Thinning With Age

So there I was looking out over the vast domain known as a garden. The radish plants are mature and as long as I keep them well watered they don’t get to hot to the taste, the cucumber plants are making their presence known and the zucchini is looking like the twin of the cucumber in another part of the garden. Carrots are producing an almost fern-like showing and I begin to pick undesirables from the garden. I want this to be the best garden ever, so weeding comes early and often. If I can catch them while they are small, the weeds aren’t as much of a problem. If I should happen to miss them, they suddenly appear to be California sequoia almost overnight.

There is one additional purging that will make your garden even better - thin the produce.

Usually the instructions for gardening have you planting more seeds than they expect to actually grow. Invariably there will be those seeds that are overachievers and you wind up with multiple plants in a small space. If you don’t thin - they grow into each other and each demand nutrients from the soil. Carrots can wind up looking deformed if they are subject to compaction. Face it, you want to give your garden the greatest chance of success - that’s why you work to pull the weeds. Now? Pull some of the garden plants if they are too close together, the end result will be much more satisfying.