Now that the weather has finally settled into spring, it’s wise to plan your fresh produce harvest for the entire year—not just the warmer months. Short-, medium- and long-maturing crops planted each month, March through October, allow harvest to continue through winter and even into the following spring. Think of the garden as an endless game of vegetable checkers, with all the plants/pieces hopping over and replacing each other during the entire year, as new spaces open up. The aim is to keep all the spaces occupied all the time (not just until frost), with new surprises maturing in succession—even during the darkest and rainiest times of year.
It may be hard to find time to start plants in July and August, but fortunately, ample starts are available locally in mid-summer to plunk in. Fall greens can go in during early September; some of the hardier plants will produce again in the spring, before a new crop of greens is available. This salad/kitchen insurance carries your home cuisine through the usual winter-time drought of fresh, home-grown produce.
Having dined from the garden all winter, in mid-April I was still harvesting over-wintering purple broccoli, kale, chard, spinach, bok choy, mustard, and corn salad; also, edible buds and leaves from cabbages, Brussels sprouts, and the last of the onions, scallions, and leeks. Plus, overwintering carrots, sown in August, carried on until late winter, and my personal comfort food, parsnips, were impervious to cold and getting sweeter with each frost and chunkier with each winter rain.
Spring
If you took advantage of the mild February weather, early-planted spinach, peas, radishes, and lettuces are up and producing now. When harvested, these early crops create space for warm weather sowings of beans, cukes, and corn. Potatoes sown from mid-March on, will mature in mid-summer, making room for fall and winter crops. Cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower do best under floating row cover as protection against the root maggot fly and cabbage butterfly that appear during April, May, and again in July. The cover’s extra heat also keeps the starts growing steadily on gray days. I sow lettuce every three weeks for a sustained yield of young, tender salad materials. Given our extended northern day length, lettuce gets bitter quickly. Sow it thickly in a wide bed for a steady crop of outer leaves, instead of waiting for big heads to form. Think of it as a salad hedge that needs trimming daily.
Summer
Corn. Remember the rule for our Puget Sound Cool Maritime micro-climate: early June planted corn is best. The soil needs to be warm to prevent the seeds from rot. If you have a warm site with little nighttime cool air, you can plant earlier. Much of Fidalgo Island, however, is close to the cool evening winds and fogs that come off the water, keeping garden sites chilly. I grow three corn varieties with staggered “due dates”: a super- short early maturing (60+ days), a mid-season of 70 days, and a long-maturing crop of 80+ days. (We don’t have the long summer heat to reliably mature classic Mid-West corn.) I know I’ll get at least two crops, usually three, if we have a warm September. I cover seeded corn with row cover cloth for added heat and protection from birds, which like to pull up the initial sprouts. Once grown to 6 inches or so, the cover can come off. Plant corn in solid blocks of at least four rows to ensure that the pollen from the tassels falls down onto the silks below. A single pollen grain travels down an individual silk to make one kernel on the ear. Think of it as a mini-spaceshot probe from tassel to silk to cob via the wind and a tunnel (and with no computers).
Tomatoes. Last year’s record heat wave, with one 100- degree day, produced a record crop. I grow plants on tall stakes under a large plastic tunnel, for warmth at night to set fruit and to forestall late blight. Sungold cherry tomatoes for snacking, Early Girl and Oregon Spring for reliable yield, a good Roma for sauce, and a Big Boy for “beefsteak” slices on a platter. Green Zebras are fun, too, looking like sliced kiwis in a salad. I shake the plant stems lightly to get the pollen circulating and prune back some of the suckers to avoid too much leafy growth at the expense of fruit.
Cucumbers. I grow all my cukes on a trellis made of old tomato towers and heavy wire fencing. It keeps them away from slugs, mice, or voles on the ground, saves space, and makes them easy to pick. Water regularly for nice, plump, straight fruit.
For in-depth monthly planting lists and good advice, see Seattle Tilth’s Maritime Northwest Garden Guide
(Courtesy Anacortes Community Gardens)