Successional sowing

Sowing a succession of crops is crucial if you want to avoid yo-yoing between feast and famine in the garden. It makes sense to sow quick-to-mature crops in succession, such as rocket, coriander and lettuce, because they don’t stand for long once they’re ready. Either sow short lines direct outside every couple of weeks, or sow into small modular trays. The latter has the advantage of taking up less garden space and lets you slot in good-sized plants as and when ground becomes available once previous crops are cleared. Put a note in your diary to sow them – it’s easy to forget to do it. To a lesser degree it also pays to succession-sow plants that crop for a long time, but nonetheless run out of steam before the growing season is over. Courgettes and cucumbers are a good example, with a first early sowing made under cover and planted out after the last frosts, and a second direct sowing made in June (or look out for plants at the garden centre). You’ll find the second sowing picks up the slack in September just as the first is tailing off. You can also guarantee a succession of harvests by choosing several different cultivars of a single crop. They may need sowing at around the same time, but their corresponding harvest time could be quite different. Leeks and Brussels sprouts are two good examples of crops that can have wildly different harvest times, depending on the cultivar.