← The vegetable garden H10-07 · Module 7 of 7 · Pages: 20 · Worksheets: 6

Harvesting and extending the season

When and how to pick each vegetable, how to get it ready for the store and the preserving pan, and how tunnels and late sowings let you pick from March to December

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Harvesting and extending the season

In short

  • Regular picking = more crop: pick courgettes, cucumbers and beans every 2–3 days.
  • Pick leafy crops and peas in the morning, fruiting crops when dry, roots from dry soil.
  • Onions, garlic, potatoes and squash are dried and cured for 1–3 weeks before storing.
  • Fleece, tunnels and cold frames add 3–6 weeks to each end of the season.
  • For winter picking everything must be fully grown by early November: in winter plants hardly grow.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. When it's ripe
  2. How to pick
  3. Picking for the store and the preserving pan
  4. Weigh what you pick
  5. Earlier in spring
  6. Later in autumn
  7. The winter garden
  8. Surplus, seed and the homestead cycle
  9. Common mistakes
  10. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Harvest calendar
  • Expected yield calculator
  • Weekly harvest log
  • Season-extension plan
  • The night of the first frost
  • Garden year review

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