Planning a productive vegetable garden starts with understanding the rhythm of the growing season.
In this workshop, we'll walk through how the Horticulture team at Old Salem plans our vegetable gardens each year, and how you can use the same methods at home - whether you are working with a backyard plot, raised beds, or a small community garden space.
We’ll begin with the seasonal garden calendar, the core tool for staying organized. Participants will learn how to track key dates, including soil testing, bed preparation, sowing and transplanting windows, succession planting intervals, and expected harvest periods. We’ll also review local frost dates and how they shape both spring and fall planting schedules. The goal is to give you a clear, simple system you can use from year to year.
The program will then cover three essential planning strategies for vegetable production:
Succession Planting
We’ll explain how to extend your harvest by staggering sowings, planting one crop immediately after another, and choosing cultivars with different maturity dates. We’ll also highlight a few reliable crops for succession planting—such as lettuce, arugula, radishes, carrots, and bush beans—and show how timing helps avoid certain pest pressures.
Intercropping (Companion Planting)
You’ll learn how to make efficient use of limited garden space by pairing crops with different growth habits and maturity times. We’ll look at straightforward combinations—such as lettuce interplanted with pole beans—and discuss how intercropping can reduce weeds, attract beneficial insects, and help distribute labor through the season.
Crop Rotation
Finally, we’ll cover why moving crop families to new locations each year matters for soil health and pest reduction. Participants will learn a simple rotation pattern (Leafy → Fruit → Root → Soil-Building crops) and how rotation slows the buildup of soil-borne diseases. We’ll also introduce basic soil-building options like buckwheat, winter rye, cowpeas, and crimson clover.
Throughout the event, you’ll see real examples from Old Salem’s vegetable garden plans and learn how to adapt these techniques to your own space. The goal is for everyone to leave with a workable, season-by-season plan that improves yields, reduces problems, and makes the gardening year easier to manage.
This informative lecture-style event will take place in our indoor classroom in the Gardens Education Center and is open to adult gardeners of all skill levels.