Guide to Rotating
Crop rotation has been on my mind since mid-summer. In our plan to up our production, we are putting into place the time honored practice of crop rotation. Since we are planning a winter garden this year I had to map out not only our winter garden but our spring and summer as well so as I start each subsequent season’s crop I will have a place to plant them.
Yesterday, we posted on the benefits of rotating your vegetable crops. Today, we’ll cover one way to go about rotating.
First, make a list of the vegetables you like to grow and group them by family. You’ll find a list of vegetables in yesterday’s post sorted by crop family.
Second, divide your garden into plots equal to the number of different crop families that you have. You’ll want a minimum of three plots. This way, as you rotate the crops, each year the crop will be planted in a plot every three years. Some experts say every four years is best.
A few vegetables that I don’t worry so much about following the strict every three year rule are: chard, lettuce, beans and peas.
Third, assign numbers to the plots and record what crops you are planting into each plot. You will want to write this information down so you can remember what you planted where from one year to the next.
Lastly, the following year plant what was in plot #1 into plot #2, moving each crop to the next plot. This is the simplest way to rotate.
What we’ve done in our garden is to divide the garden into three sun exposure zones with each zone having three plots. The sunniest zone will rotate tomatoes with basil, melon/cucumber and cruciferous vegetables. I may plant beans or peas in any or all of these plots as space permits. We’re still working on the details as this is our first year of full on crop rotation.
Of course we can plan for the things under our control but nature can toss in a monkey wrench or two…our vermin problems are still plaguing us- they’ve destroyed two newly planted winter beds and I had to preemptively pull out 20 broccoli and 6 chard plants! We hope to have this solved in the next few weeks. Argh! The full story to come.
In any case, there are many ways to accomplish crop rotation but remember to always amend each plot well after each crop no matter how small or quick the crop. It’s all in the soil…
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