An Organic Square Foot Garden (Part 3): Harvesting

As you may recall, to solve my catastrophic drainage issue, I raised my square foot garden up onto cinder blocks and started fresh.  

 

I'm growing basil, oregano, broccoli, spinach, bok choy, two kinds of tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, romaine lettuce, lavender, marigolds, pole beans, cantaloupes, watermelon, radishes, carrots and arugula.  It sounds like a lot, but using the Square Foot Garden method allowed me to fit it all in to an 8x4 foot rectangle (plus two extra planters for the strawberries).  You'll notice that I haven't put in the square foot grid, but the garden was planned using that approach. Since this is my test year, I didn't plant as many individual plants as I will ultimately want.  Next year, since I now think I've got a winning strategy, I will erect more of these rectangles.

 

Since replanting, I've added mosquito netting, which has reduced damage from hungry North Texas insects.  That was a good move.

 

My zucchini plants are by far the strongest growers in the garden:

But the pole beans are doing very well, too:

The cantaloupe vines also took off - I'd really struggled with them before:

I find fresh, ripe strawberries almost every day now:

So, now that things are going well, my attention turns to harvesting. 

The method for harvesting fruits and vegetables varies by plant, so I'll take each of my garden's elements separately.  

 

I'll start today with arugula and strawberries, since I picked some of those today for our dinner:

Harvesting Arugula:

Arugula, it turns out, is a tricky plant.  If you continue growing it during high heat, it turns bitter.  If you continue to harvest it after 50 or 60 days, it turns bitter.  Some folks pluck individual leaves around the rosette of the plant.  Some folks wait until the plant matures at around 40 days then just yank up the whole thing.  In any case, successive plantings are helpful when growing arugula.  Today, I just plucked individual leaves to spice up tonight's salad.

Harvesting Strawberries:

Wait until the strawberry has no more white on it, then use your thumbnail or some garden shears to clip the fruit from the plant, leaving the cap and stem attached to the strawberry.  I harvest strawberries every day or two while they are in season.  Since they ripen very quickly, I keep a close eye on them.  This year, I only have four strawberry plants and this isn't nearly enough for my strawberry-loving family.  But since this is my test year, I didn't want to plant too much.  Next year, I'll plant more. 

To read my other posts about Square Foot Gardening, click on the Square Foot Garden tab, located below the blog's title.