Quick crops

[Laura Hillier]

Hi Everyone,

When you start to harvest your crops and enjoy the fruits of your labour, the growing space can look a little empty.

What are your favourite quick-cropping veggies to be added to the plot when others are gone?

Answers may be edited and published in the September issue of Grow Your Own.

Laura

[Scarlet]

I always have several trays of "spares"! Beetroot and lettuce are the ones I mostly use to fill in the gaps

[Bren In Pots]

I've got beetroot, lettuce, radish and a pinch of spring onions to fill in my gaps that have started of in paper pots

[shona_b]

I have 2 favourites - radish and mixed salad leaves. Add some spring onion seeds and you have an all in one salad! Earlier in the year I would also have said wild rocket but I find it bolts too quickly in the hotter weather.

[solway cropper]

I never have any vacant ground and always have plenty of plants available to fill any empty spaces. The trick is to keep sowing small amounts of stuff in modules. I think anyone with a limited amount of growing space should aim for at least 2 crops from each patch of ground. You can't do this with things like parsnips or celeriac which need a long season but it's quite easy with most crops.

[VirginVegGrower]

I tend to fill with second/third sowings of beetroot, turnips, lettuce or my squashes/sweetcorn, which go anywhere after my yearly rotation. Entire beds after main crops are harvested get a broadcast sowing of green manure, like clover.

[veggiechicken]

Since I don't grow in rows but in clusters, empty spaces are not so noticeable. There are always pots of something, waiting in the wings for a gap but, when in doubt, sprinkle mixed salad leaves

[planetologist]

I grow pumpkins next to my early salads. By the time the salads go to seed, the pumpkins invade all by themselves. This year, I've also sown achocha next to my blackcurrants, so that they can climb up them after the currants have been harvested.

[maytreefrannie]

I bought a couple of packs of seeds for quick veg - starting with tiny rocket - after ten days, I'm picking some for tonight's dinner (they are really, really small).

[Potstubsdustbins]

As a container grower I cannot afford empty spaces I therefore always have follow on crops growing in smaller containers.

Yesterday I cleared one bed of 8 calabrese and replanted it with 8 more calabrese. The spring cabbage which will follow this are already in 3 inch pots.

Likewise as my first Kelvedon Wonder peas finish they will be replaced by more of the same in the hope of an autumn crop. This crop will be followed by spring cabbage or curly kale.

Its just a matter of careful planning.

Potty

[Penellype]

I tend to fill early spaces in the soil with tomatoes and later ones with broccoli. Spaces in my pots are filled with sowings of lettuce, spinach, pak choi etc. or later with spring cabbage and carrots. This year I am trying a variety of carrot called Eskimo which is supposed to be able to stand extreme cold. I've tried very late sowings of Nantes Frubund Fastcrop before with mixed results, although they are great carrots on the whole.