Crop rotation

Hi Laura and welcome to the vine.

Crop rotation is about preventing the build up of pests and disease by not growing the same group in an area for too long.

How big is your plot? It can be done by splitting your plot into a number of areas and moving each type of veg to the next block the following year.

Some gardeners follow crop rotation more vigorously than others, some just try to make sure that they move things around a bit.

If you have a small space then you could look at square foot gardening which has mixed beds with each crop taking up one square foot. These crops are moved around so a root might be followed by a brassica.

Laura, depends. If you are growing in pots you could just replace the compost. If in the ground then roughly divide into three sections, can be in one bed and then rotate what you grow between the areas. I have 9 raised beds on my allotment to rotate in but still isn’t really very perfect as I Have two beds of onions, two of brassicas, one of garlic and two of peas/beans then I grow roots after the garlic is harvested so my numbers of the type of plant are well out as I grow what we like to eat most. I think if you try not to grow the same thing in the bed for about 2-3 years rather than worry too much about what follows what it’s the best you can do.

You will probably have guessed from my other posts that I go for the ‘best I can manage’ rather than perfect. I’m rather a perfectionist and have a stressful job so my allotment is meant to be my escape from all that. I started to get rather stressed about the whole thing not being perfect and ‘by the book’ and realised that rather defeated the object of it was one more thing to worry about, so I’ve pulled it back the other way. If it works great if not don’t worry and try again. Not like we are going to starve if I can’t grow a spring onion this year!

Thank you guys, your input is really helpful and has given me some ideas. I was thinking I was so smug with everything going so well, then today I realised I have carrot fly! Oh well, onwards and upwards I guess! It is all a learning curve!

I grow my veg in a 6x13' bed that's all the space I have, this year I'm doing new potatoes, broad beans, French beans, beetroot, courgettes, winter squash, pickling cucumbers erm swede, lettuce (carrots in bags and jerusalem artichoke down the back of the garage). Each year I try not to grow the same stuff in the same place and I ask the pests very nicely to stay in their neat areas from last year and not wander the few feet to this year's crop. So far so good!

Its a good idea to move things about from one year to another, but its not something to obsess about on a garden scale.

Getting the soil in to good heart by adding as much compost and other organic matter as you can get your hands on is the top priority.

Then gaining knowledge about how best to grow the fruit and veg you like by timing what you do when and techniques to minimize pest and disease problems is a close second.

Finally assuming you have limited space working out what gives you the best return over whole year in terms of what you can use, also means deciding what you don't have the room to grow, and within this adding some undercover space like a small greenhouse, may mean you can extend your growing season for some plants for example.