Planning backwards!

[veggiechicken]

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin............

Seed sowing dates take precedence on seed packets and, if we're organised we think about what to sow in March, April etc. Maybe sort our seeds in months accordingly.

What if we thought more about the end result - what to pick in March, April etc and worked back from there. You could then sort your sowing months to make sure you had a good range of crops when you want them.

I have a feeling that none of you will understand what I'm trying to say - but its quiet on here and that makes me think of daft ideas!

[Small pumpkin]

Have you been at the wine again VC ?

I get the idea, but I'm not sure how you would successful work backwards.
Explain again but pretend you're talking to a 4 year old

[veggiechicken]

I blame you SP - your talk of a Chr****** veg bed.
If you want veg for December - say parsnips, carrots and sprouts, you have to sow them at the right time to mature in December - not November or January.
Carrots sown in March, April, May, June would be too early - August sowing may be best (just guessing).
Does that make any sense - and yes, I have been on the wine

[Greenleaves]

We know your a nutter VC, you dont have to keep proving it!

[lottie dolly]

A good idea BUT,it still depends on the weather and the light,plus if they get neglected through no fault of their own.

[Small pumpkin]

I blame you SP - your talk of a Chr****** veg bed.
If you want veg for December - say parsnips, carrots and sprouts, you have to sow them at the right time to mature in December - not November or January.
Carrots sown in March, April, May, June would be too early - August sowing may be best (just guessing).
Does that make any sense - and yes, I have been on the wine

Ha ha that's really funny.........sorry VC
Yes that makes a lot more sense now, thank you.
I'll be back in a minute........just going to get my wine glass.

[veggiechicken]

It'll make more sense with a glass in your hand

[Guest]

I get it but my head is fuzzy from the start of illness I quite like the element of surprise of what will be ready, when.

[Small pumpkin]

So what are you planing on growing backwards VC?
And will this be in bed 42 or 43 I've lost count , which poppies will you be growing in your backwards bed......


...... I can't do it, I can't remember anymore of your experiments to incorporate into you're latest brain child that is backwards planning.



....... Oooooh onions!...... are you going to backwards some onions ?

[Cadalot]

Nice idea but totally implacable for the beginning of the year unless you have a heated greenhouse or are allowed to use window cills in the house. Successional sowing is the thing to crack so you don't get everything at once!

VC cracking that alone is enough of a challenge for everyone, even if you work out the dates backwards.

I thought Thompson & Morgan had helped me crack it when I bought their all season packets of three different types of Cabbages and Sprouts. The idea is wonderful, three different varieties that take different times to grow so that you can so all at once but get successional harvesting. However they didn't think it through to a conclusion because they don't supply the seeds in three packs they mix them up so you have to plant all the seeds and then discover what you have planted where.

I brought the fact that I only ever grow 10 of each to their attention and that gardeners like to know what it is they are actually growing where. They just didn't understand. See Alans Allotment: T&M All Season Sprouts and Cabbages

[Penellype]

I see what you are getting at VC - I've sort of done something similar by creating a calendar telling me when I sowed and when I harvested for each variety, then thinking of sowing earlier or later for a crop at a different time. The only difficulty is that things don't grow at the same speed at different times of year.

An example from this year - Pea Terrain.

Seeds sown 8th May, available to eat late July - early August. Time from sowing to eating around 75 days, finished by 90 days.

Seeds sown 30 July, from above would expect peas to be available to eat during mid to end of October. In fact, although a few very small peas were edible by 19th October, they remain very small and are still really struggling to swell and fill the pods. I have had some to eat, but most have taken more than a month longer than the summer ones and more than half the crop is still in the form of flowers or tiny, flat pods.

[Small pumpkin]

I have actually been thinking about this since your drunken idea appeared before me on the screen last evening
So I was thinking a BM square foot, VC backwards & my christmad bed combination type thing going on !
Some things won't be difficult to work out at all, just plant as normal ( sprouts, red cabbage). Then it started to get a little more complicated.
So the end result will look something like this



Top row sprouts ( apologies for the sprout image, app doesn't have sprouts )
Middle row broccoli, cabbage & red cabbage
Bottom row swede, turnip, carrots, parsnips, leeks.

[burnie]

Nice idea VC, but it's not gonna work up here as crops won't grow in the dark, only getting around 7 hours of daylight just now, even the weeds have stopped growing in the new greenhouse.

[Bigmallly]

I think it would work given the correct varieties, I am planning my succession plan around seasonal varieties of the same veg.

[ESBkevin]

I like the idea but it's more complicated than that. For example I have 3 buckets of spuds stood in the greenhouse for christmas new potatoes...if they survive. So having the right produce out of season you have to account for either more losses or extra special mollycoddling. I did start the carrots in a mo**isons flower bucket, they were fantastic but some idiot forgot to start some more 4 weeks later because by then I was into spring planting. A case of a loose nut on the steering wheel again!

I must try harder, one day I will have the time to do this properly.