What are you eating this winter?
Autumn is upon us and all the summer crops are coming to an end. Soon it will be time to prepare your beds and pack up for the winter. Not likely! There are still lots of things to harvest during the winter! Where is the logic in keeping a plot for a year, but making it work for you only six months when you have more than you can eat? Why not keep it producing fresh produce through the winter? It is also a good thing to do for your soil believe it or not. Many plants add sugars into the soil in exchange for nutrients from bacteria and fungi in the soil. This helps keep the soil ecology ticking over, especially the bacteria, which are needed to release all the nutrients next season.
Your plot can produce lots of lovely summer grown crops to be eaten; some of this can be frozen or turned into preserves. Other crops like butternut squash, pumpkin, potatoes, onions, garlic, celeriac (celeriac harvest till December then lift and store) and apples just need to be kept in a dry, cool frost free place to last for months.
Other crops need a little more effort to store them, but not much. Some damp peat or damp horticultural sand and you can preserve your unblemished crops like beetroot, turnips and carrots by placing them in it.
The least troublesome crops grow slowly over the winter and you just harvest them, no watering and little or no weeding. However, you may want to have a small reserve harvested to allow you to continue to eat produce when the ground is frozen. Some of my favourite crops are winter crops. You cannot beat a parsnip sweetened by a frost, freshly dug and on your plate within a few hours of it growing. I grow sprouts, winter cabbage (January King is a good variety), cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli, Kale, swede, leeks you can also grow over winter early peas, broad beans (aquadulce variety), spring cabbage, garlic and onions for harvesting early next year. All of this with much less input than with summer crops.
I'm not a great salad eater but there are some salad crops that you can grow, especially if you have a polytunnel or greenhouse.
One of the benefits is many of these crops can be sown or grown as a second crop, which means that you get two crops from your ground and still get to grow your summer crops!
So now is the time to research and next season grow for the winter as well as the summer and get more from your plot.
Part of your planning for next year should include crop rotation.
Crop Rotation:
Crop rotation is all about getting more out of your plot and reducing the incidence of pest and diseases. There are two main reasons to follow crop rotation. Firstly, it has traditionally been quoted that certain families or groups of crops take similar nutrients out of the soil. If you grow for example a particular crop that takes a lot of potassium out of the soil, then following the crop with another crop in the same group, may leave the soil depleted in potassium for the second crop. Crop rotation is designed to avoid this scenario. Secondly rotation helps to stop the build-up of pests in the soil. For example, celery fly and carrot fly both overwinter in the soil. If you have an infestation of a pest the first year, you may be harbouring the pest in your soil, for a second harder attack the following year, if you grow a crop in the same family.
From a practicable point of view sometimes it’s necessary to break with rotation to a small extent, especially if you grow two crops a year, but it is best to follow a rotation plan as much as possible. Some plants like sweetcorn and squashes can be fitted into the crop rotation at any point.
Some grouping of vegetables for a 4 year rotation:
1 Brassicas i.e. cabbage family which belongs to the mustard family and are prone to the disease club root and like lots of nitrogen in the soil e.g. cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, swede for more information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassica
2 Legumes this is the pea and bean family. These have nodules on their roots full of bacteria that capture nitrogen from the air, increasing soil nitrogen. Because they capture their own nitrogen from the air and convert it into a plant usable form, they do not need a nitrogen rich soil. For further information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume
3 Roots this is not a family but a group of different root crops, e.g. beetroot, carrots, parsnips, onions and garlic. Tradition states not to apply manure for carrots as it will cause the roots to fork. With no-dig the manure is added as a mulch and not dug in, from my experience there is very little or no forking of the roots with no-dig.
4 Potatoes and Tomatoes. These belong to the deadly nightshade family; all parts of the plant are poisionous except for the potatoes and tomato fruits. They are both susceptible to blight, much to our dismay year! They like lots of organic matter.
A four year crop rotation involves splitting your plot into four sections. These sections do not need to be contiguous blocks. You grow crops all of one group in one section for that year.
These crops are grown in a different section each year according to the plan below.
YEAR 1
section 1 Potatoes
section 2 Roots
section 3 Brassicas
section 4 Legumes
YEAR 2
section 1 Legumes
section 2 Potatoes
section 3 Roots
section 4 Brassicas
YEAR 3
section 1 Brassicas
section 2 Legumes
section 3 Potatoes
section 4 Roots
YEAR 4
section 1 Roots
section 2 Brassicas
section 3 Legumes
section 4 Potatoes
After the fourth year you start at year one again. There are other crop rotation plans that you can follow if this does not suit you.
In practice if you grow several crops in one year, then your crop rotation does come around very quickly. Also, there is a school of thought developing that with no-dig you do not need to follow a crop rotation. With organic matter added each and every year I find it hard to believe that you would develop nutritional deficiencies. Personally, pests and diseases prevention still warrant some form of crop rotation, even with no-dig.
October
You can sow:
Dig your ground, digging in well-rotted manure or compost. Later months may be too wet to dig.
Autumn is upon us and all the summer crops are coming to an end. Soon it will be time to prepare your beds and pack up for the winter. Not likely! There are still lots of things to harvest during the winter! Where is the logic in keeping a plot for a year, but making it work for you only six months when you have more than you can eat? Why not keep it producing fresh produce through the winter? It is also a good thing to do for your soil believe it or not. Many plants add sugars into the soil in exchange for nutrients from bacteria and fungi in the soil. This helps keep the soil ecology ticking over, especially the bacteria, which are needed to release all the nutrients next season.
Your plot can produce lots of lovely summer grown crops to be eaten; some of this can be frozen or turned into preserves. Other crops like butternut squash, pumpkin, potatoes, onions, garlic, celeriac (celeriac harvest till December then lift and store) and apples just need to be kept in a dry, cool frost free place to last for months.
Other crops need a little more effort to store them, but not much. Some damp peat or damp horticultural sand and you can preserve your unblemished crops like beetroot, turnips and carrots by placing them in it.
The least troublesome crops grow slowly over the winter and you just harvest them, no watering and little or no weeding. However, you may want to have a small reserve harvested to allow you to continue to eat produce when the ground is frozen. Some of my favourite crops are winter crops. You cannot beat a parsnip sweetened by a frost, freshly dug and on your plate within a few hours of it growing. I grow sprouts, winter cabbage (January King is a good variety), cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli, Kale, swede, leeks you can also grow over winter early peas, broad beans (aquadulce variety), spring cabbage, garlic and onions for harvesting early next year. All of this with much less input than with summer crops.
I'm not a great salad eater but there are some salad crops that you can grow, especially if you have a polytunnel or greenhouse.
One of the benefits is many of these crops can be sown or grown as a second crop, which means that you get two crops from your ground and still get to grow your summer crops!
So now is the time to research and next season grow for the winter as well as the summer and get more from your plot.
Part of your planning for next year should include crop rotation.
Crop Rotation:
Crop rotation is all about getting more out of your plot and reducing the incidence of pest and diseases. There are two main reasons to follow crop rotation. Firstly, it has traditionally been quoted that certain families or groups of crops take similar nutrients out of the soil. If you grow for example a particular crop that takes a lot of potassium out of the soil, then following the crop with another crop in the same group, may leave the soil depleted in potassium for the second crop. Crop rotation is designed to avoid this scenario. Secondly rotation helps to stop the build-up of pests in the soil. For example, celery fly and carrot fly both overwinter in the soil. If you have an infestation of a pest the first year, you may be harbouring the pest in your soil, for a second harder attack the following year, if you grow a crop in the same family.
From a practicable point of view sometimes it’s necessary to break with rotation to a small extent, especially if you grow two crops a year, but it is best to follow a rotation plan as much as possible. Some plants like sweetcorn and squashes can be fitted into the crop rotation at any point.
Some grouping of vegetables for a 4 year rotation:
1 Brassicas i.e. cabbage family which belongs to the mustard family and are prone to the disease club root and like lots of nitrogen in the soil e.g. cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, swede for more information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brassica
2 Legumes this is the pea and bean family. These have nodules on their roots full of bacteria that capture nitrogen from the air, increasing soil nitrogen. Because they capture their own nitrogen from the air and convert it into a plant usable form, they do not need a nitrogen rich soil. For further information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume
3 Roots this is not a family but a group of different root crops, e.g. beetroot, carrots, parsnips, onions and garlic. Tradition states not to apply manure for carrots as it will cause the roots to fork. With no-dig the manure is added as a mulch and not dug in, from my experience there is very little or no forking of the roots with no-dig.
4 Potatoes and Tomatoes. These belong to the deadly nightshade family; all parts of the plant are poisionous except for the potatoes and tomato fruits. They are both susceptible to blight, much to our dismay year! They like lots of organic matter.
A four year crop rotation involves splitting your plot into four sections. These sections do not need to be contiguous blocks. You grow crops all of one group in one section for that year.
These crops are grown in a different section each year according to the plan below.
YEAR 1
section 1 Potatoes
section 2 Roots
section 3 Brassicas
section 4 Legumes
YEAR 2
section 1 Legumes
section 2 Potatoes
section 3 Roots
section 4 Brassicas
YEAR 3
section 1 Brassicas
section 2 Legumes
section 3 Potatoes
section 4 Roots
YEAR 4
section 1 Roots
section 2 Brassicas
section 3 Legumes
section 4 Potatoes
After the fourth year you start at year one again. There are other crop rotation plans that you can follow if this does not suit you.
In practice if you grow several crops in one year, then your crop rotation does come around very quickly. Also, there is a school of thought developing that with no-dig you do not need to follow a crop rotation. With organic matter added each and every year I find it hard to believe that you would develop nutritional deficiencies. Personally, pests and diseases prevention still warrant some form of crop rotation, even with no-dig.
October
You can sow:
- Broad beans of a suitable variety e.g. Aquadulce Caudia.
- ready early next year
- Does not suffer so badly from blackfly
- When cropped leave roots in ground. Nodules on roots have fixed nitrogen from the air and will act as a fertiliser.
- Does not like a waterlogged soil
- Swiss Chard
- Chinese Cabbage
- Early summer cauliflowers
- Garden peas, choose an early hardy variety.
- Cover from pigeons.
- Green manure to grow over winter
- Do not sow mustard after brassicas (cabbage family) or if you have club root.
- Japanese onion sets
- Garlic
- Bare rooted gooseberries or currents
- Strawberry runners.
- Transplant spring cabbage
- Rhubarb
- Grape vine
Dig your ground, digging in well-rotted manure or compost. Later months may be too wet to dig.
- If you are cultivating with no dig
- Remove perennial weeds
- First year lay onto the surface wetted cardboard then a 10 cm layer of well-rotted manure/compost.
- Subsequent years top up bed with a surface 5 cm layer of manure/compost.