Grow great vegetable plants by practising crop rotation to improve soil fertility.

 

As the plants in your vegetable garden feed, they deplete nutrients in the soil. Some plants take more from the soil than others while some actually add nutrients. For these reasons it is important to practise crop rotation to maintain or improve soil fertility.

Don’t plant the same crop year after year in the same spot in the garden. Keep a balance by planting different crops in different places throughout the year.

Crop rotation will also help prevent a build-up of plant pests and disease.  If you can bear to do so, also leave some ground fallow (no plants in it) for a while. With added compost, this will allow the soil to build up its resources and cure itself of plant pests and disease.

Legumes such as peas and beans add nitrogen to the soil and are an important part of soil maintenance. However there is no need to have a science degree in order to understand how rotation works or to be successful at crop rotation.

You can choose to either divide your garden plot up into four quadrants with pathways or separate beds (three quadrants for crop rotation and the fourth to leave fallow) … or just keep a track in your mind of where you plant, and have planted, various crops. Rotate rows within your garden plots unless you plan to plant out a complete plot. The size of the crops you plant will determine where you place them.

Follow the general pattern below:

WINTER GREENS (e.g. broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, leek and kale) and SALAD PLANTS (e.g.lettuce, rocket, radiccio, sorrel, parsley)

followed by

ROOT CROPS (e.g. carrots, beetroot, turnips, parsnip, swede, potatoes)

followed by

PEAS, BEANS, ONIONS, TOMATOES, CELERY, CAPSICUM AND SPINACH (interspersed with salad plants – e.g. lettuce, rocket, basil, parsley, sorrel, radiccio, mustard)

and back to winter greens and salad plants.

…  but bear in mind that the period of time from planting to harvest varies amongst plants, and space will not always be available when you think you want it. Quick growing salad plants can be interspersed amongst almost anything.

Don’t worry if your pattern is not exact. Your plants will love you for trying and any rotation is better than none.

In the photo, the third bed lay fallow over winter, dressed with lime, general fertiliser, ash and compost. It is now being planted with courgettes and lettuces. In the second bed runner beans will be planted on the poles, where a broccoli crop has finished. The carrots and spinach in the front corner will be followed by capsicum (see photo at top). 

The bed in the distance will be planted completely over the spring and summer with continuing plantings of early, main crop and late peas to add nitrogen to the soil. The bed will then be dressed with compost, general fertiliser and mulch and left fallow over winter. The other three beds will be planted with winter crops as the summer crops are harvested.

Plant seedling crops alongside plants that are ready to be harvested (see the photo, right). Onions – between the bamboo protectors – have been planted next to silverbeet which is already being picked. The silverbeet will last a few more weeks. In the meantime the onions are protected by their leaves and are establishing early to ensure constant production.

Be careful during dry weather as the established plants will draw more water than the seedlings do. The seedlings will need to be watered separately.

I will cut up the roots of the silverbeet, once it is spent, rather than pull the whole plant out and disturb the onion seedlings.

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