Well, it’s mid-spring in the garden, and everything should be thriving. We’ve had gorgeous weather, and it should be harvest time for most garden vegetables. Here are some harvesting tips and tricks, even when things don’t quite go your way in the garden.
In the beginning of the spring, the weather is still hot and cold, on and off. The up-and-down weather can cause the plants to stall a little bit in the beginning of the season. In order to kickstart my tomatoes and peppers, I like to harvest them while they’re still green. Wait until the tomatoes are full-sized, then they can be harvested and stored on the countertop. Green tomatoes will naturally ripen within two weeks for a continuous supply of tomatoes. Remember to never put the tomatoes in the refrigerator or they will get grainy and mushy.
The full-sized peppers that are harvested green will not continue to ripen on the countertop, so they can just be eaten as green bell peppers. Removing these early veggies from both plants will allow the plants to refocus the energy inward and start ripening the next round of vegetables more quickly, once the weather straightens out.
When harvesting herbs, I just give it a haircut; I hold my fingers across as if they were a pair of scissors and then use my scissors to cut across the other way. Don’t harvest more than 50% of your herbs at one time. This will give them the chance to bounce back before your next harvest.
When harvesting cucumbers, squash, and zucchini, allow the vegetable to grow between five and eight inches long. Then, just clip the vegetable at the base of the stem. Try not to leave the bare stem behind as it will not grow into anything else. Be sure to wear your gloves because squash, zucchini, and cucumbers all have spiky thorns.
When harvesting eggplant, allow the eggplant to get between six to nine inches in length. When the eggplant is ready to be harvested, it will change from hard to slightly soft to the touch and from a dull surface to a shiny surface.
Just remember that when a new plant starts producing for the first time, the first veggies can look a little strange or small. This is normal! It is kind of like the plant has to figure out what to do in the first round, and then once you remove that round of vegetables, the next vegetables will come in perfectly.
Beneficial Insects:
We talk about beneficial insects in the garden, but are any of them really beneficial? Take the spider, for example. It helps by eating other bugs like aphids that can infest vegetable plants. But, is the spider really beneficial if it bites you?
Then, there are ants that come into the garden and eat aphids as well. However, the same ants can also eat the stem or stock of a vegetable plant and cause severe damage, and they can also bite you.
Then, of course, there are ladybugs and lizards. They both munch on non-beneficial insects in the garden. Ladybugs are always a friend to the garden because not only do they help out, they’re just so cute!
These beneficial insects really do help more than they harm anything, so be sure that when you’re treating your garden, you use organic, non-chemical pest treatments that are not harmful to beneficial insects, like neem oil. Always use as directed.
Happy gardening!
