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Succession Planting

Hopefully your garden is going strong and is overflowing with produce! If you grew lettuce, broccoli, Asian greens, peas, beets, cabbages and other Spring crops, they are probably all about done producing. You’re most likely harvesting the rest of your beets, cabbages, and broccoli in the next week or two. If you’re in this boat, you’re about to have a whole lot of empty space. You now have a few options: grow weeds, grow more food, mulch heavily to prevent weeds, or grow a cover crop.

Great fall crops to get started now:

  • Brassicas: broccoli, Fall cabbages, kale, bok choy etc
  • A fall succession of snap peas
  • Beets, carrots, turnips, rutabaga
  • Cucumber–a variety that only takes 50-60 days
  • Lettuce
  • Arugula, spinach, cool weather greens (plant in August-Sept)

In general it’s recommended to rotate your crops so you aren’t planting similar plants in the same spot over and over again. This serves to prevent an abundance of insect pests and to manage the nutrients in the soil. For example, brassicas have lots of pests and are also very hungry for soil nutrients. Follow your Spring crop of brassicas with roots, lettuce or peas, which are all light feeders. Follow your spring peas with brassicas, which will benefit from the nitrogen-rich soil that the peas leave behind. Always plant brassicas with a hearty handful of compost as well.

We’ll have some Fall veggie plants for sale in a very open-ended collection.

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