A lot can depend on what the season is doing weather wise. After potatoes it's worth trying things like french beans, they may or may not come in time. Salad crops are always worth a go especially rocket, mizuna, radish etc which will grow at cooler temperatures. Remember at the end of the year the light levels are falling fast so things will be much slower. GW magazine always has a chart showing what to sow or plant in every month.
That's a really interseting link, @war garden 572 . I'd never heard of Organic Gardening magazine before. Are they still in print, do you know ? I'm going to take a look at a few more online copies because it looks very useful, even though I suspect some of the advice might be more suited to your North American climate than to the UK's. Thanks for that.
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
You can interplant quick 'catch' crops with the main crop in a bed, which allows you to still grow some of the slower ones. A well known example is to sow radish between parsnip rows. Parsnips germinate slowly and take several months to crop, the radishes come up quickly and can be harvested before the parsnips get big enough to swamp them. Spinach and salad leaves also make good catch crops. I often plant courgettes after early potatoes come out, having brought the courgettes on to quite big plants in pots by the time the spuds come out. Garlic planted in autumn/winter comes out in time for oriental greens to go in after - mizuna and mustard leaves both are inclined to bolt if planted before midsummer, but do better growing slower from July on. Dove is right about needing to understand rotation to get succession planting to work well. The principle of rotation is to avoid building up diseases and other problems in the soil if you plant similarly vulnerable crops too often in one place. It's also about understanding which plants like either the same conditions or the conditions left by others - I could plant salads after the potatoes, for example, but I usually add manure before planting potatoes, which courgettes like but salads don't. Brassicas like to follow beans and peas, so planting something like pak choi or winter kale when the broad beans or early peas come out would be a good option.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Thanks for the reply @Fairygirl I'm only using containers at the moment, but wish to expand to raised beds too next year. Do you have any tips on the lettuce? I've just ordered a cheap 18 pot vertical planter off Ebay, the pots aren't very big but I'm hoping they will do for little gem and about 5 different varieties of salad leaves and chard.
The lettuce will be fine if it's in a site where it isn't too sunny - they tend to bolt if too hot and dry. Use soil rather than compost too ,which won't dry out so easily. What size are the pots though? I grow some in pots of around 7 or 8 inches as cut and come again, and they get potted on into that when they're ready, from 3 inch pots with a handful of seedlings in them. In a pot that size, you'd get two individual plants probably, especially little gem, but I don't grow many to get to full size anyway. I sow every so often and do cut and come again. I do plant out individual specimens in troughs - around two feet long and about 8 or 9 inches width and height. I put three plants in that. It just depends how you want to do them. You can also leave one or two to go to seed later on, and that gives you free seed for next year's sowing. Slugs are a problem, so I experimented last year with putting them on an upturned pot which then went into a large shallow container of water. A hanging arrangement might be easier for avoiding that though I'd agree with @raisingirl re the chard though - they'll need more room to grow. Lettuce is quite adaptable.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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https://www.greenhousesdirect.co.uk/blogs/garden-blog/glut-no-more-plan-for-less-wastage-and-optimise-your-harvest#:~:text=Successional%20sowing%20is%20a%20key%20strategy%20for%20avoiding,three%20or%20four%20weeks%20from%20late%20spring%20onwards.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
are not same thing.
organic gardening magazine was in print from 1942-2014.
I often plant courgettes after early potatoes come out, having brought the courgettes on to quite big plants in pots by the time the spuds come out.
Garlic planted in autumn/winter comes out in time for oriental greens to go in after - mizuna and mustard leaves both are inclined to bolt if planted before midsummer, but do better growing slower from July on.
Dove is right about needing to understand rotation to get succession planting to work well. The principle of rotation is to avoid building up diseases and other problems in the soil if you plant similarly vulnerable crops too often in one place. It's also about understanding which plants like either the same conditions or the conditions left by others - I could plant salads after the potatoes, for example, but I usually add manure before planting potatoes, which courgettes like but salads don't. Brassicas like to follow beans and peas, so planting something like pak choi or winter kale when the broad beans or early peas come out would be a good option.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
What size are the pots though?
I grow some in pots of around 7 or 8 inches as cut and come again, and they get potted on into that when they're ready, from 3 inch pots with a handful of seedlings in them. In a pot that size, you'd get two individual plants probably, especially little gem, but I don't grow many to get to full size anyway. I sow every so often and do cut and come again. I do plant out individual specimens in troughs - around two feet long and about 8 or 9 inches width and height. I put three plants in that. It just depends how you want to do them. You can also leave one or two to go to seed later on, and that gives you free seed for next year's sowing.
Slugs are a problem, so I experimented last year with putting them on an upturned pot which then went into a large shallow container of water. A hanging arrangement might be easier for avoiding that though
I'd agree with @raisingirl re the chard though - they'll need more room to grow. Lettuce is quite adaptable.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...