Help with crop rotation

[Bill HH]

My advice would be to not get to obsessional about rotation, sometimes factors cause you to cheat a little and in my opinion does no harm. As long as you dont designate a particular area to continualy grow one thing, and keep in mind the benefits of rotation, minor infringments will do no harm.

[jacob]

My only rule is try not to grow the same thing in the same place two years in a row. Soil is having as much compost as possible dug in each year, trying to keep the nutrient levels up...

[Two_Sheds]

as much compost as possible dug in each year .

except you don't have to "dig it in". Nature doesn't dig anything in, so neither do I. Compost goes on as a mulch, and the worms dig it in for me, aerating the soil as they go (human digging destroys worm tunnels)


Incidentally, there was a v.interesting piece on radio 4 this week about soil health, and the added benefits of not digging
Shared Planet
Our soil is declining fast, mainly because of erosion due to winds & rain (on unprotected soil), and the soil is a huge carbon & water store.

I found it, on listen again: BBC Radio 4 - Shared Planet, Soil Science

[jacob]

except you don't have to "dig it in". Nature doesn't dig anything in, so neither do I. Compost goes on as a mulch, and the worms dig it in for me, aerating the soil as they go (human digging destroys worm tunnels)

When I say "dug in" I tend to mean hoed into the top inch or two of the soil as part of the spreading about process.

I must listen to that no dig programme. I don't dig for the sake of it, but by the time I've dug potatoes out, and rooted out weeds at the start of the season a fair bit of digging has occurred.

[Pompeylottie]

I have 4 largish beds, one for each "family". e.g. Bed 1 Spuds (because I love loads of spuds!) Bed 2 - Peas and beans, bed 3 Brassicas, Bed 4 Roots and onions. Each "family" moves round each year, in rotation. Odds and sods like fennel, courgettes etc are fitted in to spare spaces on the plot. Tomatoes are fitted in as far away from spuds as possibleto try to avoid blight spreading.
That works easily for me.