Lesson 3
Succession — pick instead of waiting
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The single biggest leap from beginner to confident grower is succession sowing — sowing the same crop in small batches, two to three weeks apart, instead of in one big sowing.
It works for lettuce, radish, coriander, dill, beetroot, spring onions, salad turnip, baby carrots, and most cut-flower annuals (cosmos, calendula, scabious, cornflower).
A reliable succession rhythm
- 1Sow a small batch — half a packet of lettuce, a 30 cm row of radish.
- 2Mark the date on the pot or row tag.
- 3Two weeks later, sow another small batch in fresh soil.
- 4Repeat every 2 weeks until 8 weeks before your first frost.
- 5Stop in midsummer for crops that bolt in heat (coriander, lettuce); restart in autumn for cool-tolerant types.
It feels wasteful to sow only half a packet. Trust it — by week 8 you'll be harvesting from rows 1–4 simultaneously and never short of salad again.