How To Rotate Crops In Raised Garden Beds

When I plan my vegetable garden every year, I will consider what I grow in raised garden beds and additional flower pots. Like underground planting, raised garden beds also require annual crop rotation to achieve optimal growth and disease resistance.

Crop rotation on raised garden beds involves organizing and avoiding planting a given plant family in the same area each year. The soil rests because different nutrients are used depending on the plant being planted. It also contributes to microbial diversity.

Crop rotation for gardening with raised garden beds

Crop rotation is a simple concept: you will not plant the same or similar crops back to back in the same place. Instead, you can rotate different crops in exact positions. Crop rotation has different benefits for your soil and plants. It is usually healthier and has a better harvest than if you continue to plant tomatoes on the same raised garden bed.

Crop rotation process

The good news is that you don't have to completely move between elevated garden beds year after year, although this is ideal.

Moving plants from one end of the raised garden bed to the other, or planting tomatoes in whisky barrels for a season, may be very beneficial when you let the raised garden bed rest for a year or two.

Crop rotation and its benefits

In addition to allowing the raised garden bed to rest for a period of time and improving the soil quality, there are many specific benefits to crops during crop rotation.

Eradicate pests in raised garden beds through crop rotation

The main reason for crop rotation is the discovery of possible pests and diseases. Even under ideal conditions, these pests and diseases can live in a given area and reproduce in the soil.

If you rotate crops during the above rest period of the raised garden bed, you will be able to see the diseases and pests and eradicate them before they feed on your future crops.

Crop rotation prevents nematode infestation on raised garden beds

Nematodes and tomatoes are other common examples: if you don't move tomatoes, the nematodes will stay in your soil, and these pests will weaken the roots of your tomato plants.

Soil improvement is a clear benefit in crop rotation

Another key reason for crop rotation and moving crops between elevated garden beds and flower pots is improved soil.

Different plants use different nutrients when growing, which can change the characteristics of the soil.

Rooted crops such as carrots and onions help break down the soil as they grow, making it easier for air and water to move through the soil. Legumes and other legumes fix nitrogen in the root nodules of their roots and leave it after the season's growth to help feed the plants for the next growth season.

Make full use of crop rotation through gardening with raised garden beds

First, you need to plan everything. If you have never kept a diary, now is the time to start. Gardening diary is very useful, it can help you understand the work year after year, the plants you like and the plants most produced in the garden - intentionally or unintentionally

Agriculture is not the production of crops as widely believed, but the production of food and fiber from the land and water of the world. Without agriculture, there can be no cities, stock markets, banks, universities, churches or armies. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization and any stable economy.

Alan Savory

You need to consider what you will plant in your garden at least in the next few years (if not longer). Outline your plan on the checkered paper and consider how much space each plant needs. You can even number the parts of the elevated garden bed and move the plants in numerical order.

Consider square foot gardening on raised garden beds

Now is the right time to consider square foot gardening. If you haven't heard of this before, it was developed by Mel Bartholomew. He was an engineer and promoted this method of planting plants in the square foot part of the garden. You can move plants from left to right and from front to back to change their position in the elevated garden bed each year.

The process of square foot gardening in an elevated garden bed for rotation

For best results in crop rotation, you need to move plants from elevated garden beds to other elevated garden beds or planting boxes or buckets, but even partially rotating them will help. You can also change what you plant each year, especially if you have only one elevated garden bed.

Spend one year focusing on tomatoes and another year focusing on root vegetables. This allows you to try new crops and varieties and change what grows in the soil.

Precautions for rotation of square foot gardening in elevated garden beds

Another function of planning the elevated garden bed is that some people think it does not fill all the "loopholes" in the planting plan.

Although square feet of gardening take advantage of each planting space, opening several areas of the garden can help you maintain a healthy crop rotation program.

Refreshing soil for crop rotation in raised garden beds

Start with your right foot by using high-quality soil, improvers, and plants. When you start the raised garden bed, please use high-quality raised garden bed soil that will not accumulate easily.

Consider planting seedlings locally for rotation in elevated garden beds.

If you do not start seedlings, consider obtaining healthy plants from your local nursery. This helps ensure that they are adapted to your environment and do better than plants imported from different USDA growing areas.

After adding a healthy amount of compost to the soil, it is also possible to maximize the growth of plants by appropriately feeding them with plant foods.

Rotation planting plan is also a taboo

In order to maximize your growth time and plant health, you must plan what to plant in the garden each year.

Maximizing the plants you plant in each space can help you produce healthy plants in an elevated garden bed garden.

Conclusion on crop rotation on raised garden beds

The combination of crop rotation and raised garden bed gardening is a good way to solve the problem, especially in areas where the soil cannot promote the normal growth of plants. This still provides you with high-quality agricultural products from the garden, especially the different varieties that you and your family can enjoy.

However, please carefully record where you planted each plant. If you avoid planting vegetables in the same place year after year, you can minimize the possibility of pests and diseases in the exact location.