Weekly garden maintenance mid-May :)

Howdy gardeners! Sorry about last week. She slipped me by! Looks like we are just about ready to start harvesting (if you haven’t already!) Those of you who got started late-April should be seeing your first radishes, some spinach, and definitely some nice lettuce ready to eat this week. For those who got started early-May, you may have a little longer to wait. You can harvest your vegetables whenever they are big enough to your liking. To check the size of your radishes, gently investigate around the root with your finger. You should be able to judge if your radish is big enough to eat. Some of the radishes will not grow a round root at all. It is just luck of the draw. The radish greens are edible as well – delicious sautéed in butter with some salt, pepper and a splash of lemon juice. Spinach, lettuce and roquette can be harvested as “cut-and-come-again” crops. This means you cut the entire plant about one inch above the ground and the plant will grow again and keep producing! You can also harvest individual leaves. I suggest taking your salad bowl out to the garden and filling it with an assortment of delicious greens. Your kale and chard may also be ready. These you should harvest by cutting the big outer leaves and leave the smaller ones in the middle to keep growing. Reminders:

  1. Keep watering every couple of days. Water deeply rather than often.
  2. Keep up with some kind of spicy animal deterrent such as cayenne pepper, chilli flakes etc. Fish emulsion and blood meal and human or dog hair also keep critters away.
  3. Keep on thinning! Your carrots should be coming up. There will probably be a couple of sprouts per spot. Take some scissors and cut all but the strongest one.

*thinning is very important* Each vegetable needs it’s allotted space to grow. Enjoy your veggies! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

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