have also moved to using greens that stay sweet during the dog days of summer.  The greens I have found so far that are great lettuce and spinach substitutes in salads are Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, Perpetual Spinach chard, Chinese Multicolored amaranth, all colors of orach, Chinese Hilton cabbage (doubles as a great wrap, too), sprouting broccoli.  Keep salads going all summer long. 

I overwintered a couple of pepper plants and New Zealand spinach in the house.  One of the pepper plants has fruits on it and the other one hasn't flowered yet.  The New Zealand spinach is back outside and doing great.  We use their leaves just like spinach in salads.  They are heat lovers with leaves that stay sweet all summer; a great spinach substitute.