Where you decide to place the various crops in the garden, may be determined by a number of different things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crop rotation<\/strong>:\nYou can put your plants in the beds according to your crop rotation plan. This\nonly has to be done once, as in subsequent years you will just move everything\nover one bed. See Crop Rotation<\/strong> <\/strong>below for\nmore on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Water requirements<\/strong>: Where I live we don\u2019t get <\/strong>any rain\nfrom June to October, which means a lot of watering. I have found that if I\ndivide crops according to their water requirements, I can give some beds more\nwater than others and so get by with using quite a bit less water (but still\nget good crops).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Random<\/strong>: You could\nuse a completely random distribution method. Start with the long- term crops, those that\ntake up space for a large proportion of the season and slot the rest in around\nthem. Fill in any remaining gaps with miscellaneous crops, flowers and green\nmanures. Don\u2019t leave any soil bare for any length of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It makes sense to separate\nperennials from the annual, so they don\u2019t get in the way of bed preparation.\nThey should have their own bed, or at least their own sections of bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over-wintering crops are best kept together\nalso (in the warmest beds), so they can be protected easily and don\u2019t interfere\nwith fall bed preparation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Height<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tall crops are usually\nplanted at the north side of the garden, so they don\u2019t shade other plants.\nThough in summer you might want to use the shade they cast for crops that\ndislike heat. In the traditional herbaceous border, the taller plants go at the\nback and the shorter ones at the front, so all are equally visible and all get\nlots of light. This higher to lower planting plan can also be used in the\nvegetable garden (though of course you have to orient them to the sun).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making the most of <\/strong>limited space<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Space saving ideas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the vegetable garden\nsmall is beautiful, the smaller the area, the more productive it can be per\nsquare foot. The small garden should be looked upon as a challenge, not a\ndisadvantage. You can give it all of the love and attention it needs to live up\nto its full productivity. Here are a few suggestions to help you use space as\nefficiently as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Use transplants to\nreduce the time a crop is actually taking up space in the bed. Plants grow\nexponentially, the more leaf area they have, the quicker they grow and mature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Grow the most\nproductive and space efficient crops, those that give you the most food per\nsquare foot. Use crops that yield for an extended time, such as pole peas, pole\nbeans, chard, broccoli, kale, tomato, cucumber. Use short season crops (or fast\nmaturing varieties) that enable you to get 3 or 4 crops in a season, such as\nspinach, turnip, radish, scallions, lettuce . You can also grow crops that\ndon\u2019t take up much space, such as scallions or carrots and use compact\nvarieties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Use intensive\ntechniques like interplanting and catch cropping, to get more than one crop\nfrom the same area of soil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 If space is very\nlimited, concentrate on crops that can\u2019t be purchased easily, taste better\nfresh, or that are always expensive (shallots, snap peas, alpine strawberries,\nradicchio). Go for quality and flavor, so you are growing things you couldn\u2019t\nbuy at any price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Grow crops out of\nseason when they are the most expensive to buy, rather than in season when they\nare cheap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Fill your whole garden\nwith food by growing multi-purpose plants that are both ornamental and edible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Grow up. Train space\nhungry climbing plants such as cucumbers or snap peas on trellises and you can increase their yield\nper square foot dramatically. Not only do vertical crops save space, but the\nproduce is cleaner and has less pest damage. Be sure to put tall trellises\nwhere they won\u2019t cast shade on other crops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Don\u2019t try to get more\nfood from an area by crowding the plants closer together than the soil can\nsupport. You will only succeed in reducing the yield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Grow cut and come\nagain salad greens. These are harvested as individual leaves, when still very\nsmall (only a few inches long), so the plants are sown very close together (\u00bd\u201d\nto 1\u201d). Plants grown in this way may require only half the space of\nconventional rows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Once a crop stops\nproducing remove it and plant something else. Don\u2019t try to wring that last\nlittle bit of food out of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 If you find you are\nnot using a crop, replace it with something you will use. Don\u2019t waste valuable\nspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a space develops in a\nbed (from harvesting or pest damage) don\u2019t leave it empty, fill it in with\nanything that is compatible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crop rotation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Crop rotation means planning\nyour crops so that similar crops (or closely related ones) don\u2019t follow one\nanother in the same soil. It is done for a number of reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotation\ncan reduce incidence of disease, as closely related crops are commonly subject\nto the same diseases (Brassicas are a notorious example). If you grow related\ncrops in the same soil for several years then the diseases that afflict them\nmay have time to get established. Unfortunately rotation is only of limited\nhelp in the small garden, as a disease like clubroot can be spread on the soil\nclinging to a spade or to feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotation may also reduce the\nincidence of pests, which also tend to afflict groups of crops. In most gardens\nit\u2019s effectiveness is limited by the close proximity of the beds, as pests with\nany mobility can easily move to the next suitable bed. However this does make\nit harder for them and perhaps gives the crop a little time to get bigger and\nmore able to resist predation. Rotation is most effective against soil dwelling\npests such as nematodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While some crops really must\nbe rotated to prevent disease or pests (notably the Brassica<\/em> and Solanum<\/em>\nfamilies), some others (beans, beet, celery, corn, spinach, lettuce) don\u2019t\nreally need it, as they aren\u2019t very susceptible to pests or disease. These can\nbe placed anywhere that is convenient (use them to fill up any free space in\nthe \u2018blocks\u2019. However even they may still benefit from following certain\ncultural practices, such as heavy fertilization, deep digging or nitrogen\nfixation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Crop rotation can be a part\nof good soil management. Different crops take different nutrients out of the\nsoil (leaf crops need nitrogen, root crops need potassium), so if you rotate\nyour plants everything comes out even. This isn\u2019t too critical in intensive\nbeds as you will be replacing all of the nutrients taken by the crop and more\n(but it doesn\u2019t hurt). It is helpful if compost and other fertilizers are in\nshort supply, as you rotate the heavily fertilized crops through all the beds\nin turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotation allows you to take\nadvantage of the fertilization of a previous crop. For example some plants\ndislike rich soils and can be planted after a very hungry feeder. Some crops\nlike nitrogen and can be planted after a nitrogen-fixing legume, some dislike\nlime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rotation may even be helpful\nfor weed control. Vigorous growing crops such as potatoes discourage weeds and\ncan help clean the soil for weed susceptible crops such as carrots or onions.\nSome crops are easy to hoe, others quite difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A rotation system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This doesn\u2019t need to be very\ncomplicated, as some crops naturally follow others, for example light feeders\nfollow heavy feeders, nitrogen fixers follow light feeders. Ideally the\nfollowing crop will not only be compatible with the previous one, but will\nactually benefit from its cultivation practices. For example carrots, which are\nsusceptible to weeds, could follow potatoes which clean the soil of weeds and\nloosen the soil. Don\u2019t plant acid loving plants like potatoes after a crop that\nhas been heavily limed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Intercropping<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Intercropping (or catch\ncropping) makes use of the fact that a plant doesn\u2019t need its full circle of\nspace for its entire life, only for the final weeks when it is reaching\nmaturity. For example a pepper plant may eventually fill a circle 24\u02dd in\ndiameter, but for the first 6 – 8 weeks it\u2019s in the ground it may only need a 6\n– 9\u02dd diameter circle. This means there is an 18\u02dd wide space between neighboring\npepper plants that is vacant for 6 – 8 weeks, a space that could be used to\ngrow a fast growing crop such as lettuce. \nNot only will the lettuce not\ninterfere with the peppers, but it may even help by shading the soil,\nincreasing diversity and keeping down weeds (which inevitably grow on any soil\nleft bare for 6 weeks). Sometimes you have to harvest selectively, removing the\nfirst crop to open up sufficient space for the maturing second crop<\/p>\n\n\n\n A number of fast maturing crops work well as intercrops between slow maturing ones. Lettuce with garlic, radish with parsnip, spinach with peas <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important that your\nintercrop doesn\u2019t interfere with the main planting. They must both get all the\nnutrients and water they need. If the crops end up competing with each other,\nneither will do well and you may end up with less than if you had grown one\ncrop properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Timing is important when intercropping. You might plant the\nintercrop at the same time as the main crop, several weeks after, or several\nweeks before harvesting the main crop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 You could also plant\ndifferent crops in rows along the bed. Put the biggest plants in the middle and\nsmaller ones out to the sides. This is more efficient because you can place\ndissimilar, but complementary, plants alongside each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 You can also plant in\nshort offset rows across the bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Another way is to\nalternate crop plants in the rows, when setting them out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Interplanting<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Interplanting is a form of\nintercropping whereby two crops are grown simultaneously in the same bed. It\ntakes advantage of mutually compatible features to get the highest yield from\nthe smallest area. It is commonly used by intensive gardeners to squeeze extra\nproductivity out of a limited area. It can also be a method of pest control, by\ncamouflaging the target crop from pests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first appearance\ninterplanting seems to be a fairly complicated process, but if you break it\ndown it\u2019s simple enough. Don\u2019t get too ambitious to begin with, try some of the\nsimpler ones until you gain experience and don\u2019t overdo it. If done poorly you\nmight not get any crop at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interplanting methods<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a number of ways\nto plant more than one crop in a bed, some more complex and efficient than\nothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 The simplest way is to plant in blocks.\nThis has the virtue of simplicity, but isn\u2019t particularly efficient because the\nplants in each block have exactly the same requirements as their neighbors and\ncould potentially compete with one another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Spacing for interplanting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To find the correct spacing\nbetween two different crop plants add up their recommended individual spacing\nand divide by two. For example planting Leek (9\u02dd) and carrot (3\u02dd) you would give you 12\u02dd divided by 2, or\na desired spacing between the plants of 6\u02dd. If the two plants are very\ncompatible (see below) you could reduce this a little, perhaps spacing them 4\u02dd\napart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interplanting suggestions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Use\nplants with complementary growth habit. For example corn and beans \nare often grown together. The beans replace some of the nitrogen used by\nthe corn, while the corn provides\nsupport for the beans (this only works\nif the corn is well established before\nthe beans are planted). They should also\nbe compatible in their requirements for fertilization and watering, so you can\nthen treat them in blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might want to plant\ntogether crops that will be harvested at the same time, thus freeing up large\nareas of bed space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversely you could simply\nplant into vacant spaces between another crop as they become available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sometimes plant a marginal\ncrop (such as an early or temperamental one) along with a reliable one. If the\ndubious crop fails you still have another one to fill in the space. If the\nmarginal crop does well you can remove the other one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also start\ntransplants as an interplant. Simply sow seed in the space between an existing\ncrop. When the seedlings get big enough transplant them to their own bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Complementary plants <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Crops for interplanting\nshould be mutually compatible, so take into account their complementary\ncharacteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shallow and deep rooted crops<\/strong>: These <\/strong>have different root zones\nand so don\u2019t compete directly with each other. Shallow rooted crops include\nbeans, Cucurbits, onion, garlic, lettuce and peppers. Deep-rooted ones include\nbeet, carrot, parsnips, tomato .<\/p>\n\n\n\n Differing growth patterns<\/strong>: Interplanting crops <\/strong>with\ncomplementary growth patterns also reduces competition. Examples of this\ninclude the classic corn and beans (a tall plant and a climber) and leek and\nlettuce (a tall skinny plant with a short wide one).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Light loving and shade tolerant<\/strong>: Some plants thrive in the shade cast by larger crops, indeed in\nhot weather this may be the only place they do well. An example would be\nplanting lettuce underneath corn or tomatoes. Shade tolerant crops include:\ncelery, chard, cucumber, leek, lettuce, mustard, parsnip, pea, and spinach .\nSun lovers include corn, melon, peppers and tomato,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Complementary nutrient consumers<\/strong>: Put <\/strong>plants that consume\ndifferent nutrients together. For example put a heavy nitrogen user such as\ncorn, with a nitrogen fixer such as beans . This won\u2019t give much nitrogen to\nthe corn (though some research suggests\nthat it may give some), but will replace some of that taken from the soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companion\nplanting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Companion planting has been\ngiven an almost magical significance in some circles, probably a lot more than\nit really deserves. The basic premise is that some garden plants have a natural\naffinity for other plants and when planted together they will grow better and\nbe healthier. Little of this has really been proven, in fact a lot of it seems\nto come from garden writers copying each other. Some people just really like\nthe idea, so there seems to be more wishful thinking than critical thinking.\nSome suggestions are so silly they don\u2019t seem to have come from a real gardener\nat all. If you plant horseradish with your potatoes, when you harvest the\npotatoes you would spread bits or horseradish throughout the bed and end up\nwith a very large horseradish patch (I can\u2019t say whether it would do anything\nfor the potatoes, I don\u2019t know).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companion planting does work\nto some degree, as some plants do have special effects in the garden. In purely\npractical terms some combinations may work for a number of reasons. They may\nattract beneficial insects (especially members of the Asteraceae<\/em> and Apiaceae<\/em>),\ncamouflage the smell of target plants (especially aromatic herbs), repel\nharmful pests, or work as trap crops (which pests will eat in preference to the\ncrop plant).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like the idea of companion\nplanting and certainly think it is worthwhile, if only in that it is good to\nhave a wide variety of plants in your garden. The best way to use companion\nplanting is as a form of intercropping, where you are actually growing two\nusable crops. Otherwise the companion may actually reduce yields by taking up space\nthat could be planted to crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m not going to say much\nmore because quite frankly the whole subject confuses the hell out of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companions that may work<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bean and corn <\/p>\n\n\n\n Broccoli and cucumber<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cabbage or kale and\ntomato (reduces pest damage).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carrot and onion<\/p>\n\n\n\n Celery and leek<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peppers and catnip (reduced aphid numbers.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Potato and tansy or catnip\n(but what to do with the tansy?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tomato and asparagus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plant size <\/strong>
There is no clear boundary between tall, medium and low crops, but this should give you a rough idea of relative sizes. <\/strong>
Tall crops<\/strong>: Amaranth, Jerusalem artichoke, globe artichoke, Brussels sprout, cardoon, corn, giant lambs quarters, quinoa.
Medium crops<\/strong>: Asparagus, broccoli, eggplant, fava bean, garlic, kale, leek, mustard, okra, peppers, potato, summer squash (bush), tomato. <\/strong>
Climbing crops<\/strong>: Beans, pole, cucumber, peas, summer squash, winter squash.
Low crops<\/strong>: Arugala, beet, cabbage, carrot, lettuce, mustards, onion, shallot, shungiku.
Creeping crops<\/strong>: Alpine strawberry, chives, parsley, purslane, thyme, violet. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\nSowing list \/ planting calendar<\/strong>
Your sowing list becomes complete when you add information on what crops goes in which bed.
Once you have worked out ll of the planning details (dates for sowing and transplanting, quantities to plant, varieties, successions and more) you can put all of the information into your journal under the relevant dates.
You can also schedule other important garden work, soil building, manure collection, compost making, the planting and incorporation of soil improving crops, preparing beds, planting cover crops vegetative propagation and pruning. If a scheduled date turns out to be impractical, then change it and make a note in the journal, so you won\u2019t make the same mistake next year. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/rotations3-760x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSome possible rotations<\/strong>
Leaf crops (nitrogen lovers)<\/strong> <\/strong>
Fruit crops (less nitrogen)<\/strong> <\/strong>
Root crops (low nitrogen)<\/strong> <\/strong>
Legumes (nitrogen fixers)<\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong>
Brassicas<\/strong> <\/strong>
Roots<\/strong> <\/strong>
Legumes and others<\/strong> <\/strong>
Brassicas<\/strong> <\/strong>
Solanums<\/strong> <\/strong>
Roots<\/strong> <\/strong>
Legumes and others<\/strong> <\/strong>
Potatoes<\/strong> <\/strong>
Brassicas<\/strong> <\/strong>
Legumes<\/strong> <\/strong>
Roots<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/interplanting3-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/greenmanpublishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/interplanting2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n