Making The Land Work For You
Vacant land, that is land without a crop on it, in the spring or summer the weeds will happily grow on vacant land. So working the land will not only benefit you with higher yields, you wont be pointlessly weeding on vacant land. After the early potatoes have been harvested in June/July you could replace them with (green manures) or sow maybe French beans which provide their own nitrogen if PH levels in the soil are low.
Intercropping can be another way to maximise crop production. Its important to observe crop spacing’s between plants, These distances have been calculated to produce the most from a given space. Overcrowding will not produce more crops from the space, but you can share the space between rows of slow growing crops with faster growing crops, that will be ready before shading out. Early carrot & turnip varieties will be ready in 8 – 10 weeks from being sown, allowing time for them to develop before say the broad beans have covered them. So making the land work has numerous benefits on your allotment plot.
Blog By Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)
