Page 44 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2023

The
Productive
Plot
KELVIN MASON
Members who have read my articles before will know I am keen to produce as much fruit and vegetables as possible from allotments and gardens especially with the need to become more self sufficient and to help reduce household costs. Depending on which figures you look at we import around 48% of our food, some other statistics have a higher figure!
We should all do all we can to reduce this to help reduce food miles, our carbon footprint and imports to improve the balance of payments. With the various crises in the world, it is in our interest to become less reliant on other countries for our food and energy. Many people could grow more of their food, this would be healthy, fresh and should be cheaper than buying it.
During the summer when judging allotments and as usual noticed a number that were under used and some in need
of a good weeding. Weedy plots are not
as productive as clean plots and as well
as this many plot holders do not seem to make good use of their valuable space with areas just wasted or grassed over. With the current cost of allotment rents on some sites this is an expensive waste and with many plots rented out as half plots these days the space is more valuable as there is less of it.
Salad leaves on shelving
and chard or spinach, there are others that work just as well.
The two crops may be sown or planted at the same time or the earlier maturing one planted first to get established before the
Catch Cropping
In some ways this is similar to intercropping in that two crops are taken off the same piece of ground, the difference being
that the earlier or quicker crop is sown or planted before the second usually main crop. Typical early crops are lettuce, radish, chard etc. and the later crops are sweet corn, late brassicas (or for spring of next year), courgettes, pumpkins and squash; these are often not planted until May or June so a crop planted in late March / early April will be ready for harvesting by then or soon after the main crop is planted and will not interfere with its growth.
If the first crop is started in modules and planted out this will speed up the process or if direct sown on the plot covered in fleece or small polytunnels / cloches again it helps, ensure the first crop does not get in the way. With some of the main crops
it is possible to continue harvesting after the main crop is planted providing you are careful and up until the main crop is filling out and needs the space.
Catch cropping can also be carried out at the end of an early main crop, for example early peas, potatoes, Japanese onions etc.
So what can we do to improve the productivity of our plots whether they be allotments or gardens of whatever size, or it could just be a small patio area. The techniques set out below are not new and have been used for many years, so they are well tried and tested.
Intercropping
The aim is to harvest the quicker crop before the other crop needs the space or gets in the way
larger crop is planted. The aim is to harvest the quicker crop before the other crop needs the space or gets in the way. It is important to get the crops and timing right otherwise growth can get tangled up or one gets shaded out and produces a poor yield. If done correctly it make very good use of ground and soil fertility.
Plant or sow the main crop at its normal spacing and then plant the second
This is the growing of
two crops on the same
piece of ground at the same time. One
crop is usually a larger growing crop that needs plenty of space to mature to a good standard and the other crop a smaller
and usually quicker growing crop that can usually tolerate a bit of shade from the taller crop. Classic examples include parsnip and radish, brassicas and lettuce, sweet corn
crop in the space between the main plants in the space between the rows. With parsnip and radish, the parsnips are sown in a cluster of 3 /4 seeds spaced 20 to 30 cm apart and the radish sown between the parsnip cluster but in the row (same drill). The radish are harvested well before the parsnip need the space.
44 Simply Vegetables