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Plan each planting around harvests, frost dates, and the season ahead.
A lettuce bed can look finished, then be ready for another crop days later. Succession planting fills those openings with repeated sowings or a new crop after harvest.
Succession planting means scheduling repeated sowings, overlapping plantings, or a different crop after harvest. Plan the next use of each patch before the current crop finishes.
Treat your average last spring and first fall frost dates as planning anchors, not guarantees. Count back from fall frost for crops that need time to mature.
Radishes, leaf lettuce, and arugula suit small sowings every one to three weeks. Spinach, cilantro, and peas need suitable cool-weather windows; heat can make leafy crops bolt.
Sow spinach, lettuce, radishes, or peas when spring soil is workable, repeating quick crops while conditions suit them. After frost risk passes, use harvested spaces for warm-season crops.
Choose what follows by season, available space, and growing days left. Beans may follow spring lettuce once soil warms; fall spinach or lettuce can follow summer beans if sown early enough.
Start lettuce seedlings while mature plants are still being picked, then transplant when space opens. For direct sowing, mark the spot and keep the soil surface evenly moist.
Change the plan when heat, cold, or poor germination makes a sowing unrealistic. If lettuce or spinach struggles in heat, switch to a suitable warm-season crop such as beans.
For quick crops, try sowing at one-to-three-week intervals and adjust to crop and conditions. Frost dates, soil, temperature tolerance, and days to maturity guide each planting.
Two crops can share a bed in one season when the follow-on crop has enough time to establish and mature. Direct sow or use transplants, and keep the next planting ready.
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