Raised Bed Plan - Spinach, Lettuce, Pointed Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage • Vegocracy

Raised Bed Plan – Spinach, Lettuce, Pointed Cabbage and Savoy Cabbage
This Raised Bed is planned to give two batches during the same season. Most of my Raised Beds in my 2017 Garden Plan are planned to give three batches, but since Pointed Cabbage and Savoy Cabbage both can accept colder temperatures I count on them lasting longer in the Winter than most other crops and I will not plan a third batch of Vegetables in this Raised Bed.

First batch:

Spinach, Lettuce

Second batch:

Pointed Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage

Why these crops?
Pointed Cabbage and Savoy Cabbage are new to me, but I’ve been wanting to grow them for a few years and now it’s time to try. I grow Spinach and Lettuce in the first batch since they are fast and cold resistant enough to be Winter Sown.

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
Start Spinach and Lettuce Seeds indoors

March – end of:

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

April – beginning:

Transplant Lettuce plants outdoors

May – mid:

Check that the winter sown cabbage plants are OK. If not, start new seeds indoors now.
Start harvesting Lettuce as soon as you can

June – mid:

Harvest the last Lettuce
Add new Compost and Manure
Transplant Cabbage Plants to the Raised Bed
Cover with net to prevent Cabbage Flies to access the Plants and destroy them

I plan to harvest Cabbage during the autumn.

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

Savoy Cabbage and Pointed Cabbage are started with Winter Sowings today! I posted a more detailed instruction with pictures here: Raised Bed Plan – Rocket, Spinach, Radish, Broccoli and Red Cabbage. See that page for instructions/more information. The same procedure applies for this Raised Bed since I did all my Cabbage Winter Sowing at once.

Update, 9th of March

Lettuce and Spinach Seeds are started indoors! The Lettuce Seeds are moving outdoors to freeze just a few days (read more about that in this post), and the Spinach tray will stay indoors from sowing until it’s time to transplant them outdoors. I’m starting this Spinach batch indoors to be able to compare with the Spinach started outdoors by Winter Sowing. I have quite bad experience with starting spinach indoors, but I’ve seen a lot of other people being successful so I will not giver up yet. And it’s always nice to have some experiments going. The indoor Spinach variety chosen for this Raised Bed is named Giant America and it’s the first time I’m trying it.

Update, 4th of April

Spinach and lettuce are growing in the Basement, and I’ve started to think about outdoor temperatures and if it’s warm enough to transplant them outdoors this weekend or if I have to wait a few more weeks.

Update, 8th of April

This is a gamble! I’ve been moving Lettuce for this Raised Bed outdoors today. One frost night is expected this week, so it might not work out. Anyway, I have plenty of more lettuce plants for other Raised Beds, so I’m pushing the limits a bit right now. It might not work out – but that’s how you learn.

Between the Lettuce rows I started some Scallion seeds from this nice, home made Seed envelope that I won at this years Seed Poker.

Update, 11th of May

I can not believe that we have snow on the 11th of May! I’m preparing to clear the beds out and are not expecting all of my early crops to survive this set back..

There is still a chance that the hardy stuff like lettuce, spinach and pak choi will make it. A picture from this raised bed with lettuce.

Update, 4th of june

Lettuce has been catching up. The season is a bit late, but we’re finally harvesting now.

I picked everything from this Raised Bed yesterday. Savoy and pointed cabbage had to move out!

Update, 1st of July

More cabbage updates! This is the savoy cabbage today:

They’re sharing this Raised Bed with pointed cabbage:

Update, 5th of August

I’m back home and excited to see how it’s been growing! Having pointed cabbage and savoy cabbage in the same Raised Bed seems to be working out great. They are both smaller sized cabbages and it looks like there is enough room for both of them.