Rotating Vegetables, Healthy Crops
Vegetable rotation, like any crop rotation, is necessary for the health of your garden. If you do not rotate your vegetables the diseases and pests that attack specific crops will build up in the soil and become a problem. Rotating your vegetable crops is easy enough to do no matter what size your garden is. It just takes a bit of good vegetable garden planning and a little knowledge about how to group your vegetable plants.
Groups of vegetables
Vegetables are divided into four groups:
- Legumes – beans and peas
- Brassicas -broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, kale, rutabaga, and turnips
- Root Vegetables – potatoes, carrots, parsnips, plus tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and celery
- Onion family and squashes – garlic, leeks, onions, shallots, scallions, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, and winter squash
You may put other vegetables in with any of the groups where there is space. Vegetables such as rhubarb and asparagus need a permanent space since they are perennials.
How to rotate
The vegetables within each of these groups attract the same diseases and pests. When you plan your garden, divide the available space into four main sections. (Some folks like to add in a fifth “group” and let that section lie fallow, but it is not really necessary as long as you rotate well). Grow all of the beans and peas in section one the first year, then move them to section two for the next year, and so on. You rotate the vegetables in your garden like a pinwheel, with year five bringing each of the vegetable groups back to its original location. You’re going to have the vegetables all in the same garden. You’ll just have them in a different part of it every year. If you grow in containers, either change out your soil every year or rotate your crops as if they were inground. Consistent vegetable rotation will help ensure healthy crops for many years.
A guy has celery sticking out of one ear, a carrot out of the other, and a zucchini up his nose.
He goes to the doctor and asks him what’s wrong.
So the doctor says, “Well, for one thing, you’re not eating right.”
I love that joke! If you like it too, you’ll love the information we have at
Vegetable Garden Planning. Visit today and for a limited time you can pick up a free Organic Gardening Guide!
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