What to plant & when.

Being a novice gardener, with only my childhood memories of Mam’s green fingered wizardry, I found the biggest problem I had, when trying to start my own vegetable garden in Crete, was timing.

As any good comedian will tell you, timing is………………..crucial.

After weeks of care and attention, I’d lovingly snuggle my little seedlings into their prepared bed and proudly admire their brave attempts to keep upright. I’d watch, as over the next few days , they’d dig their little roots into the soft bed and then, disaster. They’d either be too young to cope with a heat wave in Winter or too leggy to weather the winds of Spring.

A quick visit to my local horticultural expert, Kosta’s our neighbour, and I’d find the same species of plant reaching for the skies like a troop of pirouetting ballerinas, far stronger than my own. My timing was out.

Kosta’s little ones had flown the nest four weeks before I’d given my little darlings their first field trip. Inevitably, his were much more prepared.

The climate here in Crete is wonderful, long hot Summers that stretch into October, mild Autumns, short Winters and Spring is here again before you’ve had the chance to dig out your hot water bottle and sow that patch on your old jumper. 

But gardeners be ware, in January we enjoy the Halcyon days, when the north wind ceases and gives way to the warm air from Africa. Resulting in a few weeks of warm, dry, glorious weather that, whilst it cradles and nurtures your bones, will devastate your unattended plants. Halcyon comes form the Greek word for Kingfisher (αλκυονα) and according to legend the kingfisher is responsible for this warm period as she needs to calm the waters to lay her eggs in a floating nest.

In summary, Spring winds will flatten your broad beans and suck the moisture out of delicate leaves, Summer will scorch, Autumn is perfect but for the odd heatwave and Winter is welcome.

So, in the hope that my experience can help others,  I’d like to share with you my planting schedule as I’ve developed it over the past 3 years. It’s not “one size fits all” as every garden is different, but the general rule of timing applies. The table below is basically split into 4 columns, the first is the vegetable, the second tells you what season you’ll be eating it in, the third tells you when to sow it and finally what to plant it with.

I can’t stress enough that this is my personal plan, based on my experience of gardening here in Crete.

To help you fight the battle of the pests, I strongly recommend that you plant plenty of basil and marigolds in your veg patch, plus onions and garlic which  I plant around the edge of each of my planters and then my vegetable in the centre, this works as a kind of barrier or security fence around the vegetables. I’ve also very successfully, grown carrots in a huge plastic half barrel, inter-planted with garlic.

 Good luck.

	when do we	when do we put	what’s a good
what ?	eat it ?	the seeds in ?	companion ?
cabbage		july	carrots,potatoes
cauliflower		july	onions,leeks,garlic
broccoli	winter	july	onions,leeks,garlic
carrots		september	onions,leeks,garlic
turnips		september	onions,leeks,garlic
onions,leeks		september	everything except beans and sage
pot1		september	cabbage,marigold,carrot
broad beans		october	anything apart from onions & basil
pak choi		december	onions,leeks,garlic
parsley		january	tomato,carrot
onions,leeks	spring	december	everything except beans
lettuce		january	onions,leeks,garlic,corn
swiss chard		december	onions,leeks,garlic
pot2		december	cabbage,marigold,carrot
garlic		december	everything
tomato		january	marigolds,basil,peppers
cucumber		february	peppers,
courgette		february	parsley,tomato,pepper
pepper	summer	january	cucumber,
aubergine		february	peppers,beans,lettuce
beans		march	corn,aubergines,cucumbers,peppers
corn		march	beans,lettuce,peppers,cucumbers
melon		february	corn,radish,nasturtium
basil		march	pepper,tomato
	autumn	we’re still eating all of the above summer veg until sep/oct
lettuce		september	everything especially onions,leeks,garlic,
celery		september	everything except parsley and carrot,