Winter Vegetable Bed - Judgement Day

It is time to revisit the 4 seasons square foot vegetable bed for the winter harvest.  The above picture was taken on 21st December and the ones below were taken today as the crop was lifted. ( If you want to see previous seasons posts just click on "4 Seasons" in the labels list.) 

Here is the day's harvest 

    

First prize has to go to parsnips. 5 roots out of 5 and all of them stout and long,  The only problem with them was that they grew so strongly that their leaves flopped over their neighbours, depriving them of light.

The leeks also showed well with 6 out of 6 transplants growing long if slender.  Some bonus parsley was also grown in the same square foot.

Celeriac was a bit bullied by the parsnip foliage, One tennis ball sized bulb (or swollen stem) would be a fine addition to a stew.

I left the swiss chard in the ground.  It has already provided several meals worth from earlier harvest. Light picking over winter progresses but there is plenty more to come in late winter and early spring before new seedlings will catch up with it. 

The pigeons had a good go at the Swedes but three survived and grew larger than tennis ball size after netting.  These would have happily waited for Burns' night on 25th January.

Beetroots were only salad size, despite the long growing season.  To be fair I think the larger ones were raided to make soup by one of the classes.  These are just the tiddlers left behind.  Also featuring in the picture below is the one mooli (white radish) that reached any size.  There were some tiddlers too but this crop  was the victim of being overshadowed by it's neighbour - parsnip.

Next is a real experiment: scorzonera.  Plenty grew.  The roots are long thin and whippy. Very hard to dig out without snapping. There is also the challenge of how to prepare them.  Once peeled the white flesh oozes latex and rapidly turns brown.  You need to turn to French cuisine to get tips on how to use this exotic ingredient.  That said, they grew well regardless of the cold.

The only no show was carrots, which was a victim of its popularity with badgers.  No sooner had they reached a reasonable size that the whole square foot was excavated and only the tops left as evidence!  I am just relieved that the badgers restricted their mining activities to these (and some potatoes).

It is only a shame that this exercise can only be reported virtually as it was designed as an educational exercise for the children to participate in,  Perhaps next year?

4 Seasons Square Foot Beds - Autumn

4 Seasons Bed today 9/9/20

Now that it is  Meteorological Autumn it is time to see how the crops in the Autumn bed are faring.  Under the 4 seasons scheme all crops should be ready for harvesting before the month is out.  There are some successes and some failures. Lets take a look:

AUTUMN

The autumn planting scheme was:

Beetroot			Tomato			Carrot
Fennel			Pepper (Cyklon)			Celeriac
Leeks (Jolant)			Dwarf French Beans			Kohlrabi

Here are pictures of each square in turn with notes:

Leeks

Although an early variety (Jolant) these leeks are lagging behind and will need to be left for another month or two before harvesting.  They could probably do with a bit of liquid feed.  Leeks feature in Autumn, Winter and Spring beds.  An earlier start is required for the Autumn ones.

Dwarf French Beans

Rammed full of greenery there has been a reasonable crop.  Not sure that this variety is the best.  A yellow or purple variety would help as the beans got "lost" behind the greenery.

Kohlrabi

 A good choice but early growth was pecked to death by pigeons.  Netting now in place and resowing has worked.  Next year protection will be in place from the start.

Fennel

Peaked too early so the three remaining  stems have bolted.  Abundant feathery leaves.  One stunning bulb was harvested in July by an unknown agency.  5 plants in a square foot was too many so the perpetrator probably did us a favour by thinning the crop! 

Red Pepper Cyklon

 A bit ambitious growing this outdoors in Scotland.  Healthy green leaves, some flowers, but not any significant fruit.  Squeezed in the middle it was not a fair contest. Verdict  Not an appropriate choice for this location. Grow indoors in future.

Celeriac

 Celeriac has been a bugbear for me in the past but I was encouraged by the results in the school garden last year.  A single plant in this square. There is a picture of the root development below.  Could do with a liquid feed.  Also growing this in Winter with similar results.

Carrots - Missing!

 Carrot are a bad choice for the school garden.  Even with fleece the badger seeks them out and totally wipes them out.  The two carrot square feet (Autumn and Winter) hove both been deeply excavated!

Tomato Totem

With more time for ripening this is an ideal variety for square foot growing.  Some support helps:.  A totem pole(?) Otherwise they keep themselves to themselves.

Beetroot 

Old reliable beetroot has been happily growing overcrowded and uncared for it delivers without getting too big to crowd out its neighbours.  Recommended for square foot gardening.

Beetroot Roots

Tomato Fruit

Celeriac Root

Hope you enjoyed this review.

Just for the record here are the other three seasons beds

Winter - bursting with growth

Spring - Some longterm residents some fillers

Summer - Strawberry greenery and some hangers on.

Four Seasons Square Foot Beds - Retrospective

It's a strange thing when growing a square foot crop: The last thing you need is a runaway success!

To go back to the start. What better plan for a school garden than to show how vegetables can be available for harvesting the whole year around?  Space of course is limited so the square foot gardening concept is ideally suited.  A four metre by one metre bed was duly divided into 4 one metre square beds and slate labels made up accordingly.  The idea is that each 1 metre bed is divided into 9 square foot beds.  This can be done permanently with wood or slate. Alternatively a wooden 'noughts and crosses' or hash frame can be temporarily deployed to help with the spacing when sowing or planting.  

Of course the real challenge is the sowing/planting plan - and the timing.  One year in and here is a season by season report.

Spring  - Photographed 18/9/19

Spring sowing plan

Winter Purslane			Celeriac			Kohlrabi
Swiss Chard			PSB (Rudolph)			Beetroot
Swede			Leeks			Parsnip

Spring has suffered from being raided in December for the School Christmas Bazaar. The celeriac, kohlrabi, swede  and celeriac were just too tempting when you knew you had a ready market for these crops which might not survive the cold temperatures or the predations of pigeons or soil borne pests. Not surprising as nearly all of the crops for spring harvesting are already mature before the year end but are left to hang on until the target date of 15 March.The PSB was not planted out because it was realised that it would bully all 8 of the surrounding crops and deprive them of light.  Parsnips were the real surprise as they thrived in the limited space given to them.  The downside was that their leaves flopped languidly over the neighbouring Spring and even Summer squares. The beetroot and leeks in particular suffered. The winter purslane seed failed to make any headway or got eaten before getting established.  Swiss Chard is a real asset to any seasons planting.  Cropping is the only issue as it is harvested a bit at a time and the soft leaves and fleshy stems are not easily transportable.  There is a reason why supermarkets don't supply Swiss Chard and this is it.  

Summer planting plan

Lettuce			Broad Bean			Onions
Peas			Elephant Garlic			Strawberry
Radish			Spinach			Rocket

Despite appearances from the late season photo Summer was very successful.  The broadbeans cropped well but then had to be removed so as not to shadow out the rest.  Lettuce grew and then bolted.  Peas rocket and radish all did the same.  The Strawberry is the only perennial in the whole 4 beds and is of course a dwarf variety.  Both onions (from sets) and elephant garlic were the surprise winners for the Summer bed, yielding respectable quantities for the minimal space given to them (see below )

Autumn planting plan

Fennel			Cucumber			Lettuce
Beetroot			Tomato			Peas
Leeks			Dwarf French Beans			Carrots

Tomato (Totem) was the runaway winner in the Autumn bed. Despite its "dwarf" label it had to be restrained.  Neither cucumber nor peas could compete.  On the plus side it fruited well. Carrots were the surprise success here (although they would have been better if thinned more)  Fennel was a no show replaced by a late sowing of coriander.

Winter planting plan:

Leek			Coriander			Kohlrabi
Beetroot			Swiss Chard			Swede
Carrots			Mooli			Parsley

Brassicas are great winter vegetables but given the space they need the leafy ones are not suitable for square foot gardening. (We do have a separate brassica only bed next to the 4 seasons bed). Root and stem brassicas like mooli, Swede and kohlrabi are good for this purpose, although the mooli was sown too late to reach a respectable size.   Some crops (Swiss chard, beetroot) seem to suit nearly all seasons.  Leeks might be another candidate for that accolade  - except that this year they failed to perform wherever they were planted.

So many lessons learned this year.  We plan to run the experiment for another year with the possibility of building on our experience.  Seasonal greetings to you all.

4 Seasons Beds on site

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A Square Foot of Onions

Elephant Garlic

Swede

Kohlrabi

Beetroot

Celeriac

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