This booklet introduces the idea of mixed vegetable gardening, outlining its key benefits and requirements. The original method Abundant garden by Garden Buzz was developed in Nepal and has been What is mixed adapted to UK conditions. We hope Contents that future editions of this booklet vegetable gardening? will include much more information and useful ideas. If you have tried this Mixed vegetable gardening is an example Introduction & overview 2 approach in your own garden and of a polyculture. The word means Table of plants in layers 3 want to share your wisdom / top tips growing lots of different types of plants So how does a poly-culture work? 4 together. The growing mix in a and photos please get in touch. Choosing your plants 4 Contact details are on the inside back polyculture can include vegetables, herbs, Preparing the ground 5 cover. Find out more about this and flowers and even fruit. People have used other related projects on our website: this approach all over the world for Planting 5 hundreds of years, often with great Tending the crops 6 www.permaculture.org.uk success. Examples include the English Harvesting! 9 /mixedveg Cottage Garden, Caribbean kitchen After the harvest 10 gardens or the allotments of Bangladeshi Photo above: Mixed vegetable salad by Nonelvis Further information 11 Right: Allotments in East London by LoopZilla communities in London. How does it differ from other forms of gardening? In a conventional vegetable garden, each type is planted in rows or Others Sweetcorn Nasturtium Claytonia (Miner's lettuce) Buckwheat patches. Usually similar species are grouped together, such as brassicas, beans and peas and so on. Plants of the same or similar species compete Potato Nightshades Tomato for the same nutrients, and are an attractive habitat for pests of that plant. Usually, the patches are rotated every year to prevent the family) (late crop) (squash Cucurbite build-up of pests and diseases and so Cucumber Small squashes Squash as not to deplete the soil of nutrients. A feast in the making! By contrast, in mixed cropping a large Other crops may be possible too – these are just a few examples. examples. a few are just – these too be possible may crops Other number of different vegetables are grown (carrot family) Umbellifers What does it look like? Lovage Coriander Fennel Dill Carrot Parsnip together in the same space. A well-chosen
combination can result in less competition • Different layers above and below ground – on here let us know. successes - and please free experiment! to Write Feel for nutrients, and other beneficial Similar to a woodland or a forest garden but relationships between the different plants
on a much smaller scale, the mixed (daisy family) lettuce lettuce Composite Sunflowers Lettuce Young Lambs mean that plants are healthier. vegetable garden has a canopy, understorey, Marigold groundcover, roots and even climbers. This Some benefits of mixed way, plants occupy different spaces or niches above and below ground. Spinach Chard Amaranth Beetroot vegetable cropping: Spinach Amaranth • Development over time – Early ground • Better use of space - a lot of food is cover plants give way to slower growing, produced and many types of vegetables can later crops. Spring onion Garlic Onion Chives Onions Garlic be grown in the same space over a longer Allium (onion family) Leek • Plants from different families – Genetic time. diversity prevents build-up of pests and • Fewer pests and diseases - the different nutrient depletion. colours, shapes, textures and scents of the beans beans beans beans (pea
• Diversity of leaf shape, colour, texture and family) Broad Runner Peas Runner Dwarf Chickpeas fenugreek leaves confuse pests, and diseases can't Legumes scent – this is the traditional ayurvedic spread as easily from one plant to the next. approach to mixing vegetables for plant
• Less weeding - there is no space and no light health. Pests use their sense of sight and along plant are good to on the ground, so weeds can't germinate. greens smell to find their food plants. If there are family) italics Radish Turnip Pak Choi Kohlrabi Rocket Mustard Landcress Oriental Cabbage Cauliflower Broccoli Kale Brassicas (cabbage
• Less need for watering - greater soil no obvious large patches of similar looking Some plants that can be grown different in layers of the polyculture coverage means less evaporation. or smelling plants, they will find it harder to find their favourite food. early) cover the edge as well, to protect the patch from pests. patch the protect to as well, edge the Plants shown in shown Plants Root cropRoot (planted Ground Understorey Climber Canopy Layer 2 Mixed Vegetable Gardening 1: Table So how does a Or you can design a polyculture around one Is this companion planting? or two crops that you want a lot of, choosing polyculture work? Companion planting has been used by gardeners for other plants that support your main crop or a long while. Plants that are known to get on well at least don't set it back in its growth. The polyculture introduced in this booklet It’s this simple: together are combined in the same bed. There are some tried and tested combinations, such as onions, produces mainly leaf and root crops. You can 1. Choosing your plants carrots and lettuce, or spinach, onions and brassicas. also develop combinations around other crops 2. Preparing the ground Plants that are known not to get on are called such as tomatoes, squashes or potatoes. 3. Planting seeds antagonists and planted in different beds. Alliums (onion and garlic) and legumes (beans and peas) are Materials needed: and seedlings a well-known example. 4. Tending the crops More examples of companions and antagonists Seeds 5. Harvesting! can be found on Seedlings - grown indoors www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/ in advance of planting out Starting a mixed Companion_Planting/ Compost vegetable garden companiontables.asp Fine mulch - well rotted leaf mould is In literature the “three sisters” are often cited as a If you have your own good method ideal; keeps moisture and adds fertility Planting the seedlings classic combination used in the Americas, but there of growing vegetables, don't stop it Wood ash, seaweed, rock dust - provide all at once to try mixed vegetable are differing reports about their success in the UK 3) Planting and Europe, and even differing opinions on what vital plant minerals gardening. Try it out in a small The best time to plant your polyculture in the area first and see how well it does. plants actually constitute the three sisters. Maybe Liquid manures - another way to provide this could be another experiment for the future! open is after the frost has passed, around mid- If it works well, you can increase nutrients throughout the season May for most of Britain. Greenhouse The kind of polyculture presented in this booklet is the area next year, or you can Tools for digging, planting and polycultures can be started earlier, and some different in that some antagonists can be grown in spend further time adjusting your hardy plants like onions or broad beans could the same bed, as long as there are some other plants harvesting methods and plant mixture. be pre-sown in the same patch. in between. Of course it makes sense to choose the spots of antagonists so they don't clash with each 2) Preparing the ground Starting off seedlings 1) Choosing and other unnecessarily! Start off seedlings in the house, greenhouse or Prepare the soil as you would for a normal a cold frame, from March onwards. combining your plants vegetable patch. The more fertile the soil is, There are different approaches you can take You can also design your own plant the less preparation is needed. Dig the area Some vegetables such as garlic and onion sets when developing a polyculture. You can start combination by going through the following over, unless you are working with no-dig beds can be planted in late autumn or early spring. off with a tried and tested mix of plants like questions: of course! Add compost (ideally in late All other seedlings are best planted after the the one in this booklet. Most likely you will autumn), then till the soil with a rake in frost has passed. In most of Britian this will still find that you can improve on it as your • What do you like eating? spring. On a very acidic soil you can add some be in early to mid-May. Make sure you harden understanding of the method deepens. • Are there any obvious incompatibilities? lime as well. It's beneficial to the soil to avoid them off for a few days before finally planting Alternatively, you can start a mixed vegetable • Do you have a good mixture of layers and treading on it. If the width of the beds is less them out. patch simply by planting everything you families? (See table 1 on page 3) than 1.5m the centre can be reached without If you are planting in a greenhouse or like, observe what does well together and treading on the soil. polytunnel, you can extend the growing • Do you have a good spread of early, mid- what doesn't, then refine your mixes and season further by starting earlier and season and late crops? (Table 2 on page 9) methods over time. harvesting later.
4 Mixed Vegetable Gardening www.permaculture.org.uk/mixedveg 5 Planting seedlings 4) Tending the crops Looking after the mixed In fertile and fine soil, plant strong, healthy Covering the soil vegetable garden seedlings of cabbages, beans etc. at their One week after sowing, mustard, radish, Once everything is planted, sprinkle ash, rock normal spacing. Onion sets and garlic bulbs fenugreek and onion bulbs have started to dust or sea weed powder on top as fertiliser. can be planted along the edge of the beds, at germinate. The pre-grown seedlings have also Cover with enough topsoil or compost to 4-6 inch intervals, and some scattered established themselves. throughout the bed. cover all seeds and fertiliser. Then add a thin cover of mulch, taking care not to cover the Sowing seeds seedlings. The mulch prevents both the drying out of the soil and compaction in At the same time as planting out your heavy rainfall. seedlings, plant all the crops you are planning to grow from seed. If you have achieved a very dense ground cover • Large seeds first: you can be quite drastic with your thinning, peas and beans even using garden shears! planted at their Six weeks after sowing, production is usual spacing. increasing and there is no bare soil. Broad Day 7: A first flush of growth is starting • Medium-sized seeds: leaf mustard, coriander and lettuce can be to cover the ground harvested, along with the first radishes. The beet, spinach, chard, After 3 weeks all vegetables have germinated. faster growing leaf crops can be picked to radish scattered or A dense cover will have spread over the make space for the slower, longer living ones. planted in clumps. ground and you can start picking leaves for You can do the same salad. with carrots and other root crops. • Small seeds: Sow lettuce, onion, A mulch of leaves is applied on top of the broadcast seeds, carrot, coriander and between the planted seedlings so on, each of them individually and thinly spread over the bed. Water well, and stand back to admire your • Ground cover: Sow mustard or rocket, work. Your mixed vegetable bed is complete – all you have to do from now on is harvest! buckwheat, fenugreek (at least two different families) thickly at the end What about slugs? Lettuces and other greens ready for thinning Companion plants In Britain, this is the cry of every gardener. Day 21: All the ground is now covered. After a few months, a lot of the ground cover Marigolds, basil, comfrey, wormwood or Unfortunately this method is not slug-proof, All the ground cover plants (mustard, will have been harvested and eaten. You will other aromatic plants and flowers can be so we recommend you take the same measures fenugreek, buckwheat) are good salad crops. now have fewer but larger plants. You can sown or planted around the edge of the bed. against the slimy blighters as in the rest of your garden. Crushed egg-shell defences or They can all be picked over the space of 2-3 keep the cropping going all the way to late table-legs in pots of water for example. weeks, except for a few plants to save your October or November, and even have some own seed from. overwintering crops.
6 Mixed Vegetable Gardening www.permaculture.org.uk/mixedveg 7 5) Harvest! So all you have to really do is harvest. If you don't harvest, the plants will grow too densely, go “leggy” with tall, thin stalks and small leaves. This means that they will loose productivity and run to seed early. So you have to make sure that you always pick enough to give other plants a chance to come through. The space left by a harvested plant will be quickly taken up by its neighbours. This way, there is never any empty space or bare soil. Photo: Mark Forman
Gaps in groundcover can be filled with mulch, The mixed vegetable plot should be easy to in this case with straw Table 2: Harvesting calendar maintain. The dense planting and the layer These timescales are approximate - times vary depending on local conditions of mulch help conserve moisture and keep down weeds, so the need for watering and Likely Season Time after sowing Plants that can be harvested (examples) weeding is minimised. Spring 2-3 weeks Mustard greens The maintenance of the mixed vegetable bed can be compared to that of a woodland or a 1 month Mustard greens, Fenugreek, Buckwheat greens, forest garden. Always thin the ground cover Chinese mustard and early crops when the later crops need more 2 months Radish, Broadleaf mustard, Lettuce, Chinese space, and always try to maintain a “canopy” of mustard leaves to give no chance to the weeds. Summer 3 months Radish, Broadleaf mustard, Lettuce, Chard, Coriander leaves, Kohlrabi, Turnip, Beetroot 4 months Broadleaf mustard, Lettuce, Chard, Coriander leaves, Kohlrabi, Turnip, Beetroot, Carrot, Coriander, Peas, Chinese Cabbage, Kale 5 months Chard, Carrots, Peas, Beans Broad beans, Kale, Autumn Cabbage, Coriander seed etc. 6 months Chard, Cauliflower, Carrots, Parsnips, Peas, Beans, Broad beans, kale, Cabbage, Onions, Garlic etc.
4 months: The initial groundcover has gone and Understorey of ruby chard and onions 7 months + Cabbage, Sprouts, Garlic, Leek, Broccoli longer lasting crops have closed the canopy under a "canopy" of broad beans
Mixed Vegetable Gardening www.permaculture.org.uk/mixedveg 9 8 After harvesting Photographs Growers’ experience: After everything has been picked, you can Unless otherwise Roz Brown, Mid-Wales Permaculture Network: prepare the bed for the next season, using stated all the photos your usual dig or no-dig method. You can I am now in my third year of working this way, in this booklet are follow up with a different crop or plant and I can recommend it as low input, high yield, by Chris Evans. and often surprising. For the first time in four mixture. Alternatively you can sow a crop of seasons, I was able to grow squash in abundance, Resources green manure, or leave the area fallow with a plus my first decent crop of Cherokee beans. The big mulch. only thing I did differently was to grow them and inspiration together with maize. These ‘3 sisters’ were very The Farmer’s How does your garden grow? happy together. Handbook, There is still much to learn about mixed My other favourite addition to a mixed bed is Permaculture vegetable gardens, and we would like to rocket as an alternative to white mustard – does Research Institute of gather and share your experiences. We want the same job, but unlike mustard makes great Australia to learn from both success and failure. If you pesto! My other discovery this year was Chinese Gaia's Garden, Toby have found a plant combination or technique celery in a polyculture – Celery Leaf as a herb is Hemmenway that really works for you, we would love to also good in this situation. For me the main The One-straw hear about it. We plan to update this booklet benefits of mixed plantings are their low Revolution, Masanubo Fukuoka maintenance and a huge variety of produce from Thanks with new ideas and plant combinations, so a small area to make meals more interesting! ...to all the people who have helped put this booklet send us your findings, top-tips and photos. More copies of this booklet together. This booklet is an adaptation of the “Polyveg” Download a free PDF in colour (or in chapter of the Farmers Handbook by Chris Evans. The text B&W for cheaper printing) from: was revised by Tomas Remiarz, and designed with Stig. When we were writing Author’s note: www.permaculture.org.uk/mixedveg Thanks for helpful suggestions from Roz Brown, Sally the chapter on polyveg for Please share this booklet with friends. Cunningham, Ian Fitzpatrick, and Naomi van der Velden. We started using the Farmers' Handbook polycultures in Nepal in Jakob, the book's designer, around 1992, just after had taken a photo from Permaculture Permaculture Association I'd seen Masanubo right inside a polyveg at Fukuoka's farm in Japan ground level, and it Mixed vegetable planting and other forms of This booklet is part of the ongoing work of the and Ianto Evans' lovely looked just like a natural polyculture are good examples of permaculture, Research Working Group of the Permaculture polyculture beds in forest, or like a Forest which seeks to maximise multiple yields while Association. For more information on this Oregon, USA. Garden. That was minimising effort and environmental costs - research please visit: It made sense, and made another crucial point, to working with nature, www.permaculture.org.uk/ more sense when I tried it see the parallel with rather than fighting whats-going-on/ against it. For a great on another farm in much larger systems but association-work/research Jajarkot, and then at with the same pattern, a introduction to the template. Within that principles and practice Sunrise Farm in Permaculture Association UK Kathmandu. pattern, all we have to of permaculture see the BCM Permaculture Association No-till, mulch, green work out are the details - ‘knowledge base’ of the manures; diversity in leaf shape, texture, colour what plant associations work best according to our Permaculture London WC1N 3XX local climate/microclimate and site conditions. Association website, and plant scent; diversity in root depth and width, Tel: 0845 4581805 plant height - so much diversity! The villagers This will depend on the collection of many people's available here: Email: [email protected] loved it - so many vegetables to choose from, and experience and some focussed research. www.permaculture.org.uk/ high output but low input. Chris Evans, Nepal & South Wales knowledge-base www.permaculture.org.uk
10 Mixed Vegetable Gardening www.permaculture.org.uk/mixedveg 11