[chris1976]

hello
has any one got any suggestions about how to grow veg all year round. I was wondering if there  was a way to stagger the growing of veg just using a greenhouse and coldstores. If anyone has any tips ect. please let me know
Cheers
chris1976

[John]

Oh boy - you don't ask small questions

You can spread the season with greenhouse and polytunnels to some degree. And, as you say, you can sow different varieties of things at different times. What you can't do is to have everything all year round,

We've become used to this fresh vegetables all year round idea - imported beans from Kenya, Strawberries from Israel. Sheer madness in terms of the ecology.

How far you can spread things will depend on your location. Our heavy clay in the North West has a shorter season than a lighter soil a mile away or any soil down south.

[yewtreemob]

Provided you have a greenhouse or a poly tunnel you can get at least salads all year round.  I have been picking green salad right thro the winter from a greenhouse.  I grow everything in boxes in about 9" of soil/compost mix - rocket, chard, oriental saladini, vit, purslane etc.  You can also do it outside provided you can cover the crops well but I have never tried that as I have a 20' greenhouse.  If it gets really cold I put the boxes inside a second polythene greenhouse (you see them advertised evrywhere for £15 or so) in the main greenhouse.  Then I don't ever need to use parafin or any other heating - and they don't cook if the weather changes John!

[John]

 Then I don't ever need to use parafin or any other heating - and they don't cook if the weather changes John!

OUCH!!!

Knowing my luck, the cat will just get in there, eat the seedlings (she's a weird cat) and decide the seed tray is an ideal indoor loo

[Heather_S]

Swiss Chard seems quite hardy here. It's still growing and grew all throughout winter... just a few leaves on it died from the hard frosts but the plant itself didn't. Obviously if you want to eat any in the winter it does need a light cover to keep the frosts from damaging your food!  They're a bit of a bitter green, a little like spinach. Fine when shredded and cooked with other things like in a minestrone-type soup in the winter. Good when small and chopped up and covered in hot bacon dressing  :twisted:

[yewtreemob]

absolutely right Heather, Swiss chard is an amazing plant.  I plant a load in root trainers in the early Autumn - this keeps them small and I can pick the leaves for salad all winter from the greenhouse.  This week i will plant them all out and they will grow to large plants with rhubarb sized leaves that we cook like spinach (but I think with better taste)

Richard