I love getting as much out of my garden as I possibly can and although it is fairly large as vegetable gardens go I still try to increase my production.
This year many of my beds are already on their second crop, by double cropping like this I can probably get around 50 crops out of the 32 beds in my main garden, some crops on the other hand need to be in a for a long time and I have some I'm growing out for seed and that takes much longer.
Yesterday was a great example of this, I'd finished harvesting my first bed of kohlrabi and straight away I amended the soil and sowed five rows of carrots in it's place.
Here's a video of me talking about how I'm trying to get more from some of my beds by double or even triple cropping them in a season.
Normal yearly crop rotation rules have to go out of the window when you do this though.
Do you get more than one crop from your veg beds?
What fast growing crop do you love?
I have the smallest garden and no room for veg (hubby won't let me dig up the lawn) but I cram fruit and salad in where I can.
ReplyDeleteI'm putting in leeks were the onions have been. I'm just leaving the sowing of things later in the hope it will work.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a little time and space to get a good supply of seed for some crops. This year I was able to get enough turnip seed to last for several years with the bonus of accidentally reseeding the turnip patch and now a new crop is up. I will need to fertilize it some as I don't usually grow things in the same spot.
ReplyDeleteI do try to be good about immediately sowing a crop where I've pulled a spent one. In our zone I feel like for a lot of things I don't have the growing times to get two crops unless I sow the second before the first is harvested. Sadly I am not that organized at all. I'd love to be. Maybe next year. Usually manage to get multiple crops of beans, would love a fall crop of zucchini.
ReplyDeleteOne of my first crops is Calabrese (the green Broccoli), which grows very quickly and is replaced with winter greens of some sort; this year Cavolo Nero.
ReplyDeleteIt's keeping ahead of myself with the seed sowing in plugs I find difficult. I'm liking oriental greens, either as speedy salad leaf mixes or as whole plants. And I think we'll learn to love turnips this year!
ReplyDeleteApologies if you've covered it before, but I'd be interested in what soil amendments you use.
I need to look into what more I can achieve out of my "window box," be it more herbs, or possibly some kind of micro greens that will grow through the winter. Right now I am enjoying the coriander, although I think I left it too long before moving over the chili plants, they're growing still, but no signs of any chilis as of yet.
ReplyDeleteI multiple crop too - however I do actually make a rough planting plan to ensure a variety of plant types to sow in succession (a seasonal rotation within an overall yearly rotation - it can be tricky!). Informal rotation works for informal plots, but I think careful rotation is important if you want to seriously multiple crop over many years without creating conditions for diseases (eg onion rot & club root) or massive nutrient or pH (from liming) imbalances.
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