Category Archives: Garden Advice

Garden Advice

Simple Succession: 5 Easy Ways to Get More from the Garden

Leave a comment

Succession planting is one of the best ways to get more out of your garden. It means you can spread out your harvests rather than having periods of extreme abundance and shortage. Unfortunately, people often picture hauling out a calendar, looking at spreadsheets, and spending hours calculating exact schedules. While some cut flower farmers and vegetable market growers do get it down to an exact science, succession planting in the home garden can be much simpler while still providing benefits. Here are a few simple ways we spread out the harvest with succession planting. 

Select Staggered Varieties

You may find a wide variation in days to maturity, even among the same crop. This is ideal for enjoying that crop over an extended period. A great example of this is cabbage. 

For early fresh eating, choose a variety like Early Jersey Wakefield (64 days) or Golden Acre (62 days), which will be easily ready in time to make coleslaw for your summer barbeque. Start a longer-season variety like Premium Late Flat Dutch (100 days) for fall storage, sauerkraut, and cooking.Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage

Select Staggered Crops

Some crops naturally have their season, and that’s okay, too. While we might get a few successions of spinach and lettuce in the spring, it eventually gets too hot to have much luck with them. In these cases, selecting a different crop rather than another variety is best.

For example, we know that eventually, our lettuce will bolt in the summer heat. If you’re not keeping it all for seed, you should have a crop you can quickly put in that bed next. After lettuce, you may choose relatively quick-to-mature summer crops like bush beans or zucchini. 

Plant a Couple of Rows Every Couple of Weeks

You can also use the same variety and do your sowing over a longer period. For example, you can plant a few mounds of cucumbers every couple of weeks in the spring. We’ve found that this method can be especially helpful for crops like sweet corn and spring radishes that need to be harvested and used relatively quickly once they’re mature.

Corn succession plantingPlant a Couple More Rows When Crops Reach a Couple Inches High

As time to maturity can vary with weather conditions, some growers opt to plant more when their first section reaches a specific size. A good example is planting another section of sweet corn when the first section reaches 1 to 2 inches tall.

Intercropping

Intercropping may not be the same as succession planting, but it generally has the same desired effect by helping you get more from your space. You can use a trellis of pole beans to offer shade for greens or sow radishes in between mounds of watermelons, knowing they’ll be ready to harvest before the watermelon vines spread too much. 

Succession Planting Tips

  • Rotate your crops by family.
  • Add a couple of inches of finished compost in between planting to improve fertility and soil structure.
  • Pull plants that are no longer productive and plant another crop as soon as possible. 
  • Ensure you have the seeds you need for later successions and fall gardening.

Succession planting doesn’t have to be complicated. Try a few of these simple methods to spread out your harvest and have a more productive garden this season.

Garden Advice

How To: Harden Off Seedlings

Leave a comment

We’re starting to transplant some of the more cold-hardy seedlings, such as cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli, into the garden this week. Before we transplant any seedlings, we complete a process known as hardening off. 

In your home, your seedlings experience controlled climate conditions. They receive consistent light, moisture, temperature, and no wind. When we harden them off, we prepare them for the uncontrolled climate outside in the garden. If you skip hardening off, transplanting can shock your seedlings, meaning that they can stunted, fail to thrive, or die from the sudden changes. 

When and How to Harden Off Seedlings

Generally, we start hardening off seedlings one to two weeks before our ideal transplant date. Longer, slower hardening-off periods are usually better, so give it the full two weeks if you can. We start with just an hour or two of outside time each day and slowly increase that until the plants are ready to spend the whole day outdoors. 

Don’t place your seedlings outside on very windy days or when the temperature remains below 45°F. These conditions can shock even cold-hardy seedlings. 

Hardening Off Considerations

When we think about hardening off our seedlings, there are a few things we want to consider: sunlight, water, wind, and temperature. Below, we’ll dive into how to manage these factors as we harden off our seedlings. 

Sunlight

Your indoor lights are great for starting seedlings but aren’t as harsh as the natural sunlight your plants will face in the field. 

To begin hardening them off, set them out in a shady, sheltered location for one to two hours per day. Gradually move them to sunnier areas and increase the amount of time they spend outdoors. 

Water

Plants in the field probably won’t receive the same consistent moisture they received under your watchful eye indoors. Occasionally, letting seedlings dry out but not wilt will help them adapt. tomato seedlings

Wind

Your tender seedlings have never dealt with any wind in your house. Start them outside in a sheltered location and avoid putting them out on very windy days. While your seedlings are still indoors, you can mimic the wind by gently brushing the tops with your hand.

Temperature

Sticking seedlings out as soon as we’ve had a few warm days can be tempting, but you want to avoid damaging your plants. Don’t harden off seedlings when temperatures are below 45°F. Some plants will fail to produce if exposed to cold temperatures overnight. 

For example, broccoli may “button up” or only produce tiny heads if the seedlings experience temperatures below 20°F. These cold temperatures make the broccoli think it has gone through winter and is time to flower. 

Cucumbers and melons may also stop growing if the temperatures get too cold. Bring them in at night until temperatures stay above 50°F.

If your area is still experiencing cold temperatures, placing your seedlings in a low tunnel, cold frame, or hoop house can provide a buffer and help them slowly adapt to cooler temperatures. 

Transplanting Tips

  • Transplant on an overcast or cloudy day. 
  • Ensure your soil is loose, and add compost to the bed or planting hole.
  • Loosen the roots on any root-bound plants.
  • Water seedlings well.
  • Place mulch around seedlings.

It can be tempting to haul your plants out to the garden and put them in the ground on a sunny day. However, making the most of your plants requires a little more preparation. Hardening off your seedlings is essential to thriving crops. 

Garden Advice

4 Steps to Preparing the Soil for Spring Planting

Leave a comment

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” 

― Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard’s Egg

After months of waiting, we’re finally back in the garden! At this point you’ve already done most of the prep work, selecting the perfect tomatoes for your garden, learning about your hardiness zone, and starting seeds indoors. Now, the fun and the hard work, really begins. There are many ways to improve garden soil, but these steps are the ones we consider to be basic essentials to prepare your garden for spring planting. 

Step One: Spring Cleaning

The first step is to clean up your bed. Remove any old plant material, weeds and rocks. Mow or till under cover crops. Rake back mulch away from your planting area. 

Note, if you’re starting a garden completely from scratch, you may need to remove the sod, till, or use a method like building raised beds or lasanga gardening.

Step Two: Loosen the Soil

Plants generally do better when they can easily send roots into soft soil. This is especially important for root vegetables like carrots. Many people choose to till each spring to loosen the soil, but a no-till approach can help encourage beneficial insects and microbes in the soil.

To loosen your soil without tilling, use a garden fork or broad fork to lift and pry up the soil but don’t turn it over. This loosens and creates better drainage without disturbing the soil layers. A basic spade can also work in a pinch if a fork isn’t available to you. 

Again, if you’re working with a brand new bed, you may want to take a different approach by using a tiller or more thoroughly loosening the soil with a spade or fork.

After loosening the soil, rake out the surface to break up and clumps and create a smooth surface.

Young corn plantsStep Three: Amend Your Soil

We always reccomend adding 2 to 3 inches of finished compost to your beds. Compost improves soil structure and fertility. All you need to do is spread it on the surface of the bed, mother nature will do the rest. 

While many gardeners get by without one, in a perfect world you would also have some soil test results. If you have had a soil test, you can also amend your soil based on its pH and nutrient levels with amendments like lime, seaweed, wood ash, sulfur, and other commercial or DIY options, depending on your needs.

In brand new beds, you may want to stir the compost and other amendments in to get things going. 

Step Four: Moisten the Soil

Moisture is critical in the first phase of your crops life whether you’re transplanting seedlings or direct sowing. If your soil is dry, it’s best to moisten it a bit before planting. Then you can still water in your plants and seeds as needed. 

Optional Steps

Planting is one of the best parts of gardening. So much hope goes into each bed! Follow these steps before your spring planting to ensure your plants get off to a good start.