crop rotation groups

[Millymollymandy]

Actually it would probably be a good place to grow lettuce in mid summer!

[Peggy Sue]

Well no-one on our allotments uses supports fro broad beans, and I don't either

And Odsox- you have the problem in a nutshell! Even with multiple beds it's the same problem! I was even thinking of having a mixed bed of stuff that overwinters to somehow throw into the rotation, but that seems to make it worse somehow!!

[Odsox]

Well no-one on our allotments uses supports fro broad beans, and I don't either

Neither do I at the moment

Broadbeans.jpg (125.3 KiB) Viewed 1573 times

Although I usually do and SHOULD have done this time too, but I have been at death's door .... well I have had a cold, and things got left.

Regarding crop rotation, maybe I should explain I was not "having a go" at anyone, but the way this thread started would deter the most abitious newby ... multiple, multiple beds, half acre veg plots, having to plan what you're going to grow next year so that you know where to plant this years crop. If that's the way you want to do it, then fine ... I'm impressed, but I know how daunting it can be to have a large plot that needs digging, that will produce masses of weeds for the first year or two and then to read that you can't grow your peas where the winter cabbage just came out of ... even if that's the only piece of spare ground you have, I certainly would think twice about the wisdom of it all.
My veg garden is a small(ish) affair with only a passing regard for rotation, with just about every square inch in use, which consistantly provides every vegetable we eat.
Having a single bed full of brassicas certainly makes life easy for cabbage white butterflies

[Peggy Sue]

I don't think anyone is upset I spend hours mulling this rotation over (when I should be doing other things!) but with a small garden by all accounts its pretty much a waste of time as pests can travel a few feet without any great effort so you just have to fit stuff around as you say. I feel I'm supposed to make the effort on the allotment (and do) but there's always the same old problems as we said and it must scare a new plot holder to bits- or demoralise them into giving up which happen way too much at our allotments- loads only last 12 months or less!

Someone somehwere must have the answer to the winter veg dilemma?!

[Millymollymandy]

Well it takes us (or rather these days my OH) all winter to dig over the 5 separate plots of the veg patch and dig in the compost. Obviously that's cos of rain, frost etc not that it takes that long! We could never dig over in autumn cos the patch is still choc a block with summer veggies. He starts off digging the patches that don't have any winter veg in them.

So having dug up most of the leeks and harvested 2.5 carrier bags of purple curly kale about 2 weeks ago, a lot of my patch has not been dug over until the last week and thanks to the dry weather I was able to fertilise, stomp down and rake and it is now ready for sowing.

All I do is move everything along a plot each year. I have got no idea what is supposed to follow what, as when I initially looked for the answer on the internet, every tom dick and harry had differing advice.

By this time of year all that should still be in place are PS broccoli. I'm going to get the last leeks out this afternoon or they'll be going to seed if I don't.

Anyway the point I'm trying to make is that digging in manure or compost just a few weeks prior to planting, and not the autumn before, doesn't stop my veggies from (mostly) growing very well.