by A W Drake

Created on: March 05, 2009

The purpose of rotating crops in a vegetable garden is to prevent the risk of disease building up in the soil by ensuring the same crop is not grown successively in the same bed each year. This is a fundamental tenet of producing vegetables and is adhered to by most growers. To follow this system the area designated for growing crops needs to be divided into at least four distinct beds. Each bed will be used for a different family of crops and the following year the bed used to grow each crop will be rotated. This will mean that no crop will be grown in the same bed for a minimum of four years until the cycle is complete and the risk of a build up of disease in the soil is greatly diminished.

When planning the rotation cycle it is important to consider what crop, after the initial crop has been lifted will best suit the condition of that particular bed. For this reason there are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

Potatoes like rich, well manured soil but this will make root vegetables fork so it is better to keep these far apart in the rotation cycle.

Peas and legumes in general like well limed soil, but potatoes don't, so it is best to keep these apart too.

Brassica's like lime but only if it has been in the ground for a while, which makes them good crops to follow legumes.

A miscellaneous bed of for instance marrows, outdoor tomatoes, radishes etc will benefit from a good mulch of well rotted compost. This makes them ideal to follow with root vegetables.

From this a general plan of how to organise the four beds can be developed

Year One

Manure the bed heavily and sow potatoes. After these have been lifted a crop of green manure can be sown such as winter rye which will then be dug in early in the second year.

Year Two

After the winter manure has been dug in the following spring lime the soil quite heavily and sow the legumes. These will be lifted in mid summer so if brassicas have been growing first in the seed-bed and then the holding-bed, they can follow the legumes the same year. If this is possible it will help to increase the productivity of the vegetable garden. Otherwise the
brassicas can follow the legumes the following year, if you have room for five beds.

If you have managed to squeeze in the brassicas during the second year, the miscellaneous crops can now be sowed. After lifting the
brassicas a good mulching of well rotted compost will help the miscellaneous crops. When these have been lifted sow another winter manure crop.

Year Four

This year use the bed to sow root vegetables since the manure dug in for the potatoes will no longer be an influence on the soil. If you have room for five beds this can be left fallow the following year with a covering of deeper rooting green manure such as alfalfa or comfrey. Otherwise it is time to manure the bed again in preparation for more potatoes.

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