Bare soil = no food! We discuss what succession planning is and how to start incorporating it into your garden so you can get more from your space. Plus, Pippa blows Zoe’s mind with her controversial take on crop rotation.  

Can I Dig It? is made by: 

Find out about the Winter of Care and Repair challenge via Zoe’s other podcast, Check Your Thread:

The two types of succession sowing:

1 - Sow the same crop but just one row or a small amount every 2-4 weeks. This will help you get a crop over a long period rather than them all being ready at once.

Crops that work well with this approach include: Lettuce, spring onion, radish, baby carrots

2 - Following one crop with another. For example, a spring sowing of spinach could give crop from April to May, and it always seems to flower in May/June, whatever time you sowed it. Then take out spinach and put in dwarf french beans for a second crop from the same bed.

Some early cropping options:

Early potatoes, peas, broad beans, early carrots, beetroot

Follow those with:

Winter cabbage, leeks, kale, swiss chard, late carrots, courgette

A late summer harvested crop like courgette or french beans can be followed with autumn sown broad beans, turnips, winter salads esp oriental salads, pakchoi or autumn planted garlic. 

Huw Richards has created an excellent video on succession planning: