Get Growing!

There is nothing better than enjoying freshly picked vegetables right from your garden!  Not only will you think they taste better, but it has been shown that when kids are involved more with the food they eat, they eat more!  Let them get dirty with the planting and excited when little green shoots poke through the dirt and the pride of a salad or veggie kabob they grew themselves for the family BBQ.

All types of beans will grow quickly and repeated harvests until the frost comes in.  Planting them throughout the summer will provide a longer growing season and more beans to pick!  Because the growing plants can be delicate it is best to sow them right where they will grow.  Pole beans prefer a trellis, but bushy bean plants will support themselves.

Peas are another almost no fail choice.  They grow quickly and can be started indoors if you want to get going on your growing.  Snow peas are a great choice to pick and pop in a fresh summer salad.

Broccoli and cauliflower are both easily planted at any time of year but should be kept from direct heat and being nipped by frost.  If it hasn’t grown to your satisfaction by the time the cooler weather sets in, cover it for protection.

Radishes will grow like weeds – but in a good way!  They take approximately four weeks from planting to picking.  They prefer some shade which makes them the perfect thing to plant under taller veggies if you are limited on space. Like beans, if you stagger sowing radish seeds you can get multiple harvests throughout the growing season. Green onions can be direct planted into your garden late summer and will be ready to be harvested through the fall and even early winter.

Lettuce loves cool weather as much as it loves the sun. You don’t have to stick to your traditional vegetable gardens with lettuce, try growing in pots with pansies and blooms as a lovely, leafy green accent.

Kale like lettuce thrives in cooler weather and has been known to keep growing even through winter. Try sowing it early spring through to early fall and enjoy harvests almost all year long.