Crop rotation
For thousands of years many different
forms of crop rotation existed. Many were used in broad acre farming. We
would really like to get into broad acre farming, grow our own grain for
example. On a five acre block worked by two people, that's just not
feasible, though. But what about larger crops of potatoes, corn and beans
for example? This goes beyond what is possible in the kitchen garden. The
vegie garden has room for such larger crops in eight beds, each eight
metres long and just under a metre wide. Two more beds will be planted
with strawberries. Strawberries last about three years before the beds
have to be used differently. A number of extra beds give us room to
plant crops which are not part of the rotation system.
There are many theories about crop rotation and we have listed some books
which were of great help to us, on the resources page. Then we came up
with our own version of a rotation plan which hopefully works. This system
should allow continuous use of the rotation beds without any adverse
effect on the harvest and without the need to let beds go back into grass
for a time to rejuvenate them. |
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Ducks in the vegie
garden
Our Indian Runner Ducks have
controlled access to the vegie garden to control snails and sluggs.
They are a small breed of duck and do not damage the vegies as much
as large ducks could. They are supposed to be good egg layers! |
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Crop rotation in the vegie garden
rotations change in April,
each rotation has 2 beds
| Crop Rotation
Bed 1 becomes Bed 2 next year |
-April onwards: where space becomes available after harvesting, sow green manure
-August:
slash green manure and dig in; apply horse manure.
-August: apply complete organic fertilizer to one bed and plant sugarloaf
cabbages from greenhouse (bed a)
-September: apply complete organic fertilizer to second bed (bed b)
-September to January: sow brassica (bed a)
-late September to mid December: sow climbing beans (bed b)
-Slash legumes after harvest; throw stalks on compost; rotary-hoe bed at
shallow depth |
| Crop Rotation
Bed 2 becomes Bed 3 next year |
-April: apply complete organic
fertilizer (bed b)
-April to November: sow salad onions (bed b)
-September: apply complete organic fertilizer (bed a)
-September to December: sow carrots (bed a)
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| Crop Rotation
Bed 3 becomes Bed 4 next year |
-April onwards: where space becomes available after harvesting, sow green manure
-August:
slash green manure and dig in; apply horse manure
-October: apply complete organic
fertilizer
-mid October to early November: sow and plant sweet corn, cucumber,
pumpkins, squash, zucchini |
| Crop Rotation
Bed 4 becomes Bed 1 next year. |
-April onwards: Where space becomes available after harvesting, sow green manure
-August: slash green manure and dig in; apply
horse manure
-October: apply complete organic
fertilizer
-October to November: plant tomatoes |
Seeds of oregano, dill, marigold,
calendula, and edible chrysanthemums are present in all rotation beds and
most of the non-rotation beds as companion plants. We have a good
germination rate with those seeds.
Other plants, e.g. celery, silverbeet, herbs, edible flowers and winter
vegetables grow in the non-rotation beds. |
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Additional temporary
garden beds
We use temporary fencing to protect additional sections
against wallabies. Here we plant potatoes, corn and broad beans and let
these areas go back to grass the following year. The planting plan for
2009-10 shows the borders of these areas in light grey. |
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A raised bed for asparagus
We always wanted to grow asparagus.
Asparagus should last for fifteen years or longer, so it's worth the
extra work needed to set up the bed. Asparagus needs very well draining
soil that has to be light enough to allow the fast growth of the spears
in summer. Our soil is heavy clay and not suited. We chose a slope at
the end of our vegie garden. We dug up 700mm of clay and grass and
placed a drainage hose at the bottom of the ditch. Due to the fall of
the ground the hose will naturally drain any water from the bottom of
the bed. We got a load of "sharp sand" delivered plus a load
of good soil. We built up the asparagus bed with a mix of both and added
plenty of horse manure and some organic fertilizer. We didn't want to
grow the plants from seed. That would have added another two years to
the time needed before the first harvest. We bought thirty green
asparagus "spiders", as the two year old plants are called.
These spiders are only available in winter, when they are dormant. We
planted them just under the surface of the new bed. Once they started to
emerge from the soil we raised the bed and built it up to its final
height of about one metre over the clay base. So
far the result is amazing: over two thirds of the 30 spiders have taken
root and a jungle of asparagus spears stands tall. The plants have to be
cut back to ground level in late autumn. Next year we should be able to cut a
few spears, and the year after, the bed should be in full production. |
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