GARDENING Growing veg for six months or all year round

SEASON-DEFYING SALAD To produce year-round lettuce in a polytunnel you need to sow seeds in intervals of six to eight weeks.

Gardening for six months or all year round


Growing
Hans Wieland

In the last article (February 5) I wrote about growing food outdoors and indoors, and here I will explore the theme a bit further.
Outdoors growing in Ireland and especially the northwest, is usually limited to a period of six months, from April to September. However, if you grow in a protected environment like a polytunnel, year-round production is possible. Of course you need a balance between what you want to grow and what you are able to grow. Few of us are superhuman gardeners!
I have been growing in a polytunnel since 1985, but I got new inspiration about three years ago from ‘The Winter Harvest Handbook’, by Eliot Coleman. It is one of the best books on growing organically that I have come across in recent times. Since then I have tried using the book and its lessons at home and in my teaching at The Organic Centre.
Its advice is more than timely for two reasons. Firstly, because we had those two harsh winters with sub-zero temperatures in a row, with growers and gardeners struggling with crops during the winter months. Secondly, because of last year’s atrocious summer, when  many gardeners with no polytunnels had to deal with a very short outdoor season, as well as many pest and weed problems.
The best way to ensure a good harvest is to plan, plan, plan. Planning is everything.
Before you start planting, ask yourself the following questions:

• What will I grow?
• What do I and my family like to eat?
• What are the climatic factors in my garden?
• Am I going to preserve vegetables?
• Do I have storage space (such as a frost free shed for onions, garlic, etc)
• Where in my vegetable garden will these crops grow?
• What growing area do I have outdoors and indoors?
• Can I commit to successive sowing, planting and maintaining all year round?

Make a plan for all the vegetable families and organise a rotation and crop plan. Your plan for brassicas could look like this for example:
Work out sowing dates and allow a month between sowing and transplanting. Work out the approximate time of harvest and aim to have the following crop ready to plant once the previous crop has been cleared.

Crop cycles
There are three crop cycles for year-round gardening (compared to just one or two for short crops like lettuce, if you grow only outside):

Spring/early summer
These crops are sown mid February, harvested in May and, with potatoes, in June: Early carrots, coriander, dill beetroot, spinach, oriental greens, radish turnip, mangetout, lettuce scallions, potatoes.
Summer
Tomatoes, aubergines, chillies, peppers are sown February to March and planted out in May. Courgettes, cucumber, melons, squash are sown April to May planted out May and June. French beans are sown May to June. For basil, make three sowings between the end of April and June.

Autumn/winter
Largely concentrate on salad leaves sown in August and September and harvested from November to late Spring: Oriental greens, calabrese, beetroot, Claytonia, lambs’ lettuce endive, chicory, spinach, scallions, parsley,

Get your timing right
One of the major differences between growing for the outdoor season and growing all year round is, that you have at least two sowing periods with year-round growing: The first from late February to early May and another one in August/September. Lettuces need to be sown every 6-8 weeks.
The challenge is to fill what we gardeners call ‘the hungry gap’ (April to May). Early-sprouting broccoli, spring cabbage, chard and chicory, kale and oriental lettuces can all be harvested until around May or June, if sown and planted before the winter. Remember, seed sowing is not viable from October to January.

Hans Wieland is training manager at The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim, which offers courses, training and information in organic growing, and runs an Eco Shop and an online gardening store. For more information or to download the centre’s free 2013 Course Programme and Seed Catalogue, visit www.theorganiccentre.ie. Gardening questions or comments? Feel free to contact Hans at living@mayonews.ie.