Some crop rotation questions

[HeatherL]

I hope this is in the right section, so here goes. Basically we are coming up to the end of our first year of growing veg, fortunately mostly a successful one with a only a few problems (like white onion rot on a few of our onions and what I believe was late blight on our Xmas potatoes). We are determined to go down the organic route, incorporating crop rotation and green manures. Over the last couple of weekends we have emptied the bed that had French beans in and dug in some of our home made compost. We filled half the bed with some autumn planting Maystar cauliflower and PSB plug plants from the local garden centre, putting some lime granules down the planting holes first. Is what we have done ok for improving the soil structure and nutrient content enough to start them off before they shut down for winter? I was thinking of applying blood fish and bone in the spring.

We are going to plant other brassicas like brussels/swedes/kale in the other half of the bed come spring/summer next year, but rather than leave it empty we have sown some Hungarian grazing rye.

What I am a bit confused about is that if we want more to plant more cauli's and psb after the ones we have planted have finished around June, should we plant them in the same bed as we can't do rotation at that time as the legumes will still be in full swing.


Also, we planted some garlic and onion sets in the previous potato bed, but forgot to add our compost first - will they be ok with some fertiliser in spring?

Sorry for all the questions!

[Aberdeenplotter]

Don't get too hung up about being rigid with your rotation. Planting the same veg in the same plot is unlikely to become a problem after a single repeat crop. It is when the same crop is repeated year after year after year that problems are manifested. Onions and leeks are best started off at this time without loads of feed in the ground, so an application of fertiliser in spring is ideal. Adding compost for feed and lime as protection against clubroot is also ideal. Don't apologise for asking questions. Better to benefit from other peoples experience than learning from making mistakes

[HeatherL]

Thanks for putting my mind at rest I have already learnt a lot from here, and also from our own experiences ( number 1 is to not let the tomato plants take over the greenhouse because we didn't cut off the sideshoots quick enough!).

Next on the list is to get the meteor peas and super aquadulce broad beans in (never really eaten them before so should be interesting )

[Dead Dogs]

Next on the list is to get the meteor peas and super aquadulce broad beans in (never really eaten them before so should be interesting )

I never really liked the taste of broad beans, but SWMBO does. So grow broad beans for the first time this year, they were beautiful. Tasted nothing like what I remembered. Will be growing a lot more.