From page 26
preserve the produce and the
growing season.
Thus, succession planting of
quick-growing vegetables
such as beans should be
matched with single plantings
of slow-maturing and easilystored varieties such as
onions.
With those considerations in
place the canny gardener will
have a good idea of the bedspace necessary for each
vegetable, and the timing of
when to plant, taking into
account, of course, the need
to rotate beds year-by-year.
A useful tool is to have a
simple blank plan of one's
vegetable patch which can be
re-used each year. When
planning for the season ahead
one marks down what should
be planted where and when,
revising the plans as one goes,
and noting on it any successes
and failures. This plan is then
filed away at the end of the
Seed harvesting is a way to cut costs
and ensure you enjoy the varieties
you prefer year after year
PLANNING
contrast to some modern
hybrids that produce no
viable seed and thus force
one to buy fresh seed each
year.
season, to act as an aide
one's soil more acidic, pour
To harvest seed from most
memoire next year.
one's coffee-grounds into the species, allow a plant or two
bed each day, or add pine
With the plan in place, soil
of the chosen variety to
needles to the bed as organic remain in the ground long
testing can take place before
matter.
anything is sown and
after the crop has been
nutrients and pH can be
There is a strong revival of
harvested, allowing it to
adjusted to suit the crop.
interest among home
flower. As the flower dies it
But, if one is aiming for cost- gardeners in old-style
will go to seed. When the
vegetable varieties. While
free crops grown naturally,
flower is properly dead (but
they may be shy-bearing, less before it naturally starts to
one should avoid bought-in
resistant to extremes of
chemical fertilizers and
shed its seeds) pluck it and
concentrate rather on adding weather, pests and disease,
pull it apart, removing the
and produce fruits of
liberal quantities of homeseed from the surrounding
made compost to one's beds, inconsistent shape and size,
matter.
and using naturally-occurring there is little doubt that the
The seed should be stored
old-style heirloom varieties of only when it is absolutely dry
substances and practices to
everything from tomatoes to
add nutrients for specific
or it will quickly go mouldy
carrots have vastly superior
purposes, adjust pH etc.
and become useless, and
Examples would be to plan to flavour to the modern
storage should be in a sealed
plant a nitrogen-needy variety hybrids.
packet in a cool, dry cupBut there's another reason to board. Don't neglect to
(eg, a green leafy vegetable
such as spinach) this year in a grow heirloom vegetables and carefully label the packet with
bed that held a nitrogen-fixing that is that it is easy to harvest the full details of the species,
viable seed from old-style
crop last year (eg, peas).
variety, etc because a year is
open pollenated varieties, in
Or, if one needs to make
Continued on page 30
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