We are now a couple of months into our learning experience with high density successive vegetable growing. Quite a success so far and perhaps this is a good time to publish an update for those who have been asking questions.
In May we started with the installation of three raised vegetable beds – the wood is 2in thick hemlock planking and the growing medium is equal parts of peat, coir fibre and worm compost. The idea is to divide the growing area into one-foot squares, plant early crops such as salad greens and under-plant with later developing summer crops that will come through and replace the earlier vegetables that, in theory you have by then eaten or which have bolted in hot weather. This has worked almost too well.
Things grew like billy-o. We have enjoyed salads for almost every meal since May other than breakfast it seems and we have found some amazingly tasty varieties – several lettuces, of course, but also two forms of roquette, mustard greens, mizuna, bunching onions and the like. The sole failure, entirely predictable, were radishes which in 50 years of gardening I have yet to master. All top and no bottom.
As well as the salad crops we have discovered tatsoi, an asian substitute for spinach, and two exceptionally tasty varieties of kale. The roquettes and lettuces are now bolting and being supplanted by several varieties of aubergines and peppers while peas and tomatoes scramble up netting screens. There are carrots and bush beans coming along, albeit the dense plantings made the beans get a bit “leggy” when they first germinated though they are firming up now. All highly nutritious and we can barely keep up eating it all. One of the pepper varieties is a chili called Ho Chi Minh that will turn yellow in late summer. Hot peppers are rated for their heat according to the Scoville scale which runs from zero (sweet bell peppers) up to somewhere in the stratosphere – this variety rates 30,000 which is hot enough that it seems doubtful we will actually be brave enough to eat them. Gifts for the unwary perhaps 🙂
Last night there was heavy rain – here are some pictures of the crops in the garden.
One of the raised vegetable gardens a couple of weeks after it was first planted back in May
The three “gardens” after the rain – the yellow flowers are the bolting salad crops that yesterday were removed to be eaten or composted.
Kale, aubergines, peas, peppers
Aubergine just starting to grow
Ho Chi Minh hot peppers – beware
Aubergine flower in front of Jaune flammée tomatoes
Deers tongue lettuce just starting to bolt
You can eat the rocket flowers and their seed pods if you wisj
Amazing. My sister in law has been using raised beds for about 8 years but with mixed success and mostly not such a big variety. She lives in N.S.
Didn’t know that – thanks. Too late now, they went to the compost bins last night but we will file it away for next year. Can’t say I have ever knowingly eaten a flower of anything.
It’s not so much raised beds, though they help, but rather having dense planting and doing succession planting. For example you can start in spring with cool climate salad crops and then as the soil warms up sow some bush beans between/below them which will germinate and grow on as you remove/eat the lettuces which cannot cope with the hot summer. You similarly plant seedlings of peppers or aubergines to do the same job. Peas can grow up your supports for tomatoes which will follow later.
How do you keep out the greens-eating animals?
2-ft high rabbit netting around the edges – you can see that in some of the pictures. Squirrels surprisingly don’t seem to be interested.
Very impressive!
Fabulous Where are you sourcing the seed?
Urban Seedlings … https://www.urbanseedling.com
I think it is worth mentioning that not only do Urban Seedlings supply high quality plants to grown on but their growing medium is amazing. The crops grow vigorously and there is no grit to wash off.