[muntjac]

ok here's and idea for those who havent tried it or are new to gardening . some veggies take an age to grow .sow or plant out when ready but  when you mark out the rows  and sow the seeds etc mark them well .now think " am i able to put  a few lettuce in bewteen the rows  because my cabbages  for a start will take ages to come ready to harvest " ? , this is called catch cropping . getting a fast growing plant grown and cut before the space is needed for the bigger crops . you can do this with a few plants .i am going to leave it open so others can tell us of thier tips in doing this .

[FatGaz]

I've heard that Radish are good for this too  

[GrannieAnnie]

Radishes grow soo quickly, but I've gone off them and OH doesn't like them!

[Trillium]

I haven't had a lot of luck catch cropping simply because most things are slow growers, or some shoot up quickly shadowing the main plant as some found with 3 sisters planting. Mostly I stick to lettuce in between things, or early started beets for pulling out young. I've learned not to catch crop things with onions which end up suffering due to their shallower root systems and inability to compete well for water. About the only thing I do these days is soon as the peas are almost done, out they all come and in go either more beets, carrots, late cabbage or whatever I might find I"m short of.

[WG.]

Altho' not catch-cropping in the true sense of the word, I have been experimenting with overlapping two crops in the same piece of ground.  For instance, garlic finishes in July whereas Jerusalem Artichokes only surface (for me) in late May.   I have an area where both are planted to see if the J Art spoils the yield of the garlic.

Similarly, I plant my garlic as early as August - then right through until November.  I plant lettuces or coriander or fenugreek on top of the garlic - all are harvested before the garlic surfaces.   Helps keep weed growth down too.