Succession planting and square-foot gardening are two gardening methods that help you produce more vegetables no matter how long your growing season is. Succession planting extends the harvest season because you either stagger planting times for a single crop or plant a different crop after one is harvested. Square-foot gardening is an intensive gardening technique that makes efficient use of small garden spaces.
Succession planting
Farmers use succession planting to ensure a constant supply of vegetables to take to market; you can use it to produce a consistent supply of vegetables to take to your table.
Stagger planting times
Staggering planting times is a great way to spread out harvest time. For example, instead of gathering all of your corn at once, you can harvest it over a period of several weeks. To plant in succession, you simply make smaller plantings separated by 2 to 3 weeks instead of planting everything at one time. If you want to experiment with succession planting, use these steps:
Figure out how much of a certain vegetable your family needs for a 2- to 3-week period and how much room it will take to grow it.
A sample plan of succession plantings.Break your planting beds into three or four sections to grow your 2- to 3-week supply of the vegetable.
At the start of the planting season, plant the first bed; wait about 2 weeks and plant the second bed, and then plant the third bed about 2 weeks later.
When you finish harvesting the first bed, the second bed will be ready to harvest.
The length of your planting season determines how many successive plantings you can make. Depending on the weather, some of your later plantings may not yield well.
Share the space
Another way to use succession planting is to replace a crop that's finished producing with a new one in the same place. For example, after your harvest spinach in the spring, plant cucumbers for the summer. After the cukes are harvested, plant kale for the fall. With this method, you can grow a wider variety of vegetables in a small space. Just make sure you're planting a cool-season veggie for spring or fall and a warm-season veggie for summer.
The following table lists some good succession planting combinations to try. You can choose one veggie from each column to plant in succession.
| Spring | Summer | Fall |
|---|---|---|
| Spinach | Bush beans | Kale |
| Mesclun greens | Cucumber | Lettuce |
| Peas | Sweet corn | Collards |
| Radish | Eggplant | Chinese cabbage |
Square-foot gardening
Yet another way to ensure a constant harvest of vegetables is to plant using the square foot method. Select a 4-foot-by-4-foot section of your garden and divide it into 16 squares (each section is 1 square foot). Each square will have a different number of plants, depending on what you're growing:
1 plant per square: Tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, corn, melon, squash
4 plants per square: Lettuce, garlic, Swiss chard
8 plants per square: Pole beans, peas, spinach
16 plants per square: Beets, carrots, radishes, onions
By planting so few plants, you'll have many small harvests, and you can easily make more succession plantings and rotate plantings each year.