As we prepare for the spring planting this month, throughout our yard there are several spots and beds still devoted to cold-season holdovers. And some — like the broccoli, carrots, and beets — have a few weeks yet to go before the first round of harvesting. I could intersperse warm-season crops here and there between these rising, cool adolescents, but the beds could really use a complete makeover. Besides, there’s kind of a Capulet-Montague rivalry between the cool- and warm-season crops, and the last thing I need is a swooning tragedy in my garden. See the Shakespearean calamity that was the planting of my summer last.
So, I’m left with a bit of a Catch-22: Raze the beds of the winter crop that has yet to fruit, or delay the spring planting and forfeit my opportunity to get my edibles established before the pests come out in force. Perhaps this is a false dilemma.
Either way, this overlap can easily be avoided next year with more competent successive plantings. My error this past winter was in seeing the multiple plantings as something to be crammed into the season, one after the other. I waited until the first harvest had completely dried up before replanting. Rather, effective successive planting should be more integrated, with tighter intervals.
One method involves combining started transplants with direct seeding of the same type. Another uses periodic direct seeding to accomplish the same goal of a staggered, extended harvest. The frequency of seeding depends on what is grown, with a vegetable like spinach being planted as often as once a week, lettuce and other greens every other week, and squash once a month. You can also look to variation in growth rate in the different varieties of the same type of crop, like an Early Yellow Crookneck squash (52 days) versus a Burgess Buttercup (100 days).
Such strategery would have helped us to avoid the light harvest we had in February. Being more attentive to maturation rates could also have let us plant our winter crop with an exit strategy in mind to avoid the quagmire we find ourselves in during this winter-spring transition.
However, in a month or so when the Waltham Broccoli, Bull’s Blood Beets (which have been so good), and two varieties of carrot I’ve never tried before (Purple Haze and Dragon) come in, I’m sure I won’t be complaining about space. In the end, much of my spring preparation involves developing new areas of our property to devote to edibles — and removing another section of lawn that does nothing but consume dwindling water resources and need mowing.
So, with our eyes on the last of the winter crop, we look forward to spring.
Wow…those carrots sounds like they will be amazing! I’m loving this project from afar!
Timing the succession plantings is always a challenge for me too. I always wind up with all the broccoli heading up at once, despite planting early and late varieties. Sounds like you have several good strategies in mind.
I’m with you on making the lawn disappear. Our next project will be to plant dwarf fruit trees to replace the small front lawn. I’d love to be rid of mowing.