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Succession Planting for Vegetables All Year Round

August 13, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

Succession Planting

Succession planting has nothing to do with the monarchy but refers to the system of planting crops at regular intervals with thought and planning throughout the growing season to make sure you have vegetables all year round. This helps reduce the gluts and shortages, although I can do nothing about the glut of courgettes that so many of experience in summer.

It’s the middle of August as I write, and we’ve just eaten a spinach and chard omelette for lunch, with salad on the side. Thanks to succession planting, we enjoy these three crops more or less the whole year through. Let me explain.

We all know the buzz of excitement as Spring appears, the days become sunny and warm (well, for some they do) and the seed packets come out of storage and new ones bought in garden centres or online. Perhaps now is time to give a shout-out to Premier Seeds Direct, Real Seeds and Higgledy Garden who have done a fabulous job at supplying us with seeds during this crazy pandemic year.

Seeds for Winter Veg

It’s so easy to plant too many seeds at once – and my top tip here is only planting a few of the seeds you are going to grow, in succession; a few lettuces at a time, a short row of spinach and chard, and maybe half your broad beans, leaving more to plant in a month’s time. Lettuce, spinach, chard and beetroot are crops I like to sow at maybe four intervals throughout the growing season.

Make the most of your containers here, and a succession of tubs of cut and come again salad leaves can be very handy.

The more tender plants like runner beans courgettes, squash can go in once early crops like garlic, early beetroot or onions are out.

Spring grown pak choi

Then there are those plants which don’t do as well in the hot summer months. We had wonderful pak choi this Spring but found the second sowing bolted in July. I’m going to sow some now that the days are shortening, and it should fare better over the next few weeks. Pak choi is a fairly quick crop to grow, as is rocket (clue’s in the name) and is another crop that likes to be sown early and later in the growing season.

Companion Planting

Fennel too likes to grown away from summer’s heat. We’ve just put in some fennel that had been sown in plugs, next to this climbing squash. Fennel and squash do well grown together if you are into companion planting.

Late summer is the time to think ahead towards the winter. Do you want braised red cabbage with your Christmas dinner? Then get some planted out in the summer months. There is still plenty of fine weather in these late summer months and the ground beautifully warm, for crops to grow and be harvested at the end of the growing season or remain in the ground to give lovely fresh vegetables over Winter and Spring. Kale, cabbages, sprouting broccoli, all-year-round cauliflower, perpetual spinach, chard, beets are all good examples of crops to overwinter.

Wool slug pellets on brassica plants

Don’t forget to cover your brassicas with net – those pretty while butterflies we see flitting around the veg patch are longing to lay their eggs on your cabbages, which will in turn to hungry caterpillars. The slugs are doing their darndest to prevent my winter veg growing, but I’ve just given them a liberal sprinkling of wool slug pellets, so fingers crossed they make it into the ground.

The Lady of Shallot

Speed is of the essence, and it’s an idea to have young plants or seeds ready for when early crops are out. We’re pulling up our onions on Saturday, with some help from the Lady of Shallot here, and have kohlrabi, red cabbage, red and Tuscan kale and cauliflower waiting to go in. The slugs are doing their darndest to prevent this, but I’ve just given them a liberal sprinkling of wool slug pellets.

If you’ve got a greenhouse, or live down South, then this is a whole different ball game, and your growing season is extended even further at either end. We have great success growing French, dwarf and borlotti beans in the greenhouse early doors, and then sow again outside once the dangers of frost have passed.

This year are going to experiment with a third, very late sowing of French beans in the greenhouse. We’re not sure it will work, but all we will have lost are a few seeds and a bit of time or trouble. If ever you are in doubt about sowing – give it a go! We can also never predict what the weather is going to be like, so nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Bridge Cottage Greenhouse

Tim is always saying, ‘write it down’ and a garden journal is a really useful tool. Succession planting is about planning and remembering what has worked one year to the next. However, I’m rubbish at following my own advice, and so often forget to write successes and failures down, which is surprising, seeing as I’m a writer.

There are various online digital planners, and after a quick look down the Google tube, I found this Vegetable Garden Planner App from Growveg. I’ve not used it myself, I love a journal, but would be interested to hear from anyone who has found a good gardening planning digital tool.

I do hope this has been useful if you’re new to gardening or succession planting. Please get in touch if there is anything I haven’t covered, or if you have any questions.

I’m off to sow those late French beans and some pak choi to grow in the greenhouse once the tomatoes and aubergines have finished.

Happy Gardening!

Sue

Biennial Sowing in Summer

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

In Praise of the Nasturtium from the Bridge Cottage Garden

August 11, 2020/0 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

Nasturtiums in the Bridge Cottage Garden

I’d like to take a moment to sing the praise of the humble nasturtium, which is such a useful little plant, and one we love to grow in the Bridge Cottage garden.

Nasturtiums grow well in borders, pots and hanging baskets, and will creep and crawl, up trellises and over walls, bringing vibrant colour to the garden throughout the summer months. They are quick to grow and easy to grow from seed – a great plant to get children to grow, to introduce them to gardening.

This year, my hanging baskets have been filled with the simple nasturtium, grown from seeds saved from last year. Due to lockdown, I didn’t fill my salt-glazed hanging pots (thank you Errington Reay) with the usual mix of annuals bought from my local garden centre, but instead, as many of us had to do, started thinking out of the box, to what I could use that we already had. Saved nasturtium seed to the rescue and I’m loving the bright, sunny display they are putting on.

Nasturtium Pesto

The bees are also loving the trumpet-shaped blooms and can be seen taking their fill of nectar. A far more sustainable practice and they are giving me nutritious food for free in the shape of nasturtium leaves and flowers for salads, nasturtium pesto and I’m now collecting the seed pods to make ‘poor man’s capers’.

Hop over to the Bridge Cottage Kitchen to find out more about eating nasturtium:

4 Ways to use Nasturtium in the Kitchen

Companion Planting with Nasturtium

We also plant nasturtium as a companion plant and have planted them alongside our courgettes and squash. If I consult my handy companion plant poster, bought from the Herb Society UK, I see that as well as being pals with squash, courgette and marrow, the friendly nasturtium is also buddies with apples, pears, radish and tomatoes. We’ve got a few in pots, so might well move them under the apple trees, which are heavily laden with fruit at the moment.

Companion Planting

Nasturtium Seeds

Start your nasturtiums off in early Spring, in seeds trays in the greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill. Transplant and then plant out in late Spring. You might want to keep an eye out for caterpillars – brush off any eggs that appear, and go out regularly to remove caterpillars.

August is seed collecting time for many of our flowers and saving your nasturtium seed for next year is a great plan. You may well find that they self-seed, but just to be on the safe side, collect some in a large brown envelop and leave somewhere warm and dry. Don’t forget to write on the envelope what they are, especially if you have different varieties. I was sent some nasturtium seeds by the writer Sarah Rayner, aka The Creative Pumpkin on Instagram after attending a writing workshop in her beautiful garden in Brighton, which was festooned with nasturtiums. We love a seed swap!

Do grow nasturtiums and do you have a favourite variety?

We’d love to hear from you – just pop a comment in the box below.

Nasturtium

Hop over to the Bridge Cottage kitchen to find out 4 Delicious Ways to Use Nasturtium

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other sections of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what we have been doing here at Bridge Cottage as the months go by:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, with the seasons in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. We, of course, will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

Make your own Organic Comfrey Feed

June 29, 2020/2 Comments/in The Bridge Cottage Garden/by Sue Reed

comfrey

We cut down comfrey to make our own organic comfrey feed here at Bridge Cottage at the end of May or beginning of June to make a feed for our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, dahlias and clematis, hanging baskets and indoor pot plants. this process then continues throughout the summer, as comfrey if fast-growing.

Comfrey is an excellent source of potassium, an essential plant nutrient for flower, seed and fruit production. Its leaves contain 2-3 times more potassium than farmyard manure. The comfrey root grows very deep, tapping sources of potassium in the subsoil that would not normally be available to plants and thus makes comfrey a superb plant for the organic gardener who is looking to use homemade, organic means of fertilising crops. We also add nettles to the mix, as they contain nitrogen, which is important for leafy growth

Other plants to add to the comfrey feed bucket are nettles, rich in nitrogen and borage.

Cutting comfrey with shears

We like to leave the cutting of comfrey until the bees have had their fill of the nectar from the flowers, which here in Northumberland is around the beginning of June. It might be earlier if you are in more southern climes.

We grow Russian comfrey, but be warned – this is very invasive, so unless you have a big plot, you might like to look for the Bocking 14 variety which is easier to tame. Bocking 14 is also higher in nutrient content than the wild comfrey. See if you have a local plant swop group or find someone with a big clump who is happy to divide it for you. Once established, this is a prolific plant, so finding some shouldn’t be a problem.

Cut the leaves using shears and wearing gloves, about 5cm from the ground. You can be brutal, and this plant will soon grow back, allowing you to do another cutting from it later in the year.

Comfrey feed drips into container under bin

Comfrey feed drips into the container under the bin

There are two schools of thought when it comes to making the feed. If you are a fan of Gardener’s World, you may have seen Monty Don adding comfrey leaves to a bucket of water and letting that steep. It produces a less concentrated feed, is easy to do, but boy, does it stink! Use approximately 1kg leaves to 15 litres of water. After about 4-6 weeks this can be strained, and the leaves put on the compost heap. It can then be watered directly onto your plants.

Another method is to make a concentrate. Use a container with a hole in the bottom, or a bokashi bin. Place the leaves in the bin, chop with shears, and then press own with a weight. (we use a couple of bricks in a bucket) and allow the leaves to rot of their own accord, catching drips of this precious black liquid, which should be used sparingly. Use in a ratio of one-part feed to ten parts water.

Organic Comfrey Feed

Feed your crops:

tomatoes/peppers in pots – feed 3 times a week
tomatoes/cucumbers in greenhouse beds – feed twice a week
indoor and outdoor pot plants/hanging baskets – feed once a week

Feed tomato plants with comfrey feed as the first fruits set

Other uses for Comfrey:

Composting

Place cut or bruised comfrey leaves in alternate layers throughout your compost heap. Their decomposition will encourage bacterial action causing the heap to heat up and speed up the composting process.

Mulch

Use as a mulch. Chop up comfrey leaves with grass cuttings and place a 5cm layer on the surface of the soil around all plants. This will slowly rot down to provide nutrients and act as a mulch to keep in moisture and help control weeds.

Leaf Mould Seed Compost

Add fresh cut leaves to your leaf mould heap. Their nutrient-rich liquid will be absorbed, making it a perfect medium for growing seeds and potting compost.

Planting Potatoes & Beans

Fertilise the bottom of your potato and runner bean trenches with a layer of comfrey leaves. As they break down, the plant roots will access the potassium-rich fertiliser.

If you master the making of an organic feed, your plants will love you and so will the planet.

Happy gardening 🙂

As ever, we’d love you to share your thoughts, either by leaving a comment here or on any of our social media pages, where this article will be shared.

You can find the Bridge Cottage Way on Facebook Twitter and Instagram.

You might enjoy some of the writing and ideas in other section of this website, as we look towards leading more sustainable lives by growing our own food and creating dishes in line with seasonal eating, or head to our handy ‘Month by Month’ guides to find out what is seasonal and on topic:

Many thanks for reading.

With Facebook and Instagram algorithms being fickle friends at times, be sure to get all new posts from The Bridge Cottage Way by signing up for the mailing list here. This will go our four times a year, around the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinox. We of course will not share your details with third parties, and you have the right to unsubscribe at any time.

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