Quick question about planting seeds at regular intervals.
Is it a good idea to plant seeds at regular intervals with all veg types so you get a continuous succession of veg throughout the harvesting season or can you do this with certain types only?
If its best to do this with certain types only, which ones am I best trying this with as I dont really want to have glut of a particular veg where some may go to waste (if im successful at growing anything that is - first attempt this year you see so lots of questions!)
Im not to sure but i would have thought it would be ok to plant most veg at regular intervals. Last year i ended up running out of space in the garden (because it's shared). So I planted lettuce and runner beans at different intervals to ensure a continuous harvest.
I alweays plant everything I can at intervals through the year. The only things I don't are the likes of corn and onions and things like that that take a long time to mature or have a very short growing season here.
Another exception is cauliflowers and cabbages and with them it's only a matter of not planting them when they would be maturing in the winter as they can freeze but but with the other greens and carrots and pasnips, I have them so I can harvest right through the year.
Yes I really try to be selfsuffientish with my own fresh veges all the year round.
It's a good idea, and something which I try to do, to an extent. Things like beans (French and runner), peas, lettuce, tomatoes, salad/spring onions, beetroot, radishes, cabbages are all ideal candidates. You will find it impossible, or difficult to do with some such as cucumbers, courgettes, melons, peppers, cauliflowers, leeks etc as there is a very short optimum time for sowing them. If you have favourable conditions such as a heated greenhouse, you may have success.
There will be other vegetables where you don't want to sow regularly, as you'll want to harvest your crops in one go. These include most root vegetables - potatoes, onions and garlic, swedes, carrots, turnips and parsnips. With carrots and parsnips, you may want to sow an occasional row when you feel like it as it is often nice to have a few baby vegetables.
Sometimes you will find that you have no choice but to grow at intervals... I find that slugs tend to decimate most of my beans, tomatoes, basil and curcubits, so I need to quickly sow as soon as I find the destroyed seedlings.
I pretty much agree with Tay, but find that becasue of the long growing season I only plant one crop of capsicums and chillies. I do two of tomatoes, tried regular plantings of tomatoes and it didn't work for me. Potatoes, onions and carrots tend to be a one crop thing.
I use an Excell spreadsheet to help me keep track of my process.
Would tomatoes work? I try to get them going as early as I can (which is to say, not very, as I don't have lots of space for seedlings); from the time they start to crop to the time when they start to fail, I tend to get a reasonble supply and I don't think, given my space constraints, successional planting would work.
It is a great idea for other crops though - one thing I want to do more this year is plant things for salad leaves and remember to harvest them before they get large and bitter.
I have only just started the note book and am not very good at putting anything in it, let alone everything.
Wulf, I am not sure how you grow your tomatoes. I know a lot of Yanks grow them more like a bush plant or else have a frame thingie they grow in.
We normally use stakes, but if you have an overhead wire at least six foot high and grow the tomatoes around a string hanging from the wire, as the season progresses and the plant reaches the wire, you can trim off the lower leaves and let the string out a bit at a time so that the lower stem then rests on the ground, you can keep a tomato plant growing and cropping as long as the weather lets it.
This is how the commercial glasshouse growers do it.
For keeping track of things to do in the garden, I use a white board and markers, which is set up in a small potting shed. It is marked out with months down the left side and day date along the top, and it is ruled so that each month/day has its own square.That way it does not need to be changed every year. It takes a bit of time setting it up at first, but once done it is set for ever. I also use it to record the spraying needed for the fruit trees. As I have my veg garden in six plots, 6X2metres each, I record what I planted in each plot each season for rotating. One of the plots is permanent for rhubarb and asparagus. That way I can see at a glance what needs to be done.
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