Our big project in the garden this year is to produce the fresh stuff we use every day in a way that we have it fresh from our garden in the right quantity every day. Its different from planting a row of something and using it all when its ready. We want stuff every day, week after week, for the whole year.
Here are some of the things we use every day.
Salad - lettuce, arugula, spinach, scallions, radishes, etc.
Cooking greens - spinach, swiss chard, kale, etc.
Carrots
Cooked root vegetables - turnips, parsnips, beets, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc.
Garlic
Onions
Tomatoes
Peppers
These all present different challenges. For us, garlic and onions are the start of almost every meal. We use a lot. But, garlic isn't a succession crop. What we have now was determined by what we planted in November of 2016. Knowing how much we eat, how well things store, and factoring in crop variability we seem to have hit the mark pretty well. Our next garlic crop is already in the ground, and we are hopeful it will also be a success. Onions, potatoes, and sweet potatoes should work the same way (in theory). Some things don't store as well for us, so we are going to try a different approach.
Carrots. We use about a dozen carrots a week. So my plan for carrot production looks like this...
I'm using a variety of carrots that takes 56 days to maturity.
8 24" rows planted one week apart.
Harvest one row per week and replant the row immediately after harvest.
I'm planting in a raised bed with irrigation and cover so I can plant intensively. I should be able to get the first seeds in around April 1st and first harvest around May 28th. This succession will continue with the final harvest around November 5th. I'm planning some winter production in my hoop house (once I get it moved), but that is another planning process.
I'll use the same process with salad crops and cooking greens. (Good thing we are still in snow season.) Tomatoes and Peppers are a different challenge that I'm not sure how I'll solve.
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