[Ghost]

Hi

I have space in my garden that doesn't really fit in with my crop rotation. I understand that everything benefits from crop rotation but what can grow adequately in the same space year after year? I know Jerusalem artichokes doesn't need rotating.

Thanks

[LilacSandy]

How about some permanent planting of soft fruit bushes or rhubarb.  Lettuce will fit in anywhere, Squashes are also good.  Some gardeners grow runner beans in the same trench every year.  You should avoid the onion, potato family, including tomatoes, also most brassicas as disease can build up quickly with these crops.

[Kristen]

May not be answering the right question, but in case food for thought:

I have 4 equal sized beds for my main crop rotation area.  It does not include Potatoes, and the space I need for Brassicas is larger than the other three beds in the rotation.

I also need a large area for Sweetcorn, and for cutflowers (Sweetpeas and Gladioli). I also have a bed for Strawberries which gets moved once in a while (rather than taking runners each year, as I should)

My solution is to have two areas of the veg patch - the main 4-year rotation and another area that is for Potatoes, Sweetcorn, Overspill Brassicas and Cut flowers.  That gets it own "sort of" rotation (I'm strict about Spuds and Brassicas, less so about the other "crops")

[mumofstig]

Things like sweetcorn courgettes and squashes/pumpkins, although heavy feeders don't seem to have any specific diseases - so as long as the soil can be well fed, you should be ok not rotating them

Beans and peas can also be grown in the same place for a couple of years, I find - although not indefinitely like some of the old boys do  

[JayG]

As LilacSandy mentioned, many of the bushy soft fruits are semi-permanent, as is asparagus if you want to try that.

I don't have a white rot problem (alliums) and don't grow brassicas (no space, wrong soil) so I really only concern myself with rotating where the spuds go - everything else is just slotted in where I can, rotating them if at all possible.

I do grow runner beans in the same place under a fixed Muntry frame - I do my best to avoid problems by digging a new trench every year, chucking the soil a couple of feet away, filling with compost and veg scraps, then covering with the "new" soil nearest the trench. No problems so far, in fact 2012 was the best yet for some reason. 

[Yana]

I've read this thread with great interest as I have just been allocated a further half a plot (5 rods what ever that is) and was wanting to grow winter and summer squash on it for the first year whilst  I get myself organised. And then maybe use it each year for squash. Would that be OK?
It already has raspberries and an old looking strawberry bed so was going to cover it with black plastic to kill off the weeds and gradually dig it over incorporating well rotted manure for the squash later in the year.

[mumofstig]

Sounds good to me, try not to put the squash in exactly the same place each year -  you might have to move your weed control fabric about a bit, if you carry on using it each year