Another bed rotation type query!

[vikkib]

On Saturday I harvested half my shallots and they're drying out in my little 'half way house' now.

I'm running a bit late and I have some leek seedlings to go out.

Is it worth trying to get away with putting them in the area I just took the shallots out from?

I know the theory is not to follow like with like but the bed next door had garlic in and that went in in October and didn't get lifted until July so was in the ground for 9 months.

I planted out my shallot seedlings at the beginning of May and harvested then this weekend so they've only been in 3 and a half months.

Maybe there's a little leeway here?!

I guess its similar to the overwintering brassica dilemma!

[Shadylane]

I doubt it would hurt as long as you had no problems with disease there.

[Kirk]

Probably not the answer everyone thinks but I tend to pay little attention to rotation. For the simple reason in a garden or even allotment I cannot see what it will accomplish.

If I have an onion problem in one part of the bed then the furthest away I can get is about 2.5 meters, so rotating areas seems little use. Any form of infection basically means the whole bed.

Do you change shoes or forks to dig different areas ? If not then again that soreads anything from A to B.

To say follow peas with X because the peas put nitrogen in is fine, but if I want nitrogen then a couple of handfuls of growmore does that. Useful as I dislike peas.

From school days I seem to recall that one part of rotation was to leave fallow for a year. Anyone do that in a garden plot or allotment.

Agree that you can exhaust the ground so there is a need to add nutrients in one form or another - I use bags of manure and some inorganic additives for getting essential elements in quick.

[Martin H]

One of the places Monty visited in "Around the world in 80 gardens" was prized for its onions and had grown them in the same bed for over 100 years iirc.

I took away from that if they grew well last year there's no reason they won't grow well this year as long as you're making sure you maintain the soil.