Cut-and-Come-Again Leafy Greens
Would you like to grow an edible crop in the garden that was prolific as grass in that you could cut it down once, and cut it again, but it would just bounce back and continue to grow and yield additional harvests of delicious produce?
Well that’s kind of the idea behind the veggies that are classified as cut and come again crops. Usually found in the form of leafy green vegetables, these baby veggies and micro-greens will provide you with the convenience of multiple harvests from a single planting.
Enjoying Multiple Harvests with Little Effort
Like the lush blades of grass growing in your lawn, these leafy greens can be sheared down almost to ground level and they will turn right around and re-grow additional leaves for your next harvest.
Unfortunately the cutting can’t be maintained as indefinately as a lawn, but you will be able to enjoy at least three or four harvests from each planting. And you can go from sowing the seed to your first harvest in just a few short weeks.
Another advantage is that vegetables raised as cut-and-come-again crops can be planted much closer together than you normally would since the veggies are not going to be maturing into full sized plants before harvest time.
It’s better to stagger your plantings into small blocks so that you can maintain a continuous supply of harvestable leafy greens, rather than wind up with more than you can use all at one time. These cut-and-come-again crops are also great for extending the garden into the fall or for raising extra early spring produce. (more…)