Last time I was here I began with snow … and it’s here again now. We had a brief respite for a couple of days and then back came the snow. Yesterday, midwinter’s eve, saw the snow return, today we got some more. Hardly any folk on the road, which was good and a lovely pub lunch to celebrate Midwinter’s Day.
Well … back to gardening … there’s not a lot one can do in the snow so I’m back to planning again. We got the Stormy Hall biodynamic seed catalogue yesterday so there’s been some quality time by the woodburner with a pot (or 3) of tea and the questions …
- What do we like eating?
- What grew well this year?
I find those two are the best way to begin planning for next season’s growing. They’re followed by …
- Which beds can be easily covered to exclude butterflies laying their eggs on brassicas?
- How much polytunnel/greenhouse space have we got?
Biodynamics, organic or just plain ordinary, these four questions are fairly fundamental.
I was sorting seeds back in the autumn and came to quite a lot of conclusions but those still need refining. My next job is to go back over seeds we still have left from this year, I’ll want to know the following …
- which are likely to be viable still?
- which varieties did we like?
So planning is about bringing lots of things together.
I plan biodynamically though, like this …
| Roots | Leaves | Flowers | Fruit |
| Potatoes | Spinach | Cauliflowers | Tomatoes |
| Parsnips | Cabbage | Broccoli | Cucumber |
| Swede | Brussels sprouts | Purple sprouting | Peppers |
| Turnip | Kale | Green sprouting | Runner beans |
| Onions | Leeks | Calendula | French beans |
| Beetroot | Lettuce | Geraniums | Broad beans |
| Carrots | Rocket | Sage flowers(salad) | Peas |
| Florence fennel | Parsley | Lavender | Courgette |
| Mizuna | Aubergine |
That’s a reasonable list for our veg patch. Now I have to sort it into classes.
| Butterflies | Polytunnel | Quick crop | Succession | |
| Roots | Onions
Beetroot Carrots |
|||
| Leaves | Cabbage
Brussels sprouts |
Lettuce
|
Lettuce | Spinnach
Cabbage |
| Flowers | Cauliflowers
Broccoli Purple sprouting Green sprouting |
Cauliflowers | ||
| Fruits | Tomatoes
Cucumber Peppers Courgette Aubergine |
Broad beans
Peas |
I find this sort of planning very useful. It helps me to decide which beds to put what veg in. I do use rotation but not exclusively or religiously as I find it more helpful to work as above, planting in the biodynamic groups and then within what needs which sort of conditions for optimum growth.
However you decide to do you planning do take advantage of the season and do some.
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