Making use of ground after my earlies come up....

Hi all,

So, my 2 year old daughter and I headed down to the allotment last night to see if the earlies were ready to dig.  Much excitement as a quick furkle revealed a nice spud the size of a chicken's egg.  So, in went the fork and 2 plants later we had a couple of meals worth of nice earlies to take home.  Topped them off with some radishes which were just coming ready too. 

I'm going to end up with a bit of spare ground as the earlies come out over the next few weeks.  Trouble is, said ground is quite heavy clay and is fairly dried out into hefty clods (new allotment ground dug last autumn for the first time in 20+ years!!).   Hardly a fine tilth anyway! 

Is there anything I can follow the spuds with now or am I best to leave the ground to rest and let the winter do the work on the clods?

I was thinking maybe a bit of green manure or something.  But what are the possible veg options (if any)?

I would say if your are planning crop rotation then you may as well stick with roots where the potatoes have been for now – so carrots, parsnips, turnips, beetroot or swede are the easy options (and the radish are brassicas although less important to worry about rotation there). That said, heavy clods of clay aren’t going to be that inviting for carrots and parsnip - at least if you want straight ones!

(Updated with text based on later comments - I am now off to work at the ministry of misinformation! June 04)

"said ground is quite heavy clay and is fairly dried out into hefty clods"

Rotavate it once spuds removed? Is there a Mantis Tiller, or some such that you could borrow?

Start some french climbing beans off now (in pots), dig in some compost where the spuds have been excavated, and do a quick frame along the row.  If you anticipate now how many spuds you will have dug up by say, end of June, you can anticipate how many french beans to sow (2 per stick).

Yes I know you will be totally beaned out, but they are good for freezing - not entirely the same taste - but a very welcome veg in the dark winter months.

If you are worried about rotation then don't forget Turnips and Swedes are also Brassicas.


Bob

Burger – going to have to kill my turnips and swede now as in the wrong bed! I knew about the radishes, but never even gave turnip and swede a second thought!

One year won't hurt, just don't make a habit of it!