Grow a cut-and-come-again garden

Lettuce, mustard, pak choi, parsley and spinach are vegetables you can raise as cut-and-come-again food.

In this process, instead of pulling young lettuce or spinach from the ground, you can harvest only the older outer leaves of leafy green vegetables and herbs, and let the centers continue to grow on.

It’s an easy way to enjoy multiple harvests instead of sowing new seeds every couple of weeks for continuous leafy vegetables.

Instead of letting these plants reach mature heights, start cutting when they are only three or four inches tall. This prevents plants from maturing and going to seed, and keeps leaves from becoming bitter.

The process means you can buy fewer plants or fewer seeds, and it works in either open ground or large containers which you may be able to position conveniently near the kitchen where you will remember to use them.

Also try arugula, basil (pinch off end leaves and stems throughout the season anytime you need this herb), beet greens and kale.

Harvest cleanly and carefully, using scissors to clip greens at the base of outer leaves so you don’t damage the central growing point. Let the other leaves grow on, and water after each time you clip. You should be able to get three or four small harvests before plants are exhausted.

If you plant in open ground, enhance the soil with compost or well-rotted manure. Fill containers with garden soil (not top soil) enhanced with compost.

When sowing seeds, water the soil first. If you water after sowing, tiny seeds could wash into clumps.

Even some root vegetables are possibilities, and something your children may like to try. These vegetables are tap roots so they can’t produce new carrots or radishes, but their new, fresh leaves make good additions to salads when harvested young.

Set one-inch pieces of carrots or radishes with their green tops in a shallow dish with water barely touching the bottom. As they grow, use the fresh greens in salads or pesto, or as a garnish.

Sharon Daniels is a Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener volunteer.