rotation in the garden - Page 3

 g'day kylie,

if something is going to go wrong we have found that happens quiet
quickly, we had issues in the early day (about a decade ago now) when
we first came back to vege' gardening and especially a more natural
organic way.

apart from fruit flies in this new area we are in (and we think we are
gatting on top with mangement) we haven't had a problem for a long
time now, how does the saying go "feed the soil - and the plants will
feed you".

i'm a bit of a scrap bandit every bit of rottable stuff ends up in te
garden beds.


snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

 
I try to do at least a two year rotation, but in my garden, my sloppiness
doesn't seem to have had any ill effects.  I have read somewhere that if you
garden organically, it isn't vital to rotate, but who the hell knows if that
is true.

In our case we only have 3 areas whihc I would call 'beds' and then there is
all the side stuff and permanent beds and areas still being brought into
good heart before they become beds.  The tomatoes start in the bed at the
bottom of the hill and then over subsequent years move to the next bed up
the hill and then start at the bottom of the hill in the lowest bed again.
Same with corn.  The poor old spuds have got a permanent bed and so far no
problems.  The reason why it's permanent is that we can never harvest them
all and then when they come up, it tends to be a busy time, we don't get tot
hem and by the time we do get to them to actually do soemthing with their
area, we don't have the heart to dig them up.  Will have to do something
there soon though.

 
maybe not AS vital? i'm sure a good rotation would be better, but unsure how
to introduce it now (especially with the brassica preponderance).

it does sound logical that if i keep adding as much poo & mulch (& now
compost as it is really getting going in bulk now!!) that the effects of
being a bit slack & disorganised will be somewhat ameliorated :-)


i have that live-&-let-live attitude to the potatoes as well. which, because
i'm _trying_ to rotate them, seems to mean random potato plants everywhere.
errr!!!!
thanks for the encouragement.
kylie

 
Prolly, but after about 8-10 years, I'm still waiting for a good dose of
potato blight on the spud bed.

i'm sure a good rotation would be better, but unsure how

That's my theory.  So far no probs but then I do get better organised each
year too.  My garden notebooks are starting to work (in a fashion).

:-))  Yep.  I had a thriving one come up in the middle of the tomatoes.  I
haven't had spuds there for ever so I think it must have been some of my
incomplete "compost".  It was a great spud plant and superb spuds too.


Whatever works is my motto :-))

 
it's not that i've omitted them, but rather that they don't feature in my
problem :-) i'm happy to put them whereever because i'm not concerned about
pest/disease build-up with them. (i'm not addressing _all_ the rotation
issues here, just the question of pest/disease problems from brassica being
everywhere, mainly.)


sort of sounds like my "method" so far. :-)

probably setting myself up for a bumper cabbage white moth & butterfly crop
next year due to the carry-over. (???) i read recently that part of the
reason loquats went out of fashion in gardens is because they can give fruit
fly a way to be present & breeding already (the earliest spring fruit) when
the other fruits are starting to be ready & you can thus never break the
cycle. not sure about this - we had no fruit fly last year until well into
the season, despite the loquat tree, but i can see how that might happen if
you don't have lots of enthusiastic possums to eat all the loquat in record
time before you get to them yourself ;-)
kylie