Yes. Harvest outer leaves like chard, mustard greens, leaf lettuce, arugula, etc. The plant continues to produce.

Thank you Cindy

I agree, I pick kale all season, plus some types are cold tolerant and will even last after a couple of frosts. I cut it and it grows back, I can cut it a couple of times, maybe more, depending on how long the really cold weather holds off here in Michigan.

Annie

jsvrn, so glad you asked this question. Wishing to start a garden in a years or two and already trying to decide what to plant - with limited space. I didn't know you could keep harvesting kale, and I love kale!

My garden will have kale in it this year for the first time. I thought that was how to harvest it, but it's nice to have it verified. Thanks for bringing it up, jsvrn.

Madonna

Kale gets sweeter in the fall after cooler temperatures. I harvest it all season but prefer it once the weather gets chilly. Occasionally it winters over as well. I usually have some sticking out of the snow in my garden - the deer often get it before me.

Very nice haul, but be aware that if you live in S FL, the clock is ticking. You've probably got about a month before it's just too hot and humid for kale. Chard and tronchuda will last a little longer. Then things are done till around the second half of September.

If you want to keep greens going all summer, try some of the tropical varieties like callaloo, okinawa spinach, malabar spinach, etc.

ETA But yeah, start a new plant to set out in October and you'll be able to have kale from it from then till next May. Up to a point, the more you harvest, the more it grows.

I also have cukes, peppers and tomato plants. Will they not survive summer either? I'm a transplant from MD and I guess I didn't think this through or research

The edible garden in your area is winding down now. Tomatoes are just about over.

Probably a Florida group here on houzz in the garden forum section. They should know what you can grow now.

But yes, as mentioned above, you can pick kales and chards and most greens a few leaves at a time. When making a raw salad I pick younger 3-5 inch leaves from my greens to add to salads. Gathering from a few dozen plants. Larger outer leaves for cooking. And best to leave each plant with a half dozen leaves for good health and growth...

Tomatoes and peppers will be good for a while yet. Cukes should come out definitely in the near future, because they are a major host for pickleworm, and once the pickleworm comes it's game over till the fall when the weather cools down and the humidity drops. It usually appears around the end of May.

Peppers will take more heat than the tomatoes will. The only tomatoes that produce all summer down here are everglades/currant types. Other tomatoes will stop making fruit when the night temps stay above 80. You can get the plants to continue and sometimes they'll bear fruit again next season, but most people just start over with new plants because the first year is the best for bearing.

But yeah, you need to think backwards from everything you learned about gardening up north. Down here you start your seeds in the late summer for fall planting, and winter is our most productive time.

ETA U of F has an excellent guide to veggie gardening in the different parts of the state:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_vegetable_gardening

and

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021

Another good guide is

http://www.growables.org

Oh, and yes, there's a Florida Gardening forum here:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/gardening-in-florida-dsbr0-bd~t_29877

but it's not what it was before Houzz.