Planning--Help needed

[Stroppy scotte]

Hi
Am currently laid up after foot surgery
Thought I'd use the time to plan the allotment before I lose the will to live.
Any ideas on which is better--- 4 or 6 year rotation!!!
Please help?
Feeling deprived of fun at the allotment
Liz

[dexterdoglancashire]

Sorry to hear about the foot Liz!
Not sure about an answer to your question, but what I've done to plan for next year is to get out all my seed packets (1/2 £ c/o OH!) and in an old diary have logged when I can plant and harvest each one I've got - so I've got a sort of calendar of what I can do next year.
I've heard of a three year plan as in the "veg growing expert" book but not a four year/six year plan. No doubt there are plenty of Grapes who can help you.
Do take it easy with your foot - and enjoy your time resting and looking through seed catalogues!
Best wishes dexterdog

[martini]

Hi Liz - hope you're on the mend. I'm just starting out and was originally going to follow the three year plan (laid out in the Veg Expert by Dr Hessayon) but after getting this months GYO, I'm going to follow a 4 year plan as I think it will suit me better (going to have raised beds in the back garden). Basically, you divide your plot up into 4 - part 1 = root vegetables Part 2 = brassicas (including the swedes and turnips) Part 3 = onion, shallots, leeks and garlic and Part 4 = things that grow on top like peas, beans, lettuce. I'm not going to be totally strict about it because if I can't fit the lettuce in with the beans and peas (because I want to grow a lot of them) I'll plonk them in a little part of the bed where the onions etc go. Hope this helps, but have a look at this months GYO. Haven't heard of a 6 year rotation.

[Bibliobeck]

I'm also intending to follow the 4 year rotation from the mag. As we're just in the process of altering the garden even as we speak, I've planned specifically for four raised beds - be interesting to compare notes Martini!

Hope you get well soon Liz

[Snadger]

I find strict rotation means you must grow the same amount of each! Very Few families like as many brassicas as legumes as roots for instance.!
I personally grow what my family likes, in the quantities they like.

I think that as long as I don't plant the same species in the same place each year, I have fulfilled the common sense task of crop rotation!

It works for me and is less complicated than strict rotation. What I do is keep a record of what I've planted because its easy to forget. I aim to keep a crop in the ground at all times and do the necessary liming or mucking between crops. I usually take two crops off each strip of land per year, a summer and winter, with liming or mucking in between depending on the crop

I aint saying this is the correct way to tackle rotation, all I am saying is it works for me!!!

[nick the grief]

Ideally six years wll give you the best disease resistance but practically 4 years is usually the best most folks can hope for. SO If you think you can manage 6 years go for it. but whatever you doo write it down because you memory is like a plant label - holds really usefull info but fades too bloody easy !!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Yo! Nick thought it was just me! DDL

[martini]

I'm going to mark my beds 'A', 'B' etc and keep a diary of what I put where otherwise I won't stand a chance and would end up putting something in the same bed year after year!

[nick the grief]

I'm going to mark my beds 'A', 'B' etc and keep a diary of what I put where otherwise I won't stand a chance and would end up putting something in the same bed year after year!

Ny i=old neighbour on the lottie marked out wevery 5m with a white stick then treated these like beds but he used to rotorvate the whole plot one year & dig the next but it wasn't in defined beds.

Yo! Nick thought it was just me! DDL

Sorry DDL I thought it was snadger - bit tired & lack of tea

[Snadger]

I'm going to mark my beds 'A', 'B' etc and keep a diary of what I put where otherwise I won't stand a chance and would end up putting something in the same bed year after year!

I made a 'not to scale' plan of my lottie in Msword and marked what I intended to grow in each bed at the beginning of the season. You have just reminded me I need to update it with what I have in now, but I will still save the original for reference purposes! I colour coded beds as well and printed it off to put on my shed wall. Be interesting to look back on in the future. Not sure but I think I have 17 four foot beds so I have a little bit of leeway in rotation
Diary is an excellent idea, but I'm not that organised and would forget to add things anway.....more 'hands on' than beurocrat I'm afraid!

[martini]

That's a great idea Snadger - I think the kitchen notice board will have to be replaced by a big chart (probably be easier than fiddling with a diary!). I'm really envious - 17 beds! I've also done a plan of the garden and can squeeze in a small shed, a greenhouse (hopefully) and 11 eight by 4 beds. 8 beds in the rotation system, one for strawberries, one for a redcurrant bush and something else, and one divided between cut flowers and a nursery area. I just can't wait to get going

[Alice]

Hello Stroppy Scotte, I would just say apply some common sense. To me that just says dont grow the same thing in the same place every year. Grow what works well for you, and what your family like to eat. Keep a record of what you have grown where - and how well that worked. Beyond that, move things round in the best way to suit you. If you're determined to go for a totally scientific approach, buy from the supermarket. They have it al worked out. Is that what you want.

[Snadger]

Hello Stroppy Scotte, I would just say apply some common sense. To me that just says dont grow the same thing in the same place every year. Grow what works well for you, and what your family like to eat. Keep a record of what you have grown where - and how well that worked. Beyond that, move things round in the best way to suit you. If you're determined to go for a totally scientific approach, buy from the supermarket. They have it al worked out. Is that what you want.

You are my hero Alice, very succinctly put!

[Stroppy scotte]

hi
Thanks for all the advice .
Guess we will go for rotation of a sort as suggested but stick to what we want most
Sadly I don't know what I will find when I get back down there which could be another 5 weeks . However the other half is still going down to try to keep on top of things ( difficult given the darker evenings and looking after the household chores as well ).
Will let you know how it goes
Liz