Planting and Get Harvest in Your Garden
2009-11-24

Like many gardeners, I’m more of a planter than a picker. I’d rather poke bean seeds into the ground than gather my 10th basket of squash, which leads to trouble when time gets tight in midsummer. Sound familiar? You can use the guidelines below to keep your garden working efficiently on days when time is short but your task list is long.

Harvest What’s Ready

Harvesting what’s ready should always be your top priority. But we’ve all slipped at least once: We get so busy planting, and then taking care of new plantings, that we miss harvesting the world’s finest lettuce at its peak. Make harvesting what’s ready your top priority.

To streamline the harvesting process, think in terms of strategic staging. Pick in the morning, and stash your goodies in a shady spot to keep them cool. When you have a lot to gather, make ice pancakes by freezing water in flat sandwich bags, then layer them among your harvested veggies in a portable insulated cooler. This trick can save a lot of trips back and forth to the refrigerator.