You’ve put in all the work of planting a garden and meticulously cared for it throughout the hot summer months and it’s finally time to reap the benefits of your efforts! It’s that time of year where many of our vegetable gardens are ready to start harvesting. Fresh tomatoes, zucchini, herbs and more make for some great meals in the late summer and early fall months. Check out our tips below and get to harvesting!
Check Your Garden Daily
Once your garden starts to ripen, your plants will go from puny to plentiful pretty quickly. Checking your garden daily allows you to harvest vegetables as they ripen, and also encourages the plants to continue producing more fresh vegetables for you!
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
Have you ever gone out to your zucchini plant and seen zucchini the size of a football? While that may seem like more bang for your buck, many vegetables, like zucchini, are better harvested at a smaller size for better flavor and fewer seeds. However, don’t panic if your zucchini got too big! While overgrown zucchini may not be great for sauteing or eating alone, it can still be shredded and used in things like bread or muffins.
Pinch Your Herbs
One commonly overlooked task is pinching off your herbs. Herbs grow quickly and pinching the tops and buds/flowers off the top of herbs can help produce more stems and leaves, leading to a bushier plant and a bigger harvest. Once many herbs flower and bloom, it can change the flavor of the herb. So, get those buds pinched off before they bloom!
Don’t Expect Perfection
If this is your first harvest season, you’ll probably notice that your vegetables aren’t always the picture-perfect version you see at the grocery store, and that’s OK! You planted a garden for flavor, not pictures. Your vegetables may not look perfect, but as long as they have ripened to the right size and color, they’re good to eat! Don’t wait too long, or it might start to rot before you get to enjoy it!
Check for Problems
During your daily harvesting is a great time to check for problems with your plants. Things like fungus or over and underwatering are easy fixes if you catch them early enough. Even if you see problems you can’t fix like blossom rot or rotting fruit/vegetables, it’s best to pick them and toss them if they are unusable. There’s no point in letting your plant put energy into bearing fruit that you won’t be able to eat. If you have any questions about how to fix any issues you might see, stop by or give us a call at Jolly Lane Greenhouse. We’d be happy to help diagnose the problem and help you correct it!
We love harvest season here at Jolly Lane Greenhouse! If you have any questions about harvesting or caring for your fruits and vegetables through the rest of harvest season, stop by or give us a call and let us help! Of course, if your garden didn’t go as planned this year, we also have fresh fruits and vegetables available at the greenhouse! Check our Facebook page for recent shipments, or just stop by and see us! If all else fails, you can always have a glass of fermented grapes (wine) or wheat and hops (craft beer) at the Garden Bar!