Crop rotation is a regular scheme of planting specific groups of vegetables on a different part of the vegetable plot each year. This helps to reduce specific pest and disease problems. Crop rotation can be used in any size garden for most annual vegetable crops. Perennial ones such as rhubarb and asparagus do not fit into the rotation.
Plan your crop rotation before the growing season starts, and mark out the plots on the ground so you know where to plant each crop. If you have raised beds, they can be numbered. If you garden in rows, you still can keep track by keeping a map of your garden every year and this goes too for the raised beds. No matter how good your memory is, I doubt that you will remember where and what you had growing last year or the year before. I just dug out some baby hostas I had put in a secure spot but forgot to write it down.
Because different crops have different nutrient requirements, the rotation reduces the chance of soil deficiencies. Rotations are especially useful in controlling those fungi that cannot survive long in the soil in the absence of their host plants. Rotation also helps reduce damage by those insects that attack only a few kinds of plants.
Growing plants of any kind on the same land year after year produces a condition favourable to the insects that attack that crop. Some crops like potatoes and squashes with large leaves help to suppress weeds and reduce the problem for following crops.
Onion Family: onion, garlic, leek, shallot and chive. Carrot Family: carrot, parsnip, parsley and celery, dill, fennel. Sunflower Family: lettuce, endive, salsify, Jerusalem artichoke. Mustard Family: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip, radish, Chinese cabbage, kale, collards, rutabaga, mustard greens, watercress. Goosefoot Family: beet, Swiss chard, spinach, quinoa. Bindweed Family: sweet potato. Gourd Family: cucumber, muskmelon, watermelon, squash, pumpkin, gourd. Pea Family: garden pea, snap bean, lima bean, soybean, jicama, peanuts. Mallow Family: okra. Grass Family: sweet corn, popcorn, ornamental corn. Nightshade Family: tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato and husk tomato
The garden can be divided into four zones and you can rotate your vegetable crops among them. For example, start your rotation with the mustard family since they need rich soil. To grow these, your soil should be amended with rich compost and aged manure. Follow with legumes such as peas and beans, which replenish the soil with nitrogen. These are plants that give the soil a bit of a rest, as well as returning some nitrogen and fibre to the soil when they are incorporated into the ground by way of mulch or compost. Peppers, potatoes, eggplants or tomatoes can come next since they are greedy eaters. Tomatoes are odd in that they like to grow in the same spot each year and somehow build up resistance to problems. Make sure you pile on plenty of fresh compost each year. Follow with vining veggies, squash or cucumber. By now, the soil is poorer but loose, just perfect for onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips or celery. Well-aged compost and fertilizer suit such plants as all bulbs and root crops.
Tip to keep deer away: 1 tbsp. smelly fish fertilizer in 2 gallons of water. Water all your plants. You will have to redo it after rain. Water early morning or evening, not in the hot sun. I will try this on my raspberry row.
I will be at the Lumby Public Market starting Saturday at the oval park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For more information, call 250-558-4556.
Jocelyne Sewell is The Morning Star’s gardening columnist, writing every other Wednesday.
