Why You Should Rotate Your Crop

Why would you practice crop rotation for your vegetables? This is what Wikipedia says about it:

Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar/different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.

Crop rotation gives various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops. Crop rotation also mitigates the build-up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one species is continuously cropped, and can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants.

I came across this image at a New Zealand site that explains it quite well.

Every year you rotate between root and bulb, fruit and seed and leaf and stem vegetables. Here is a list of which vegetables belong to each group.

Root & Bulb

carrots
parsnip
potatoes
beetroot
kohl rabi
radishes
onions
leek
garlic

Fruit & Seed

peas
beans
tomatoes
capsicum
sweet corn
eggplant
pepper
cucumber
endive
courgette - zucchini

Leaf & Stem

cabbage
cauliflower
broccoli
celery
lettuce
silver beet
spinach
brussels sprouts

Long-term crops such as asparagus and rhubarb are grown outside the rotation.

This works quite well with square foot gardening. Just draw a diagram of what you planted where and then rotate from year to year.

Comments

Sleep Tip from the Mentalist TV Show

I like watching the Mentalist TV show and yesterday I got finally around to watch my latest recorded show. To my delight and surprise Patrick Jane's character gave this tip to help you fall asleep: If you have falling asleep you can count sheep or on your in-breath say or think 1 and then when you breath out say or think 2. On your next in-breath say or think 1 and when you breath out say or think 2. Keep on repeating this and you will be surprised that when you wake up it is morning. Give it a try and then connect with me on Facebook and let me know what happened . . . counting sheep

How to Make Simple Square Foot Gardening Templates

backside of template with holes drilled I am just about ready to start planting my square foot garden . Until now I have used string and sticks to mark things, but then I got an idea of how I could easily make some templates from old plastic election signs. The material was easy to cut with a knife and a permanent marker would help with the design. At first I thought that I would need a whole bunch of templates, but as I got going I realized that I could actually get away with only 2 templates. First cut 2 12x12 inch pieces from the plastic signs Draw a grid: template 1: 3 rows and 3 columns template 2: 4 rows and 4 columns Mark the center of each square of the grid by drawing diagonal lines Use the electric drill and a ½" drill bit and drill a hole at each center point. Template 1 Template 1 Grid of 3 row and 3 columns (9 plants - holes circled in blue) This can also be used for 1 plant per square foot (hole circled in black and then blue)

Companion Planting Chart

Have you ever heard of companion planting ? Wikipedia explains it very nicely: Companion planting is the planting of different crops in proximity (in gardening and agriculture), on the theory that they assist each other in nutrient uptake, pest control, pollination, and other factors necessary to increasing crop productivity. Companion planting is a form of polyculture. Companion planting is used by farmers and gardeners in both industrialized and developing countries for many reasons. Many of the modern principles of companion planting were present many centuries ago in cottage gardens in England and home gardens in Asia. Check out this helpful chart to find the benefits of companion planting: Let me know if you found this information helpful and write a comment.

Dappled Air

Search This Blog