You don't have to drive a tractor to take advantage of crop
rotation.
Planting the same vegetable in the same place year after year
can increase pests and decrease nutrients, causing your garden to
decline in productivity. If you can't move your garden, at least
rotate your crops to help keep production up.
It's pretty simple. If you planted carrots next to the fence
this year, plant tomatoes there next year and plant squash where
the beets grew this year.
Certain vegetables remove more of some nutrients than others.
Tomatoes remove about twice as much potassium from the soil as
onions, so planting tomatoes in the same spot every year can
deplete the soil of potassium. Potatoes take out about three times
the amount of phosphorous as broccoli. Follow a potassium-loving
crop with one that loves phosphorus.
Pests can buildup over the years in the same spot if you always
plant their favorite food there. Make the critters crawl clear
across the garden for a meal and some may die on the way.
Here's an easy rule of thumb. Follow a fruit-bearing crop, like
tomatoes with a root crop, like carrots. Plant a leafy crop, like
lettuce, the next year. In the third year, start the cycle over
with your fruit crop.
Another rule of thumb is a little trickier: Don't rotate related
crops with each other. Though tomato is a fruit crop and potato a
tuber crop, they are related and can attract the same pests. Beets,
spinach and Swiss chard are also related, as are the crucifer,
including broccoli, cabbage, kale and turnips.
