Harvest, add nutrients and sow again

Sooner or later, it is time to harvest. How do you harvest efficiently, and how do you keep your raised bed full throughout the year?

Makkelijke Moestuin raised beds full of vegetables — *Full raised beds: harvest regularly*

If you started early in the year, you will begin clearing your first harvested squares from May onwards. But it happens throughout the rest of the year too, even if you started much later.

That is the time to clear the square, remove the last roots, add plant food, loosen the MM-mix thoroughly and sow again.

Empty squares? We do not do those in the Makkelijke Moestuin.

Harvesting the Makkelijke Moestuin way

Harvesting in the Makkelijke Moestuin is a little different from harvesting in a traditional vegetable garden. Instead of harvesting whole plants, you pick what you need for each meal.

A radish here, a leaf there, and before you know it you have enough for a tasty salad or stir-fry. This spreads your harvest over a longer period, gives you plenty of variety and makes very efficient use of every square.

*Picking little and often gives you a longer, more varied harvest*

Keep your vegetables in their square

Some vegetables grow so well that they crowd out or push aside their neighbours. Parsley, chives and lettuce are good examples, followed by chard later in the year.

Or take winter purslane:

Winter purslane filling its square — *Winter purslane soon fills its entire square*

The solution is to harvest plenty, even if you cannot eat it all straight away. Almost anything can go into green smoothies, soups or summer stamppot (a Dutch mash). Or make your neighbours happy 😀

If your lettuces get too large, harvest the heads one at a time:

*Remove an oversized lettuce head to make room for the others*

Leave the remaining lettuce heads for the days ahead.

Do not wait too long to harvest

A common trap for every vegetable gardener is waiting too long to harvest. You know how it goes: the lettuce looks so lovely that picking it feels like a shame.

'The radishes can grow a little longer, and the Asian salad leaves are still quite small.'

Look, even I am already a little late here:

Vegetables taste best when harvested young. They grow quickly and, before you know it, become bitter, spicy, damaged or something else.

Beautiful plants are lovely to look at, but save those for your ornamental garden. Fresh vegetables on your plate are what this is all about, right?

Besides, harvesting makes room for the next round: add plant food, sow again and enjoy another harvest before long.

Empty squares

Once you start harvesting, empty squares naturally follow. Harvest all the radishes and the square is empty.

The parsley from last year may bolt, the violas may finish flowering, or the rocket may grow too large and turn bitter.

The trick is not to dwell on it. Pick anything you still want to use and then clear the square.

*Harvesting the remaining salad leaves from a square*

Remove the plants, roots and all, then loosen the MM-mix right down to the bottom.

Add a scoop of MM plant food to the square so your new plants have everything they need. We had this plant food specially made to keep the MM-mix in good condition, and it is suitable for all your plants.

*Add a scoop of MM plant food to the freshly cleared square*

Finally, mix everything together thoroughly so the MM-mix is loose and airy again. Level it off and you are done.

*Loosen and level the MM-mix in the square*

Sow again

Once that is done, sow the square again.

Preferably choose a vegetable from a different plant family. That way, you automatically practise a simple form of crop rotation. If you use the app, it will suggest the best options.

A freshly resown beetroot square — *The beetroot square has just been sown again*

A large harvest from a small space

By sowing a harvested square again straight away, you make the most of the space.

Some squares are planted three or four times in a single year. That is why we harvest so much from one small raised bed 🙂