The Home Almanac

Vol. I, MMXXVIThe Canadian home, in season655 stations, every province and territory

Succession Planting Planner

One big harvest all at once is a waste of a garden. Sow a little every couple of weeks and you pick steadily until frost. Here are the exact dates to start each crop in waves, set to your season.

Set your place to build the schedule.

How succession works

Fast crops like lettuce, radishes, and bush beans mature in a few weeks, so a single sowing gives you a glut and then nothing. Sowing the same crop again every one to three weeks, the interval university extension services recommend, spreads the harvest across the whole season. We start each crop as early as it tolerates and keep sowing until there is no longer time for a planting to mature before your first fall frost. Cold-hardy crops get a little extra room, since light frost does not stop them.

Intervals follow university agricultural extension guidance; maturity is a range and a cool season runs slower. Dates are a plan, not a guarantee.