Nursery World - The nursery garden (2)

July The first harvests By Mary Whiting, keen gardener and early years consultant It's time to start harvesting your first crops! Pick runner beans when they're about 20cm long. Harvest peas when the pods begin to swell, while the peas are still sweet. With a fork, carefully lift the first potatoes.

It's time to start harvesting your first crops! Pick runner beans when they're about 20cm long. Harvest peas when the pods begin to swell, while the peas are still sweet. With a fork, carefully lift the first potatoes.

Cut courgettes before they become marrows. Let children feel and smell the freshly picked crops before having a special taste of them.

To protect strawberries from birds, make a 'cage' by draping plastic mesh over a rectangle of low canes topped with rubber knobs. Pick the berries when they're deep red, and without touching the fruit itself - hold the green calyx and nip the stalk with your thumb and fingernail. For a good crop next year and to encourage new leaves to grow, cut off the old leaves as soon as the fruit is harvested and cut off the runners (unless you want to make some new plants, in which case poke the ends into pots of compost).

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