Raised Bed Plan - Lettuce, Rocket, Carrots and Dill • Vegocracy

Raised Bed Plan – Lettuce, Rocket Salad, two Batches of Carrots, and Dill.
I will grow early lettuce and try to start carrots as soon as I harvest Lettuce. I plan to grow Dill between the Carrot rows. This is a new plan for me, so I’m super excited to see if it works. I’m slightly worried that I will get to many Carrots since I have more Carrot Beds, but I’ve decided to try anyway.

First Batch:

Early Lettuce (or choose another early crop like Spinach or Radish)
Rocket salad

Second (and maybe third) Batch:

Carrots and Dill

Why these crops?
Carrots and Dill are supposed to grow well together, and I have decided to try it. Lettuce is a good early crop to grow early in the spring before I start Carrots.

Location
3d = This bed is in the “Needs Less” Quarter in my Crop Rotation Plan.

It is one 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
This is my plan for how to sow, transplant and harvest this Raised Bed. 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 plan to follow:

March – beginning:

Start Lettuce indoors. I plan to grow 3 different types

March – end:

Feed the Raised Bed with manure (I use Cow Manure Compost or Chicken Manure)

April – start:

Transplant Lettuce Plants to the Raised Bed (25 cm between each row)
Direct sow Rocket Salad between the Lettuce rows.
Cover the Raised Bed with a Glass Frame or a Fiber Cloth if risk for frosty nights

May – beginning:

Start harvesting Lettuce and Rocket as soon as you can

May – mid:

Clear out full rows of lettuce as soon as they are harvested.
Add Chicken Manure to the cleared areas/rows
Direct sow Carrots on the areas that are clear, 15 cm between the Carrot rows
Direct sow Dill Between the rows

Repeat this routine until all the lettuce rows are harvested, cleared and new Carrots are planted. I will try to harvest the first rows of Carrots really early to get tiny tasty carrots and then still to be able to start more carrots in the same space. Make sure to be done with all Carrot sowing in the end of June.

October – mid:

Harvest the last Carrots
Cover the Bed with Organic Material and let it rest for the 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, 5th of March

This Raised bed is started today on the 5th of march. Even though my Plan is to start them indoors and I will have them Indoors for the first weeks, I let them spend a few cold nights outdoor to wake them up and have the lettuce sprouting faster. This does not work for most vegetables, but is a good method for Lettuce.

Three types of Lettuce was started for this Raised Bed today:

I used one of my “PluggBoxes” for this. I will start more indoor lettuce for another Raised Bed later this week and will try another type of sowing tray for that, so we can compare the results later.

I gave it some snow and will have it outdoors for a few days. If you don’t have snow, colder temperature (like a refrigerator will do the trick aswell).

Update, 19th of March

After leaving the lettuce tray outdoors for a few days, I moved it to my basement last weekend – and look how nicely they are sprouting.

Update, 4th of April

The Lettuce Plants are thriving in the Basement. Lucky me!

They started to lay down and look a bit sad, but moving them closer to the light solved that problem. Grow lights are supposed to only have a 10 cm distance to the plant, and now I’ve learned what happens when I don’t follow that advice..

However, this is how the Lettuce Plants look right now. Not sure if I can follow the original plant and transplant them outdoors this weekend. It has been a cold spring so far and I might wait a few more days.

Update, 23rd of April

Finally! These lettuce plants moved outdoors today. We’re still expecting frosty nights for another week or so, but the lettuce plants that I transplanted last weekend are fine outdoors and I’m hoping that these will adjust just as fine.