It looks like you have room to have some beds side by side. Possibly instead of a 10' long bed, if there is room do 2 6-8 ' beds next to each other? That way you could at least rotate every other year, having 2 beds for the tall stuff to be rotated.
I hope I'm being clear. Nancy

Well, I could just run them all North-South instead of East-West like they are shown in the picture.

But, I already have it planned to have 2 beds for tall stuff, I was more concerned that just rotating between those two beds wouldn't be enough rotation, i.e. only a year between.

Also, in my rendering there, I have it configured to show proper shadows for whatever time of year. I just tested, and having the beds side by side running North-South as you suggested seems to be more likely to shade them from what I can tell, does this seem right?

Thanks!

FWIW, some people advocate planting tomatoes in the same spot year after year, though I have not tried it.

One of the important things is to pay attention to your plants. If a certain crop gets sick, be diligent in trying to figure out what is wrong. That way, if your tomatoes get verticillium wilt or something that lives in the soil, you know you need to rotate but if it is some other non-soil borne malady, you are probably safe to not rotate as much. Also practicing good gardening helps, like if a plant does get sick, toss it in the trash, not the compost. If you need more space for rotation, you can also think outside the box. Try planting tomatoes for a year in pots or mixing the beans and peas into other planting areas like perennial beds.

Peppers aren't all that tall. They won't shade the next bed all that much. Tomatoes will only shade the next bed when they get tall. So I think you could grow spring crops like carrots, spinach, cabbage or radishes behind tomatoes. Also, the shade won't last all day.

In the winter, the sun rises and sets well south of east and west, so the shading would be severe. But you won't have tomatoes in winter. At the spring equinox, it is almost due east and west. And midsummer, it rises well north of east/west. It looks like you only considered the case of when the sun is at zenith. If you want to know the azimuth and altitude of the sun throughout the day and at different seasons, you can consult an online almanac. (See link).

Another way to rotate is to plant a cover crop (maybe of rye grass) after the season is over. So you could have a two way rotation with rye grass in between. I have only read about such things. Never done it. Apparently it does help to break the cycle of some insect pathogens.

You seem smart. I think you will work something out.

Good luck!

--McKenzie

Here is a link that might be useful: NOAA solar position calculator

My garden is similar to yours in that I rotate peppers, tomatoes and other plants of that family every other year. It seems to work out OK, though I do try to choose disease resistant varieties for my tomatoes. No problems with any other crops as far as insects or disease.

Thanks for all the input folks! I took my rendering and did it with the rows running north-south; I really didn't believe it would get that much more light, but it surely did!

So now, I think if I have all the beds spaced well enough, and running north-south, I can almost rotate between all of them!

@mckenziek, since you were mentioning the sun location, I thought I'd give a little more detail on what I was doing. I use a program called Sketchup; it has built in geolocation for lighting. So, I basically give it my coordinates, create my drawing (ensuring I'm aligning to the compass accordingly), then I can set the date/time to whenever I want, and see where the shadows will fall.

You're right though, I was simulating the whole cycle for the initial layout, but didn't check the whole cycle when I was planning the crop rotation!

Thanks all!

Kosch

Thanks for the extra detail. Pretty cool! I might have to look into it. I have heard of sketchup, but I didn't know about the geolocation feature.

--McKenzie

What program is that that you are using that can even help estimate sun exposure in E-W or N-S planting? Seems interesting!

Granted, we can visualize which kind of planting might be better but to see it simulated, and even output in numbers that we can physically compare, would be fun also.

The main things I've heard about common garden crops is the tomatoes and potatoes. Some say don't use the same container soil or same plot for tomatoes and potatoes again, but others say they do and it's fine. It comes down to the issues of disease or sickness there. If the plants hadn't gotten any issues there last year, it probably is OK this year.