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Organic Gardening - Crop Rotation
How to rotate crops to keep the soil and plant health to a maximum

Crop Rotation for your Organic Garden  

The Theory: Crop Rotation is the practice of changing or rotating growing areas in your garden. Plant groups are rotated according to their nutrient needs, and to avoid pest & disease problems, and  it works well!  

For example, you could change the place where Potatoes grow each year so that pests who specifically attack Potatoes do not build up in that area.  Also, the nutrients needed by healthy, growing Potatoes will slowly be leached out of your soil, until the nutrient bank is very low & then you will notice problems such as large pest numbers & poor crop yields.   

When you rotate the crops grown in each area, you will notice a balance in your garden, healthier soil & greater yields of harvest! You can also use Companion Planting to aid you in this J

The general rule of crop rotation:

  Plant Legumes the first year, 

  Followed by Cabbages (& other Brassica) the next, 

  Then Tomatoes, 

  Then Onions, 

  And finally Root Vegetables.  

You can then begin a new rotation, again starting with Legumes...  

Also take into consideration that your soil type, area & weather conditions may be different, so if you know your garden well, and find a working crop rotation system different to this, then go for it.  Please let me know what is working for you also, I'll add it to the above rule. J

Another Crop Rotation School of Thought...

Crop rotation can be slightly different for every garden, due to space available, climate, choice of veges etc. The general rule can also be fairly vague because of it. So here is another form of crop rotation and a bit more detail...

Root crops include beetroot, carrot, parsnip, potato.

Brassica crops include broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kohl rabi, radish, swede, turnip.

Other crops include eggplant, bean, pepper, celery, cucumber, endive, leek, lettuce, marrow, onion, pea, spinach, sweet corn, tomato.

We break "others" up into a few categories and years, but as long as you don't plant the same vege in the same spot year after year, you'll be alright.

A plan for a vegetable plot divided into three plots would look something like this:

Year 1:
Plot 1 Roots
Plot 2 Brassicas
Plot 3 Others

Year 2:
Plot 1 Others
Plot 2 Roots
Plot 3 Brassicas

Year 3:
Plot 1 Brassicas
Plot 2 Others
Plot 3 Roots

Year 4:
Same as Year One

As long as you rotate the type of vege each year (plant them in different plots each time), you should be maintaining the soil health nicely. Keep in mind that veges like marrows, courgettes, cucumber and pumpkin love BIG areas, especially the compost bins, so you could plant them in corners of your garden and they'll creep about all over the place very happily, ours do. J

See Also: Mulching your Garden for more

"Let him who'd have the Peace he needs, give all his worldly mumming up,  then dig a Garden, Plant the Seeds, & watch the product coming up." ~ George R. Sims, English Poet

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We'd love to hear from you! Send us your organic gardening questions/thoughts, which we can add to the growing list! Or use the form below. 

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