Get More From Your Summer Garden With Succession Planting

Instead of letting empty beds sit idle during the hot months, these expert tips will allow you to plant a second or even third round of crops.

Many plants grow well together and produce a great variety of vegetables through succession planting. Monstar Studio/Shutterstock

The nursery doesn’t have to go dormant as summer temperatures rise. Many gardeners close up shop until next spring, but this is actually an excellent time to start a second crop—potentially followed by a third.

Succession planting comes in three forms, and many succession gardeners use a combination of all three. Here’s an overview.

Repeated Plantings

The first, and simplest, is planning multiple ongoing plantings of the same vegetables. This also maximizes space, as one can plant a few rows every few weeks or months instead of a dozen rows simultaneously, which can lead to too much bounty all at once. Staggering crops is much better, because even if one crop is lost to heat, drought, disease, or pests, there’s another close behind.