What is happening in the small garden of Charles Dowding in mid-July 2019?
Thanks to Charles Dowding for sharing his wisdom and knowledge! I wrote the following notes watching the video published on Charles Dowding’s channel.
You can watch it using this YouTube link.
A lot of second planting happened already.
In the first row
And some crops are finishing like Lilla onions, that can’t be stored unfortunately.
Leaks were planted a month ago, to take over from spinach.
Just after that, beetroots followed the harvest of early potatoes.
In the second row
In place of the early lettuces (which gave out many kilograms of food), carrots were sown.
Charles recommends
To harvest lettuce, Charles picks only the outer leaves so that the lettuce keep on producing and it helps the lettuce not to bolt.
The above lettuces were sown on the 1st of July and planted the 24th of July.
In the same row, Charles planted kale, the Cavolo Nero kind. They will crop up in the fall and maybe even through the winter.
The kale replaced the early carrots, that gave out 4 kg of crops on mid-July.
To finish the row, Charles planted French beans, following the radishes and garlic as first crops.
Charles planted French beans in between the garlic and radishes, always optimizing the space.
Rabbit protection
Rabbits love young leaves and Charles uses a winter mesh to protect the crops.
In the third row
More carrots, that replaced early beetroot, were sown.
Peas for shoots were replaced by Swedes (Gowrie kind).
About Swede and insects
The Swedes require a mesh one to prevent the summer insects to infest the crops.
If you don’t, the Swedes will fork and they won’t taste as good.
Next, Charles planted some summer crops, like:
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peppers
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aubergines
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dwarf ground cherry (Physalis)
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regular tomatoes
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cherry tomatoes
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Tomatoes were planted in between spinach a few months back, always using the space when it’s available.
At the end of summer, Charles will draw lines between the tomatoes to grow the next spinach, always having something to grow.
Conclusion
The takeaway is that you can:
- use the space when available,
- plan to sow and plant using a plan.
