12 month Grow your own planting plans

Sally_A

It seems Mum of 4 has not been on the forums since April. I tried doing a flashy number on excel but doing it on the computer has drawbacks, firstly you cannot take the computer up the garden with you, my printer does not work, things and plans change.

Best advice is to get some graph paper, do a rough to scale plan, noting N,S,E & W. Choose what you want to grow and for how many you are feeding (choose the dearest products in the shops, and stuff you love) and map it out - in pencil, as your plans will change.

Keep this as a reminder year after year for crop rotation, manuring info.

Eg, I love garlic, mangetout, french beans, sweetcorn.

Just planted about 180 garlic cloves, 4 - 6 inches apart, a foot between rows on a N - S slope (water drains better this way for me), approx 8 rows of 20+ per row. space taken = approx 10ft by 10ft.

Mangetout - twiggy tops of hazel branches work a treat for supports - will start them off in 4 seed trays, a newspaper layer on the bottom helps to keep it whole when taking out the tray, quite close together, when sprouted, plant them out as they are, if some look a bit crowded just tug them apart a bit. Good crops from a 3 foot by 6ft space.

French beans - a wigwam say 12 poles, 4 on each side - 3ft by 3ft space, will take 12 to 24 beans. I tend to grow 2 or 3 wigwams as I like to freeze these, plus a row of runner beans (approx 24 - 30 plants - this will take up say 3ft by 20ft)

Sweetcorn - grow in blocks, 14inch spacing so 36 could happily go in a 8ft by 8ft space. Some varieties need up to 18 inch spacing - for these allow 10ft x 10ft.

Winter is a lovely time to sit down with the seed catalogues, or look on line, many give spacings, timings etc. Unwins do a good sow, plant, harvest guide against each seed packet.

If you grow spuds, you can often get a late wigwam of french beans in (pot grown before hand), after the first earlies have been dug.

Leeks to be planted out in June - can also go where the spuds were, or the early broad beans.

So do not limit yourself to one crop per area per year, lots can follow on.

The above amounts are to feed 3 or 4 of us.

It get's fun in year 2 when crop rotation comes into play

Let me know what you want to grow and the quantity and if I can I will let you know the area needed.

There was also a handy guide on the RHS site about sowing, planting, harvest times - if I can find it I'll edit this and post a link.

Edit: PS - don't plan space for courgettes unless you really love them - you can slot these in to any 3ft square area, that's spare, so long as it's well manured/composted, built up slightly with a moat around - remember sandcastles as a kiddie?, the stem hates water but the roots do.

Edit2 - sorry it's a long post.

bajangal

Sally A: No need to apologise for the length of your post. As a complete gardening novice, I am very grateful for the information you supplied. Looking forward to putting it into practice. Thank you.

Sally_A

Have edited the sweetcorn spacing a bit - sorry, the variety I grow says 14 inches, but I see that others say 15 - 18 inches spacing.

1jim

I grew my runner and french beans up a "munty" frame this year and the yield was great, seemed so much more than by using wigwams or normal frame types. Will be using this again next year.
Google "munty bean frame" (theres some great images on gogle so you can see what I mean) to get an idea, but its essentially a frame with string supports, the beans climb up the string. There is a front and back, front is shorter and placed at north, the back end is taller and at south. plants then grow up and towards the light. Beans then hangdown below the frame to make it easier to pick. Have converted a few people on our allotment site to doing it this way next year. We underplanted with salad crops and use some of it as a little play area for the children.

Sally_A

1jim wrote: »

I grew my runner and french beans up a "munty" frame this year

I just googled Munty Bean Frame, 1,350 hits.....I'll let Munty's missus know, to pass on his worldwide claim to fame, :)

For those that have a hard time picturing it, think goal post structure but with only, say a 5ft high (for easy reaching) back, with strings or poles up the back and over the top of "the net".

Beans will grow as tall as the poles will let them. If this is south facing it allows the "goal mouth" to be used for other crops.

Sally_A

As mentioned above: link to the rhs sowing/planting/harvesting guide below.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/RHSWebsite/files/fb/fb14af03-f854-4cd6-8570-95b49c9e3451.pdf

rum1

Unable to send you a pm you inbox looks full. Is there a chance you could me a copy of your plan please.Than kyou in advance