My head hurts. What do I put in after the spuds and what goes in after the onions?
I know its legs pots roots and bras...but am I missing something?
???
I never seem to get that right - I usually have 4 sections, mainly : pots, onions, tomatoes and beans. In with those you get other things like a few brassica, lettuce etc.
I then make sure that the same crop doesn't go in the same area for another 3 seasons. So this year the pots are in the onion bed, the onions are in the tomato bed (they help soak up any nutrients as I usually heavily manure the tomato section!) and the tomatoes are in last year's 3 sisters bed (beans and squash, the corn died). So far that seems to suit well. Afraid I don't do enough brassica to reaally warrant strict rotation - they often go in after spuds, due to lack of space.
But someone more clever than me will be along soon :)
Here you are Katy a video for you
http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/crop-rotation/
Duke :)
Wow I'm actualy doing it right. methods of rotation seem to differ from one expert to another but this videa explains it very well
marg
Trouble with simple rotations is that you can end up with empty beds for half the year.
I rotate each bed separately - using veg families (there are 11 main ones) I can have a choice from 10 families following a crop. This means there is always something I can follow a crop with the whole year round. No spaces measn I can get more out of a limited space.
Using a rule of thumb of no veg from the same family to be repeated over a 24 month period I can avoid build up of pests and diseases too.
I have 8 beds so each has its separate family/rotation list (certain websites implement this system for you ;) )
Here is the RHS version. Their book shows it better but this is still suffice:
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=124
Never get too worried about rotation. As a means of disease control on anything smaller than a farm it`s meaningless.
Think more about the requirements of succesive crops.
Cleo, you're spot on.
On such a small scale it will not be effective in preventing pest and disease, but could help on the nutritional side
After early spuds come out (mid June-ish) you can grow an extra climbing bean row there (get the seeds started off in pots or trays now though), or courgettes and squashes can take their place.
I try to do rotation as best possible............but it all goes a little bit pear shaped.