How & Why We Strive for a Continuous Harvest (Zone 5)

As vegetarians, my wife and I eat almost all of the produce from our 600 square foot garden in real time. With little left over to preserve, we strive for a continuous harvest in order to enjoy garden produce throughout the year.

How We Achieve a Continuous Harvest:
1:30 Grow more cold hardy crops. Start them before the last frost and in late summer for a fall harvest;
2:11 Grow cold hardy self-sowing annuals and perennials
3:02 Grow under cover
3:50 Succession Planting

OYR is all about growing a lot of food on a little land using sustainable organic methods, while keeping costs and labor at a minimum. Emphasis is placed on improving soil quality with compost and mulch. No store-bought fertilizers, soil amendments, pesticides, compost activators, etc. are used.

Self-sowing annuals we're currently harvesting:
Claytonia
Mache
Giant Red Mustard Greens
Minutina
Mustard Greens
Parsley
Tatsoi

Perennials we're currently harvesting:
Chives
Dandelion Greens
Egyptian Walking Onions
French Sorrel
Garlic Chives
Good King Henry
Italian Dandelion Greens
Perpetual Spinach
Red Veined Sorrel
Sunchokes

[Ferelmakina]

You're such an expert, Pat! I wish I could learn half what you know. I like your organization/scheduling. Very technical

[Selfsufficientme]

Lots of good advice Patrick it's interesting how you manage to grow cold hardy crops all year round in your climate. Here in the subtropics (like Florida in the USA) we don't have a cold problem in fact our winter is approaching and this means we can start growing all those wonderful cold leafy greens. The challenge for us is growing tasty and productive plants through our summer and instead of protection I'm trialing hot hardy crops that substitute for the traditional cooler greens. I love the challenge of backyard food gardening and trying to produce continuous fresh food all year round. Cheers :)

[unapocacosa]

What a great and intelligent video, as always. Congratulations Patrick! I also love that you are featuring little Oscar more in later videos. He reminds me of a cat that I cared for and loved very much. There are only a few things better than gardening, and one of them is gardening with cats. There's probably no better company.

Thank you for teaching me so much and for making such delightful videos.

Best wishes from Mexico,

Ernesto Urrusti Frenk

[RainbowGardens]

Always my favorite way to garden! Thanks for explaining this clear and concise!

[punkyroo]

I'm glad I finally discovered your channel! Great information and you always present it in a simple, straight-forward manner. I also appreciate how you apply the scientific method to really understand what works and what doesn't. Keep up the good work!

[LibertyGarden]

I grew french sorrel for the first time based on one of your older video. It's great. Thanks.

[seedaholicgardens]

I had radishes self sow unprotected in the snow I was surprised but thankful!

[seedaholicgardens]

your videos make me so happy and inspire me. I garden to rejuvenate mind body and soul, I am learning so much from you guys Thank you once again!

[AlbertaUrbanGarden]

Although s little tougher to do here I. Zone 3 I certainly expect to stretch out my growing season using the principles you and Mr. Coleman have taught me !

I'll be planting my spring garden this week!

[keyplayrgreenhousehydrop]

Yeah, Patrick! Man, we sure are going to miss the lettuce, and greens that we are able to grow in winter over, and over again! It's all about gone and I can't start anymore due to the weather warming up, but the Tomatoes, and peppers are loving it ; )

[PermacultureHomestead]

im stepping up the succession planting of veggies this year, thx for the share as always. love your work .

[melovescoffee]

Thank you for the list! I'm harvesting nothing at the moment because i only grow outside in the soil but my spinach is coming up, the onions and some potatoes are in, the garlics look amazing and it's about time to sow some more leafy row crops that are more coldhardy like oriental cabbages. (under fleece) It will be years before i reach the level of vegetable gardening you have. I was an ornamental gardener by trade. Vegetable gardening is a whole new universe, and although i have dabbled in it for a couple of years now, it has never been a great success. (mainly because my back continues to be an issue, so i'm really, really especially at clearing more soil) I'm learning a lot from all of you. Last week i got a fantastic compliment about the mature dwarf apple tree i have spent 3 years on to fully restore, from someone who knows what he's talking about and i didn't even point it out to him, he just noticed it because he knows the tree well so i'm feeling good about it. It just takes time to expand my knowledge and change over from a failed profession to a productive vegetable growing life. Thank you so much, Patrick!

[TexanInTheUK]

Thanks for sharing your expertise.
I hope to be able to get to the point of having a continuous harvest, as well.

[tereenastevielove]

I ordered Four Season Harvest that you mentioned and it arrived a couple of days ago, I'm so excited! Very easy read. Thank you much!

[alicenakajima]

Thank you for inspiring me to want to continually improve my gardening skills. I love your cat Oscar!

[loganv]

Thank you for the fantastic inspiration as my bride and I prepare to move to our retirement farm.

[johnerickxxd]

wow those greens are so many good gardening

[kalefordays]

I have one small cold frame, but you have inspired me to commit to building a hoop frame over one of my raised beds for the fall (and next spring!) I am in zone 5 also.

[HelenRullesteg]

I hope you're not tired of getting Oscar-related comments, but he made my day with his pedaling, our old cat used to do that, miss him dearly. Apart from that, you have inspired me to try growing crops all year round, under cover in winter. Although I was surprised to learn that we apparently live in zone 8, I thought it was 6 or no more than 7.

[omfug]

I'm in Western WA zone 7 and garden in containers mostly (we live perched on a bluff) I have a large balcony where I grow greens all year long. This year has been really mild so I already have peas, onions, and shallots planted and tomatoes on the windowsill.