a matter of succession…

If there is one horticultural skill that I am sadly lacking in proficiency, it is the ability to put together a succession plan. My sowing and planting schedule consists of running out, and doing it all at once – probably at the last minute. I have tried to improve this year, mostly because I don’t want to have any fruit or veg going into the freezer, because in all likelihood that is where it will remain. In preparation of this, I did put together an approach. With the perennial fruit and veg – we have to eat it in season or turn it into something that we like and consume – for example, apricots for preserves, apples for cider, grapes for wine, forced rhubarb eaten in season, ditto asparagus. Then I cut down on sowing and planting too many plants, the produce of which would end up in the freezer – that means broad beans. The soft fruit such as blackcurrants/redcurrants and gooseberries need more thought, because I don’t want to get rid of the bushes we have. For some crops, I am trying to sow little and spaced out…. rocket, lettuce, radish etc.

Of course there are some that we will still sow/plant all at once – garlic, pumpkins and squashes, tomatoes, chillies, peppers and aubergine spring to mind.

Let’s see how it goes.

Reading this week: The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes