Whitsend Market Garden

Hello everyone.

Lots of progress over the past two weeks.  The days have been very long, and a few details have been missed.  Overall, the field is managing well.


The nursery is proving very difficult to keep cool enough to germinate lettuces.  We may notice as the season progresses that lettuce may become less available.  I will be looking to other crops to fill out the loss of leaves, but the options are limited.  More as this topic develops...





This is the second year of bringing these beds into production.  This season, I have planted the green beans, romano beans, and some of the potatoes here this season.

Potatoes and beans are great crops to use in newly developed beds as they are considered "cleaning crops".  The hilling action and heavy leaf cover prevents weeds from establishing.

I chose beans to fix nitrogen to allow the beds' fertility building process to start.





I planted potatoes are good scroungers for nutrients and will tolerate the weaker soil somewhat, though the tubers will not yield as heavily as they would in a richer bed.

The other beds in this section  are getting a cover of oats and a small amount of black peas; as these mature, they will be re-incorporated into the soil and replaced by a succession of buckwheat.

The buckwheat is very efficient at retrieving phosphorus from deep in the soil.  When the buckwheat starts to mature, I will cut it down and re-incorporate it into the soil to bring the phosphorus back up to the root zone for next years crops.

The potatoes are emerging.

The weeds in this picture are still young enough to disrupt with the hoe, though I will have to move quickly...

While the potato establishes itself, I'll cover it to prevent the potato beatles from getting at them.

These are my first attempt at romano beans, a crop requested last year by one of our customers.

They look good so far.

I have no idea what to expect from new crops so I prefer to plant a small quantity to "trial".

Next year, leaf crops will replace the beans and cabbage or root crops will follow the potatoes.  The beans and potatoes will be planted where the oat/pea/buckwheat cover crops are growing this year.

Crops planted to develop fertility are referred to as "green manure".

This fall, I'll scrape away many of the weeds on the paths and sow rye and clover.





Covering the paths is a great way to suppress the weeds, grow a source of plant material for the compost, and prevent soil erosion.




This is what the end result of all this work will look like in another year or two, depending on how well the paths establish.

Here you see the clover path with it's white flowers, as well as a few seed heads of the rye.

And blemish free kale.










Nitrogen fixed by clover in the path and peas in the bed.  The will soon be a great bed for leaf crops.

The peas will be done by early July.  At that time, the pea plants will be removed and sent to the compost.

The few weeds that have evaded my hoe will get cleaned out, last year's compost applied and worked into the soil.

This activity will bring some of the weed seed bank up to the surface where they can germinate.



I'll pass the hoe through once a week to disturb the freshly sprouted weeds.  After three passes, most of the seed bank will be exhausted, and then I can plant a fall leaf crop.






Fertility building continues after the bed and path are established.  After my third pass with the hoe, leaf beds receive a top dressing of compost.

Ideally, I apply the compost just before some predicted rain, but in this case I turn on the irrigation tape.

After the soil is thoroughly moist, I work the compost into the surface.

Most food crops have relatively shallow root systems, so keeping the compost near the surface ensures that the plants can easily retrieve their nutrients.



Over the course of the year, and through next springs melt, the remaining nutrients will leach deeper into the soil.  That is one of the reasons why I plant the deeper rooted fruit plants the year after the leaf crops.

Celtuce, or Chinese lettuce, has edible leaves and stalk..  I trialed celtuce for the first time last year and grew some very leafy plants, but the stalk was thin.

Suspecting that the vigorous leaf growth was a result of placing celtuce in leaf beds, this year I planted it at the base of the tomato and zucchini (fruit crops).

It appears that my hunch may have been correct.  The celtuce planted in a fruit bed looks like it is growing a thicker stalk.

Another week or two and we'll know for sure.

However, I am wondering why the stalks are so short, I was expecting a little longer.  


No shortage of things to learn.

Flea bane, one weed that I tolerate and promote in the growing field.  There were two plants in the field that i was aware of last year.  I made a point of avoiding them while mowing pats last year, now there are several plants out there.

This herb was once used as a strew on earthen floors to drive off fleas, so I suspect they would work equally well in a stable or hutch.

I had three primrose plants in the lower left portion of the rock garden last year.  It has established so well that the Nicotiana has been pushed back among the red opopeos.  Opopeo is very tall, ans so will rise up above the white nicotiana when it finally grows.

Planning a perennial garden requires looking into the future and trying to predict how they will look.








Annual flowers.  If you are a beginner with growing flowers, i would suggest zinnia's.

They have been reliable producers for me each of the three year's I have grown them.

If I can do it, anyone can...

"You can judge a field by it's cover"