Succession Planting for a Short Growing Season

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Interested in succession planting? It’s a great way to use your space more efficiently and grow more food in the space you have. It also makes gardening easier because you never have empty space for weeds to take over.

I’ve been succession planting for years—partly because I have a short growing season and also because I have a small garden right now.

In this post, I’m going to show you how I plan my succession planting so you can also keep your garden productive all season long.

What is Succession Planting?

Succession planting is a simple but powerful way to get the most out of your garden. Instead of planting everything at once and then waiting for it all to be ready at the same time, you stagger your plantings, ensuring a steady harvest throughout the season. This is especially useful in places with short growing seasons—like here in New Hampshire—where making the most of every warm day is key.

With succession planting, you’re always planting, harvesting, or replanting, keeping your garden productive from early spring to the first frost.

Why Succession Planting is Worth It

• More Food, Less Wasted Space – By growing multiple rounds of crops, you maximize your garden’s potential.
• A Continuous Harvest – No more feast-or-famine gardening. Succession planting keeps the fresh veggies coming.
• Less Overwhelm at Harvest Time – Instead of having 50 heads of lettuce ready all at once, you can space out your plantings and harvest gradually.

How to Make Succession Planting Work for You

Succession planting sounds great in theory, but a lot of people feel like it’s too complicated or takes too much planning. The truth? It doesn’t have to be that hard!

Here in NH, it’s tricky to succession plant the same crop multiple times unless it’s a quick-growing, cool-weather vegetable. Our warm-weather veggies need so much heat that getting multiple plantings in before the season ends is tough—unless you have cold frames or high tunnels (which I don’t).

But what I do rely on is planting cool-weather crops first, then swapping them out for warm-weather crops. And later in the season, I flip back to cool-weather crops again. I’m going to show you how I do it below.

Interplanting and Succession Planting

Succession planting is a great way to maximize your growing space by planting multiple crops in one area throughout the season. By carefully timing your plantings, you can ensure you’re using your garden beds efficiently while keeping your harvests coming in.

Start with Fast-Growing Cool-Weather Crops

 In early spring, I kick things off with fast-growing, cool-weather vegetables. These crops thrive in the cooler temperatures and grow quickly, making them perfect for the early gardening season. Some of my go-to choices are:

• Lettuce
• Radishes
• Green onions
• Spinach

Learn more about fast-growing vegetables (7 of my favorites)

Follow with Warm-Weather Plants

 As spring moves into warmer weather here in New Hampshire, I transition to planting my warm-weather crops.

By this time, I’m usually harvesting or pulling out the cool-weather crops to make room.

However, sometimes the cool-weather plants aren’t quite finished when it’s time to plant the warm-season crops, so they end up growing together for a while.

This overlap isn’t a problem—early warm-weather plants are small and don’t take up much space, so they fit in nicely with the cool-weather crops.

By the time they start needing more room, the cool-weather plants will have finished their growth cycle and can be removed.

This method also helps balance the soil’s nutrients, as cool- and warm-weather crops have different nutrient requirements.

Plant Cool-Weather Crops Again in Late Summer

 Once the warm-season crops slow down in late summer, I plant cool-weather crops again in the same beds. It’s a great way to keep the garden productive as the temperatures begin to cool.

Some of my favorite fall crops include:

• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Radishes

These crops are frost-tolerant and can continue growing even as the weather turns chilly. In fact, I’ve found that spinach actually thrives better in the fall than in the spring (who knew!)

Stagger Succession Planting

Staggering your plantings is a simple yet effective way to extend your harvest and keep fresh produce coming in throughout the season.

By planting the same crop at intervals, you can spread out the harvest instead of having everything mature at once.

This helps you avoid the overwhelm of a massive harvest all at once and allows you to enjoy a steady stream of fresh veggies.

Here in New Hampshire, I rely on staggered succession planting for a few key crops that do well with this method. Some of my favorites include:

• Green beans – These keep producing all summer, so by planting them in intervals, I get a steady harvest throughout the growing season.
• Carrots & beets – I plant them through May to ensure a continuous harvest.
• Swiss chard – This hardy vegetable grows well all summer and matures quickly, making it perfect for succession planting.

I also use this method for warmer weather plants like tomatoes, melon, and cucumbers, but because my growing season is short, I can only stagger plantings for a few weeks.

To make this work, I plant these crops every week or two during their planting window.

This way, I can enjoy fresh green beans, carrots, beets, and Swiss chard all season long without the pressure of dealing with everything at once.

Companion Planting for Space Efficiency

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes the harvest window for cool-weather plants overlaps with the planting window for warm-weather crops.

In these cases, I consider it more of a companion planting strategy than traditional succession planting.

Companion planting isn’t just about timing; it’s about selecting plants that work well together, not only based on their harvest windows but also on their soil needs, root systems, and other factors that affect their growth.

By thoughtfully pairing plants, you can make the most of your garden space, creating a more efficient, productive, and healthy garden.

For example, some plants can help each other by improving soil conditions, providing shade, or even deterring pests.

With careful planning, I can fit both cool- and warm-weather plants into the same bed, giving them space to thrive while also ensuring they complement each other’s growth needs.

Companion planting seems complicated, but it doesn’t need to be with the right information!

Learn more about companion planting

Caring for the Soil when Succession Planting

When you’re growing a lot of crops in a small space, taking care of the soil becomes even more important. To make sure the soil remains healthy and doesn’t get depleted, I follow a few key permaculture practices that help maintain its fertility and structure throughout the season:

• Interplanting: By choosing plants with different nutrient needs, I ensure that each plant draws from a different part of the soil, preventing the depletion of any one nutrient. If I’m not able to interplant, I make sure to rotate my crops from year to year, which helps keep the soil balanced and prevents any one nutrient from being overused.
• Chop and Drop Mulching: I use a chop-and-drop method where I cut back plant material and leave it on the soil. This adds organic matter and valuable nutrients back into the earth as it decomposes.
• Mulching: Mulch serves multiple purposes: it helps retain moisture, protects the soil from erosion, and acts as a natural weed suppressant. Most importantly, it keeps the soil healthy by preventing it from drying out or becoming compacted.
• No-Till Gardening – I don’t till or plow the soil so that the soil structure stays intact.

By paying close attention to soil care, I can continue to grow multiple crops throughout the season without exhausting the land.

Want to Know What to Plant Next to What?

Growing a bunch of these is one thing…

…figuring out where to put them all is another!

My free companion planting spreadsheet makes it easy to see what grows happily together (and what definitely doesn’t).

It’s in a spreadsheet format, so it’s easy to edit! Add your own plants and any combinations you notice work well.

Grab it below!

Final Thoughts on Succession Planting

Succession planting is one of the best ways to maximize your garden’s productivity, especially in areas with short growing seasons like New Hampshire.

With a bit of planning (and some trial and error along the way), you can keep your garden producing fresh food all season long—without making it too complicated.

Have you tried succession planting in your garden? What crops work best for you? I’d love to hear what’s been successful in your space!

Better soil = better gardens. My Effortless Soil-Building Plan shows you how to build rich, fertile soil using simple permaculture techniques. Grab it here for just $17!