During its early plant life New Zealand spinach generally takes its time to increase in size. Nevertheless, it will spread out at a later stage and meanwhile the empty space between the rows can happily be utilized to cultivate fast growing radishes and lettuce varieties.
The following three plant varieties included in this seed kit have been selected for being ideal intercropping partners:
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New Zealand Spinach, Botany Bay Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides)
New Zealand spinach is a frost-sensitive, lush growing perennial plant with a strong and distinctive taste.
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Batavia Lettuce 'Graz’s Krauthäuptel' (Lactuca sativa)
Iceberg lettuce’s and butter lettuce’s tasty relative, whose hearty and crisp leaves are not only an aesthetically pleasing addition to your salad bowl but also are low in calories.
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Radishes 'Malaga' (Raphanus sativus)
Mild tasting radish variety with white, crunchy flesh and purple skin.
The seeds of each variety are packaged in a separate sachet.
Intercropping or companion planting is the implementation of a crop balance in your vegetable patch (adopted from nature itself). Although competition between plants is usually intense, as every plant strives to get the most light, water and nutrients, there are always so-called companion plants. These are plant species that can live well side-by-side because they do not interfere with each other, but very often actually support and strengthen each other instead. Those companions create a good and balanced neighbourhood in your vegetable patch.
We have developed a series of intercropping and companion planting seed kits. Each set contains 3 to 6 plant varieties, which are very well suited for cultivation as companion species. In most cases, these are vegetables and herbs. It is possible to alternate the companion plants in rows, within a row or also in mixed variety as it happens with square-foot gardening.
The immediate neighbouring plants should complement each other and not disturb each other’s growth. Ideally you pair neighbours such as carrots and salad (deep roots and shallow roots) or cabbage and peas (high and low nutrient-demanding plants) or sweet corn and pumpkin (sun- and shade-loving plants).
