Medicinal herbs, kitchen herbs, perennial edibles and berries: https://mountainherbs.net/ grown in the Blue Mountains, Australia
Brandon Griffin wrote:
My first follow up question: It is suggested that I turn the garden beds to run East to West. Am I understanding this right?
Brandon Griffin wrote:When interplanting, how does that effect the spacing? For example, on the seed packs it says plant then 5" to 10 inch apart and then thin to 6" to 8" apart. Do these instructions apply the same or should they be spaced wider to allow room for the other plants?
Brandon Griffin wrote:When interplanting, how does that effect the spacing? For example, on the seed packs it says plant then 5" to 10 inch apart and then thin to 6" to 8" apart. Do these instructions apply the same or should they be spaced wider to allow room for the other plants?
Trying to achieve self-reliance on a tiny suburban plot: http://gardenofgaladriel.blogspot.com
Brandon Griffin wrote:When interplanting, how does that effect the spacing? For example, on the seed packs it says plant then 5" to 10 inch apart and then thin to 6" to 8" apart. Do these instructions apply the same or should they be spaced wider to allow room for the other plants?
Medicinal herbs, kitchen herbs, perennial edibles and berries: https://mountainherbs.net/ grown in the Blue Mountains, Australia
Angelika Maier wrote:I do a bed system like in your plan and my rows run across each bed. I don't do interplanting, but I don't grow big areas of the same. 3 one meter rows of lettuce is more than you can eat, same with many things. I sow most things directly it is the easiest thing to do so if you want to interplant simply mix the seeds together.
The advantage of interplanting is mainly saving space, because pestwise there is not much difference if you plant small enough areas. Or you can plant very close rows of something which grows fast and something which grows slow, for example lettuce or radishes and carrots.
It is really very important not to plant too much of the same thing and you need sufficient root crops, carrots parsnips turnips, celeriac.... Don't forget to plant garlic, it is often imported from China and expensive too.
Note when something is not growing well but other things do. There might be a soil deficiency.
The advise with the mulch is absolutely correct, good plants are comfrey and borage.
Brandon Griffin wrote:
Row 1A: Corn, Pole Beans, Cucumbers
Row 1B: Corn, Pole Beans, Squash
With Lettuce on the Northern edge partially shaded
Sunflowers around the edges
Row 2: Corn, Sunflowers, Bush Beans with potatoes and carrots scattered throughout.
Row 4: Bush Beans, Potatoes
I've kind of gotten into the mind frame that each guild needs a nitrogen source which is why I've tried to include a legume in each. Of course this requirement may be an exaggeration in my mind, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
Owner, Etta Place Cider
Ann Torrence wrote:
Brandon Griffin wrote:
Row 1A: Corn, Pole Beans, Cucumbers
Row 1B: Corn, Pole Beans, Squash
With Lettuce on the Northern edge partially shaded
Sunflowers around the edges
Row 2: Corn, Sunflowers, Bush Beans with potatoes and carrots scattered throughout.
Row 4: Bush Beans, Potatoes
I've kind of gotten into the mind frame that each guild needs a nitrogen source which is why I've tried to include a legume in each. Of course this requirement may be an exaggeration in my mind, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
Re the 3 sister arrangement. Most people hate this when they try to do table veg instead of long-term storage crops. IE sweet corn instead of grain corn, zukes & cukes instead of winter squash, green beans instead of dried beans. The idea of mutual support works well for you when you don't have to get in the thicket to harvest. It's pretty impossible until it all dries down in the fall. A cuke growing up a corn stalk is a romantic idea, but good luck finding it on the day it should be eaten. I haven't tried root crops in with my three sisters, but again, harvesting a carrot before fall would be an exercise in frustration. A storage carrot might work.
Potatoes will need hilling or deep mulch that isn't really compatible with the bush beans.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about nitrogen in the first year, plant a lot of nitrogen fixers like in your plan and under-sow with more if you are deficient (eliot coleman new organic farmer for specific ideas on combinations but you can't go wrong with an annual clover). Undersowing should compete with the weeds too. Then turn under the debris at the end of the season and rotate things around next year, the nitrogen fixing is a long term project, not a week-by-week thing to worry about. If you are starting low on N, I would supplement with alfalfa meal or blood meal or manure. The annuals grow so fast, it's hard to imagine the beans producing enough for themselves and the corn when you want the corn to have it, which is before the beans really even should be showing true leaves (you plant beans 2 weeks after corn in a 3 sisters system).
Take good notes. You want to know when you planted, when you harvested first, most, last. The square foot method for organizing your succession plantings has its advantages in that you can figure out how much to plant each week by knowing how much you want to eat at one time. And it's easier to keep track of things. Buy some ice cream sticks at the dollar store for labels. Use a pencil, not a Sharpie (learned the hard way).
As for plant density, consult either Jeavons or Square foot gardening, or your packets. I do my spacings like this: if the recommended spacing for beets is 4 inches and lettuce is 12 inches, then add them together (16) and divide in half: 8 is the spacing for that combo. Assuming that you will let the lettuce grow to full maturity, etc. That's a lot of complexity, which is another benefit to just doing a square foot at a time. Actually, I cram things together a bit more and harvest earlier. Harvesting baby greens is more fun than thinning!
Also, a few flowers and herbs for the pollinators and your senses. Calendula, marigold, borage, nasturtium, chives, all have edible flowers. Here's a list of edible flowers. Day lilies are delicious. Flowers come on fast and keep me going to tend things while I wait impatiently for ripe tomatoes.
If you haven't gardened at all before, allow yourself some wiggle room by granting permission to buy a few plants. Starting from seed is a skill that can be frustrating at first, and you want the first year to be a positive experience. Tomatoes at least. A few marigolds. Instant gratification isn't always a bad thingPretty much everything else on your list (maybe excepting okra which I haven't grown) is pretty easy from seed. Basil you can sometimes get in the herb section of the nursery with 30 plants in one tiny pot. I have separated them with great success when my seedlings failed at home.
Good luck on your adventure! It's a ton of work to get started, but the rewards of that first salad are indescribably satisfying.
Edited to add: starting garlic now depends on your climate. It won't cost much to grab some garlic at the grocery store and give it a go, but it has to go in ASAP, because the bulb-fattening triggers are all dependent on increasing daylight. Here where the ground is still frozen, it probably would be too late by the time I could plant it. So it's usually planted in fall, like its distant kinfolk tulips and lilies. Pick out a spot now for next fall's planting and put something there that you will harvest early, not potatoes!, so the ground is ready to plant.
Medicinal herbs, kitchen herbs, perennial edibles and berries: https://mountainherbs.net/ grown in the Blue Mountains, Australia
Paul Cereghino- Ecosystem Guild
Maritime Temperate Coniferous Rainforest - Mild Wet Winter, Dry Summer
B.E. Ward wrote:Hey Brandon,
Did you think about peas and decide against them? Or just not interested?
The reason I ask is I found them to be the easiest, highest-yielding crop I planted in my first plot.
Brandon Griffin wrote:
B.E. Ward wrote:Hey Brandon,
Did you think about peas and decide against them? Or just not interested?
The reason I ask is I found them to be the easiest, highest-yielding crop I planted in my first plot.
I've just never been a fan of peas, although I only ever ate them out of can as a kid. Maybe worth a try to see if I like freshly grown peas.
B.E. Ward wrote:
It's all in the preparation! Mixed in a nice pasta dish, fresh peas are awesome. There's also snap peas, which I'm less into but just as easy!
You'll never get away with this you overconfident blob! The most you will ever get is this tiny ad:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
|