3 Simple Ways To Extend Your Organic Gardening Growing Season

Many vegetable gardeners are keen to get started for the season well before spring is here, but tend to wait until the last frost has passed. But there are many ways to add weeks or more to both ends of the growing season, giving you earlier produce and higher yields.
If finances permit you could go all out and purchase a poly tunnel, or a heated greenhouse (although the energy requirements for this adds to costs and is less environmentally friendly). However, most of us can afford the following suggestions.

1. Cold Frames are basically small structures that create the same kinds of conditions that a glasshouse does, but on a much smaller and more affordable scale. Many gardeners make their own from a metal or wooden frame that has a glass or plastic lid. Sunshine is then used to warm the enclosed area. It can be used to heat up the soil for a few weeks prior to seeding and be left in place for a few weeks after seedlings have come through – protecting the tender seedlings from frost at night. Opening the lid of your cold frame on sunny days will prevent over-heating.
You can also use cold frames to get trays of seedlings started early.

2. Floating Row Covers can be used for longer rows. They are made from fabric that is specifically designed for crop protection. They are porous and so allow sunlight, water, and some air through for ventilation. The fabric is light weight so can easily be supported with PVC or similar. Floating row covers offer 4-5 degrees of frost protection. An additional benefit is that they screen diseases and pest insects so your yields are not only earlier, but often of better quality. Some crops require pollination or may be sensitive to heat, so care must be taken to remove covers at the right time to allow for the special needs of particular plants.
A cloche is a similar concept to floating row covers, but is generally made from plastic. It can be used to cover rows or just an individual plant. A 2litre soft-drink bottle could be used as a very basic cloche for a single plant.

3. A very simple and sometimes overlooked way to prolong your harvest is to Keep Picking. Many plants will start to slow down if the fruit is left on the plant. Once a plant has set seed its primary purpose is complete. So if you leave your capsicum (peppers), beans, zucchini, eggplant etc. to ripen, you will limit your yields. Keep picking fresh young vegetables and they will be replaced with more fresh young vegetables. Give them a light feed mid-summer – not too much nitrogen – to keep them producing as long as possible.

Keeping your vegetable plants healthy is one of the best ways make sure you will have a long producing vegetable garden. Succession planting means planting the same type of vegetable every two to three weeks to bring you a longer and continual supply of your favourite vegetables. This also extends your harvesting time. Succession plant well into autumn (fall), looking for late varieties and implement these three techniques so that you have a bountiful harvest.