I read gardening articles and books. I talk to other gardeners. Many of them mention succession planting.
What Is Succession Planting?
There are three distinct seasons in the garden: spring, summer and fall. Different vegetables grow in each season. Each of these matures in, supposedly, a certain time.
The idea is to plant one crop, harvest it and plant another to succeed it. This sounds like a great idea. What could go wrong?
Planting Onions
This past fall I bought sets for Colorado sweet onions. They are planted in the fall and mature in late spring. These sets went into the bed the sugar pie pumpkins would go in about that time.
The onions did all right. The crazy ups and downs in winter temperatures killed off a few.
Spring arrived and the onions took off. Onions from sets do put up flower stalks. I fed these to the goats so the plants would form bulbs.
Late spring arrived. The sugar pie pumpkin seeds went in. The onions continued growing. They are now buried under the vines and finally ready to dig.
Fall Crops
I like spinach. It grows best here in the Ozarks as a fall into winter crop. The time to plant it is mid to late August.
Most fall crops need to be planted about this time. Except the summer garden is growing and producing and will do so for another month or so until killing frost arrives.
Succession Planting in My Garden
The only such planting done in my garden are in beds where I grow spring crops, then put in the fall crops. Any bed used for summer crops is not used for spring or fall crops.
This does leave parts of my garden empty for weeks. I use this fallow time to add compost and set the area up.
Now, if only I would learn about planting onions. Last year they got buried by tomatoes.