Succession Gardening

Succession gardening is when you start a new season’s crop in between last season’s crop without removing it. In this picture, you can see we have planted a tomato (a summer crop) in between the brussels sprouts (a winter crop). Succession gardening is a great way to maximize space in your garden, extend your growing season and retain moisture in your soil. The density of the leaves creates a moist microclimate, a condition which ultimately helps the plants thrive. Think about the canopy of a rainforest, and how moisture rises up from the ground, collects and condenses on the bottoms of the leaves and falls or trickles back down to the soil. Water loss is reduced in cycles such as these. The same is true for your back yard vegetable patch.

Something else you might want to keep in mind is staggering planting times. Few people need a hundred radishes at once, but if you plant what you need every few weeks, you’ll have a fresh, steady supply and you won’t need to preserve an overabundance (unless that’s your intention, of course).