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Vegetable Garden Crop Rotation
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Vegetable garden crop rotation is an important but often neglected aspect of gardening. It is especially important in a small kitchen garden.
Most people tend to grow the same crops year after year, which is not really surprising. Of course we prefer to grow vegetables that we like to eat. We also find it easier to keep on growing the plants that have been most successful for us in previous years.
There is nothing wrong with any of this. But where most gardeners make their mistake is in keeping the same crops in exactly the same place in the garden year after year. They have a favorite spot for tomatoes, another for pumpkins, etc. It is this habit which leads to loss of nutrients from the soil.
The reason for this is that different plants take up different minerals from the soil. Just like animals, different species have different nutritional requirements. So after a few years of growing the same plant in one particular place, the soil becomes deficient in just those nutrients that this plant needs the most.
Result? A gradually poorer crop from year to year, other things being equal.
Just as farmers use crop rotation and regularly change the crop grown in a particular field, we can use vegetable rotation in a garden to make a huge difference to the success of our home grown produce over the years. The new plant will almost certainly not need the same mix of nutrients as the one that was there last year, so it is going to be much healthier.
If you want to turn this into an exact science for your garden you can research the different nutritional requirements of the vegetables that you regularly grow. However, a good rule of thumb is not to rotate a plant with another of the same family (e.g. pumpkins and zucchini, tomatoes and bell peppers).
You can also return some of the ‘used’ nutrients to the soil after harvest by digging the remains of the plant into the soil of the place where it has grown, instead of adding it to your general compost pile.
You may also want to look into growing a ‘cover crop’ in the off season. This would be a plant that was grown especially for its ability to add nitrogen back into the soil, as most vegetables require a good supply of nitrogen. When the cover crop is ready you can either create a special nitrogen rich compost pile or simply chop the plant and dig it straight back into the soil.
Vegetable garden crop rotation combined with composting is a simple way to produce a better harvest every year.
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