Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Growing Food: ' Tis the Season To Be Thinning

I only realized this yesterday when I went out to pull some weeds and saw that I needed to thin the beets before the plants got so big that pulling one out might uproot the next one over. 

Of course, it's recommended to snip off the plant you want to remove with scissors at ground level, but I always just pull 'em out when I see it's time. I don't typically have scissors on my person, and apparently am too lazy to go alllll the way inside to get any.

Ahem.

At this very small stage, I only pull plants that are RIGHT next to another one. If there's an inch or two of space there, I'll leave them and thin them later. In this way, I can get a baby carrot/beet/whatever later but still leave room for a full-size plant to grow there.

Since I was pulling the tiny beet plants, I also went ahead and thinned some of the very numerous volunteer lettuce plants carpeting the tomato bed. And THEN, since I had the beginnings of a salad, I prowled around until I found enough things to make a proper salad.


Left to right: Parsley, dill, green garlic (for the salad dressing), snow peas, lettuce, beet thinnings, asparagus.

The lovely thing about thinning these plants is they're all edible, of course. So when I'm pulling them out, I'm really harvesting food. And that, my friends, is what this is all about.


The first entirely garden-grown salad of the year is a glorious thing.

So tell me, my fellow gardeners: Are you harvesting anything from your garden yet?

8 comments:

J. S. Vila said...

Is very good to have the oportunity of to produce your own vegetables. But you know that is a very hard work. Every day looking the plants and giving water. But It is the more
natural.
Is good too to have trees too, with apples, oranges, lemons, and more. But is necessary lo live.in the fieles, or in a little town for to have this oportunities.

JP2GiannaT said...

Here in the steamy south we're wrapping up. I'm still getting tomatoes, but they're getting sparser (and a little more bug eaten: I think things are drying out a bit and they're looking for water). The okra is coming in with a vengeance though, and I'm starting to harvest cantaloupe. When those are done, that'll be it until October/November (when we get winter squash and maybe some beets) unless those watermelon plants I bought on a whim actually keep growing.

Kit said...

we're eating lettuce and the Swiss chard is almost ready. The big surprise is that for the first time ever we're getting some great turnips without any bug damage. I think it's because it's so dry. We haven't had any rain to speak of for a month now, which is rare for us (northern Maryland).

Anonymous said...

We have finally gotten rain, so it's a good time for me to replant lettuce, all eaten by rabbits, and try to protect the rest of my cardoons. Rabbits. I will sprinkle with cinnamon, place soap, sprinkle with garlic. And hope for the best.

Drew @ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

Chives and cilantro. Both re-seed year to year, so they're going gangbusters on this their 4th (I think) season.

Claire said...

Mint, chive, wild strawberries, snap peas and radish leaves so far (the radish seeds were probably too old, so they didn't make any bulb). Rhubarb and asparagus will have to wait another year to get stronger

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Hi Claire! Glad to see you again. It sounds like you're establishing your garden nicely at your new(ish) place.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kristin! Yes sorry for being absent, I missed reading your updates! Indeed the garden is growing slowly, we're in our 3rd year in the new place