How to rotate your crops

Crop rotation is vital in the vegie garden to stop the build up of pests and diseases in the soil and to maximise the nutrient uptake needs of your crops.

There are many different approaches to crop rotation, whichever you chose, keeping simple records of what you grew in each bed will help you keep track. It’s also very useful to keep notes on varieties, suppliers and harvest yields, this will help you build up an overall picture on how well your vegie garden is working for you and can save time and money in the long run.

Probably the simplest crop rotation cycle is the 4-bed system, shown in this table below.

Each bed follows the same process, each new season the crops all move on one position, so after 4 seasons, all the beds have had all four crops grown in them.

Legumes (peas, beans and green manures) add bulky organic matter to the soil, increasing the nitrogen and carbon levels of the soil as it breaks down. Leafy crops follow on in the rotation, as they require high levels of nitrogen to grow lush, leafy growth. Plants in this group include lettuces, cabbage, kale, Asian greens, watercress, herbs and silver beet.

Next comes the fruiting crops, these include tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, watermelon, capsicum and chilli. These plants need less nitrogen, but lots of potassium, essential for flower and fruit formation. Finally, the root crops finish the cycle as they prefer an impoverished soil, so will happily grow in a bed which has had the majority of nutrients used up by previous crops.