Crop rotation

[mmy_me]

So, it looks like I'll be doing a four-year rotation on the following groups:

1. tomato, potato, peppers, eggplant, capsicum
2. squash, cucumber, gherkin, pumpkin, courgettes
3. beans, peas
4. brassicae

inplanting with

• onion and garlic

Comments

[lacedwaist]

Sounds great! Keep in mind, if it ever makes life easier, that beans are considered to be the one plant that copes well with being planted in the same place year after year, so you don't have to rotate it as much. (This works for our garden arrangement, but sometimes it is easier to just rotate everything.)

You could add sage to your inter-plantings too - its strong smell is believed to confuse predators such as carrot fly and cabbage moth. I've just discovered it's quite easy to grow from seed too - I got good strikes from the many little pottles I planted up to plonk through the beds.

Brenda Little's "Companion Planting in New Zealand," is really a really good read for inter-planting ideas.

I really enjoy reading about your garden - so nice to hear about a fellow-enthusiast's endeavours!

[mmy_me]

Yeah, I'm mostly thinking of using the beans as a means to restore nitrogen levels, so they're going in as a part of the pattern rather than specifically as a crop.

As for flowers, I'm hoping to use ornamental flowers as much as possible - I'd like to be able to cut some. :-) Making things pretty and also letting the kids choose their favourite flowers. I have cornflowers in with the squash currently.

I'll check out that book. Thanks for the tip!