Once a sunny spot has been chosen and the vegetable garden is all ready to be planted out there are a few things to consider before going ahead. The kinds of vegetables that grow best in the local area will have been chosen. Everyone knows that - or can find it out simply by reading the back of the seed packet, or asking at their local nursery. But there is another important consideration; crop rotation.
Dividing the Vegetable Garden for Crop Rotation
When growing a variety of vegetable it is not good enough just to poke them in wherever there is a spare space. Instead, divide the plot up into three or four sections. Reserve each section for vegetables that are alike. For instance, vegetables that have high nitrogen needs such as corn and leafy greens should go in one section; while brassicas such as cauliflowers and cabbage in another section and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and beetroot in the third section. But there are four sections, right? So what goes in the fourth section? Basically nothing; at least, no vegetables.
The fourth section should be kept for resting. It can have all the compost materials such as grass clippings, weeds and leaves spread over it. If you keep chickens or budgies, their droppings can go in there too. An excellent way to restore nutrients such as nitrogen is to plant a green crop such as lupins, wheat, barley or oats to dig in just after it has started growing.
Growing vegetables takes nutrients out of the soil so to keep growing them successfully in the same plot of ground it must be restored. And the good gardener looks ahead to the following seasons when the crops must be rotated. That is, in the next growing season, plant the leafy greens and crops that require lots of nutrients such as tomatoes in the rested, nutrient rich section; plant the cruciferous plants where the leafy greens were last season and the root crops in the section that grew the cruciferous vegetables.
Why Vegetable Plants Need to be Rotated
While plants do take nutrients out of the soil, some of them also put nutrients back in. By rotating the crops in the manner suggested, the soil will be suitable for each successive crop. Rotating the crops also helps to control disease in the soil. If tomatoes are grown in the same plot year after year, nematodes in the soil will be the result. This soil will then never again be suitable for growing tomatoes.
The same applies to potatoes that can sometimes have a disease that takes two or more years to show up. Once the virus is in the soil potatoes will always be affected. But if something else is grown there for two or three seasons, then that disease will die out.
So rotating your crops will not only keep them free of disease, but make them grow bigger and better so that they are able to withstand other things like hot, dry weather and insect attack.
Recommended Reading
Grow Your Own Vegetables (Paperback) by Joy Lark, Amazon.com.uk
Grow Vegetables: Gardens - Yards - Balconies - Roof Terraces (Paperback) by Alan Buckingham and Jo Whittingham, Amazon.com
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