How do I show a buyer my market garden’s crop plan and succession planting schedule?

A schedule is easiest to follow as a calendar with a map beside it. List each crop, the dates of every sowing or transplant, and the harvest weeks that follow. Show which bed each planting uses and what follows it. Include indoor starts, greenhouse space and any dates you depend on for labour. If your plan changed over the years, show the versions.

Then connect it to sales. A buyer wants to see which plantings fed which markets, subscribers or restaurants, and where gaps or gluts appeared. Share simple notes from past seasons: what sold out early, what went to waste, what you would plant more or less of. These notes show judgement, and judgement is the part a buyer cannot read from a spreadsheet.

Finally, explain how the plan is run each week. Who checks the beds, who adjusts the dates when the weather turns, and how are those changes recorded? Offer to walk the fields with the buyer during the season so the calendar and the beds can be compared. Your accountant can help you build a cash-flow view of the plan, and a handover period keeps your knowledge in the business.

Key takeaways

• Pair a dated crop calendar with a bed map showing what follows what.
• Add notes on what sold, what went to waste and what you would change.
• Walk the fields with the buyer in season so plan and ground can be compared.