Early planting means less stress during fall harvest

It is a well known fact that harvest time is busy. Picking, cleaning, cooking, canning, drying, storing, freezing and of course giving away what you grow is requisite. Depending on what stage of life you are at you may find your harvest time to be incredibly busy. Rob Johnston, founder and chairman of Johnny’s Selected Seeds wrote in a recent late summer newsletter, “Keep your wits about you this busy time of year.”

With a single planting at the normal time I usually find that my important perishable crops like tomatoes seem to all ripen in late August - the same time we get an early frost. The last two years we’ve beaten that clock game but it is a gamble. Before I learned about early garden techniques I would pick a few red tomatoes in late summer and then a few days later I’m picking all the green ones before frost. This year my neighbors are just starting to get tomatoes and I’ve been eating them for 6 weeks already. As I am writing this we could have easily expected a frost at least a week ago.

One benefit of early planting is that you get your first fruits earlier. Another benefit of early garden planting is those early fruits mean your harvest time isn’t so busy! Picking ripe tomatoes a few a day for 6 weeks is much better than picking baskets full of green ones before frost. In late August and early September harvest in a home garden can be aweful. In our family we have two teachers, a school bus driver and a young child - and a birthday on labour day weekend. Trying to get all that in PLUS harvest of first fruits is not a nice idea.

However, a little extra work in early spring protecting some young plants and preparing the beds is acceptable. Some black plastic, irrigation hoses, mulch and maybe a season extender and I’m ready to go. I spend less time watering and weeding during the season and I enjoy fresh food for most of the summer. To top it off, when that labour day weekend birthday party comes around I have plenty of tomatoes, peppers and melons to give away to the family.

Of course that early harvest means another harvest before frost for most things. Couple this with succession planting and you may have a continuous harvest until and even after frost.

September brings with it a change in season and a change in lifestyle. Students go back to school, support staff take their roles, afterschool sports teams start, adult evening classes at the community college, church groups begin again and everything just gets back to normal - busy. When late August rolls around and you no longer have time to spend in the garden like you did before you’ll be glad you spent your time in your early garden early in the season. You’ll be able to finish your garden off for the year without losing your hair - or your wits.