Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

  On 4/14/2007 at 6:44 PM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

Really busy time for me.  I just wanted to make a couple of preliminary
comments on my thinking:

1) None of the software I've looked at offers much about succession
planting, even though computers are perfect for  that.

2) At this point I'm planning rotations by keeping my beds in sets of
three.  That way I can try to optimize a bed design for each and plant the
same (successional) plan in the neighboring bed next year.

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: TradingPostPaul 
  To: emitch@att.net ; livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org 
  Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 9:56 AM
  Subject: succession/ was season extension



  Well, Mitch, if I try to do it in my head it certainly gets confusing.
  Anyone working on this themselves should jump in here. As I said, this
  is
  my first shot at double or triple cropping, and it does take planning.
And
  yes, it does take more work but you can get several times as much
  produce
  from the same garden. Price of land being what it is, and most city
  folks
  being limited in space, it's a practical answer to the problem. I'm
finding
  out you don't get it just right the first time, and it's a very
individual
  thing. No book will tell you exactly what's right for you in your area. 

  I shouldn't try to explain this without going through at least one
  season
  of it myself. 

  Graph paper helps to make a rough scale drawing of the garden area. It's
a
  good cheat sheet. Note which crops are planted in which beds and date.
Keep
  it current when transplanting and harvesting. Then some lists are in
order.

  Pick which cool weather crops you want, like early beets, early cabbage,
  lettuce, onion sets, peas, radishes, early spinach, mustard, turnips and
so
  forth. I don't want all those but do want bok choy. Your plan will be
  different.

  List which warm weather crops you want, like beans, cabbage, corn,
  cucumbers, eggplant, melons, okra, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, squash,
  tomatoes, swiss chard, and so forth. 

  Write in the times to start the summer crops outside. That's when the
cool
  crops need to be done - if you're replacing them in the same space. Some
  can overlap depending on growth habits. 

  Then you work backward to the earliest date you have to start cool crops
in
  order to have them mature when summer crops need the space. Seed packets
  lie. 

  If you have a longer frost free season than I do, you might get by
without
  doing transplants, just seed it all at the right times. I have about 4
  months, so I need to start cool crops in pots and set out in early
  April,
  and summer crops have to be seeded already for transplant around end of
May
  or early in June. That's assuming some overlap. Knee pads are a must for
  me. 

  Complications set in, always. Our garlic from last fall surrounds the
  inside of several beds with lots of room to plant in the middle. We have
a
  few hundred red onion sets still waiting to go in the ground. We have
some
  cool crops growing and more germinating in the seedling greenhouse now,
and
  some planted in the beds, just in case. Summer crops are seeded indoors
and
  must get out to the greenhouse soon as they sprout. Should have started
  snow peas weeks ago. Beets, turnips, and chard seeded in beds three
  weeks
  ago didn't sprout, too cold then. 

  paul tradingpost@lobo.net