I have been experimenting with garden beds and crop rotations for several years now. I find that having good planning and organization allows me to perfect how much food I can grow. I took a nod from the Bible of all places and decided to create seven beds with six planted in any given year and one resting for the year to recover. I also created a little jingle to help me remember the groups of plants and the rotation I like to use. It goes "Grains, Greens, Beans, Cucs, Roots, Fruits, Rest". I'll go into more detail on each of these groups below.
It is critical to rotate what gets planted in each bed each year. If you plant the same thing two years back-to-back, your plants will be more susceptible to pests and disease. It is also good to rotate from a heavy feeder to a light feeder to allow for some recovery until the rest year.
Here are my latest notes on each bed. What I do is rotate one bed forward each year so bed 1 gets planted in bed 2 the second year and bed 3 the third year. And bed 1 gets to rest the second year. It is a little counterintuitive. When looking at a single bed, the rotation is actually reversed. Starting from Rest, the bed will then go Fruits, Roots, Cucs, Beans, Greens, Grains, and back to Rest.
Bed 1 Grains (bed 4 for 2024) - wheat, corn, sorghum, millet, oats, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, flax, sunflowers
- Wheat 6 inch spacing, plant outside 9/1
- Corn 10 inch spacing, plant outside 5/15
- Next year, I'll be trying wheat or going back to flax and buckwheat combo which worked well. I'll also try oats in a single bed that I am doing a 4-year rotation with.
Bed 2 Greens (Brassicas) - swiss chard, kale, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, broccoli raab, Brussels sprouts
- Swiss chard 12 inch spacing, plant inside 4/15 and outside 5/15
- Kale 12 inch space, plant outside 5/1
- Next year, I'll be doing Swiss Chard and kale but need to find the curly kale variety. Maybe try a spinach too.
Bed 3 Beans (Legumes) - lentils, snap peas, green beans, dried beans, crimson clover
- Snap peas 3 inch spacing, plant outside 5/1
- Green beans 6 inch spacing, plant inside 5/15 and outside 6/1
- Bush beans 18 inch spacing, plant outside 6/1
- Next year, I'll lay may trellises perpendicular instead of parallel and do green beans on one half and snap peas on the other.
Bed 4 Cucs (Cucurbits) - zucchini, cucumbers, butternut squash. This is also a good bed to plant woody herbs like dill, marjoram, oregano, thyme, sage, or rosemary.
- Zucchini and cucumber 24 inch spacing, plant inside 5/15 and outside 6/1
- Herbs 6 inch spacing, plant inside 5/1 and outside 6/1
- Next year, I'll be trying zucchini on one half and cucumber on the other but need to pick a different cucumber variety. Maybe mix in herbs.
Bed 5 Roots (Alliums and Umbellifers) (3) - garlic, onions, carrots, radishes, beets, turnips - try buckwheat/flax catch crop
- Garlic 4 inch spacing, plant outside 10/15, 4"-30", 8 cloves per side
- Red onion 4 inch spacing, plant from seed inside 4/1 or from starters outside 5/15
- Carrots 3 inch spacing, plant inside 4/15 and outside 5/15
- Next year I'll be doing half red onion and half carrot. And I'll use carrot leaves during the season as a parsley substitute.
Bed 6 Fruits (Solanums) (2) - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes. This is also a good bed to plant basil and cilantro that compliment tomatoes so well.
- Tomatoes 18 inch spacing, plant inside 5/1 and outside 6/1 - 1 early girl in the middle
- Tried grape tomato variety and it was too viny
- Peppers 12 inch spacing, plant inside 4/1 and outside 6/1 - 2 for the corners
- No success with jalapenos yet
- Eggplant 12 inch spacing, plant inside 4/1 and outside 6/1 - 2 for the corners
- Japanese variety is my favorite for being long and slender
- Basil and cilantro - start indoors 5/1 and outdoors 6/1 - sides of bed
Bed 7 Rest (2/6) - compost
There is also a four year rotation that goes "Grains, Greens, Beans, Rest". The single bed progression would be Rest, Beans, Greens, Grains, and back to Rest.
Plants that don't go well together
- Don't combine carrots and potatoes
Inspiration
- www.deepgreenpermaculture.com/2016/05/20/crop-rotation-systems-for-annual-vegetables-2/
- https://www.rhs.org.uk/vegetables/crop-rotation
- https://www.almanac.com/companion-planting-guide-vegetables
- https://www.almanac.com/crop-rotation-101-tips-vegetable-gardens
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