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Garden Planning, Succession & Crop RotationKitchen Garden Calendar
A kitchen garden is planned from the plate backward. Start with what your household eats, then fit the crops to the seasons and the space close to your door.
Key points
- Plan from your menu: grow what you eat, and put frequent picks near the door.
- Time crops from your local frost dates, not a generic calendar.
- Resow fast crops through summer and plan fall crops from first-frost dates.
- Rotate plant families on a simple cycle and keep a map.
- Preserve surplus only with tested procedures.
How do you decide what a kitchen garden should grow?
List the vegetables and herbs your household eats most, and favor those that cost a lot to buy or taste better fresh. Skip crops no one will eat, however easy they are.
Place the crops you pick most often, such as herbs and salad greens, closest to the kitchen. Crops harvested rarely can sit farther away.
Ask extension which varieties do well in your area. A tomato that thrives in one climate may struggle in another. Trial a new crop or variety each year in a small amount, rather than replacing everything at once.
What belongs in the spring plan?
Spring tasks begin with a soil test, bed cleanup and compost. Cool-season crops such as peas, lettuce, spinach and radishes can go in as soon as the soil is workable, while warm-season crops wait until frost danger has passed.
Use your local last frost date from the National Weather Service or your extension office. A plant hardiness zone shows winter minimum temperature only, and it does not set planting dates. Before planting, look at where water pools after rain and where the soil dries early. Plant the wetter spots with crops that tolerate more moisture, and keep root crops and herbs in the drier ones.
What does summer need?
Summer is mostly watering, weeding, harvesting and scouting for pests. Water deeply and consistently, and mulch to save moisture. Pick crops young and often to keep plants producing.
This is also the time for repeat sowings of quick crops, so greens and beans keep coming rather than arriving in a single wave.
Check beds after heavy rain or heat. Wet leaves can invite disease and hot, dry spells stress plants, so adjust watering to what the plants show you. Mulch also keeps soil from splashing onto leaves, which can reduce some leaf diseases.
- Water deeply and check local watering rules
- Harvest often
- Resow fast crops
- Scout weekly
How do you plan for fall and winter harvests?
Work back from your average first fall frost. Take the days to maturity on the packet, add extra time as days shorten, and sow fall crops accordingly. Some cool-season crops tolerate light frost and may taste better after it.
Row cover, cold frames and similar protection can extend the season in many climates. Your extension office can tell you what works locally. Keep notes on when the first hard freeze actually hit each year, since averages hide a lot of variation from one season to the next. Plan fall crops before summer crops finish, so beds can be cleared and replanted promptly.
How do you rotate crops in a small garden?
Avoid planting the same plant family in the same bed year after year, since pests and diseases can build up in the soil. Divide the garden into a few groups of beds and move families around on a simple cycle.
Keep a map each year so you can see where each family grew. Even a hand-drawn sketch works.
If space is too tight to rotate beds, rotating within beds and adding compost and cover crops in off periods can still help. Ask extension for local advice. Group plants by family, such as the tomato family, the cabbage family and the squash family, so you know which crops count as relatives.
How do you keep the kitchen garden manageable?
Start small and grow what you can keep up with. A tidy small garden beats a large, weedy one. Add beds only after the first ones are working well, and keep paths clear so harvesting is easy.
Short daily visits, even five minutes with a basket, catch problems early. Pulling a few weeds and picking ripe produce each day keeps work from piling up on the weekend.
How should you handle the surplus?
Share extra produce, or preserve it. For canning, freezing, drying, pickling or fermenting, use tested procedures from USDA, the National Center for Home Food Preservation or your extension service. Do not guess at processing times or methods, since errors can be unsafe.
Wash produce before storing or preserving, and follow the tested recipe all the way through. Donate extra produce to a local food pantry if they accept garden produce, but ask about their rules for handling and labeling first.
Sources and further reading
Last reviewed: November 2026. Educational information, ranges only. Confirm timing with your county extension office.