In the past I have attempted to grow lettuce, arugula and spinach, but once the crop is done... it's done. So this year I am planning on using my cut in half barrels in succession.
What Is Succession?
More or less, it's when you plant crops of the same variety at different intervals throughout the grow season so you have a continuous crop coming up every week or two. So if most lettuce varieties mature and are ready for harvest every 50 days and you want fresh lettuce from June until October, you should plant a new crop every week or two. This would allow you to have a lettuce harvest almost every week for those previous mentioned months/weeks.
In this case, I will be planting new seeds or seedlings every week.
I figure two of each variety would be sufficient for our salad intake needs. I have four half barrels already on the homestead and will use one for all the varieties every week. So each barrel will have a supply and I will rotate them for the summer. (ie. Barrel one will harvest first, the following week will be Barrel two and so on.) The way I have planned out (in my head at least) will allow me to use each barrel three times for this succession garden plan.
We live about six miles from a local lettuce farm and I remember early last spring driving some back roads here and we passed this farm. When I saw the rows and rows of romaine lettuce I was entranced. Such beauty was sprawled out in the fields.
Then about a month later we drove down the same dirt road again for an afternoon out to enjoy the day and when we came to this lettuce farm, a whole new field had been planted to the south of the first. This lettuce was just beginning to grow while the first field was in its full glory of growth.
I can recall thinking... how gorgeous! And that they'd have lettuce to harvest for weeks here.
This is exactly what I want to have (obviously on a much smaller scale).
So I have been working on a planting schedule using arugula, romaine lettuce, Bib lettuce, Little Gem lettuce and spinach. These are all our favorite varieties as they make one of the best salad combinations by far. Last year I attempted to grow some radicchio and had a minimum harvest- just enough to add to a few salads and dehydrate for stews and soups later. I'm hoping for a better crop this year.
So do you succession garden and plant? How have the results been?
For more information about succession gardening, see the Homestead Survival Site
