Why Successional Sowing Beats the Big Bang

Every smallholder knows the feeling. You sow a whole packet of lettuce seeds in April, and by June you are drowning in more leaves than you can eat. Then a hot spell arrives, the plants bolt, and you are left with none. A single sowing gives you a feast followed by a famine. Successional sowing is the simple cure. Instead of sowing everything at once, you sow small batches every few weeks. The result is a steady supply of fresh vegetables from early spring through to the first frosts.

The Little-and-Often Principle

The core idea is to sow a short row or a small tray every 10 to 21 days, depending on the crop and the weather. A 1-metre row of salad leaves will keep two people in cut-and-come-again leaves for a fortnight. A pinch of radish seed sown every 10 days gives you crisp, peppery roots without any going woody. For slower crops like carrots or beetroot, sow every three to four weeks. Write it down, because life on a smallholding is busy and it is easy to forget when you last sowed.

• Fast crops (10–14 days): rocket, mizuna, pak choi, radish, spring onions, land cress, corn salad.
• Medium crops (3–4 weeks): lettuce, spinach, chard, beetroot, turnips, kohlrabi.
• Slower crops (4–6 weeks): carrots, parsnips, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, winter cabbage.

Do not be tempted to sow more than you need just because you have space. A small sowing that you actually tend is far more productive than a large one that gets neglected.

What to Sow, and When

Spring is when the successional sowing calendar begins. From March, sow a small pinch of hardy salad leaves under fleece or in a cold frame. As the soil warms in April, start direct sowing radish, spinach, and beetroot in short rows. By May, you can add French beans, courgettes, and sweetcorn, but again, sow only a few seeds at a time. A single courgette plant can produce an enormous crop, so two plants sown three weeks apart will feed a family well without a glut.

Summer sowing is about keeping the momentum going. As soon as one crop is harvested, sow another in its place. Fast-growing crops like rocket and pak choi earn their keep now. They germinate in days and are ready to cut in three to four weeks. Keep the soil moist, and sow a new batch every fortnight. In hot weather, shade the seedbed with a piece of horticultural fleece to stop the soil drying out.

Autumn is the time to think about winter and early spring. Sow winter lettuce, corn salad, and land cress in August and September. These will stand through the cold months if given a cloche or a polytunnel. A sowing of hardy kale or winter cabbage in July will give you fresh greens when little else is growing.

Techniques That Make It Work

• Prepare a fine seedbed: Rake the soil to a crumbly texture before sowing. Seeds need good contact with the soil to germinate evenly.
• Water before you sow: Water the row or tray first, then sow, then cover with a thin layer of dry soil. This avoids washing the seeds away.
• Sow thinly: It feels wrong, but thin sowing saves hours of thinning later. Aim for one seed every 2–3 cm for salad, and 5 cm for roots.
• Thin promptly: As soon as seedlings are large enough to handle, thin them to their final spacing. Use the thinnings as baby leaves in salads.
• Keep a nursery area: A few modules or small pots on a windowsill let you start the next batch while the current one is still cropping.

Intercropping is another useful trick. Sow a quick crop like radish between slower rows of carrots or parsnips. The radishes will be harvested before the carrots need the space, and the carrots benefit from the loosened soil.

Extending the Season and Keeping Track

With a little protection, successional sowing can carry you through the year. A polytunnel or a few cloches will keep winter salads, spinach, and herbs going when the ground outside is frozen. Even a simple cold frame can house a tray of winter lettuce or corn salad. The principle remains the same: sow small batches, but choose hardy varieties that will stand the cold.

• August–September: Winter lettuce, corn salad, land cress, rocket, and mustard greens for cut-and-come-again.
• September–October: Spinach, kale, and chard sown under cover will give you leaves through the winter.
• November–February: Use a heated propagator or a sunny windowsill for a few early salad leaves, but do not expect miracles. The aim is a taste, not a feast.

You do not need an elaborate system. A simple notebook or a chalkboard in the potting shed works wonders. Write down the date, the crop, and the variety. When you harvest, note it down. After a season, you will have a record of what worked and what did not. Label everything with pencil, not ink, which fades. If you miss a sowing, just start again. Sow a pinch of seed today, and in a few weeks you will have fresh leaves again.

There is a quiet satisfaction in walking to the plot and picking exactly what you need for dinner, with no waste and no gluts. That is the smallholder's dream, and successional sowing is the simplest way to make it real.