Garden design – planning ahead for a vegetable bounty

Happy New Year!! Well gardener's New Year that is. I've got a couple of gardening books that are basically my bibles for telling me what to plant when, they both start in August and today is 1st August! I certainly have that feeling of being about to start a brand new year of veggie growing, I'm excited!!



The blank canvas

I deliberately didn’t plant many winter crops, I wanted to reach the end of winter with more or less a blank canvas to start on.  We moved in to the house in June last year and by the time we’d unpacked and settled in, it was time to start planting and I kind of panicked and threw a load of seedlings at the veggie patch and hoped they’d stick, then I got given more plants and it just ended up a bit of a jumble and I kind of ran out of room.  Having said that most things turned out great, well perhaps except for the no-show parsnip and feeble cauliflower.



So this year I have come up with a plan, I’ve figured out what I want to plant and where to plant them, I know the garden a bit better this year too so I know where works best for different things. Last year I pretty much just had one crop of everything, I managed two crops of carrots and broccoli but everything else just had one shot. I’m hoping that with sore careful planning I can manage to keep a bit more of a constant stream of freshness coming in from the garden, rather than just one huge glut of everything in one go (rookie mistake!).  So rather than planting the whole packet of carrot seeds, I’ll plant one row and then a couple of weeks later go back and put another row in etc etc …  Of course the sod’s law of all this careful planning means that everything will probably die and I’ll have to go back to the chuck it in anywhere and hope for the best method for the next year!



What I've got currently, including the weird Dead Zone where nothing seems to grow, just kind of shrivels and dies

With the glorious sunshine of Sunday we managed to get the soil prepared and it just looks like a glorious empty space waiting for gardening inspiration (and a trip to the garden centre!).  



The plan!  A full patch, with potatoes and
peas in tubs on the patio

This weekend I am going to be planting:
- Beetroot

- Lettuce

- Peas
- Sugar Snaps /Mangetout

- Shallots

- Spring Onions

- I've got Strawberries already in from last year, but if you are thinking of growing some this year then the garden centre has some already, just give them some frost protection in case we get a sneaky chill).

 

Then in a few weeks, mid-August I’m going to plant:
- Onions

- More lettuces

- Tomatoes (seeds in the greenhouse)
- Chillies (in the greenhouse)

- Potato (will start the sprouting for planting in September

 

When the time is right (a wee while later on …), the following things will go in

- Beans (runners)

- Broccoli

- Carrots

- Celery

- Leeks

 

I don’t think I will give the parsnips or caulis another shot, hmmm maybe!  Have I missed anything?!  What are you guys planting?