R IS FOR ROTATE, ROTATE, ROTATE

Crop rotation is another fundamental rule of organic gardening. Just a couple of bonuses about practising organic gardening are:

· disease & pest reduction

· increased soil fertility

· increased water absorption

It sounds daunting but all you need to do is keep a diary or have a really good memory.  I rely on the diary as my memory is so shot full of holes I have trouble remembering that I even have a garden.

In the diary I keep a record of the date, type of vegetables I plant and in which bed. It's easy to do and if you laminate your plan you can nail it to a stake or to the fence so you have it there for reference when you need it. (I use this method because I always forget where I put it)

Below is my four year plan for my four beds.

(diagram copied from http://www.thevegetablepatch.com/)

The first bed starts off with a mixture of roots crops (carrots, parsnips and beetroot) and vegetables belonging to the allium family (onions, garlic and leeks). The second bed begins with sweet corn and curcurbits (pumpkins, squash, cucumber, zucchini and maybe even some watermelons). By autumn the crops in this bed have usually been harvested so you can grow a quick cover of green manure before the next growing season. The third bed in spring starts with the vegetables that prefer a slightly lower pH (also known as acid lovers) such as tomatoes, capsicums, chillies and eggplants. And the fourth bed can be used to grow legumes (peas and beans) and brassicas (cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and Asian greens). By spring the following year the sweet corn and curcurbits replace the root crops and onions. The tomatoes, bell peppers and eggplants replace the sweet corn and curcurbits (after the green manure has been dug into the bed). The legumes and brassicas replace the tomatoes etc. And of course next, the root crops and onions replace the legumes and brassicas. This system continues so that no vegetable group is ever planted in the same place twice over the four year period.  Lastly you can plant leafy salad vegetables like lettuce anytime and anywhere there's a bit of space.