Stop the glut-and-starve cycle. Sowing little and often keeps a continuous stream of crops coming.
Created by jflgardens.co.uk
Sow a whole row of lettuce at once and you get a fortnight of salad followed by nothing. Succession planting — sowing small amounts regularly, and following one crop with another — is the simple habit that turns feast-or-famine into a steady supply.
For fast, repeating crops like salad leaves, radish, spring onions and herbs, sow a short row every couple of weeks rather than one long row. You'll harvest a constant trickle instead of a single glut.
Approach crops in batches and you also spread risk — if one sowing fails or is eaten, the next batch is already on its way.
The other half of the trick is to use the ground twice. Tall peas and beans make way for winter brassicas; early potatoes free a bed for a quick follow-on crop of salad or late beans. Plan the sequence and every bed keeps producing.
Salads, radishes, beetroot, chard, kohlrabi and dwarf beans are all quick enough to fit in gaps and follow on fast. Keep a few fast-growing crops in the mix and the patch never stands empty.
In spring and autumn, wonder: sow under cover or cloches for earlier, later harvests. In summer, sow in a slightly shadier spot and keep well watered. Matching the sowing method to the season extends your supply at both ends of the year.
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