HARVESTING

After all the hard work of cultivating & planting, we look forward to the biggest & most satisfying reward of harvesting all the fresh and delicious fruits & vegetables as well as enjoying the beautiful flowers that bloom and brighten our garden.
Each spring beautiful tulips flourish in our front lawn. The spring weather in Ottawa is ideal for tulips.
Ottawa Tulip Festival

The snowdrops often bloom as soon as the snow is melted, sure sign of spring! The crocuses and hyacinths will follow. Tulips & daffodils are next.
	We have a beautiful crab-apple tree in our front yard which blooms so beautifully it's often the envy of the street. Fragrant lylacs are my favourite.The purple clematis starts to bloom in June and often lasts till August.

Early summer we start to harvest rhubarb from our garden. We love to make rhubarb and strawberry jam as well as rhubarb squares & muffins. The raspberries will only be ready in August.

Asparagus is always our first crop of vegetable to pick in the spring. Around the same time we also enjoy early spring onion. Garlic chives is another favourite vegetable of mine which grows like grass and we harvest it all season long, till the first frost. By first of June we almost guarantee the first crop of lettuce. We grow 4 different varieties of lettuces.

Corriander (cilantro) is often ready around late May. We love it so much we make sure we seed them in succession to ensure a constant crop throughout the summer. Asian greens of which we grow another 4 varieties are also ready in early June. Again we practice succession planting.

Depending on the weather, often we start picking snow peas in late June. The kids just pick them off the vine and straight into their mouths! So delicious in a stir-fry, especially with prawns! Beans are next, usually in July. We grow pole beans to maximize yields.

Zucchini has a prolonged harvest period. We love to eat them raw when picked young and tender. They are good in stir-fry and soups. I make sure I let some grow very big and mature before I harvest them for baking our favourite zucchini breads! By July we are anxiously waiting to pick cucumbers as well.

As far as tomatoes go,we have endless varieties to boast about! It looks like we will be harvesting cherry tomatoes early July! There are different varieties of them. We will be harvesting tomatoes till the first frost. We freeze lots for winter use.

Not surprisingly, we are very excited to harvest bitter melons as early as July first this year! We hope to harvest lots this year since we had such a head start with the seedlings.

Okra and eggplants tend to be ready later but that's just as well because we have so many different kinds of vegetables in the garden we never run out of fresh produce, from garden to table in minutes! What joy!

Kale is such a hardy vegetable it will survive the frost. Carrots will be ready in August until late fall. In the fall we will have potatoes and onions and garlic.