For those interested, here is my Crazy Spreadsheet :) where you can see how I got to the numbers below.
If you're interested I think you can download a copy from there, and just put in your own seeds, and own data.
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How to get a basic set of "free" plantings
Step 1 - Find out when things need to be planted
I've been collecting data and building a cool spreadsheet specifically for my neighborhood (well, specifically for my zone). While doing so I found specific dates where things are supposed to be planted. You can also do this based off the first frost date, but Missouri's extension of the Department of Agriculture did that for me :).
Step 2 - Find out when things can be harvested
On the back of the packet, gives me days til harvest. Using this and the planting date gives me the "harvest" day, or the date where I can pull it out of the ground (give or take). Note - This isn't a guaranteed date or anything, you may have to leave them in and plant later or just harvest young plants to plant. Only thing lost though would be the seeds (assuming you compost the plants :)) if you pick them too early to eat.
Step 3 - Put them together
Find the latest date that things get planted. For example, for me tomatoes are planted 5/10 (tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers and squash). That's the last thing that I plant (other than my fall crops), and so 5/10 is the date I'm looking for. I use this date to find anything that will be harvested before that date. Which included things like radishes, spinach, and lettuce. So i can get a free crop of any of those plants, by using the space that will be used by the other. If you look in my lists below I'll give you an example. I then look for the first thing to be harvested, which is of course radishes, and get all the plants that need to be planted after that day (see the list below if this is confusing). I have 2 groups, one things that are harvested early, and one list where things are planted late.
Example: Corn is planted on 4/25, and radishes and mustard greens are harvested on or before 4/24. So i can fill that 4ft x 4ft section with radishes and mustard greens. Rather than just leave the space to waste. I would probably also plant some blacked seeded simpson and just either way a little to plant the corn, or harvest it a little early. Or just plant the corn with the lettuce still growing, since lettuce like shade anyway. Tomatos are planted on 5/10, so I can plant anything in my top list (i'll probably do the bok choy) and they'll be out of the ground in time for the tomatoes to go in.
Here are my lists:
Plant Type Date to Harvest
radish cherry belle 4/6
radish icicle, short top 4/12
spinach mustard tendergreen 4/24
lettuce black seeded simpson 4/29
extra dwarf bok choy bok choy 5/4
spinach bloomsdale 5/7
beet detroit dark red 5/13 (included just because hopefuly i can get a crop in, and i like beets more than most of the others :), they're easy to can if I get too many all at once)
Plant Type Date to Plant
garden bean top crop 4/15
peppermint/spearmint 4/15
corn golden bantam 4/25
bean - string blue lake (bush) 5/1
cucumber ashley 5/5
zucchini black black beauty 5/10
eggplant black beauty 5/10
tomato rutgers 5/10
green pepper california wonder 5/10
tomato super boy hybrid 785 5/10
squash waltham butternut 5/10
squash table queen 5/10
tomato beefsteak? 5/10
So my plans are to get a few extra things of spinach, and bok choy, and mustard greens, and probably learn how to freeze the greens. But most of the space, for the tomatoes, squash, green peppers etc, will go to beets. So may will hopefully prove to be a large canning month :).
This is my first year, and hopefully i'll get this more fine tuned. Things for me to look into. I keep most plants in my soil blocks before I plant them, and this time probably bumps back their harvest date. This means that in theory several other plants can be planted and harvested in time. So hopefully next year I'll get a better variety of extra plants.
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