Bright eyed and bushy tailed we began our gardening adventure in July last year and of course we made the kind of mistakes that seasoned gardeners would snigger at such as planting 10 broccoli and 10 cabbages in a metre square. But that was easy to fix. When the bed bulged embarrassingly with bounty the chooks had a delicious snack on our excesses.
However one thing confounded us. At first the tomatoes we planted in the front garden grew just as happily and just as fast as the ones out the back, all of them delighting in the summer sunshine, but then EPIC FAIL! The ones out the front got one then two then a veritable patchwork of horrible yellowy brown spots! They shrivelled away. We ran to books and blogs to work out why. Apparently before we moved in, this north facing position had been prime tomato territory and this was our first introduction into the need for crop rotation.
Just as you would become malnourished if you ate nothing but tomatoes and potatoes, growing things from the same family year after year in the same spot will create an imbalance in your soil. Plants from the same family such as Solanaceae (that’s your tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, capsicums and chilis) have similar nutrient requirements so they will strip every last bit of these from the ground. But more importantly rotating your crops reduces the spread of soil-borne diseases and pest problems as these guys attract the same nasties.
So here are the four main groups we suggested for the Coburg Blitz:
Plot A: Umbeliferae (carrots, celery, parsnip, coriander, etc) followed by a green manure in the cooler months to replenish the soil for the next year’s crop
Plot B: Solanaceae (tomatoes, eggplants, capsicums, potatoes, etc) which are very nutrient hungry with Alliums (onions, garlic, leeks, etc) in the cooler months
Plot C: Legumes (peas, beans, etc) that fix nitrogen in the soil ready for a nutrient hungry crop to follow
Plot D: Brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, brussels sprouts, etc) that need a nutrient rich soil
And the next year the nutrient restoring crops will be replaced by the nutrient depleting crops. The root crops following the nutrient depleting crops, as too many nutrients in the soil result in very bush leaves, but disappointing roots.
The beauty of this system is that plants not in these main families such as many herbs, flowers, lettuces, beetroot, silverbeet and spinach can be mixed in amongst each plot to allow all plants to benefit from companion planting. For a full list of the plant family groups I recommend checking out The Seed Savers Handbook. This system is really ideal for a sharehouse, where each housemate can look after a bed themselves and not have to work about other people growing things that will cross-pollinate with their produce come seed saving time. I’m excited about suggesting this to my housemates … but first 1 Permablitz down 2 more to go until we can do our own garden!!
Click on the images above to view larger on my flickr.
Please comment on this post if you found it helpful, I’d love to hear about your gardening adventures!
