As much space as possible in our organic garden is occupied by
two, three or four crops each summer. Two basic ideas are 1) two
crops using the same space at different times, such as snow peas
followed by fall broccoli; 2) an early, relatively brief crop in
space that will later be over-grown by an adjacent later-maturing
crop, such as lettuce and radishes next to young, small, direct-
seeded yellow summer squash and zucchini, or to sweet potatoes
started in the furnace room from our own tubers sliced lengthwise
(remove and cook about a third of each tuber) and set cut-side-
down in soil, with shoots separated with a razor blade and
transplanted in cans.
The main brief crops planted in any adequate spare space are
lettuce of all kinds, radishes, scallions, and early determinate
(short, in 2 or 3-foot bins) tomatoes such as Burpee Pixie (red
or orange) bearing from late June to early August. Head lettuce
and scallions are mostly started indoors in a half-gallon milk
carton, cut endways; then head lettuce is transplanted into half
a 12-ounce orange juice can. Leaf lettuce is seeded outdoors in
mid-March. Later the adjacent crops take over the space, or it is
needed for paths. We usually have a few medium-size Pixie
tomatoes around June 26th.
We grow cucumbers and some peas on opposite sides of straight-up
4-foot fences.
Spring cauliflower and cabbage are planted in paths between or
adjacent to our rows of pole beans and main (large, 6 to 12 feet
tall) tomatoes. The cabbage crops are gone by the time the
adjacent crops grow up. The spring broccoli gets a space of its
own, because it produces a little all summer and revives in the
fall. The fall broccoli replaces the snow peas in early or middle
July, with the ground spaded and fertilized with organic compost
in-between. Early bush beans are replaced by whatever is
convenient from year to year.
The Butternut winter squash are planted amid the early corn,
where their dense foliage helps deter raccoons that plague us in
some years. The cornstalks are cut down when the whole crop has
been harvested, but meanwhile some empty cornstalks help support
their neighbors and confuse the raccoons. Each hill of corn is
tied around a stake to improve the resistance to raccoons and
wind. Naturally we plant the stakes before the corn seed.
In addition, the early corn and winter squash are next to the
peas on wire hoops (6 feet of 4-foot fence bent in a hoop), so
that the squash vines can grow into the late corn that replaces
the peas. Once more the squash jungle impedes raccoons, and
sometimes a raccoon walks into our Havahart trap for a one-way
five-mile trip to the State Park.
As far as possible, ground is spaded and fertilized with organic
compost between crops. Lime and wood ashes are spread in the
winter and spring, and a heavy mulch of composted leaves (six to
eight truckloads are delivered by Nether Providence Township each
leaf-pickup season in October and November and rotted in a big,
tall wire bin) is applied as each crop becomes large enough,
against weeds and to keep the ground cool and moist, and dug in
whenever the ground is spaded. We pot in half soil sieved with
half leaf mold, baked well.
Text & Graphics Copyright © 1999 Keslick & Son
Modern
Arboriculture