Arborpedia
All routes

The kitchen garden year

A full rotation through the vegetable beds — what to sow, when it feeds you, and how to keep it through winter.

Growing·Crops
  1. 01
    A gardener's planting calendar pinned to a greenhouse wall with seed packets arranged by season
    Growing№ 4174 min

    Seasonal Planning: What to Plant When

    How to build a planting calendar around frost dates, soil temperature, and day length, plus how to stretch the season with cloches, row cover, and cold frames.

  2. 02
    A dense bed of mixed salad leaves ready for cutting
    Crops№ 4065 min

    Salad Leaves: Cut and Come Again

    Lettuce, rocket, mustards and chicory grown for continuous picking — bolting, bitterness, and how to keep leaves coming all year.

  3. 03
    Dark green spinach leaves growing densely in a cool-season bed
    Crops№ 4545 min

    Spinach: Bolts the Moment You Turn Your Back

    A long-day bolter that wants cold, why the oxalic acid matters, and the hot-climate substitutes that do the same job in summer.

  4. 04
    A handful of freshly pulled red radishes with their leaves attached
    Crops№ 3805 min

    Radishes: Three Weeks From Sowing to Plate

    The fastest crop in the garden, why they go hot and hollow, and the winter types that are a different vegetable entirely.

  5. 05
    Climbing beans and peas growing up a cane wigwam with pods forming
    Crops№ 3465 min

    Peas and Beans: The Crops That Pay Rent

    Legumes that fix their own nitrogen, why you cut the tops and leave the roots, and the difference between broad, French, and runner beans.

  6. 06
    A bed of mixed brassicas with cabbage, kale and sprouting broccoli under netting
    Crops№ 0535 min

    Brassicas: One Species, Six Vegetables

    Cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, sprouts and kohlrabi are the same plant bred for different organs — plus clubroot and the caterpillar problem.

  7. 07
    Freshly lifted turnips and swedes with their tops still attached
    Crops№ 5054 min

    Turnips and Swedes: The Roots That Fed Winter

    Two different species doing similar jobs, the fodder crop that changed European farming, and why swede needs the whole season.

  8. 08
    Freshly lifted potatoes on the soil beside the dug row and haulm
    Crops№ 3686 min

    Potatoes: Earlies, Maincrop, and Why You Earth Them Up

    Seed tubers over supermarket spuds, what chitting actually buys you, and the blight timing that decides whether you get a maincrop.

  9. 09
    Freshly pulled carrots with their feathery tops laid on the soil
    Crops№ 0655 min

    Carrots: Stones, Forks, and the Carrot Fly

    Why carrots fork, why they must be direct-sown, and the barrier that beats carrot fly without a single spray.

  10. 10
    Rainbow chard stems and beetroot growing together in a vegetable bed
    Crops№ 0385 min

    Beetroot and Chard: One Species, Root or Leaf

    Beta vulgaris bred two ways, why every beet seed is a cluster, and the crop that shrugs off heat when spinach gives up.

  11. 11
    Onions lifted and laid out to cure with their tops still attached
    Crops№ 3315 min

    Onions: Day Length Decides the Bulb

    Why an onion variety from the wrong latitude will never bulb, sets against seed, and the curing that separates a keeper from a rotter.

  12. 12
    A row of leeks earthed up with long white shanks and blue-green flags
    Crops№ 2625 min

    Leeks: Standing Through Winter in the Ground

    Dibbed deep and puddled in, blanched for white shank, and the hardiest allium — the crop that stores itself outdoors until spring.

  13. 13
    A cured garlic bulb split to show the cloves around the central stem
    Crops№ 1825 min

    Garlic: Plant in Autumn, Harvest in Summer

    Hardneck against softneck, why garlic needs a cold spell to split into cloves, and the scapes worth cutting.

  14. 14
    Ripening tomato trusses on a cordon-trained plant with side shoots removed
    Crops№ 4896 min

    Tomatoes: Determinate, Indeterminate, and the Blight Clock

    Choosing between bush and cordon types, why blossom end rot is a watering fault, and how to stay ahead of late blight.

  15. 15
    Cucumbers hanging from a vertically trained vine in a greenhouse
    Crops№ 1125 min

    Cucumbers: All-Female Flowers and Bitter Fruit

    Why greenhouse cucumbers must not be pollinated, what makes a cucumber bitter, and the difference between ridge and indoor types.

  16. 16
    A trailing squash plant with a large orange flower and developing fruit
    Crops№ 4586 min

    Squash and Courgettes: Separate Flowers, Huge Appetite

    Male and female flowers on the same plant, why fruit rots at the tip, and the difference between a summer squash and a keeper.

  17. 17
    Sweetcorn plants in a block with tassels above and silks emerging from the cobs
    Crops№ 4775 min

    Sweetcorn: Plant in a Block, Not a Row

    Wind-pollinated maize needs a block to fill its cobs, why sugar turns to starch within hours, and the varieties that must not cross.

  18. 18
    Celeriac roots and celery stems freshly harvested with their leaves
    Crops№ 0755 min

    Celery and Celeriac: The Crop That Never Forgives a Dry Week

    Bog plants in a vegetable bed — self-blanching against trench celery, why celeriac needs the whole season, and the boron problem.

  19. 19
    Four raised beds in a garden each growing a different plant family for seasonal rotation
    Growing№ 1104 min

    Crop Rotation: Breaking Pest and Disease Cycles

    Move plant families through your beds on a three or four year cycle. Pests starve. Soil rebalances. Disease pressure drops without sprays.

  20. 20
    Apples laid out in slatted wooden trays and cured onions hanging in a cool store
    Growing№ 2087 min

    Harvest and Storage: Keeping What You Grew

    Picking at the right stage, curing what needs curing, and the four storage conditions that decide whether a crop lasts a week or eight months.

Previous routeGrowing in small spacesNext routePlant once, harvest for years