We are in full harvest mode now. To add to the carrots and leeks that I have been pulling up for a few weeks now, the last two weeks have seen the first parsnips, cabbages (white and red - very happy with their quality this year - see today's pick below) and sprouts of the season. But, they are not the 'beginnings' to which the title of this blog refers.
No, this week, you'll see that my focus has already switched to what, hopefully, I'll be harvesting next season. The 2021 onions and potatoes.
And because I am trying to share some hints and tips about veg growing as well as share my growing experiences, I need to talk to you about crop rotation.
It's never healthy to grow the same type of vegetables in the same beds year after year; this gives a chance for pests and diseases related to that crop to establish themselves, So we 'rotate' our crops year on year. The plot I run has 6 major beds and a number of raised and fruit beds. In 2020, my beds (right hand side below) were as follows
Bed 1 Potatoes
Bed 2 Potatoes
Bed 3 Squash/Sweetcorn/Parsnips
Bed 4 Brassicas
Bed 5 Brassicas
Bed 6 Onions/garlic
Raised Beds - Carrots, Beetroot, sweet potato, onions spinach
(sorry to my BG colleagues for the crayon work but as you can probably see I don't do measured surveys or Cad!)
So for 2021 I am growing onion sets where the early potatoes were (bed 1) and the potatoes in beds 3 and 5. And the preparation has started already.
The potatoes finished and were harvested in late summer. So the beds have simply been dug over (and the bindweed root that I found removed - but I guarantee I won't have found all of it).Three weeks ago, the onion and garlic sets went in and after initially being netted (so that the birds don't pick them out of the soil) they have now established themselves and are ready to over-winter
Then to the potatoes. Over the last couple of weeks I have switched my attention to digging over bed 3 (which was this year's squash and sweetcorn) for my first set of next year spuds. Soil preparation for potatoes is a bit more specific. Potatoes need well manured soil to grow best and we are lucky enough to have an allotment supply of manure reguarly topped up by the local equestrian school. I collect it when it is fresh and barrow it down into my own pallet- built manure pens, so that it can rot down (it needs to be at least 9-12 months old before you should use it otherwise it will be too 'hot' for the soil).
The supply I have is pictured and you can see how 'soil like' the mixture is after a year of storage. Now compare it with the fresh manure (right hand side below) from the allotment which I added today, complete with straw and all...
The 'old' manure is then transferred by barrow and laid across the bed in mounds and then raked across. I am generous with the mounds but that means the whole process is quite a workout!
You can tell the browness of the fresh manure compared to the 'grey' of the original earth.
I will now let it overwinter with the worms and winter frosts doing their stuff to work it in, and next year it should be good for both planting and the earthing up - just where we were last April.
So there we are. Already thinking about next year. Like most things in life. Planning is everything. Until next time.
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