Dirt2Table: Succession Planting

dirt2tableIt isn’t quite time to start seedlings, so the only gardening activity we can engage in is planning our gardens for next year. I came across an interesting article about succession planting. The idea is to plant your garden in a sequence so that you get a variety of crops that you can use throughout the growing season. Planning the sequence can help you avoid having all your garden produce being ready at the same time.

For instance, rather than planting all the carrots, beets, lettuce and onions you have room for first thing, you could plant about a fourth of what you think you want to grow of each type of crop, then wait two weeks and plant another fourth, and so on. That way you will have your crops in succession, rather than having all of them ready to pick at the same time

Most of us grow tomatoes in a form of succession planting already. We plant the big beefsteak types at the same time as the cherry tomatoes and small early ripening types. That way we start getting some fresh tomatoes as early as June from the cherry type and continue to get the different types ripe as the year goes on. Here is a good link with a lot of information about succession planting and permaculture:

https://www.openpermaculture.com/magazine/four-types-succession-planting.

Contact Tom King for more information.