[RedWellies73]

Hi there

I'm planning a bit of an odd rotation for the new raised beds, ie four 8x4ft.  I just never have enough room for the nice things that books tell me all fall in rotation bed 1, ie spuds, toms, courgettes, squash and the occasional outdoor cucumber.

So in my new plot I'm planning something like this:

1a potatoes ... followed by ...
1b tomatoes, squash, courgettes ... f/b ...
2 peas/beans then a green manure or overwintering kale ... f/b ...
3 roots, spinach, chard ... f/b 1a again.

Any reason why this shouldn't work?  And is there a particularly good or bad place to stick a few summer salads?

Cheers

[gavinjconway]

Right Redwellies... You are not quite there on your choices. 

General 4 year rotation would be:

Potatoes
Legumes (peas & beans) & brassicas (all your cabbage type)
Curcurbita - squashes, sweet corn etc
Roots

You want to follow potatoes with tomatoes which is a no no as they have same viruses... Id slip tomatoes in with the squashes as you wont have the whole bed with toms.. I would probably leave out spuds altogether if you only have 4 beds as they take up a lot of space in an 8x4 bed and they are cheap as chips in the shops... unless you go for new spuds and grow first earlies only. Then when they come out in about June you can do others like beetroot, salads, a few leeks, some late squashes etc..

p.s. Please can you pop in and introduce yourself with a few words in the Intro thread... you will get more help and support..



 

[Yana]

I struggle with a rotation that doesn't include potatoes at all. I grow brassicas, followed by roots followed by legumes and do this on a three year rotation, which I hope is ok?

[Kristen]

I agree that 4 x 8'x4' beds is not a lot of space, so I personally would choose to only grow crops that have "best value", for me that would be the ones that tick the most boxes for

high yielding
expensive in shops
best flavour (which would including growing varieties, even low yielding, that are not available to buy in shops - thin skinned Tomatoes for example, or Sweetcorn)

I think you could take a different view on Rotation.  With beds of that size if you had to you could replace the soil.  I have read (pretty sure it was Joy Larkcom) that one way, in a small plot, is to monocrop a single bed year after year until you get disease and then move it.  I don't do this because, to me, one of the reasons for rotation is so that different crops demand different nutrients from the soil, year on year and the soil has time to recover and be replenished by manuring / liming etc.

However, I wouldn't follow Potatoes with Tomatoes - too much risk that some disease had started brewing in the Spuds and then wiped out the Toms.

An allotment - originally sized to be the space needed to grow food for a family - is 250 sq.m., so allowing 2' path between your beds then your plot is going to be about 18 sq.m., hence my suggestions would be that you concentrate on some specifics.

If you are not familiar with it you might like to look at "Square foot gardening" which is a planting technique designed to get maximum productivity from a small plot.

For me Spuds would be out - too much space for too little yield for a very low cost product - but if you are keen to have early First Early potatoes you might like to consider growing them in containers (there are special bags available, which have handy handles but also fold up flat when not in use). Yield is low (compared to in the ground) but the compost you use to grow them in goes on the garden, so that's a bonus of sorts

[mumofstig]

My view of rotation in small areas -  is simply not to follow with something from the same family the next year.
So if you grow just a few early potatoes in one of the beds then don't grow them  (or tomatoes - same family) in that same place next year. 

Short rows, or a couple of plants, of salads, peas and beans, can go in wherever there is room because they don't need a lot of nutrients and don't really have disease problems.

I certainly don't get hung up about what family of veg follows what - life's too short.

Good luck 

[Kristen]

1a potatoes ... followed by ...
1b tomatoes, squash, courgettes ... f/b ...

Are you really going to be able to get your Spuds out of the way before your Summer crop follows on? I'm thinking First Earlies won't be ready for harvest until late June / early July, which is lengthened, for us, as we like to leave ours in the ground and harvest straight to the kitchen, rather than harvest and store (although if a variety tends to fall to bits on cooking we change to harvest and store for a few days before cooking, but I think that adversely effects the flavour - more starch is formed)

That would be late to be planting the other summer crops, although I think Leeks would be OK

[Yorkie]

Kristen's point about timing is good - you will want to plant your tomatoes out in early June, probably, and your spuds won't be ready by then in all likelihood.

[Madame Cholet]

I have loads of small beds and just make sure I follow on with a different family anything else is too complicated.

[gobs]

Hi there

I'm planning a bit of an odd rotation for the new raised beds, ie four 8x4ft.  I just never have enough room for the nice things that books tell me all fall in rotation bed 1, ie spuds, toms, courgettes, squash and the occasional outdoor cucumber.

So in my new plot I'm planning something like this:

1a potatoes ... followed by ...
1b tomatoes, squash, courgettes ... f/b ...
2 peas/beans then a green manure or overwintering kale ... f/b ...
3 roots, spinach, chard ... f/b 1a again.

Any reason why this shouldn't work?  And is there a particularly good or bad place to stick a few summer salads?

Cheers

It is extremely hard to keep a perfect rotation plan up in the small, family produce garden. Amounts, size, likes, etc.  It does not necessarily matter too much either, as pointed out by many, as long as you do not grow the same family crop in the same place all over.

New pots will be up by June time, when you want to plant out your soft summer things, but not just that toms are the same family, both these are very hungry groups of plants. I follow pots with brassica or onion types.

Split up to roots and leaves in the last group, you can add your salad to the latter or alternatively might find, they can be successionally stuck in anywhere.

Courgettes, peas, beans, cucumber also will not take up much space.

[Kristen]

Courgettes, peas, beans, cucumber also will not take up much space.

I couldn't fit them into a 8' x 4' bed 

[mumofstig]

Peas planted mid March, can be in and out by end June/beg July - leaving room for the others to grow into 

[Kristen]

Peas planted mid March, can be in and out by end June/beg July - leaving room for the others to grow into 

Ah - good point, thanks

Dunno what others think, but I don't see the merit in planting, say, one Courgette plant, or just a few Runner Bean plants.  We want to be able to get a meal for the family, so we want to be able to pick enough courgettes, or Runners, for that rather than having to share 1/2 a courgette slice (facetious example ) each.  So personally I would prefer to have 3 courgette plants (or maybe only 2 if you look after them well ), or 30 Runners, rather than have 1 courgette and 15 Runners)

2 or 3 Courgette plants is going to take up half the bed - although planted judiciously on the corners they might sprawl the paths and not the beds? which is only going to leave 4' or 5' for Runners which is a tad on the short side for my "enough for a meal" criteria.  Obviously I can harvest them less often to get enough for a meal, but leaving courgettes a week will mean they are vast, and Runners will be long and tougher if left a week too, so our preference is to grow enough plants so that we can crop them 2-3 times a week and have nice young, succulent, produce

But I have plenty of space, so I am lucky in being able to use a large amount of space to achieve this.

[Kristen]

2 peas/beans then a green manure or overwintering kale ... f/b ...

Now wondering if "Beans" is "Broad" rather than "Runner" 

[pdblake]

I use a very simple rotation. Never follow like with like and plug any gaps with green manure.

[gobs]

Courgettes, peas, beans, cucumber also will not take up much space.

I couldn't fit them into a 8' x 4' bed 

Lol! That's some small bed. Also I meant for rotating with the likes of brassica and potatoes. And also mentioned likes. I personally grow1/2 courgettes and one cucumber(upwards at that). Might plant it under a tree next year, as it were. Watering, I know...

2 tepees of beans do for us, oodles, really. They need no space, practically, compared to much else.