Raised Bed Plan - Radish, Spinach, Rocket, Green Kale and more Green Kale • Vegocracy

Raised Bed Plan – Radish, Spinach, Rocket, Green Kale and more Green Kale
This Raised Bed is planned to give three batches of Vegetables, like most of my Raised Bed Plans in my 2017 Garden Plan. I will start with early Radish, Spinach, Rocket, and then try to grow two batches of Green Kale in a row. I’m not sure how this will work out, and has never tried serial growing Green Kale like this before. Please leave comments if you have experience in this.

First batch:

Radish, Spinach and Rocket

Second batch:

Green Kale

Third batch:

Green Kale

Why these crops?
I love Green Kale, and want to have as much as I can squeeze into my Cabbage Quarter. Since I will try to grow two batches of Green Kale, I only have room left in this Raised Bed to grow a few early crops before the Green Kale is ready to be transplanted to the Raised Bed.

Location
2b = This bed is in the “Heavy Feeders” Quarter in my Crop Rotation Plan. Besides from being Heavy Feeders, Cabbages are also sensitive to diseases that can be caused from growing Cabbages in the same place for more than one year, so rotate Cabbages each year (on at least a 4 year Rotation Plan, preferable a 6 year Rotation Plan but that requires more space).

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
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:

January – end of:

Winter sow Green Kale in a Plastic Box or Greenhouse. More about Winter Sowing in this post from last Season: Winter Sowing Seeds.

March – beginning:

Remove Ground Coverage and cover the Raised Bed with Glass or Plastic lid to allow the Sun to warm it up faster

March – end of:

Add Cow or Chicken Manure to the Raised Bed
Add Compost to the Bed

April – beginning:

Directsow Radish, Spinach and Rocket. Radish will grow between the Spinach and Rocket rows even if Spinach and Rocket are started at the recommended distance.
Check the Green Kale plants, transplant to larger pots if needed

May – mid:

Check that Green Kale Plants are OK. If not, start new seeds indoors now.
Start harvesting Radish, Spinach and Rocket as soon as you can

June – mid:

Harvest the last Radish, Spinach and Rocket
Add new Compost and Manure
Transplant Green Kale Plants to the Raised Bed
Cover with net to prevent Cabbage Flies to access the Plants and destroy them

June – end:

Start new Green Kale seeds in seed starters or separate pots

August:

Start harvesting Green Kale when ready

September – mid:

By now, the first Batch of Green Kale should be harvested. Clear out the Raised Bed
Add new Compost and Manure
Transplant the second batch of Green Kale Plants to the Raised Bed
Cover with net to prevent Cabbage Flies to access the Plants and destroy them

I plan to harvest Green Kale in November and December and maybe even longer if Winter is OK.

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, 17th of January

Winter Sowings for this Raised Bed is started. I posted a more detailed instruction with pictures here: Raised Bed Plan – Rocket, Spinach, Radish, Broccoli and Red Cabbage. Same instructions applies for this Raised Bed since I did all my Cabbage Winter Sowing at once.

Update, 4th of March

Look at this! Green Kale has started to sprout outdoors. Let’s hope that it will be cold resistant enough to handle the -10 degrees celsius that is predicted for next week. I have it under a plastic lid in my outdoor Mini Greenhouse.

Update, 10th of March

Not only have they been surviving a week of -10 degrees celsius. They have been growing! Go go Green Kale!

Update, 23rd of March

The winter sown kale and cabbages are doing good in the Mini Greenhouse.

Update, 9th of April

It’s beginning of April and I’m sowing in this Raised Bed today. Spinach (3 rows), Rocket (1 row) and Radish between the Spinach and Rocket rows.

The 15 cm layer of ground cover (grass clippings and leaves) added this autumn is down to a few centimeters. The worms and micro organisms has been working hard and that has hopefully left me with great soil.

Soil looks good. The black and orange pipes showing in this picture is my automatic drip watering system that runs through all my Raised Beds in this new garden section.