Strategies for Continuous Harvest in Your Garden through Succession Planting: Year-Round Yield
First-Time Gardener Learns to Maximize Garden Space for Multiple Crops
In the midst of his first successful potato harvest, a novice gardener found himself staring at bare ground, pondering the question: "Now what?" Despite spending months on crop planning, he had never considered the post-harvest stage of his garden. This led him to question what he should do with the empty land and contemplate if he should plant something else there.
Living in an area with a long 8-month growing season, he realized the potential his garden held beyond one crop in one space. To fully utilize his garden, the gardener sought to discover ways to harvest multiple crops from the same space. Through testing various ideas over the years, he discovered methods to double and even triple his harvest in a single space.
Today's article sheds light on the five best options for relay planting and succession planting, allowing gardeners to increase their harvest and make the most of their garden space. Whether your growing season is long like the author's or shorter, these principles can be adapted to suit your unique growing conditions.
Relay Planting Options
Relay planting is a technique where two crops are planted in succession in the same space. By utilizing this method, gardeners can grow crops alongside each other for a portion of their life cycles before harvesting one and allowing the other to flourish in its place.
Garlic and Peppers/Tomatillos
Since garlic takes around six months to mature, it offers a perfect opportunity for relay planting. After harvesting garlic in early summer, the author finds great success in planting peppers and tomatillos in the vacated space.
Peas and Cucumbers/Watermelon/Cantaloupe
Peas thrive in cooler weather but stop producing as temperatures rise. This allowed the author to pull out his peas in June and replant cucumbers, watermelon, and cantaloupe in their place. Because cucumbers can climb on the same trellis used by peas, this combination offers space efficiency as well.
Peas and Beans
The complementary growing conditions of peas and beans make them an ideal relay-planting candidate. Gardeners can plant peas along a bean trellis and let them use the trellis before planting beans around the pea plants once they are harvested.
Lettuce and Okra
Lettuce and other cool-weather greens bolt in warm weather, ending their production by April or May. This timeline aligns perfectly with okra and other heat-loving crops that don't thrive until then. By planting okra seeds between lettuce plants a month after the last spring frost, gardeners can enjoy a continuous harvest.
Peppers and Spinach/Lettuce
As peppers continue to produce until the first fall frost, they provide shade to the soil beneath them, which opens up an opportunity to grow cool-weather crops like spinach and lettuce in late summer.
Succession Planting Options
Succession planting involves pulling up one crop and immediately planting a new one in its place. This method allows gardeners to have a continuous harvest throughout the growing season.
Potatoes and Squash/Zucchini
Thanks to their quick growth in warmer soil, squash and zucchini plants can be planted at various times throughout the season, even after harvesting potatoes in June or July.
Potatoes and Bush Beans
Bush beans thrive in the same conditions as squash and zucchini, making them another ideal choice for succession planting after potatoes.
Corn and Bush Beans
After harvesting corn, planting bush beans in the vacated acreage not only provides a harvest but also returns nitrogen to the soil, preventing erosion and weed takeover.
Tomatoes and Squash/Zucchini
Indeterminate tomatoes produce throughout the season, while determinate tomatoes like Romas produce a large harvest in one go. To leverage this, gardeners can remove determinate tomatoes once their main harvest has finished and plant a late summer crop like squash and zucchini in their place.
Tomatoes and Broccoli/Lettuce/Beets/Carrots
Similar to following determinate tomatoes with squash, gardeners can transition to any of their fall crops after their tomatoes have finished producing. This method allows the tomatoes to stay in the garden for a longer harvest before the fall crops are planted.
By implementing relay and succession planting strategies, gardeners can significantly increase their harvest and enjoy a consistent supply of fresh produce throughout the growing season. To further boost productivity and sustainability, consider combining these methods with intercropping techniques, crop rotation, and maintaining a gardening journal to track plantings and harvest cycles.
Leading gardening expert [Gardener Name], author and host of The Beginner's Garden Podcast, offers valuable insights on relay and succession planting in today's episode. Listeners can find more information on implementing these methods and gain inspiration for uniquely combining crops in their gardens by tuning in or reading the episode highlights provided below.
The Beginner's Garden Podcast Highlights
In today's episode of The Beginner's Garden Podcast, [Gardener Name] discusses relay planting and succession planting and how these strategies can help gardeners make the most of their garden space. Here's a brief rundown of the topics covered.
Relay Planting
- [Gardener Name] discusses how relay planting involves interplanting young seedlings among mature crops that are nearing harvest.
- choosing compatible crops with different growth periods and space requirements
- planning ahead by identifying the harvest time of the existing crops and preparing the new seedlings to be planted a few weeks before the mature crops are ready to be harvested
- using space efficiently to ensure the younger plants don't compete with the mature ones for resources like light, water, and nutrients.
Succession Planting
- [Gardener Name] emphasizes the importance of succession planting in ensuring a consistent harvest throughout the growing season.
- planning the schedule based on the crop's growth rate
- selecting the right crops with varying growth rates and maturity times to ensure diversity in the harvest
- monitoring and adjusting the timing based on weather conditions and crop performance.
Through implementing these strategies, gardeners can significantly increase their garden's productivity and enjoy a consistent supply of fresh produce throughout the growing season. Happy planting!
Sources:[1] Gernot Caton, "Relay Planting: Growing a continuous harvest in your vegetable garden throughout the seasons - The Urban Farmer" [online] Available: https://www.theurbanfarmer.net/relay-planting/
[2] Rosemary Sass Annie, "Relay Gardening: A Space-Saving Technique for a Bountiful Harvest" [online] Available: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how/vegetables/relay-gardening.htm
[3] Sharon Burgess, "Relay planting and succession planting" [online] Available: https://extension.psu.edu/relay-planting-and-succession-planting
[4] "Companion Planting, Relay Planting, and Succession Planting" [online] Available: https://homehorticulture.extension.iastate.edu/companion-planting-relay-planting-and-succession-planting
- Seeking ways to optimize his garden after a successful potato harvest, the first-time gardener discovers that relay and succession planting can double or even triple his harvest in a single space.
- The gardener tries relay planting techniques such as garlic and peppers, peas and cucumbers, peas and beans, lettuce and okra, and peppers and spinach to ensure a continuous supply of fresh produce.
- In succession planting, the gardener replaces one crop with another, such as potatoes and squash, potatoes and bush beans, corn and bush beans, tomatoes and squash, tomatoes and broccoli, lettuce, beets, carrots, to maintain a constant harvest throughout the growing season.
- By adopting these planting strategies, the gardener manages to transform his garden into a prosperous food-and-drink haven, enriching his lifestyle and offering a variety of home-and-garden recipes using the abundant produce.
- The gardener continues to learn from other experts in his field, tuning in to podcasts like The Beginner's Garden Podcast to deepen his knowledge on relay and succession planting, and companions planting techniques, crop rotation, and gardening journal management.
- By following these planting methods, the first-time gardener is able to maximize his garden space and guarantee a thriving garden printables for himself and his family, making the most of the long growing season in his area.
