Next years plan.... intercropping things.

[jonny211]

Hi all,

I'm planning and buying seeds for next year and might try intercropping a few things as my new plot in Newbury is slightly smaller than my old one in Kent.

I've heard that you can plant sweetcorn inbetween garlic and onions but has anyone done this and got a good crop of either, also when I prepare the bed for this would it be best to manure for the sweetcorn.

Also does anyone else have any intercropping combinations that work?

Cheers.

Jon

[jonny211]

[sarah]

hmmm not heard of sweetcorn between onions and garlic. i am no expert but i think the sweetcorn would disturb the roots of the aliums. far better i would say to investigate the three sisters for your sweetcorn (a search will bring up a few threads on this) or more simply grow squahes under the sweetcorn. other intercropping ideas might be salad crops amongst slower growing produce such as brassicas or tomatoes.  i am sure others will have some good ideas for you too.

[silverbirch]

That's new for me as well.

You can use the "Three Sisters", growing squashes  (I suppose it would work for marrows as well) under the sweetcorn, and then climbing beans up them.  I use a drying bean rather than green ones.

Lettuces are an ideal intercropper as well, of course.  I grow courgettes around bean wigwams.

[grawrc]

onions don't like competition.

[Deb P]

I have found trailing pumpkins or squash work well under sweetcorn, I have tried beans as well but have always found them too difficult to pick!!

I catch crop all over the place, particularly lettuces, french beans, courgettes and herbs such as coriander and parsley. Wherever I get a gap really, but do make notes to help with rotation. ;D

[cambourne7]

....if it helps i am planning on planting my garlic and over wintering onions into the bed that my brambles are in like my loganberrys, boysenberrys etc  to save space.

I did the same planning excercise last year and my advice is to lay out your beds, buy the seeds for stuff you like and want to grow and then do the detailed planning over winter when you cant get onto the plot.

I will PM you the link to my plan for this year.

[Deb P]

Planned all yours already Louise.......there's organised! ;D ;D ;D

I'm still figuring mine out for the end of this season....loads of changes due to blight, potatoes harvested early, toms dying, not being able to move my strawberries etc. has thrown my rotation all out of sorts.... ::)

[jonny211]

Thanks for the plan Loiuse... blimey you're organised!

I'm sure I saw a picture of onions, garlic and sweetcorn planted together through black plastic.... or maybe it was too much beer one night and my eyesight went  ;)

Jon

[cambourne7]

Planned all yours already Louise.......there's organised! ;D ;D ;D

I have only just finished building the beds, i have to fill them with compost before i plant them up should be going in 2-3rd week in sept when i am back from holiday.

[Mrs Ava]

When I plant my brassicas I interplant them with lettuce.  The lettuce are gone before the brassicas hog the room.  In the past I have also sown quick maturing salad crops like salad leaves and radish in the middle of my runner bean row, again, all harvested before the runners are really running. I grow my squash amongst sweetcorns, I also grow late beans in amongst my squashes, erecting a couple of wigwams in bare patches, planting the seeds and up they go above the heads of the squashes.  I grow radish with my parsnips, but not in the same drill as suggested, I do them closely next to them - parsnips can be such buggers to germinate I would rather see clearly what is coming up.  I have in the past grown my brussel sprouts in my strawberry bed, the sprouts grow up whilst the strawbs smother the ground.  The only other thing I can think of that I do is plant flowering bulbs around the allotment, I plant them deeply so they don't interfere with anything else I grow, and the are at the borders of beds and I don't grow root crops there and that has worked well.

[Amazin]

I use quick growing stuff like radishes to outline and edge the planting areas of other crops.

[cambourne7]

i am planting up a new rasp. bed and i am planting gladdi bulbs in amonst them :-) as i thought they would look pretty and attract bees.

I am going to plant up a large bed 10ft by 10ft however inside this bed is going to be another one 8ft by 8ft. In the gap i am planting strawberrys. In the 8ft sq bed i am putting 4 (4ftx4ft) boxs for planting up spuds. http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/Allotment/PotatoBarrel532x418.jpg

This will mean i dont have to plant any spuds in my raised beds. You might want to consider this if room is tight.