Planning the 2019 garden
21.08.2023 - 11:55
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
In Keep Calm and Grow Your Own I was pondering the wisdom of stockpiling a few essentials in case Brexit causes some disruption to our (rather precarious) food supplies, but also thinking about what we could grow next year – to keep us fed in the (probably unlikely) event that those disruptions are ongoing.
The first step to planning next year’s garden is to have a good look at what’s currently in the ground that will provide harvests through the autumn, into the winter, and beyond.
We have 12 raised beds in the back garden, some of which are planted with perennials. I have a bed of wild asparagus, and one of cultivated asparagus. They’re both relatively young, so they will provide small harvests between April and June next year. There’s also a bed of three blueberries, which crop from July through to September. On top of that, I have one bed dedicated to perennial veg, which I have just replanted with Good King Henry, Sea Kale and Sea Beet, all leafy greens that come into their own in the pesky hungry gap in early spring.
One bed of leeks will offer their oniony loveliness from September through until March, and I have a bed of purple sprouting broccoli that crops in March/April (depends a bit on the weather). So we shouldn’t be short on veg next spring!
I had two beds ready for replanting, both of which had been leafy greens. I have planted one with two spare PSB plants, undersown with a mixture of chard, leaf beet, spring onions and radishes. I had some sad looking pea plants indoors, long past their time to be planted out, but I have planted them out in the other bed. They’re tall peas, and I’ve given them a nice A-frame to clamber up. I’ve also sown some dwarf peas underneath them. Those seeds were old, so neither of