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Archive for the Vegetable Patch department

Autumn is a time for harvesting, planting and preparing your vegetable garden

September 5, 2023 • Leave a Comment

by Mary Gerstenberger

Autumn in the vegetable patch is a busy time. Cold-sensitive veggies such as tomatoes and peppers need to be harvested before first frost, or to extend their season, cover them with a sheet or tarp on nights when a frost is predicted. Cold tolerant plants such as radishes and lettuce can still be planted. Late in September is the time to plant garlic cloves for next year’s harvest. More importantly, autumn is the time when garden cleanup as well as garden preparation begins.

Good garden cleanup is fundamental to having a healthy garden next year. Many types of fungal spores as well as insects can overwinter in the leaf litter and soil. Plants that showed signs of disease should be removed from the garden along with any plant debris around them. Healthy plant remains can be composted or turned back into the soil to return their nutrients to the garden.

The cleanup we do in the fall is the first step in preparing the spring garden. Not only can the remains of our vegetable plants be dug into the garden, but autumn leaves and grass clippings as well. These help provide organic matter, which is important to good soil structure and healthy plants. Another way to provide organic matter and nutrients is to plant a cover crop such as oats or annual rye that can be turned into the soil in the spring. A layer of compost can be spread over or tilled into the garden as another option to enrich and improve the soil.

After cleanup, the second step in preparing the garden is to plan ahead. Take note of where you planted your different vegetables this year so you can plan to rotate them to a new spot next year. Planting closely related crops in the same part of the garden each year can lead to recurring problems with plant diseases as well as insect issues.

Autumn can be a hectic time in the garden as we harvest our vegetables and work at extending the growing season. However, with a little extra effort now, we can look forward to a quicker, better start to our garden in the spring.

Mary Gerstenberger was the Consumer Horticulture Coordinator at the Michigan State University Extension in Macomb County, MI. For vegetable and gardening information from MSU, visit www.migarden.msu.edu.

Call the toll-free Michigan State University Lawn and Garden Hotline at 888-678-3464 for answers to your gardening questions.

ELSEWHERE: Why test soil in the fall?

Growing vegetables in containers

April 18, 2023 • Leave a Comment

by Jeff Ball

Many homeowners live in a situation where there is insufficient space for even a small veggie patch. Those folks should consider growing vegetables in containers that can be placed almost anywhere as long as they get 8 hours of full sun.

Containers can be used to grow all the salad ingredients: lettuce, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes. Other popular vegetables enjoyed by most everyone are also easily grown in containers, including green beans, beets, Swiss chard and zucchini squash, just to name a few.

There are really just three criteria for the container used to grow vegetables: It must have plenty of drainage holes in the bottom, it must be at least 12 inches deep (deeper is better), and there should never be real soil used as a growing medium. All containers should use a soilless potting mix because it has no weed seeds, carries no disease spores, and drains very well. A good potting mix can be used for years, although it is wise to renew it each spring with some fresh compost and additional potting mix.

Finding containers for growing vegetables is not that difficult. Sometimes you can find some that do the job and are free for the asking. Just keep your eye out. I once spotted lots of used plastic barrels at a food processing facility. Sure enough, they were happy to get rid of them. I got four barrels, cut them in half with a saber saw and drilled a dozen holes in the bottom of each for drainage. That gave me eight large containers that I filled with potting soil and grew a nice harvest of potatoes.

A common container that is effective, but not free, is a whiskey barrel cut in half and sold in many garden centers. Again, you need to drill additional drainage holes, but because of their size, you can grow almost any vegetable in those devices. Tomatoes do especially well because there is so much space for their rather large root systems.

Years ago, I visited a serious vegetable gardener who lived in a row house. These connected houses have tiny front yards and often no backyard. He had a significant garden growing in over 50 plastic milk crates which he had appropriated for what he considered a “higher” use. He lined the crates with black plastic bags with holes in the bottom and filled them with potting soil. The colorful boxes filled his front yard, his front porch, a second floor balcony he built for holding more boxes, and on a platform he built on top of his garage.

I asked him if he had any complaints from the neighbors since his garden, while obviously productive, probably did not add much to the aesthetics of the neighborhood. He said he solved that problem by sharing fresh vegetables with his neighbors—a gardener with some political skills.

All of these containers I have described require watering each day or two by hand. Unlike the soil in the garden, a container filled with plants does run out of water more frequently and must be watched every day. That said, there are self-watering containers available that significantly reduce this worry of missing a watering need. These products are designed specifically for growing vegetables and several have been on the market long enough to have proven that they work well.

Nothing tastes better than homegrown vegetables and those grown in a container can taste just as good as those from a garden.

Jeff Ball has authored eight books on gardening, vegetables, and lawn care.

ELSEWHERE: MSU Guide to growing vegetables

Cut and come again vegetable harvesting technique

April 4, 2023 • Leave a Comment

**By harvesting just the outer stalks of the chard, it will continue to send up new shoots for later cutting.**

What do leaf lettuces, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, broccoli, and cabbage have in common? They are all examples of “cut and come again” vegetables. What exactly do we mean by that? Well, as the name implies, it is a vegetable that can have edible portions cut off, but will continue to grow and produce more portions that can be cut again at a later time. Usually, leafy vegetables that grow as a rosette (in a circular fashion or from a central point) are most likely to be cut and come again. Rosette-type plants include: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, leaf lettuces, spinach and Swiss chard, among a few others.

Many gardeners are probably familiar with cutting just the outer leaves of kale, spinachand leaf lettuce, so that the plant continues to produce fresh leaves that can be cut again a few days or weeks later. This helps extend the harvest without adding more plants to the garden. Eventually the plant will bolt (go to seed), at which point the vegetable will no longer produce the sweet edible leaves you want to cut, and the plant will need to be removed. It is also possible to cut the entire head of leaf lettuce providing the cutting is done about 1-1/2 inches above the crown, the growing point of the plant. If you cut off the crown, you may as well remove the whole plant.

Swiss chard and beet leaves also grow as a rosette. By harvesting just the outer stalks of the chard, it will continue to send up new shoots for later cutting. If you like to eat the greens on a beet, then you can harvest a couple of the outer leaves from each plant. When you cut the outer greens, leave about an inch or so of the stem on the beet.

While broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage are also rosette plants, we don’t think of them the same way as most of the loose, leafy plants. Probably because we are harvesting the flower head of broccoli, the large head of the cabbage, and the small buds of the Brussels sprouts. However, done correctly, these vegetables will also continue to produce more for harvesting.

For Brussels sprouts, harvest from the bottom up. Cut the larger heads that develop at the bottom and allow the buds higher up to continue developing, then harvest as they grow. If you cut the rosette tip of the plant, the sprouts will tend to mature at the same time. For broccoli, if you cut the terminal head, side shoots will develop. They will not be as large as the main head, but will continue to be produced for several weeks. Lastly, for cabbage, cut the large central head, leaving the outer leaves and the root in the ground. Wait a few weeks and you should begin to see smaller heads forming at the base of the leaves that were left. These will grow into small cabbage heads, just a few inches in diameter, but sweet and delicious in soups, stews or salads.

Think of “cut and come again” as a type of plant pruning. As with all pruning, be sure that your cutting tool is clean and sharp. Take care not to cut the growing crown. Cut the mature outer leaves, preferably while they are still a little young, to help maintain the quality of the successive cuttings. Use care to maintain watering to reduce stress on the plant. Eventually all good things come to an end, so when the cuttings begin to lose flavor, the plant loses vigor, or seed formation (bolting) begins, the harvest is over and it’s time to grow something new!

Call the toll-free Michigan State University Lawn and Garden Hotline at 888-678-3464 for answers to your gardening questions.

Elsewhere: Use this harvesting technique to have a continuous supply of vegetables during your growing and eating season.

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Archive for the Vegetable Patch department