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leke
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Location: Finland

New allotment - What to grow?

Hi, I'm very happy right now. As luck would have it, a new friend has offered me his allotment ground this year, and half of it the following years. He has only had it a short time himself, and is still learning about growing vegetables in the sub-Arctic climate here.

The plot is quite close to the coast, and I noticed the soil is a bit sandy. A tractor ploughs the field every year too, so I couldn't practice any permaculture methods I guess.

Are there any crops that you would recommend for short season growing in sandy soils? Perhaps something that would improve the soil for future growing? For example, I hear beans can fix nitrogen and are good for improving soil.

So any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

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RamonaGS
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You might look into Jerusalem artichokes AKA sunchokes. My partner's family is from Denmark, and they were saying that Jerusalem artichokes is a favorite to grow in Denmark. It's worth checking to see if they would grow well in Finland since they are both colder northern regions. Now if you are looking for a first year crop to start rotating, peppers, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and tomatoes put nitrogen in soil.

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rainbowgardener
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Sorry Ramona, but I don't understand this statement:

"Now if you are looking for a first year crop to start rotating, peppers, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers and tomatoes put nitrogen in soil."

Pretty much all of those things you named are known as heavy feeders, that take a lot of nitrogen from the soil, e.g.:

Cucumbers are heavy nitrogen feeders and require fertile soil. www.gardening.cornell.edu/homegardening/scenef65b.html

Pumpkins are even more so very heavy feeders and also the plant gets huge. Usually allotments that I have heard of are fairly small plots. One pumpkin plant probably takes up 100 sq feet or more.

Beans and peas and other legumes are pretty much the only food crops that actually add nitrogen to the soil. Otherwise there are cover crops which you can grow like alfalfa and buckwheat, which are grown just to be cut down and turned in to the soil to break down and add N. In the fall you can add a bunch of fall leaves which add N and a variety of other nutrients to the soil as they break down.

But presuming that you want to grow some food crops now, your best plan is to add the N and other nutrients yourself, in the form of a bunch of compost. Here we can buy compost in bags and some municipalities compost garden wastes and give away the compost. The compost also makes your sandy soil loamier, better texture and holding moisture better.

Here's a nice little article about growing veggies in a short season:

https://www.cals.uidaho.edu/edcomm/pdf/PNW/PNW0497.pdf

As it mentions, if you are still going to have your allotment next year, you might try starting some seeds indoor ahead of time, to give your plants a jump on the season. And be sure you look for quick maturing varieties. But you have some advantage over some of our short-season growers (e.g jal_ut who gardens at 5000' elevation and has only a few frost free months, look for some of his posts), because I'm assuming that you are far enough north to have very long days in the summer. That means things will grow quicker for you. I have heard that people in Alaska grow huge veggies, despite their short season, because of the 20 hr days of sunshine.

Best wishes! keep us posted on how it is all working out for you.

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leke
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Location: Finland

That pdf is really awesome! I'm really glad you shared it. I was recently advised to grow peas, carrots, and beetroot by my father-in-law, but I'll also give the Jerusalem artichokes a try too -- although I'm about 10 degrees in latitude higher than Denmark.

And yes, we have the 24h sunlight (but just for a couple of days in the year) 8)

Thanks :)

Green Mantis
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If you can get seaweed, get lots and work in to fertilize the garden for spring. Makes fantastic fertilizer.

You might want to wash some of the salt off, otherwise dig lots of it in your garden. Good Luck. :)

j3707
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Location: Pacific Northwest, Zone 8, 48" annual rainfall, dry summers.

How about greens like kale, chard, spinach? Beets?

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leke
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Location: Finland

It's been a very enjoyable season. I found it hard to source the Jerusalem artichokes, but I'll try and grow them next year. I planted mainly peas, and beans, but also some chard, pumpkin, tomato, and strawberries.

I had good results with the peas, beans, strawberries, and chard, but mixed results with the tomatoes. The pumpkins are in flower, but haven't grown very long. I'm not sure if I'll get anything from them.

I made some compost tea from nettles, but need to learn how to identify comfrey so I can add a nitrogen tea from them. It's kind of late for that now though.

A couple of weeks ago, I added buckwheat to the bare areas which is growing fast and well. I've bought clover seeds for next year and will also try and source some comfrey seeds.

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rainbowgardener
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Sounds great, thanks for the update!

I was looking at your signature line. If you just have a smallish allotment (can't be too small, if you can grow pumpkin!) and you are mainly interested in growing food crops, what do you do with the rocket and wormwood?

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leke
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Location: Finland

rainbowgardener wrote:Sounds great, thanks for the update!
I was looking at your signature line. If you just have a smallish allotment (can't be too small, if you can grow pumpkin!) and you are mainly interested in growing food crops, what do you do with the rocket and wormwood?
Those things in my sig are what I grew last year in containers on my balcony. ;) I'm still growing some of them along with some new things.

Here is some Rocket (my favourite salad green):

Image

I grew the wormwood because I wanted to know what it was like in tea. Very strong, but maybe not a flavour for me.



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