rotation middle ages fashion

[tomatoada]

I woke at 1 o'clock this morning and thought about crop rotation on my allotment [as youdo].  I remember learning something at school about surfs growing in 3 rows different crops and rotating this way instead of large areas of one crop.  I wondered if it was worth trying.  Any info. or comments?

[tomatoada]

[Tulipa]

Would this be a similar thought...

I am very conscious of the different heights of crops and have thought about having 9 or 12 groups depending on a 3 or 4 year rotation with high, medium and low crops so that a band across the plot of 3/4 low crops which could then be rotated amongst themselves, a band of medium height and a band of large, but then most of my tall stuff is beans, but if you add in squashes grown up poles and sweetcorn there is still a rotation of three large crops.  This way the tall stuff could always be at the northern end of the plot and provide the least shade.

Just a thought, also smaller areas to be rotated allow for little blips without having the whole of your rotation messed up.

Hmm you've got me thinking now, might be back to the drawing board....

Basically it is what works best for you, there are no hard and fast rules and everyone has their own version of rotation.

Have fun,

T.

[Eristic]

I think it is being different for the sake of being different and will create problems for the gardener later.

The only thing that matters is the harvest dates. IE you need a block of soil vacant to enable further cultivation and replanting. The follow-on crop may well require different spacing to the plants it replaced.

[ACE]

I remember learning something at school about surfs growing in 3 rows different crops and rotating this way instead of large areas of one crop. 

I used to have a cottage that was one of a terrace of three. The foundations of the buildings went back to the dark ages and the building had been barns, brewhouses, cottages, barns again then ended up as farm labourers cottages.Then sold when the farm broke up. The original gardens to these cottages was a small walk down the lane to a field. The field ended up as being my vegetable garden.

When I first started digging it over it seemed strange that under the turf there were stony paths dividing it up. I later found out that this was caused by the strip farming the farm labourers could use to grow their own food and chucking all the rubbish down the dividing lines.

So I suspect that the serfs grew in lines, as their bit of land was in lines and it was the most economical way of using their growing area..

[lewic]

That seems to be the way my plot is progressing as the soil is so heavy I've only managed to dig tiny bits at a time! Perhaps I should write a gardening book ..