Sunday, February 21, 2010

Still trying to get my head around plant succession

I have no business being up this late at night -- but I got started on trying to come up with a garden plan/planting schedule and I just couldn't let go.  I have been doing my research and I found Growing Vegetables by Solomon really helped me conceive of time.  He says to consider your garden as two gardens: one planted with spring/fall crops and one with summer/winter cover crops.  That made sense -- so I started trying to divy my seeds up into these categories and remembered how I thought about growing edibles two years ago and decided it was way too complicated to attempt.  So I turned to the slimmer guide, Maritime NW Garden Guide by Seattle Tilth.  I paged through month by month and made a chart with my veggies and their planting schedule.  It looked like this (C stands for cloched, O for outdoors, I for indoors):
My perusal taught me two additional things about garden planning timing.  One, you switch to summer varieties between April and May.  Two, you switch to fall and winter varieties between June and July.  A bit too complicated for this year's plan -- but good to know. 

Time was starting to make sense, but I couldn't get the swing of how it was going to work in the garden.  So I opened up a word document, created a table the shape of my raised bed, copied it eight times, and labeled each for a month between March and October (I figure February is a lost cause around here -- better to admit defeat and get started next month.) 

 
My charts looked like this (I have no idea why I couldn't just do a screen grab -- I had to photograph my computer?!)  I used dark shading for the spaces I was saving for summer crops, white shading for new plantings, and medium shading for existing plants.  It made a lot of sense until about three months in.  Who knew plant succession was so hard!

And now I have to cry uncle so this scaredy cat farmer get some sleep.  I will try again on Monday.

4 comments:

  1. I nice little book I like to read, which covers this topic pretty well: In the French Kitchen Garden. http://www.amazon.com/French-Kitchen-Garden-Cultivating-Potager/dp/B00006JO20/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266779055&sr=8-2

    This is more of a literary and prosaic explanation of gardening through the seasons and crop rotation, so don't expect an overly technical guide. I read through this book every year, almost as a gardening warm up ritual now.

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  2. Yes, the Gardening Time-Space Continuum is a tricky one to master. It helps to just get out there and dig in. Especially here in the PNW think in terms of wheel rather than a straight line...we've always got something coming on in the garden.

    Here's a simple tutorial on maximizing your NW veggie garden from a talk I gave at the NW Flower & Garden Show: go to plantedathome.com/ look under the Growing tab at the top of the page. Good Luck - Get Growing!!!
    Lorene

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  3. Sandy-
    Thanks for the book tip. I am going to pick up a copy from my library to read after all my heavy duty planning is done. It sounds like it will give me a sense of the art (rather than the science) of growing edibles.

    Lorene-
    I saw your talk! I should have remembered your handout! Funny how the brain can only take in so much information at a time.... Thanks for the directions to the handout and your encouragement.

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  4. Leslie, I am impressed with your tables! I am looking forward to reading more and seeing how things are going now that you are full swing into March!
    Love ya~
    Maria

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