Four Beds - More Veg

Companion planting for soil nutrients and more Veg in less space!



Click on above jpeg to enlarge. If you want a pdf, email Jen.

Thanks to Fred for this article by Randy Shore in Arts and Life magazine.

Pointers:
- Interplanting provides shade, variety through the season, and amends soil nutrients for some combinations.
- Always grow your tomatoes in pots or separate beds; not with other plants.
- Hill your potatoes, and don't bother to interplant until after harvesting early potatoes.
- You can substitute green beans for broccoli in Bed 1, or for the napa cabbage in Bed 4. Cut green bean vines off at the ground, after harvest, leaving roots in soil.

Here are the instructions for each bed:

Bed 1:
Radish, Carrot, Broccoli* or Cauliflower, Lettuce.

Sow radishes and carrots in early spring, alternating 1 inch spaced seeds in rows 6 inches apart. Interplant with leeks which help repel carrot rust fly.
Radishes ready in five weeks, when carrots bulk up.
Plant brocc or cauliflower when you harvest baby carrots in June-July.
Four week old broccoli or cauliflower seedlings and romaine lettuce are all planted 12 inches apart. Tall plants shade the lettuce and roots don't compete.

* can substitute green beans for Broccoli/Cauliflower.

Bed 2:
Peas, Spinach, Zucchini, Arugula.

Alternate peas and spinach seeds 2 inches apart. Peas provide shade and nitrogen to spinach. When pea pods form, plant zucchini seeds in pots, and grow on. End of June, harvest spinach and cut pea vines off at soil level, leaving roots in place.
Plant zucchini seedlings in hills about 3 feet apart. Sprinkle cool-weather loving arugula seeds in between mounds which will shade them from summer sun.
Sept through December you can plant more arugula or spinach when zucchini vines come out, to have winter greens.

Bed 3:
Potatoes, Kale, Beets.

Plant potatoes in mid-spring. Heap up the soil around plants to produce more potatoes from stems.
Harvest early potatoes from the middle of rows, alternating plants to create shady locations for kale seedlings. Harvest kale by cutting lower leaves and leaving centers.
When the last of the potatoes are harvested, plant fall and winter beets, which can remain in the ground until first frost or throughout a mild winter.

Bed 4:
Mesluns, Chard, Nappa Cabbage*, Collards.

Sow mesclun greens such as mizuna, corn salad and raddicio in early spring. Just sprinkle the seeds around the bed.
As you harvest the mesclun in May, plant chard seeds directly in the spaces you create.
By June, greens will be over and you can plant Nappa Cabbage (or green beans) into the remaining spaces.

The chard will mature in mid-July allowing you to plant collard greens in spaces.

Nappa Cabbage will be mature by end of September, leaving space for expanding collards.
Harvest collards from the bottom of the outer leaves throguhout the winter.

*can substitute green beans, to be harvested in August, for the Nappa Cabbage.

------------end article

I'm thinking of giving the above method a try for two small beds at home.
Will let you all know how it works out.

What to plant right now:

From Westcoast Seeds: March 17th/2012
It's time to start your Brassicas indoors (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower...), and it's a good time to start fennel, leeks, and pepper plants indoors, too. Peas, arugula, kale, pac choi, radishes, and broad beans can all be sown directly outdoors in the Lower Mainland. If you have some heavy row cover or a cold frame, it's a good time to start lettuce and spinach, and even turnips outdoors.

When starting seeds indoors, make sure to use sterilized seed starting mix, and choose the right seedling tray for the job. Provide your seedlings with as much light as possible to keep them compact and bushy. If germination seems slow or uneven, consider using a seedling warmer mat to give your seedlings the best possible start.
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Also, a very exciting visually stimulating book from the library that was at the DIGS garden today: worth a beautiful look:

The Art of the Kitchen Garden by Jan and Michael Gertley.

Check it out at the local public library: 635 GER