Mix it up in the vegetable plot to confuse pests and produce a bumper crop of produce
As the soil warms up, seeds planted in the vegetable plot will start to sprout quickly.
While they are young it is important to keep them well-watered and weed-free and it also helps to have a sheet of fleece handy to cover them up on nights when the temperature drops to near freezing.
If you are planting brassicas and other crops that will take a long time to grow, then you can make use of the spaces between these to raise fast-growing salads.
Other vegetables that can be grown together include sweetcorn, beans and squash.
This is a practice that was used by native Americans to make the best use of soil and it is known as “three sister’s planting”.
The idea is that the squash covers the ground, suppressing weeds, while the corn adds as a support for the beans, which in turn fix nitrogen into the soil. Mixing up different crops makes lots of sense and you can do it with all kinds of things, adding in flowers for good measure.
The idea is to confuse predators, making it much harder for them to seek out a target than it would be if they just had to work their way along a row of cabbages or cauliflowers. In the greenhouse it is common practice to grow French marigolds around the base of tomato plants to deter whitefly, which don’t like the strong scent of the flowers.
It was the French who developed the idea of a
Potager, a decorative plot where flowers and produce are grown together.
You can turn any flower bed into one of these, choosing the most attractive varieties of lettuces, chard and other vegetables to grow amongst flowers. Just make sure that you have a ready supply of these coming along so that you can plug any gaps that are created by harvesting ripe produce.
This practice works just as well in containers, where carrot foliage and wigwams of French beans can mix decoratively with pelargoniums and dahlias and masses of trailing nasturtiums can add a profusion of flowers and foliage that taste every bit as good as they look.