You Say, "Good-Bye" but I say, "Hello"

Today I said, “good-bye” to my spring veggies.  As tradition holds in the valley our transition from spring to summer is quite short.  One week it is 70 and the next week it is above 90!  I don’t always plant “spring crops” but I was pleasantly surprised with my outcome and will most definitely try it again in the fall.  Unlike usual aprils, however, our weather remained remarkably cool.  While that put a snail-like growth on all our summer, heat lovin' plants, it gave our spring veggies more time to grow and produce.

By “spring crops” I am meaning broccoli, brussel sprouts, sugar-snap (snow) peas, spinach, and lettuce.  I kept in the ground my snow peas and spinach hoping I might harvest a little more for another week before I pull those out as well. 

I learned that I can grow a larger head of broccoli by snipping off the leaves.  I also learned that once I harvest the main top broccoli floret, the plant will send off more florets along the stock of the plant (who knew?).

With brussel sprouts I discovered they take a long time to produce.  While my plant foliage looked beautiful (notice the large, silver-looking leaf to the right of my broccoli on the picture above), I only recently began to see signs of formation of the actual vegetable.  I never knew the brussel sprouts actually form along the stock of the plant above where each leaf protrudes.  I did not clip the leaves.  I will need to experiment more on this plant to determine the best method of producing the sprouts.  Perhaps clipping the leaves would have directed more energy to growing the fruit not the (very pretty) foliage I enjoyed.  I planted this plant way too late in the spring season for adequate time for harvest.  The only ones who really enjoyed my brussel sprouts were my rabbits!  I let them eat the leaves!

My sugar-snap snow peas are holding in okay despite the few 90° days we received.  They are slowly (with my guidance) climbing up my netted trellis.  My children are enjoying their crispy, tender texture & flavor!  My spinach is yellowing and looking a bit wilty.  I prefer to cut my spinach leaves while they are young, but with the heat, the leaves grow a huge amount in one given day!  I cannot keep up!

My radishes and strawberries are heavy-hitters right now!  This beautiful weather has these two plants pumping out produce!

While it is sad to pull out dear friends, it also opens up space for more summer vegetables!  Hello summer squash!!

How are your gardens growing?