veg
Last calendar month I send someplansI had developed for a productive year on my garden veggie plot of land . I have since noticed a couple of errors in the layout that I have now compensate . For instance , I totally forgot that I have a slumbering rhubarb jacket crown in the southern end of layer 3 , so I ca n’t establish anything else in there . I have adjusted the plot design to report for that modification and some more like it , but more fundamental changes have also been made .
interpretation 1.0 of the plan was a bit one - dimensional . I had thought through the basic sowing and planting of the main spring / summer crops , and minor errors apart , this is fine , as far as it go . My end though is to maximise harvested yield from the plot and the initial version leave me unsatisfied on that front . It felt like a lot of rich space was left empty as the summer crop finish up .
With some excellent help from some GYO book * , and from the enthusiastic and knowledgeable GYO crowd on twitter , I have made some improvements . This additional planning has been focused on answering two head ..
How can I jam even more planting into the summer plan ?
I have a special space for veggie , and planting distance are given for a ground , so I ca n’t just set more of the same veg , I ’ll just get pocket-sized , stunted crops . I can , however , take vantage of the growth patterns of some vegetables . I am intercropping faster growing plants with slower growing one . I ’m going to try a few different intercropping ideas next year . The profligate crop can be harvest before the slower one require the distance . Here are a few that I ’m planning to try this come year .
i ) radish & parsnip . seed together , the radish germinate faster so show up the row or sow location of the parsnip seeds , which commonly take longer to burgeon forth . The radish plant themselves also grow faster , with radish being ready to harvest in just a few hebdomad . They can be harvested before the parsnips need the space .
ii ) outpouring onions with carrots . I ’ll be sow in the carrot on a storage-battery grid pattern so will dot the spring Allium cepa in the spaces between . honest-to-goodness skool growers will also state you that onion deter the dreaded Daucus carota sativa fly , an sum bonus .
iii ) salad with beans . salad folio will develop quite well in a bit of shade , so I ’m going to seed some at the foot of the bonce poles .
iv ) broad beans and potatoes . When I plant the primary crop potatoes in their sack , I ’m going to sample putting some grown - on broadies in the top of the sack . I ’m not sure if that will figure out , we ’ll see .
You get the gist . The game is to get the maximum manipulation out of the land – stripped ground is not good .
How can I make more fertile employment of the grow quad later in the class ?
My old attempt to extend the growing time of year have been very special . I have overwinter Allium cepa once or double with some success , and have sample and failed to overwinter spring cabbage . With a spate of help from more experiencedgrowers , I have updated the program to ensure that each square on the game has something to espouse the first craw . I will be hot - bunking the veg so that there is always something quick when a spent harvest is removed – ideally already develop on a bit to accelerate the operation . These additional crop go down into the following broad category .
Taking each of the three raised beds in turn , let ’s see what goes where and after what . I should add the caution that these are just plans right now – I do n’t have the welfare of much experience to partake in ( yet ) . Happily , others have , so I go for this will all pan off out or so how I expect .
Bed 1
set out at the southern end , the squash plants will probably linger until september or even october , so I am not planning to be able-bodied to set anything there , although I imagine I could implant garlic or onions . The courgettes will be done at the commencement of September , I intend , so I plan to plant some oriental commons there , mizuna waido . I ’ve never grown this before .
prompt northwards , the onion will be followed by cavolo Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus , a form of cole . Again , I ’ve never farm this before , but I gather the leafage can be harvested unseasoned for salad , or left to grow on for kale right . I ’ll protrude these in other spring and pot on until the onions are gone .
Once the garlic is harvested , in will go french bean plant , seeds seed a month or so before in pots . ‘ Blue lake ’ is a climbing mixture so I will require to tote up a wigwam .
The cultivated carrot will be replaced with … more carrot . I am reliably informed that it is possible to get a second craw of other Nantes carrots in , ready to harvest mid - autumn . give way my preceding carrot performance , however , I am hedge my bets – the Firewedge carrots will be replaced rather with prickly-seeded spinach , a assortment called ‘ flushed cardinal ’ . Lots of offset here , I ’ve never produce this either .
The beans in the northerly death will be hoiked out in early September and replaced with rocket and chard . The rocket I can sow in place successionally , the chard I ’ll have to start off earlier in pots .
Bed 2
Starting at the southerly final stage again , as shortly as the ail is harvest , I ’m going to replace with squash plants , sow a month before and grown on in crapper . The miscellanea is tromboncino , it ’s in reality a courgette , and can be eaten this way when low , but if get out to grow to it ’s full size , up to 1 one thousand in length , they can be cured and stack away for the winter like a squash . I ’m odd to see how they turn out . It ’s a sprawly plant life so I will just imbed a distich and train them up a cane wigwam .
The parsnips are carry forwards from the spring / summer plan , they wo n’t be harvested till after the frosts .
Next we have pak choi , a couple of different varieties , inseminate a month before and arise on in pots . Those will supervene upon the carrot which I hope to have harvested in mid July - ish .
Like the parsnip , the Brassica napus napobrassica are a carry - over , a ho-hum growing harvest .
I ’m hoping I ’ll be able to get up the onion , a Nipponese overwintering kind , in other June . I ’ll replace with midget Gallic beans ‘ velour ’ , sown a calendar month before and grow on in pots . The salad next door will continue to be salad – I ’m just going to continue to ecological succession sow in that square throughout .
I ’m going to chronological sequence sow the blauwschokker peas , so I wait one of the blocks of 4 squares to have finish crop before the other . The first to be clear will be replaced with more dwarf french beans ‘ velour ’ , I should have edible bean in September or so .
The other square of beans I ’ll replace with some hardy spring onion plant , sown a few week before , then a ecological succession of sowings every few calendar week , adding a cloche if need .
Bed 3
The rhubarb fill one southern corner , nothing creative to be done there , aside perhaps from moving it out of the raised bed . I have it on good authority that the sweet pea plant will fundamentally be done by about June , and that a dear follow - on scheme is to plant some bean or squash flora to train up the same canes . I ’m growing another variety new to me , uchiki kuri squash , a little - fruit variety thus effective for training vertically . I ’m also going to put in some more smuggler and borlotti attic , trust for a later crop of both . In all case I ’ll have sown the germ a few weeks before to get a head starting signal . I ’ll plant regardless of whether the sweet pea are finished , the follow on crop will take a while to raise up and craw . In the mingy time , I still have cut flowers for a while .
The broad edible bean will be replaced with more cavolo nero , same procedure as before . The other square of large-minded attic will be replaced with an oriental commons , choi sum , which can be used as salad leaves or call down fried .
Snap pea plant will be ejected once cropping is done , to be replaced with another oriental super acid , kasumi , a Formosan Brassica oleracea .
No change at the north end of this seam , I ’ll continue to sow salad farewell of various sort through the growing time of year , using a cloche to extend at both destruction . The leek , being Allium porrum , take ages to be useful . I might be able to dot some fast get wintertime greens in as I harvest individual leeks .
So that ’s the plan . I have put together a schedule for sow in and planting so I do n’t fall back the secret plan ( pun destine ) . That ’s worth a separate post in the unexampled year , I ’m quite proud of with it !
I ’m really excited about the growing year , the planning cognitive operation has re - inflame my exuberance for the veg secret plan . So many fresh varieties ! I hope I can exert that ebullience , along with everything else going on with the ornamental side of the garden .
I ’ll be back in the New Year with more planning , this sentence for the greenhouse crops .
- I have a few , but have limited myself to the chase :
