There are several ways to make your plot more productive, adding organic matter is the most obvious and does the job well. Take care for your soil and your soil will take care of your plants.
However there are other ways to get more from your plot, with a little bit of thought, planning and a little extra effort you can harvest more crops.
Interplanting.
This involves planting a slow maturing crop. That takes a lot of space and for most of the time the plant is growing its occupying very little of this space. You can plant a fast growing quick maturing plant between the plants or rows. The plants will not compete for resources until late in the quick maturing plants development. The quick maturing plant is then harvested, leaving the slow maturing plant to grow on by itself. You need to consider the size of the plants and how quick they grow and mature. This year I grew calabrese and planted lettuce between the rows, harvesting the lettuce whilst the main crop was still growing. I had an excellent crop of lettuce and calabrese by the beginning of June!
By sowing the lettuce early and growing on in pots it was already half grown when I planted between the rows. When it matured it was competing with the calabrese for only about a week before being harvested.
Successional sowing
Sow little and often for some crops. The prime example is lettuce, sow too much and you have a glut and end giving a lot away. Much better is to sow a short row and ever fortnight sow some more. You avoid the glut and extend how long you crop for. When seeds germinate they start a biological timer counting down the time till when it matures so you end up with crops maturing as you finish the earlier crop of the same vegetable.
Some crops lend themselves to successional sowing, Beetroot can be sown in seed modules at a few week intervals using very little compost!. Sow about 3 or 4 seeds in each module. Then plant the plug plant about 20 cm apart. When the fastest growing beetroot reaches a harvestable size twist it out to leave the other three to develop and harvested a week or two later. This way you get a lot of beetroot in a small space and it can be growing in its module whist another crop occupies the position it will be planted into. Also the plants get a better start in a module with ideal growing conditions.
If you dont want to freeze your peas but eat them fresh, then stagger the sowings. I had six sowings of peas all planned to mature around the time the previous crop is coming to an end. With luck I will have fresh peas all summer and no glut.
Two crops or more
Some crops are full season to grow and some are half season to grow. By starting the first crop early on a window seal etc and planting out when the weather improves and or starting the second crop early in pots to plant out before or as the first crop matures you can get two or more crops in a year from the same piece of ground
It will work much better if you have been generous with the well rotted organic matter as this will take a lot out of your soil. You can harvest the first crop early by over wintering Broad beans or peas which occupy a space when little else is growing. Leaving the roots only of these in the ground as the root nodules contain nitrogen fixing bacteria, then plant some cabbages, broccoli etc which have been started in pots a month to 6 weeks before the beans are harvested.
You can also plant plants in the ground just before the harvest of a previous crop between the plants or between the rows. The second crop plants then get a head start. The aim is to gain growing time.
The technique of starting the second crop in pots or seed tray modules to get plug plants works extremely well as many plants take just over half a season to grow.
Using crop protection
Using a cloche early in the season or late in thr seaaon/overwinter you can speed up growth or extend the growing period by giving extra warmth and protection against the weather. A greenhouse or polytunnel will do this on a grander scale all year round
Celery fly: Euleia heraclei
Attacks celery, celeriac, parsnips, parsley
Adult 5mm long brown to black fly female lays about 100 eggs.
Larvae white small grub up to 7 mm long
The larvae live inside the leaf of affected plant. The leaf will look bruised in places, this dead piece of leaf will dry up and looked scorched. If you tear the leaf where the larvae has been mining inside the leaf the top and botton layers of the leaf may separate forming a pouch. The larvae can be found in the pouch. The larvae is white in colour the pulsating lavae black in colour.
There are at least two broods a year from May till the Autumn, the larvae may pupate into a fly inside the leaf or in the soil, hence the need to crop rotate.
There is no approved pesticide available to treat infestations.growth
Infestations can be prevented by a combination of crop rotation and an insect proof barrier like enviromesh.
When a plant is infested , pick off affected leaves and burn them, cover the plant with enviromesh or fleece. An infestation can reduce the crop.
See attached picture to see an example of celery fly damage.
Things to sow in July:
Spring Cabbage
Chicory
Chinese cabbage
Kohl rabi
Lettuce
Peas
French Beans
Beetroot
Carrots
Radishes
Turnips
If you are not planning to grow anything after your current crop then why not make the ground work for you by growing a green manure? Green manures are crops grown from seed which are not harvested but dug into the soil or chopped and dropped instead. Some that belong to the legume family capture nitrogen from the air. Do not use mutard seed if you have clubroot as it belongs to the cabbage family.
Kevin
However there are other ways to get more from your plot, with a little bit of thought, planning and a little extra effort you can harvest more crops.
Interplanting.
This involves planting a slow maturing crop. That takes a lot of space and for most of the time the plant is growing its occupying very little of this space. You can plant a fast growing quick maturing plant between the plants or rows. The plants will not compete for resources until late in the quick maturing plants development. The quick maturing plant is then harvested, leaving the slow maturing plant to grow on by itself. You need to consider the size of the plants and how quick they grow and mature. This year I grew calabrese and planted lettuce between the rows, harvesting the lettuce whilst the main crop was still growing. I had an excellent crop of lettuce and calabrese by the beginning of June!
By sowing the lettuce early and growing on in pots it was already half grown when I planted between the rows. When it matured it was competing with the calabrese for only about a week before being harvested.
Successional sowing
Sow little and often for some crops. The prime example is lettuce, sow too much and you have a glut and end giving a lot away. Much better is to sow a short row and ever fortnight sow some more. You avoid the glut and extend how long you crop for. When seeds germinate they start a biological timer counting down the time till when it matures so you end up with crops maturing as you finish the earlier crop of the same vegetable.
Some crops lend themselves to successional sowing, Beetroot can be sown in seed modules at a few week intervals using very little compost!. Sow about 3 or 4 seeds in each module. Then plant the plug plant about 20 cm apart. When the fastest growing beetroot reaches a harvestable size twist it out to leave the other three to develop and harvested a week or two later. This way you get a lot of beetroot in a small space and it can be growing in its module whist another crop occupies the position it will be planted into. Also the plants get a better start in a module with ideal growing conditions.
If you dont want to freeze your peas but eat them fresh, then stagger the sowings. I had six sowings of peas all planned to mature around the time the previous crop is coming to an end. With luck I will have fresh peas all summer and no glut.
Two crops or more
Some crops are full season to grow and some are half season to grow. By starting the first crop early on a window seal etc and planting out when the weather improves and or starting the second crop early in pots to plant out before or as the first crop matures you can get two or more crops in a year from the same piece of ground
It will work much better if you have been generous with the well rotted organic matter as this will take a lot out of your soil. You can harvest the first crop early by over wintering Broad beans or peas which occupy a space when little else is growing. Leaving the roots only of these in the ground as the root nodules contain nitrogen fixing bacteria, then plant some cabbages, broccoli etc which have been started in pots a month to 6 weeks before the beans are harvested.
You can also plant plants in the ground just before the harvest of a previous crop between the plants or between the rows. The second crop plants then get a head start. The aim is to gain growing time.
The technique of starting the second crop in pots or seed tray modules to get plug plants works extremely well as many plants take just over half a season to grow.
Using crop protection
Using a cloche early in the season or late in thr seaaon/overwinter you can speed up growth or extend the growing period by giving extra warmth and protection against the weather. A greenhouse or polytunnel will do this on a grander scale all year round
Celery fly: Euleia heraclei
Attacks celery, celeriac, parsnips, parsley
Adult 5mm long brown to black fly female lays about 100 eggs.
Larvae white small grub up to 7 mm long
The larvae live inside the leaf of affected plant. The leaf will look bruised in places, this dead piece of leaf will dry up and looked scorched. If you tear the leaf where the larvae has been mining inside the leaf the top and botton layers of the leaf may separate forming a pouch. The larvae can be found in the pouch. The larvae is white in colour the pulsating lavae black in colour.
There are at least two broods a year from May till the Autumn, the larvae may pupate into a fly inside the leaf or in the soil, hence the need to crop rotate.
There is no approved pesticide available to treat infestations.growth
Infestations can be prevented by a combination of crop rotation and an insect proof barrier like enviromesh.
When a plant is infested , pick off affected leaves and burn them, cover the plant with enviromesh or fleece. An infestation can reduce the crop.
See attached picture to see an example of celery fly damage.
Things to sow in July:
Spring Cabbage
Chicory
Chinese cabbage
Kohl rabi
Lettuce
Peas
French Beans
Beetroot
Carrots
Radishes
Turnips
If you are not planning to grow anything after your current crop then why not make the ground work for you by growing a green manure? Green manures are crops grown from seed which are not harvested but dug into the soil or chopped and dropped instead. Some that belong to the legume family capture nitrogen from the air. Do not use mutard seed if you have clubroot as it belongs to the cabbage family.
Kevin