Time to Harvest!

Finally, your garden has grown out to produce a treasure trove of fruits and vegetables. These are some general tips that will help you have a great harvest.

When to harvest

Timing your harvest depends on your specific crop and any upcoming changes in the weather. To get your timing down, I recommend jotting down all your planting dates in a garden log or journal. This helps you keep track of when you should be expecting your harvest and ways to improve for next year. Getting your planting and harvesting time right is key to a successful harvest.

When fall starts to show its head rain, humid mornings become the norm, especially in the Pacific Northwest! This change in weather brings with it powdery mildew and other fungal disease that thrive in moist, warm environments. The best way to stop this from happening is regular inspections of plants. Cutting away any contaminated plant material and spraying with organic fungicides. Fall weather can quickly turn a healthy pumpkin plant diseased, leading to a hindrance in your harvest.

How to harvest

When harvesting, always start with clean tools. Whatever you use, keeping tools clean will help stop the spread of diseases in your garden. Once harvested, all produce is now on a timer of decomposition. You can slow this with ice baths for leafy produce as well as refrigeration or freezing. I personally like to keep the vegetables in the ground or on the vine until they are eaten. This can be difficult in timing, but keeping the produce on the plant keeps it alive. Some plants, like tomatoes, can be harvested when they are green and left to ripen in the kitchen. It’s important to think about how you are going to use your harvest before you do. This helps you get the most out of your hard work.

What to do with the leftover plants

Most people like to toss leftover plant material into their compost bin. However, I have found a simpler solution that doesn’t even involve a compost bin. It’s called the chop and drop method. I like to break the leftover material down by hand and then mix it back into the raised bed or growing area. This puts all the nutrients from the plant back into the bed for next year. Just make sure that most of the seeds are taken out, either flowering heads or fruit. What you want to keep is the stems and foliage.