fall vegetable garden planning, with katie spring

OOPS! The lettuce that was succulent, sweet and gorgeous a week ago just stood up in bold protest, doubling in size and turning bitter, and the last spring spinach bolted. Out they go. My shorter snap and shelling peas are pooped. So what’s next—besides empty stretches of soil? What’s next is officially called succession sowing, and organic farmer Katie Spring shared her harvest-stretching tips for a fall bounty with me.

We should be doing “successions,” or new sowings, all along during the growing season in our edible gardens, but it’s never more important than right now, especially up North where Katie and I garden. As summer comes on strong, we need to focus on continued vegetable and herb harvests through fall frost or even beyond. But what, and when?

Katie Spring and her husband, Edge Fuentes, make their living eking out every possible week of deliciousness and productivity–even in Zone 4 Northern Vermont. Katie also works part of the year with my friends at High Mowing Organic Seeds, as if she is not busy enough with CSA and wholesale clients, farm animals, and family at the couple’s GoodHeartFarmstead, 9 miles north of Montpelier (photo above of their seed house and part of the garden).

Before we start on sowing: a little background on Good Heart Farmstead. Katie and Edge met at Calypso Farm in Alaska, a non-profit educational farm outside of Fairbanks. They eventually moved to Katie’s home state of Vermont, where they are now farming their own land (seen hoeing in midsummer last year in the top photo, before their son was born, and again below, with Waylon and a baby lamb). They raise heritage sheep, pigs, and chickens—and working toward a no-till style of land management.

Good Heart’s business structure is special,

herbs how-to vegetables garden radio podcasts edible plants garden prep from seed organics state Vermont state Alaska