There is a routine and rhythm in gardening, both in terms of succession planting and in eating what is in season. If you can successively plant your garden with multiple crops over the spring and summer, then you have effectively tripled the size of your garden with no increase in actual space. If you eat what is in season, then there is not near the need for processing and food storage. The produce unrefrigerated, remains fresh-stored on the plant.
I began my early planting in March with spinach, lettuce and early “new” potatoes. By April we were eating a lot of meals with large salads as sides. For variety, there was also wilted spinach and spinach enchiladas which are made with tortillas and cottage cheese; this entre tasted something like lasagna to me. With all the salads and various salad dressings, I finally began losing a little weight.
In very early April, I made a small planting of sweet corn, followed in mid-April by a second planting of corn. I also planted a row of bush beans in an area that I knew would eventually be smothered by melon vines, but not before I got the beans picked. In mid-April I also started a couple tripod teepees of pole beans with cucumbers growing underneath. When we were burnt-out on salads and the lettuce and spinach began to bolt from heat, we switched to eating vinegar marinated cucumbers; as the bush green beans petered out in May, we began eating the pole beans. In late April, I planted some butternut squash between the corn rows for winter consumption. We also planted four well protected tomato plants and four sweet peppers in late April.
In May, I planted late “straw potatoes”, cantaloupe and late in the month we planted sweet potatoes and a field of watermelon transplants. Throughout June, we ate cooked green beans, new potatoes, cucumbers, and sweet corn.
It is now early July, and we are beginning to eat cantaloupe, bell peppers, and tomatoes. July is a harvest month and there is a respite in the work. I have cut back totally on watering cantaloupe which cover a third of my garden in order to ripen and sweeten them. The watermelons have begun spreading out vines, so I am no longer hoeing weeds in that patch. The sweet corn is also finished, as are the potatoes. I am stripping the leaves off the corn and adding them as more mulch around the winter squash between the corn rows. I will shortly plant pole beans around the leafless corn stalks for a fall crop and to give shade to the potato patches on either side of the corn. Where the potatoes were, I will shortly be planting a fall crop cabbages for winter cole slaws and cooked greens. We still have plenty of new potatoes left to eat for the summer and the late potatoes should hold us well into autumn when we will harvest the sweet potatoes and eat on them and the winter squash until spring salads again are an option. By August the cantaloupe will be finished and replaced on our menu by watermelons which we will eat into the fall. So by August the cantaloupe vines can be ripped out to be replaced by another fall crop.
This all sounds complicated, and in truth it is more complicated than I have written in this blog, but there is a lot to be said for succession planting and eating what is in season. I hope to put tubers and greens on my plate and a little dessert too throughout most of the year. Now I just need to do some fishing to put some filets on that plate too.
I began my early planting in March with spinach, lettuce and early “new” potatoes. By April we were eating a lot of meals with large salads as sides. For variety, there was also wilted spinach and spinach enchiladas which are made with tortillas and cottage cheese; this entre tasted something like lasagna to me. With all the salads and various salad dressings, I finally began losing a little weight.
In very early April, I made a small planting of sweet corn, followed in mid-April by a second planting of corn. I also planted a row of bush beans in an area that I knew would eventually be smothered by melon vines, but not before I got the beans picked. In mid-April I also started a couple tripod teepees of pole beans with cucumbers growing underneath. When we were burnt-out on salads and the lettuce and spinach began to bolt from heat, we switched to eating vinegar marinated cucumbers; as the bush green beans petered out in May, we began eating the pole beans. In late April, I planted some butternut squash between the corn rows for winter consumption. We also planted four well protected tomato plants and four sweet peppers in late April.
In May, I planted late “straw potatoes”, cantaloupe and late in the month we planted sweet potatoes and a field of watermelon transplants. Throughout June, we ate cooked green beans, new potatoes, cucumbers, and sweet corn.
It is now early July, and we are beginning to eat cantaloupe, bell peppers, and tomatoes. July is a harvest month and there is a respite in the work. I have cut back totally on watering cantaloupe which cover a third of my garden in order to ripen and sweeten them. The watermelons have begun spreading out vines, so I am no longer hoeing weeds in that patch. The sweet corn is also finished, as are the potatoes. I am stripping the leaves off the corn and adding them as more mulch around the winter squash between the corn rows. I will shortly plant pole beans around the leafless corn stalks for a fall crop and to give shade to the potato patches on either side of the corn. Where the potatoes were, I will shortly be planting a fall crop cabbages for winter cole slaws and cooked greens. We still have plenty of new potatoes left to eat for the summer and the late potatoes should hold us well into autumn when we will harvest the sweet potatoes and eat on them and the winter squash until spring salads again are an option. By August the cantaloupe will be finished and replaced on our menu by watermelons which we will eat into the fall. So by August the cantaloupe vines can be ripped out to be replaced by another fall crop.
This all sounds complicated, and in truth it is more complicated than I have written in this blog, but there is a lot to be said for succession planting and eating what is in season. I hope to put tubers and greens on my plate and a little dessert too throughout most of the year. Now I just need to do some fishing to put some filets on that plate too.
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