We did a container garden last year, and are planning raised beds this year. We are looking to start with three 4x10ft beds 1-1.5ft tall.

I had seen a lot about rotating crops to prevent disease, etc, however I'm wondering how that works when you really need the tallest on the northern side.

For example, if we have one bed with all tomatoes/peppers, and another with beans/peas, we can really only rotate between the two. Is this sufficient? What if we end up with more than one bed of tomatoes/peppers?

I've attached a rendering of our plan (just think of the left bed being beans, I couldn't find a premade bean crop to place).

I appreciate any help!

Thanks!

Kosch

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!

Obviously when one has the space to easily rotate crops, great. But the vast majority of small home gardeners simply cannot do it and successfully grow in the same locations for many years.

The way to eliminate the need for it is good soil maintenance and that is easy to do with raised beds by simply incorporating good amounts of fresh quality compost and other organic matter annually or twice a year.

When you take into consideration that the majority of the common garden diseases are not soil-borne but air borne fungus.then the need for complex crop rotation is lowered even more.

For example, if we have one bed with all tomatoes/peppers, and another with beans/peas, we can really only rotate between the two. Is this sufficient? What if we end up with more than one bed of tomatoes/peppers?

First beans and peas have different seasons so one example would be peas can be followed by peppers or tomatoes.

East-West beds will always give you better sun exposure than north south UNLESS you have trees or buildings in the way.

And another easy to do solution is to simply avoid planting all of one crop in the same bed. For example, nothing says all the tomatoes have to be in one bed rather than 1 row in each and while beans won't like all the nutrients that tomatoes need, neither do peppers. So a better understanding of the individual crop needs can allow for a better distribution of the crops than you have pictured above.

Dave

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.

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

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

--McKenzie

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.