Succession Planting

We use succession planting in the garden. That is a big term that we use to mean, we plant the same thing, at later dates, to keep the harvest going. No one wants 30 purple cabbages at once. But most people could use a purple cabbage or so a week. We plant one group of purple cabbages at the beginning of purple cabbage season, then more a few weeks later down the row, then more a few more weeks down the row until we get to the end of cabbage season.

Here's another good trick when planting your veggie garden. We plant rows or sections of alternating crops. So here we have purple cabbage, then a row of peas in between. This keeps bugs from feasting on your whole bed of deliciousness all in one go. Let's say you get a bug infestation of bugs that love to eat cabbage. If you have a whole huge row of cabbage, they just stepped into an all you can eat bug buffet were they can gorge, met their future spouse and make lots more bugs who love to eat cabbage all in one place. If the bugs who love cabbage have to navigate through a few rows of peas, quite a few won't make it through the buffer zone. Nature does not put only one kind of plant in the woods, and neither should you. Keeps things interesting.

Hot Tip: Right now is the last chance to plant broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower from seed so you can harvest them before it gets too hot in the spring. (You still have more time if you want to plant transplants.)

Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. -Mark Twain