Is this my daftest idea ever?

[veggiechicken]

Conventional gardeners sow in rows or blocks.
Less conventional gardeners scatter/broadcast seeds but they're usually the same type of seeds - like all carrots.

What if you mixed up all sorts of seeds (brassicas, roots, onions, cucurbits etc) and broadcast them over a patch - what would be the chances of success or failure - with reasons.

You can see where I'm going with this, can't you?

[Baldy]

no

and

yes

[bramble]

Well, if you sow,,,, or throw them all out in spring....say about March when the weather is warmer and there is growth in the air. The chances are good.
If you have a surplus of seed, give it a try.

[Lumpy]

I can see where you are going VC. Now, just sit there with your feet up and wait for the stripey ambulance with yellow wheels to pick up up and take you to a place where many of the other daft as a box of froggers live.

[Cadalot]

One of these days you will come full circle and just do things as everyone else does!

Then the following hour you will be off again

[Small pumpkin]

I'm sure you've had sillier ideas, just can't think of them at the moment

It would definitely be interesting and look very pretty. Some of the smaller crops might sulk if to close to cucurbit and brassica thugs. But lots would grow very happily. Do it VC! You'll be finding little treasures all year in your random mystery mayhem bed


No I'm not joining in

[Snoop Puss]

I think it might work if you divided them into big plants and small plants. So onions, carrots, radishes, rocket and maybe baby leaves and spinach together. And cabbages, sprouts and cucurbits together, but not sown very close together. For example. You don't want the big plants to smother the little ones. You'd have to give the big plants extra feed of some variety to help them along so they didn't starve each other to death.

Edited to add: Small Pumpkin got in there before me. But I'm not sure if this is great minds thinking alike or fools seldom differing.

Either way, this may be your daftest idea yet (but don't say ever).

[Snadger]

It would make for some interesting weeding! Unless you are going for survival of the fittest..............then you would finish up with a cabbage patch!

[Greenleaves]

I know exactly where you are going.....a secure nursing home

[Lumpy]

I know exactly where you are going.....a secure nursing home

in a stripey ambulance blah blah blah...........................

[mothhawk]

I think it's a brilliant idea VC, half an hour's seed scattering and raking in/covering with fine tilth, then sit back and wait.......only a month......till you can start to take the first harvest of young leaves - radish, chard, mustard, whatever, then continuous cropping till the frosts and beyond.

Such a good idea that someone has already tried it....

https://www.permaculturenews.org/res.../3_polyveg.pdf

I think I will join you and try it this year. Perhaps I might even get some edible carrots this way

[burnie]

Crop rotation would be a problem and soil requirements are quite different for some crops, eg carrots won't like manure and brassicas like lime, can't see it being very productive in the long term really.

[veggiechicken]

Crop rotation??
Manure???
Lime????

Hope you don't think I do these now?? These strange practices are for normal gardeners.

[mothhawk]

Crop rotation would be a problem and soil requirements are quite different for some crops, eg carrots won't like manure and brassicas like lime, can't see it being very productive in the long term really.

If it works for wild flowers why not veg?
If you start with a fairly neutral soil which most veg flourish on, then maybe the different plants will balance themselves out, heavy feeders taking the nutrients away from those that prefer poorer soil etc. and pests will be totally confused.

My main question is how thickly the seed should be sown. I suppose that will be trial and error and I shall keep a note of quantity or weight of each seed in the mix.

You may have found a niche in the Market, VC, and next year all the seed companies will be selling mixed veg seeds in the same way they sell mixed wildflower seeds.

[veggiechicken]

You may have found a niche in the Market, VC, and next year all the seed companies will be selling mixed veg seeds in the same way they sell mixed wildflower seeds.

Can you imagine the reaction? Packets of mixed cabbages or leeks are a step too far for some. personally, I think they're great because they stagger the cropping from one sowing.

A couple of years back I tried mixed seed sowing http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ugh_89301.html and it worked well. I picked some veg and left the rest for the chooks!



From your link, MH, I like the thought of preplanting with broadbeans, then scattering seeds in succession around them. I've also found that I'm not very good at even broadcasting of seeds - they seem to end up in clumps with bare patches. To overcome that, I'm going to move my sowing position around the plot ..........and big seeds an be thrown further than small seeds and parsnip type seeds float as they fall, especially on a windy day!