Second Flush
Around the beginning or middle of July, I often seed a second flush of peas, beans, and zucchini. These plants often exhaust themselves and don’t fruit for a long period of time. I really like them, so I find planting a second batch gives me a long season. It also allows me to easily pull out the exhausted plants to replace them with fall crops when they begin to languish.
The great thing about a second planting is that the seeds germinate quickly and the plants grow like gangbusters with the heat and long days. I’m always amazed at how quickly they grow and fruit. Zucchini that I seed in May often takes 6-8 weeks to start fruiting. This zucchini started fruiting only four weeks after being seeded.
Succession planting is something that I’m getting better and better at the longer I garden. It really is amazing how much you can grow in a small space when you do it. I find that it also makes it much easier for me to pull up exhausted veggies that I used to let hang on in the garden even with meager harvest (broccoli offshoots ring a bell?). These aren’t the only vegetables I plant in succession, I have lettuce, broccoli, fennel, carrots, beets, and a few others that were seeded throughout the summer as space became available in the garden.
Are you in the habit of planting in succession to lengthen the harvest and maximize your garden space?
Susy, succession planting is something I always intend on doing but just don’t seem to do. I have been successful at some fall planting but not with consistency. It’s not been because of failure to grow. It’s been because of the gardener’s failure to plant. I always start off the season with great enthusiasm but by the time September rolls around I’m just not in the mood to be planting again. Time has become a commodity that’s at a premium this fall. Not having enough time for all the garden tasks the focus has been on completing the wooden fence which has left the rest of gardening a bit wanting. Sad to say that I’ve once again over scheduled my time and the garden suffers when that happens. One thing I’ve learned in life is that nothing is forever and things can change fast. So life marches on and so does gardening. The tomatoes are still producing but all else has passed by it peak and needs to be removed from the garden. The garden cleanup will begin soon. Right after the fence is finished. :-)
Have a great succession fall planting day.
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