On Fall Planting
Aug 5th, 2008 by Laura
I feel like I’m behind in life right now, or at least in the garden. We’re barely caught up on the harvesting and still miles (or maybe pounds?) behind on eating and now we’re behind on the fall planting. Must just be the year for late gardening.
It’s been a struggle to find any space to put anything more than what was already in the ground. But after some maneuvering and some clean-up I think I have it figured out. Now I just have to find time to loosen the dirt and put in the seeds. Oh, and put together a planting plan that takes into account both fertility and family crop rotation.
It seemed so simple sitting in the COG class in March / April. But it’s not. It’s complex and detail oriented and not where my head is at right now. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that seems like it can go together many different ways, but really it can’t. Particularly not when you’re trying to make sure that you’re observing 3 year rotations for disease and seasonal rotations for fertility.
Not sure what I’m talking about? Well, it goes like this:
Family Rotation:
In order to prevent common diseases that affect plant families you shouldn’t plant the same family in the same place more often than every three to seven years. When you plant something in the same place season after season it allows the natural pests and diseases of that family to build up in the soil. Rotating them reduces the possibility of issues occurring and the pest management tactics you hae to implement.
This particularly applies to the disease prone families of brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc), night shades (tomato, eggplant, peppers, potatoes) and alliums (onions, leeks, garlic).
Fertility Rotation:
Fertility rotation helps minimize the need to add fertilizer or other nutrient inputs to your soil. The practice basically builds upon the idea that different types of crops require different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to grow well. Fertility rotation breaks crops into four categories: leaf, root, flowering and fruiting based on the part of the plant that you consume (well, most of the time). If you’re practicing fertility rotation you essentially need to rotate through each of the four groups as you plant.
For example: spring lettuce (leaf), could be followed by fall carrots (root), winter clover (flower) and tomatoes (fruit) the following year.
*****
Trying to manage both is enough to make my brain hurt and I’m only on the first year, second season. So far I’ve worked out these successions for my fall planting.
- Radishes (root) => Lettuce (leaf)
- Snow/Snap Peas (fruit) => Radish and winter broccoli (root, flower)
- Lettuce (leaf) => overwintering Carrots (root)
- Broccoli (flower) => fall Shelling Peas (fruit)
- Peppers (fruit) => Kale, Chard (leaf)
- Potatoes (root) => overwintering Onions, Garlic (leaf)
Now I’m working on what to plant where for the overwintering onions and garlic and the spring plan for 2009 so that I can determine which winter cover crops should go where.
wow, I had no idea it was all so complex. But as a big fan of lists and multi-level planning, I have to say that some sick part of my brain finds the idea of gardening even more appealing now that I know.
It is nice to hear that even with more space, it still feels like there isn’t enough. I have a hard time pulling plants that aren’t really producing. Other gardeners say that you have to be ruthless about it … I guess that’s how you get the space you need. Especially for winter crops , which are supposed to go in when the summer garden is full tilt. Good luck!
We had a modestly sized veggie patch when I was growing up (okay, that’s simplifying it a bit, the one we had when I was little was HUGE, but I am talking about the one we had when I was older) and my father (who loves maps, diagrams, you name it) actually divided the veggie patch into 8 seperate beds using old railway sleeper. A couple of the beds had more permanent things in, like raspberries and sunflowers, but all the rest were rotated. He had figured it out in such a way that each thing basically just shifted to the right. Bit more complex thoug, because some beds would be left a bit longer into winter - e.g. the carrots. The sleepers also acted as paths, and were aesthetically pleasing
I hope you manage to get your head around the rotating you need to do!
Great post! Crop rotation makes my head hurt too. We, admittedly, don’t pay as much attention to the order of rotation, we just make sure we switch it up every year. One of these days we’ll get serious about it though!