Raised Bed Plan - Early Experiments, Cucumber, Dill and Pak Choi • Vegocracy

Raised Bed Plan – Early Experiments, Cucumber, Dill and Pak Choi
This plan goes for two Raised Beds (5h and 5i in my Garden Plan). I just found out that I can get hold of enough Glass and Plastic Frames to use these two beds as Cold Frames early in the season, and plan for three batches of vegetables in this area. Main Crops are the Cucumbers in the second batch, but I will do some fun experiments before and also have time to grow something after. This is the three batches planned:

First Batch – Some fun experiments:

Pea Shoots
Scallions/Green Onion
Early Carrots
Lettuce
Maybe something more..

Second Batch:

Cucumber
Dill

Third Batch:

Pak Choi

Why these crops?
Since I found out about these Cold Frames quite late I will use the “extra area” early in the season to experiment. I will have plenty of time to play with Winter Sowing and early Crops, and still manage to get the Cucumbers enough time to grow from May/June until September. After that I will go for a reliable Autumn Crop and plant Pak Choi in both Raised Beds.

Location
5 h/i = These two bed are in the “Others and Perennials” Quarter in my Crop Rotation Plan.

It is two out of Several Garden Beds (29 when I’m writing this, but tends to be more and more each season…) See the total list of beds and Layout in my Garden Plan for Raised Beds 2017.

Time Plan for this Bed
Time Plan is totally built around the Cucumbers. The dates will depend a lot on where you live, and what average temperatures and sunny hours you have at different months. I’m in Northern Europe and this is the Plan I follow:

February – beginning:

Winter Sow Pea Shoots, Scallions/Green Onion, Early Carrots, Lettuce outdoors in the Raised Bed
Cover with Plastic, Glass or a Cold Frame

April – mid:

Hopefully there are some stuff to start harvesting in the Raised Bed
Start Cucumber Seeds Indoors

May – mid:

Harvest the last things from the Winter Sowings
Clear the Raised Bed
Add Compost and Chicken Manure
Transplant Cucumbers Outdoors
Start Dill Seeds between the Cucumber Plants

August – mid:

Start Pak Choi Seeds Indoors
Start harvesting Cucumbers and Dill as soon as possible, should have much by now..

September – End:

Harvest the last Cucumbers and Dill
Clear the Raised Bed
Add Compost and/or Chicken Manure
Transplant Pak Choi Plants to the Raised Bed
Cover with Plastic, Glass or Cold Frame

November – end:

Harvest the last Pak Choi
Clear out the Raised Bed
Cover with leaves or other Organic Material and let it rest over winter

Background
My Kitchen Garden is built with a modular approach. I have a number of Raised Beds (Deep Beds) – currently 29 beds. Most of them are 120×80 centimeters. They are Deep Beds and I always cover them with Organic Material to improve soil and nutrients, and also have a No Dig Garden. More background information can be found in these posts:

Kitchen Garden Layout Plan – Layout overview
Building a Raised Bed Kitchen Garden – How to Deep Dig the frames and feed them with organic material
How to build Raised Bed Frames – Step-by-Step guide on how to do the Frames for the Raised Beds.

Methods I use to plan each Garden Bed
I plan each bed carefully and enjoy making and developing my plans. I try to consider different angles:
– Succession Planting: I want to have at least 3 batches from each bed to maximize my harvest
– Crop Rotation: I rotate my basic crops each year to eliminate diseases. I have a 4 year Crop Rotation Plan (more about my Crop Rotation Plan here).
– Companion Planting: I want each batch to consist of Plants that thrive together to get good harvest and keep the plants healthy.
– Continuous Harvest: I want to be able to harvest from early spring to late autumn without having to preserve too much food. We prefer to eat all the vegetables as fresh as possible.

Don’t hesitate to discuss the planning of this bed with me. There is always loads of input that can help improving this further.

Update, 12th of february

I’m so excited to see how my Early Experiments with new vegetables for Winter Sowing is turning out. I’ve been adding a few news to my Winter Sowing Plan this season, and I started them today: scallions and pea shoots. I also added some spinach, lettuce and carrots to these raised beds.

Started by adding a layer of non frozen Soil in the Raised Bed.

Then laying out Scallion Seeds (using a Sowing Band), and Spinach Seeds:

Covering with 1-2 cm of soil, and adding Peas in the other half of the Raised Bed.

Finally, just a tiny bit of Soil on top, and covering with Snow.

Looking forward to watch if they sprout in the spring!

Update, 26th of March

A few days of sun and warmer weather and the Pea Shoots are starting to grow.

Update, 8th of April

First thing to harvest from my Raised Beds this season will for sure be Pea Shoots. I’m picking the first for dinner tonight.

I started Cucumber Seeds indoors for this Raised Bed this Wednesday.

They sprouted so fast, and this is how they looks now – only 3 days later!

Update 19th of April

The Cucumber plants are really liking the basement, and are growing in a good pace (slow enough to get chubby, and fast enough to be at a good size for outdoor transplant in may as planned.

Update, 23rd of April

Pea Shoots for dinner!

Someone or something obviously decided to move a bunch of peas to the other side of the spinach row!

And spinach in this Raised Bed are looking good.

Update, 30th of May

This early experiment area turned out very well. I’ve had plenty of pea shoots from this single raised bed during the spring (and still coming!). Also nice Spinach. This spinach variety is called Bloomsdale Long Standing and proved to be good in my garden. Really large and chunky leaves!