Banishing gaps and gluts in the vegetable garden
Just as the world is bursting into growth from March to May, the supply of garden-fresh vegetables dwindles. It only catches up when the first sowings start to mature in June - hence the term 'hungry gap'. It can take new gardeners by surprise when they first start growing veg. It is also found it very easy to create periodic hungry gaps, interspersed with gluts. Even your best friends may pretend to be out when you appear on the doorstep with yet another king-size marrow or bucket of tomatoes.
Planning is the key
Lawrence D Hills produced a very useful, if infuriatingly smug, leaflet entitled 'What you could be eating now if you'd sown it in time'. Planning what you are going to grow, when and where, can ensure that you do remember to sow it, and that you have a space in the garden to grow it.
Arm yourself with a few good books and a selection of seed catalogues, including the Organic Gardening Catalogue of course, a plan of your vegetable growing areas, and a list of the vegetables that you and everyone else in the household like, and perhaps dislike, and off you go.
There are two top tips
- Start by planning the crops that will be on-stream in the lean times, March to May particularly, then fill in the rest.
- Remember to record what you actually did - it will make next year's planning that much easier.
Module trays are invaluable if you are
filling the Hungry Gap
If you have the necessary facilities - a greenhouse, conservatory or light windowsill - getting plants started off indoors can be a great help. I find module trays and root trainers invaluable. They are particularly useful for raising plants such as calabrese or lettuce, where you want to plant out a limited number every few weeks. Modules can also help you get more out of your growing space - the plants can be growing in their trays while the land is still occupied, or conditions are not right for outdoor sowing.
The most useful trays are small ones that only have eight to 12 modules. You could raise different crops in the same tray, but it isn't ideal, and if you're growing for continuity you don't often want a full tray of the same plant. And having grown, say, 24 cabbage plants when you only need 12, can you throw the rest away? Or do you plant them out in that spare gap; only remembering later that it was to be left for something else?
Sowing little and often
Crops that go over quickly once they are ready to pick - such as calabrese, heading lettuce, early cabbage, spinach and French beans - are best sown little and often, so you can eat everything before it's too old, but still have a regular supply. I will find that sowing about 12 calabrese plants every two months gives an average family of two adults and two children a supply of this delicious vegetable on-and-off almost all year round, using protected cropping in early spring.
It isn't always easy to get the timing right. Sometimes your crops catch up with each other as the season warms up, but it is worth attempting. Try sowing the next batch of lettuces when the seedlings of the previous sowing have just emerged.
Even crops that don't have to be picked the moment they are ready, are worth sowing more than once. We are encouraged to grow early crops - but tend to forget about the other end of the season. Autumn can be a productive growing time. Carrots, for example, can be sown in spring for an early crop, but June is a good time to sow them for use over winter, and to miss the first attack of the carrot root fly. Sow an 'early' variety again in mid July - or August under cloches - for a final quick crop.
Beetroot is also worth sowing several times, using 'bolt resistant' varieties early in the season, with final sowings around July in mild areas.
Autumn onions and garlic are the easiest plantings to forget. They can be planted from September to November. The onions will be ready in June and July, when stored crops are usually finished, and the spring planted crop is not ready.
| Late starters | Last sowing* |
|---|---|
| Beans, dwarf French | mid July |
| Beetroot | mid July |
| Spring cabbage | mid Aug |
| Calabrese | mid Aug |
| Carrots, early | mid July |
| Chicory, red | mid Aug |
| Chinese cabbage | mid Aug |
| Endive | late Aug |
| Garlic | late Nov |
| Kale | Aug |
| Onion sets | late Nov |
| Spinach | Aug |
| Spinach beet | Aug |
* This will vary with location; plants may need protection in colder areas. Later sowings may be possible in milder areas. Choose a suitable variety.
Variety choice
Choosing the right variety is important when you are sowing through the season - 'early' varieties will give a quicker crop at the start and end of the season, but choice of variety can also help to stagger the harvest. At its simplest, you can grow a variety that will stand well - such as Minicole cabbage which seems to keep in good condition for weeks - as opposed to Hispi that soon splits if not picked. Spinach beet and Swiss chard are excellent alternatives to spinach, cropping for months rather than just a few days.
Lettuces come in amazing shapes, sizes and colours. Sow a range of these at the same time, and you can be eating lettuce in a little as four weeks, and still have something to harvest in three months.
Keeping the lettuce coming
| Lettuce type | Variety | First harvest | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cut and come again | Catalogna, Saladini | 3-4 weeks | Can be cut two or three times |
| Loose leaf | Frisby, Salad Bowl Lollo rosso | 4 weeks | Slow to run to seed; may be picked over several weeks |
| Butterhead and Crisphead | Tom Thumb All Year Round Buttercrunch Webbs Mini green Iceberg |
10-14 weeks | Traditional 'heading' lettuces. Crisphead keep longer than butterhead. |
| Cos | Little Gem Bath Cos Little Leprechaun Remus |
12-14 weeks | Can be slower than above, but stand longer |
You can sometimes fill the gaps by choosing a different type of vegetable.
- Kale is hardy, easy to grow and comes in many types. It is available in the spring hungry gap - but can be eaten sooner - there is no need to wait until the plants are huge before picking. It can be sown as late as August.
- Kohl rabi is not the easiest vegetable to grow, but when it does well it is delicious - I like to eat it raw in slices. It can be sown from late February to August, and can be ready in as little as seven weeks.
- Asparagus needs a permanent spot, and it will be several years before you get a good harvest, but it is a great hungry gap filler from late April to early June.
- Not all squash plants will take over the garden or produce giant-sized specimens, and ripe fruits will store well into the following year.
- The days of giant cabbages are long gone. Most of us don't want to harvest huge plants that take a week to get through. Grow the size that suits you - and growing smaller should mean an earlier harvest too.
You can control the size of the vegetables you produce by a combination of variety choice, and varying the spacing between plants. Onions, for example, can be grown at anything from 10-30cm (4-12in) apart - the final size of the bulb will vary accordingly. Leeks will do well from 10cm (4in), carrots from 10cm (4in), and so on.
Mini-veg varieties are available from various seed companies. Some are naturally small plants. A favourite is Protovoy, a Savoy cabbage which will produce delicious crisp, juicy heads just right for two, at a spacing of only 15cm (6in). Some mini varieties, however, will grow to full size given the chance. The reason they are included in a mini selection is that they will crop well at close spacings. Most varieties will cope with fairly close cropping - but not all. If in doubt, choose a smaller rather than a larger variety and give it a go.
One of the big mistakes often made is to wait too long before starting to pick a crop. This will often create a glut to give away later because you can't eat it all before it goes over.
The first plateful of early potatoes must be one of the treats of the season. Does it matter if they are only the size of golf balls? Broad beans can be eaten as 'mangetout' when small. Autumn planted onions are not designed for long storage, so why not start picking them as soon as they are big enough. If you have trouble keeping garlic, start harvesting the new crop in June and eat it fresh. It has a wonderful juicy flavour.
Everyone knows they should pick French beans when they are small - but if some get away from you, don't despair. They can be podded out like peas, or you can leave them to dry as an easy-to-store crop for winter use. Loose leaf lettuce can be picked as soon as the leaves are big enough to eat, but will need some leaves so they can continue growing.
Protected crops
Extending the growing season is an obvious way of helping to fill the hungry gaps. A greenhouse or polytunnel with soil beds is a great advantage early and late in the season. At Garden Organic Ryton we have a Keder greenhouse designed for this type of cropping. Early in the season we grow outdoor crops such as potatoes and peas. The extra protection brings them forward several weeks. By July and August the space is clear for winter salads and veg. Some of these would survive outside, but in the Keder greenhouse they will be actively cropping. On a smaller scale, crops can be protected with cloches or horticultural fleece.
Winter storage, bottling and freezing
Eating veg from store and preserving is the traditional way of augmenting harvest from the garden. Today freezing your harvest is another option.
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