I KNOW, it looks like we simply planted the vegetable backyard moments in the past. However an in depth go searching as summer season actually takes maintain shortly reminds us that our work is rarely performed…
Some crop or different is reaching the top of its run, making room for a succession sowing of extra of that very same factor or one thing else altogether, or perhaps of a weed-suppressing, soil-building cowl crop—a few of which are literally edible, too, (just like the winter-hardy area peas, above) in what’s maybe the cleverest season-extending scheme of all.
Mastering the artwork of stretching the harvest season is my subject at this time with Doug Muller of Hudson Valley Seed Firm. Doug is co-founder and managing director of the mail-order seed enterprise and retail retailer, based mostly on its natural farm in Accord, N.Y., and I used to be happy to talk to him and get some inspiration on succession sowing and inventive cowl cropping—as a result of sure, there’s nonetheless time for tons extra potentialities on the market.
Learn alongside as you take heed to the June 29, 2026 version of my public-radio present and podcast utilizing the participant beneath. You’ll be able to subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
sowing successions, with doug muller
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Margaret Roach: Hello, Doug, good to talk to you. And boy, from the primary days after I knew you and Ok [co-founder K Greene] once you based Hudson Valley Seed, to at this time, the enterprise has advanced a lot. That retail retailer is simply, wow.
Doug Muller: Effectively, thanks. Yeah, it’s been a journey. I feel we’re in 12 months 18 now. We began in 2008 and we began based mostly at our dwelling in a area adjoining to our dwelling. It was like an acre in measurement. Yeah, now we’ve a brand new place and we’ve acquired a retail store, we’ve acquired greenhouses, we’ve acquired 40 acres of land to work with. So I really feel very fortunate that we’ve made it this far. And as enterprise, there’s a number of ups and downs [laughter]. So it’s been enjoyable. COVID and the pandemic introduced an actual large wave of curiosity in gardening, and it’s cooled a bit since then, so there’s been a variety of adjusting. However yeah, I really feel very lucky and it’s been a very fascinating profession.
Margaret: Yeah. And I acquired one of many emails that comes from Hudson Valley Seed the opposite day, and I feel it was mentioning to individuals about your fall seedling sale of transplants—talking of protecting the harvest going and never leaving any house empty, utilizing each sq. inch and so forth. So that individuals within the space can, I assume, place an order after which they arrive decide it up—for these of us who forgot to sow our personal transplants [laughter].
Doug: Precisely. Yeah. We definitely perceive—we’re gardeners, too, and we’ve busy lives. And we perceive that you simply get the spring backyard in, then it will probably generally really feel just a little intimidating to maintain going, however the actuality is that really among the greatest harvests you do out of your backyard are within the fall, from crops began round this time of 12 months and later. So the greenhouses keep open, and we do a pre-order additionally for individuals who know that they aren’t going to have time to do this second spherical of sowing and caretaking particularly of crops that prefer to be transplanted greater than direct-sown, issues like broccoli and whatnot.
Margaret: Yeah. And likewise simply to say, clearly you and I are each in New York. We’re in zone, what, like 6a-ish or one thing like that?
Doug: Yeah, I feel we’re 6b right here.
Margaret: Yeah, 6a, throughout the river from you. So individuals in several areas, after all, can even do the issues that we’re speaking about, however the timing’s going to be completely different. I’ll additionally give some hyperlinks to some calendars, so to talk, for different areas of the nation, like from Clemson College or College of Florida [click link for Table 1 at end of that page] and Maine Natural Farmers or College of California and issues like that, so that individuals can get tuned into when to do what for his or her space. So forgive us for being Northeasterners [laughter].
Anyway, so to maintain the vegetable backyard producing, which it will probably even in our northern location for a lot of months to come back, we type of must study just a little little bit of a distinct model of the seed-starting calendar timing concept than the one we use in late winter or spring. I imply, we’ve to form of alter our considering, don’t we?
Doug: Sure, completely. The few key issues to bear in mind about that. So after we begin seeds later, this time of 12 months or later, it’s across the solstice now simply after the solstice. The younger vegetation are going to be encountering fairly completely different situations from what they discover within the spring. Within the spring, the times are warming and lengthening because the plant grows alongside, which type of quickens their development total.
As we transfer onto the opposite facet of the solstice, situations are already heat in practically all places, however daylight will really begin to lower over the approaching months. And one impact of that on younger vegetation is that they—not a lot proper now, however as we go deeper into the summer season in the direction of fall—is that they do take longer to succeed in the identical measurement as a comparable spring-grown plant as a result of the size of the times as they develop will get shorter and shorter, which simply results in much less development per day.
So there’s simply one thing to bear in mind as you method a summer season seed-starting schedule versus a late-winter, early-spring one.
Margaret: Proper. And a few individuals have instructed me they have a look at the times to maturity on the packet, which after all isn’t precisely exact as a result of it usually means perhaps the very first thing that could be harvestable and the factor could be harvestable over weeks or no matter. So it’s not the precise science, anyway. However they type of add per week or two for the later sowings. Are you aware what I imply?
Doug: I’ve heard 10 days and used 10 days myself as a information. Yeah, completely.
Margaret: Yeah. So let’s simply give some concepts. I imply individuals are wanting across the backyard and in the event that they weren’t doing already successions of issues, in the event that they weren’t doing a brief row of lettuce each nevertheless typically, some individuals do it each week, each 10 days, each two weeks, no matter. Positively that’s petered out by now [laughter]. Or the peas that we confirmed within the spring, the minute that the summer season warmth comes on, they often quit by, nicely, for me round July usually someday they cease producing, however I’d prefer to have peas once more or and so on. There’s a number of potentialities. So what are among the ones that you simply say to individuals: “Hey, when you’re getting began with this, tune into this concept.” What are some good concepts?
Doug: Certain. Yeah. Effectively, to me, there’s type of some buckets of potentialities. [Hudson Valley Seed’s late-season planting guide poster illustrates them.]
One could be what I consider as probably the most thrilling last-chance crops that work in succession sowing settings. These could be those that you’d do extra within the June-July timeframe right here within the Northeast. Issues like cucumbers, summer season squash, basil, bush beans. I feel the window to plant issues which might be frost tender, which all of these issues are, is tighter than the window for doing issues which might be extra hardy. In order that first bucket of stuff is if in case you have some lettuce that comes out round this time of 12 months or early July, it’s nonetheless not too late right here within the Hudson Valley no less than to do cucumbers or summer season squash, issues that truly are fruiting, which is type of enjoyable to know that right here we’re previous the principle spring season, however there are nonetheless fruiting, frost-tender crops which you can plant.
And one of many causes is that these crops, you might be harvesting immature fruit on the edible stage. In order that they have a quicker days to maturity than, for instance, a winter squash.
Margaret: Proper, after all.
Doug: In order that’s like the primary bucket is type of these enjoyable issues that you simply’re actually virtually prefer it looks like a present to have a second spherical to do these.
Margaret: And you actually wish to leap on these because-
Doug: Completely.
Margaret: ..they’re not so forgiving as arugula.
Doug: Completely, completely. Then that second bucket would come with issues like arugula. So these are crops that they are usually on the inexperienced and leafy facet of issues or on the rooted/root facet of issues. And people have a bit extra of prolonged planting window. These usually within the Northeast, there are seeds of greens and may be sown into September. Seeds of issues like carrots and beets may be sown by means of like early to mid-August.
So there’s an extended window for these frost-hardy vegetable crops, and harvest on these crops could be later than for the frost-tender. So for cucumbers, summer season squash, that form of factor, you’d think about harvesting these from a midseason sowing like this within the September, October up until frost type of timeframe. After which-
Margaret: And also you may need to get out a chunk of cloth if it will get just a little chilly generally, that type of factor.
Doug: Sure. And particularly, if in case you have an early frost, when you cowl it with row cowl, you may earn your self two to 4 extra weeks of harvest.
Margaret: Precisely, precisely. Yeah.
Doug: It’s undoubtedly price having available. The greens and roots and issues, they’re like a spine of the backyard. You’ll be able to actually have greens accessible the complete 12 months. So from midsummer to early-September sort sowing, so these crops you may count on to be harvesting within the October by means of December type of timeframe. And once more, not a foul concept to have some protecting material available for these crops as nicely, however not for … They don’t want it when the primary frost comes, they want it from Thanksgiving until the top of the 12 months type of time if you wish to prolong your harvest into winter.
Margaret: Proper, proper. That is smart. Yeah.
Doug: Then one different further bucket that’s at all times in my thoughts is, as you talked about, within the intro, cowl crops you may eat. The duvet crops usually, however particularly, the quilt crops you may eat.
Margaret: Yeah. I’m completely fascinated by this since you had alerted me to a few of these, and I’ve seen, I don’t know what’s on the web site or I can’t bear in mind, however I used to be like, actually? And the way did I not find out about a few of these concepts? [Laughter.]
Doug: Effectively, that’s all good. They’re not a part of our gardening tradition a lot, however one in every of them I feel actually must be, which is the winter-hardy area pea, previously often known as Austrian winter peas [photo, top of page]. We needed to change our names. The USDA reached out to us. There was some form of naming legislation that got here into impact for this specific crop, however it’s quite a lot of pea, like Pisum sativum, nevertheless it has the attribute that it is vitally chilly hardy and winter hardy. And so the form of planting cycle or planting cycle for that’s that you simply put them within the floor within the July, August, early September timeframe. They develop into younger vegetation, like adolescent vegetation. They overwinter like that. So they simply go dormant for the majority of the winter. After which in March or April, at any time when, right here within the Northeast, they regrow once more vigorously and so they present actually tasty pea shoots on the time of 12 months when there’s not a lot else inexperienced popping out of the backyard with that pressure.
It’s actually if in case you have even a comparatively small mattress of them, you may be harvesting pea shoots, huge bunches of pea shoots, for a number of weeks and so they’re very tasty. And so the opposite advantage of that’s it’s leguminous. So it’s including nitrogen to your soil all through that entire course of and suppressing weeds.
Margaret: Proper. And since you promote natural seed for these peas, these area peas, it’s an edible. I imply, it’s one thing that I wish to develop and eat. You understand what I imply? That’s the opposite factor is with one thing like a “cowl crop,” I don’t need a handled seed. Are you aware what I imply? If I’m going to eat it, I don’t wish to get some agricultural model of it that who is aware of what’s … Sorry to sound paranoid, however … [laughter].
Doug: No, it’s all good. Yeah, I’d say it’s not solely it’s that, sure. And likewise I feel there are different cowl crops like common area peas, which you develop throughout the season. These aren’t as chilly hardy. These make shoots, too, however they’re like, O.Ok. [Laughter.] They’re not really … You wouldn’t select to eat these, essentially, when you had another good greens round. However the winter peas, the winter-hardy peas, are legitimately good, these pea shoots. In order that’s one of many cool issues that it’s a cowl crop. It behaves like a canopy crop. It fills an empty house shortly and does great things to the soil and likewise produces one thing genuinely tasty within the spring. So it’s one in every of my favourite cowl crops.
Margaret: And do you simply reduce it down or what do you do? As a result of I imply, many people in our dwelling vegetable backyard, it’s not like in a farm area, it’s a confined house. So the aftercare administration of a canopy crop is just a little trickier. So I do know individuals who reduce it down both with a weed whacker or simply generally with hedge shears after which cowl it with a tarp or no matter, or loosen the soil just a little and canopy it with a tarp, let it form of degrade for a pair few weeks or one thing earlier than replanting the world. I don’t know. Individuals have completely different ways.
Doug: Yeah, that tactic ought to work for the pea shoots, area peas usually are not significantly … With one thing like winter rye, for instance, which is a typical cowl crop in a area setting that’s performed within the fall to be a winter cowl, it’s actually arduous to eliminate it within the spring. It takes like an precise tillage to eliminate it. The sector peas usually are not like that, in order that they’re a lot simpler. The basis system is far more … Even simply with a hoe, if in case you have a backyard mattress that you’ve got in that cowl, you possibly can weed whack it after which simply with a really mild hoeing, you’d deal with it.
Margaret: That’s good to know, as a result of I feel that’s one of many issues after we say the expression “cowl crops,” it sounds just a little agricultural, and if individuals have tried one thing like winter rye within the confines of their raised-bed backyard or one thing, they’re like, “Uh-oh, now we’re in bother.”
Doug: Yeah, for positive.
Margaret: “What machine does fixes this?”
Doug: Yeah, I don’t know that there’s one. [Laughter.]
Margaret: No, there isn’t one, aside from backbreaking arduous work.
Doug: Completely. Yeah.
Margaret: Yeah, no, in order that’s tough. In order that’s a very good one. So the overwintering sorts, in addition they are tasty and so they’re straightforward to handle this manner. Plus, as you say, they put nitrogen within the soil and so forth.
Doug: Yeah. After which one other crop which you can deal with as a canopy crop, however isn’t technically a canopy crop, though the kinfolk of it are: Mainly there’s a bunch of fast-growing brassicas like within the Brassica rapa species, issues like komatsuna [above] or mustard greens or bok choy, or tatsoi. Komatsuna particularly, I’ll spotlight, which is simply very quick rising. And when you sow it densely in an empty mattress, it germinates inside a few days and it simply grows so shortly, even within the diminishing mild situations and cooler climate of the autumn, that it will probably actually simply blanket a mattress on this scrumptious, mildly mustardy edible inexperienced.
It has the impact of weed suppression as a result of it will probably blanket the mattress so readily, although it’s a cultivated crop, and it’s not technically a canopy crop. It simply behaves like on sufficient that it’s one other instance of a type of have your cake and eat it too scenario the place you’re suppressing weeds, form of stabilizing a mattress for a time period when one other crop could be out of it, however you additionally get a very scrumptious and considerable harvest. And so they actually do continue to grow steadily even with out row cowl safety into the chilly. Right here within the Northeast, you may simply be harvesting komatsuna into November, no drawback, with some safety into December, no drawback. The one factor is it’s not essentially, not like the winter-hardy peas, komatsuna or different Brassica rapa mustard greens usually are not going to be including nitrogen to your soil. In actual fact, they’ll be extracting it [laughter] as a result of they’re leafy inexperienced greens, however they do suppress weeds.
And so long as you’re subsequent spring placing down compost and fertility into the mattress, it’s not an issue or something.
Margaret: Effectively, proper. And when you go away an space empty, we all know what occurs, and the weeds that occur additionally take up the nitrogen [laughter].
Doug: Completely.
Margaret: So in different phrases, after which require eradication. So I discover, as a result of a variety of instances after I’ve prime dressed my vegetable beds with compost, I compost in an enormous, huge open pile, a windrow as they might say, an enormous open pile. And what? It’s not sizzling sufficient in all probability. So it’s not killing all of the seeds of every thing. I get stuff in there and I’ve to be aware about that, that if I go away areas empty, stuff’s going to sprout, proper? Yeah. And that’s not so good, both. So komatsuna feels like a good suggestion to me.
Doug: Yeah, no, it actually does outcompete a variety of weeds. I imply, that’s what you’re searching for is form of a degree of vigor that may hold tempo with the extent of vigor of weeds. So komatsuna undoubtedly gives that, as does mustard greens, different varieties in that species.
Margaret: O.Ok. I wish to return to among the different crops we are able to do, and I don’t know if we talked about bush beans [below, Tri-Color Bush Beans]. However I really like bush beans and that’s one the place you may hold going for fairly some time, I feel that’s I feel a very good one.
Doug: Yeah. The great factor about bush beans is that they yield far more shortly than pole beans.
Margaret: Sure.
Doug: I really like pole beans in a backyard because-
Margaret: So do I. Yeah.
Doug: There’s much less bending over. They yield steadily from after they start producing till frost, so long as you keep on prime of harvesting. I imply, I’m an enormous fan of pole beans, however there comes a second within the season when it’s type of too late for them. However bush beans you may nonetheless plant as a result of they flower and set beans far more shortly than a pole bean does. So usually right here within the Northeast, you may proceed sowing bush beans till like mid-July, I’d say, and also you’ll nonetheless get a pleasant harvest within the fall.
I get pleasure from having inexperienced beans at the moment of 12 months. It’s a pleasant counterpoint to so most of the different crops coming in as we transfer in the direction of winter squash and carrots and issues and greens, it’s its personal class. Lots of people have an enormous wave of bush beans from the seeds they planted in Could and that wave occurs in form of July into early August earlier than the tomatoes are even prepared. So I really like doing a follow-up to have it form of hold beans current with inexperienced beans current with the remainder of the greens which might be in abundance later into the September-October timeframe.
Margaret: And talking of then form of non-vining selection that you simply simply stated about bush beans versus pole beans, I do the identical with the peas for fall. I’d at all times simply use… I’d not use a tall selection. I’d use a brief selection that matures extra shortly. Are you aware what I imply?
Doug: Yeah. And that’s an important concept as a result of the one problem; you are able to do peas for the autumn, which is one thing lots of people don’t understand, however one of many challenges is that they don’t love being younger vegetation throughout the warmth and humidity.
Margaret: No.
Doug: They actually don’t. And you’ll see it on how they behave. They typically develop by means of it, and begin to flourish as soon as we transfer into late August and later. However I feel that’s an important technique to go together with a faster-maturing, smaller, lower-growing pea plant that doesn’t want as many days to mature. So it doesn’t must undergo by means of that sizzling climate as a lot.
Margaret: And we should always at all times bear in mind, too, on this form of calculation the place we’re what’s going to come back empty, I feel it’s good to put in writing it down. I imply, to stroll across the backyard proper about now, in truth, proper now earlier than it will get any later and form of say, “Ah, that’s going to be performed in per week or two, and that’s going to be performed in August first.” And make our up to date calendar, so to talk, of what’s going to go the place, however to not overlook that we’re going to depart room for issues like our garlic, which goes to go in final of all, issues for subsequent 12 months. It’s that, too.
What about, are there a few herbs like cilantro? Can we hold doing that as a result of that peters out, doesn’t final lengthy. Can we hold doing that?
Doug: For positive. Cilantro [above] is a good candidate for succession sowing usually. Even we’ve a few varieties in our catalog, one which’s an extended, slower-to-bolt selection referred to as ‘Caribe.’ That’s an important one, however even with that selection, I imply, you get 4 weeks of harvest as a substitute of two. It received’t essentially final the season. So that you do must hold sowing cilantro when you’d prefer to have it after the primary wave, as a result of it naturally simply tends to bolt after which type the coriander, it flowers after which yields the seed, which is coriander. And cilantro is a good selection, too, as a result of it’s cold-hardy. I’ve grown fantastic cilantro crops simply in my winter vegetable tunnel by means of the winter with safety. They flatten down just a little bit and unfold out, I feel, as a response to the chilly, however they’re completely alive and harvestable. So it’s a very good one to maintain doing as a result of not like basil, it will probably stand the chilly.
Margaret: Effectively, Doug Muller, I’m so glad to talk to you, and also you’re motivating me and I see komatsuna in my future. [Laughter.] So comfortable form of summer season. I hope I’ll speak to you once more quickly. Thanks.
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MY WEEKLY public-radio present, rated a “top-5 backyard podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper within the UK, started its seventeenth 12 months in March 2026. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station within the nation. Pay attention regionally within the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Jap, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the June 29, 2026 present utilizing the participant close to the highest of this transcript. You’ll be able to subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts right here).
