Do you want diversity in your vegetable garden? How about limiting the number of weeds or the destruction of your plants by disease or insects? Are you inundated with produce at harvest time and forced to give half of the crop away to neighbors? There is a better way, and armed with knowledge, you will succeed. Join Extension Master Gardener Nina DeRosa, a leader in our Organic Vegetable Garden, for our discussion on succession planting to learn how you could have a steady stream of year-round harvests and so much more.
This is the third of three shorter, focused classes (approximately one hour) on vegetable gardening.
Zoom session, recorded July 11, 2025
Class Video
Chapter Breaks
- 0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:13 Definition, Types & Benefits
00:05:02 Determining Crops to Grow
0:13:17 Quick-maturing Crops
0:22:22 Slow-maturing Crops
0:28:39 Questions
0:31:19 Seasonal Planting
0:33:09 Companion Planting & Interplanting
0:37:10 Interval Planting
0:39:30 Varieties of the Same Crop
0:46:21 Tips for Successful Succession Planting
0:51:59 Questions
Additional Resources
Online Resources
- Jadrnicek, Shawn and Hessler, Alex. 2025. Virginia’s Home Garden Vegetable Planting Guide: Recommended Planting Dates and Amounts to Plant. Virginia Cooperative Extension publication 426-331 (SPES-673P).
https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-331/426-331.html - Jadrnicek, Shawn and Torres Quezada, Emmanuel. 2025. How to develop a planting plan for vegetables in Virginia: A sample spreadsheet. Virginia Cooperative Extension publication SPES-401NP.
https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/pubs_ext_vt_edu/en/SPES/spes-401/spes-401.html
Books for Beginner Gardeners
- Denckla Cobb, Tanya. 2003. The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food. Storey Publishing, LLC.
- Kujawski, Jennifer and Kujawski, Ron. 2011. Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook: Perfectly Timed Gardening for Your Most Bountiful Harvest Ever. Storey Publishing, LLC.
- McCrate, Colin and Halm Brad. 2015. High-Yield Vegetable Gardening: Grow More of What You Want in the Space You Have. Storey Publishing, LLC.
Additional Books
- Coleman, Eliot. 1992. Four-Season Harvest: How to Harvest Fresh Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long. Chelsea Green
- Coleman, Eliot. 2018. The New Organic Grower, 3rd Edition: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener. Chelsea Green.
- Greene, Wesley and Lobmardi, Barbara Temple. 2012. Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way: 18th-Century Methods for Today’s Organic Gardeners. Rodale Books.
- Jabbour, Niki. 2011. The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year, No Matter Where You Live. Storey Publishing, LLC.
- McCrate, Colin and Halm Brad. 2022. Grow More Food: A Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Getting the Biggest Harvest Possible from a Space of Any Size. Storey Publishing, LLC.
- Walliser, Jessica. 2020. Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden . Storey Publishing, LLC.