Module 5: Succession Planting
Introduction
How did your first round of planting go? Getting those seeds and starters in the ground is such a fantastic feeling. And the best part is: You've only just begun!
The initial round of planting is undoubtedly the most time and energy intensive. From here on, keeping the garden rewards coming gets much easier. And you have a nice break (if you want one) until your seeds begin germinating. Just be sure you are keeping the soil where you planted seeds moist, especially on warm sunny days when your seeds can easily dry out and go dormant.
However, planting a continuously producing food forest is hardly a one-and-done thing. In fact, a good proverb to keep in mind is that every harvest is also a time to plant. As spring warms into summer and you pluck tender greens and peppery radishes from the earth, you are also making space to plant your second wave of crops.
Just like when you designed your food forest according to the different layers, the inspiration for succession planting also comes from the natural forest. As anyone who has walked into the woods to gather nettles in the springtime, blackberries in summer, and acorns in autumn knows, a forest gives different gifts at different times. Oak trees don't wait for the last blackberry to fall from the bush before shifting their energy into making acorns. The forest is in a continual cycle of give and get, wax and wane. So can it be with your garden.
When to Plant what?
In Module 3 Choose your Seeds and Plants, we provided some handy tables with good bets to plant at each interval of the growing season for the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Southeast. Anytime you are unsure of when to plant what, simply review the table for your region.
Or, live a little and let your intuition guide you. Spring crops are springtime itself — mild, moist, fresh. Think tender leaf lettuce, baby spinach, snap peas, radishes, and clover sprouts. Summer crops are lush and juicy, full and round like a July sun. Tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, cucumbers, monster zucchini — words that fairly ring of summer. Fall and early winter conjures up thoughts of pumpkin pies, baked squash, corn and bean succotash, hearty soups and stews with roots and greens, carrots and kale — exactly the foods that flourish as temperatures dip.
Brainstorm Exercise
Whether you use a table of plants or your taste buds to guide you, first determine what you want to grow for each season within the growing season (spring, summer, and fall). Then make a simple flow chart of plants that will succeed each round.
Here’s just one way to try it:
Phase 1: Right when spring is warming into summer, start planting tomatoes and basil in the ground in between your spinach leaves and clover sprouts.
Phase 2: As you pull up the radishes and harvest lettuces in late spring, plant starters or seeds for larger plants like squash and beans.
Phase 3: As summer wears on, plant seeds for fall crops like kale and radicchio under your tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Their low shade will protect the tender green saplings until they get established.
Succession Planting Strategies for Your Climate*
*I've tailored this information for everyone enrolled in the course. Simply find you state in the heading to find your succession planting strategy.
Note: No matter where you live, seeds for squash, cucumber, melon, and beans (basically any vine layer plant) need to go directly in the ground. Vines loathe being transplanted and will often be stunted as a result.
South Carolina, Texas
Luxuriously long hot growing season
Those of you down south can really stretch out your food growing season. You can either plant seeds for the next round of crops
in between maturing plants
OR
in the gaps left by harvests
The only disadvantage to your climate is that it often gets very hot early in the summer, causing tender salad greens to bolt and turn bitter. Plant heat-tolerant varieties like chard and tatsoi (a peppery Japanese green) and smaller varieties of tomato (like cherry and plum).
Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia
Moderately long growing season
For those in the Mid-Atlantic, you would do well to tuck the seeds for your summer crops in next to your maturing springtime veggies. Likewise, plant your seeds for fall crops amongst your summer produce. Just be careful when harvesting not to disrupt the ground too much where seedlings may be trying to emerge.
The Mid-Atlantic region is often subject to infernal heat spells in July and August, especially in urban DC. Be sure to choose heat-loving or heat-tolerant varieties like okra, eggplant, and plum tomatoes for your summer crops.
Ohio, Michigan
Shorter growing season, earlier fall weather
I'll be honest, except for perennials I want to start from seed, I was never much for potting kits and seedlings in containers. Probably because in steamy DC, I didn't have to. But for those of you in the Midwest, it's a necessary strategy for enjoying as much fresh produce as possible all season.
When you see your spring greens at about the midpoint of maturity (about 25 days after planting), either get your slow-to-grow summer crops started in containers OR plan on using starters from a nursery.
Don't start your summer or fall crops too early or you will have to transplant them more than once--not good for the little plant.
If the roots of the starter plants are bursting out of the box (as they often are), be very careful when transplanting. It's ok to trim the roots a bit with sharp scissors if they are particularly twisted and gangly.