A FOUR-SEASON GARDEN PLAN

Year round planning and the best crops for each season, including winter growing.

January/February 1984
 
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Issue # 85 - January/February 1984

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Norm Lee is editor/publisher of Homesteaders news (10$) a year , Dept. TMEN Naples, New York 14512). Caligraphy is by Sherrie Lee.

by Norm Lee

This is how my wife Sherrie and I harvest fresh vegetables year round. We plant eight organic raised beds—ours are 3' X 24' each—in early spring . . . and succession-plant them for the fall garden. We seed eight other beds for the summer garden in May, and replant them later in the season to become the winter garden. The plan is suited for USDA Hardiness Zones 5 and 6, but can be adapted for Zones 4 and 7.

Green onions, radishes, garlic, marigolds, dill, basil, and such are inter-planted throughout to deter insect pests. When it's time to plant a bed, we may pull out an old crop and add it-to the compost pile before its bearing season is quite over.

Some beds can also be inter-planted before the preceding crop is entirely used up. There are many more possibilities than we've shown here.

Most important for winter harvests—after the selection of the hardiest vegetables and varieties available—is the application of deep mulch. We put 12 or more inches of dry hay over the beds before freezing temperatures begin in the fall (plastic sheeting on top keeps water out). That way, we're still eating winter crops when the spring garden starts producing its first greens. And that's a gardener's thrill!

We dry herbs and onions, can tomatoes, and store winter squash. All else comes straight from the garden . . . all year round.

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