Crop rotation vs planting tall veggies to NE corner

I understand how important it is to rotate types of vegetables, so pests and disease don't get established in your garden. I'm finding it really hard to figure out any different ways to lay out my garden, though. It is about 40' wide, E to W, and about 15 ' deep N to S. There are trees to the north, a shed to the east, so some partial shade mornings.

When I am growing some tall things, like sweet corn and indeterminate tomatoes, I know you are supposed to put them on the NE corner, so they don't cast shade on the other plants. It is just so wide and shallow (did that make sense?) that I can't figure out too many different places to put those tall plants, so they aren't in the same area every year! This will be our 3rd or 4th year with a garden in that spot; we never did get a vegetable garden planted last year.

Any thoughts? I've been trying to work out a garden plan so I can get it planted tomorrow (Sat), and feel like I'm right back to the same basic layout as before! We are doing tomatoes (mostly indeterminate), cucumbers, watermelons, sweet corn, peppers, spinach, lettuce, bush beans, garden peas, carrots, onions, Irish potatoes, basil, dill, and maybe broccoli if I can fit it into the space. It is our first time with potatoes, cukes, spinach, broccoli, and dill, though the others are all old favorites. I'm trying the cukes up a trellis on the west side of the shed, and the potatoes in a garbage can.

Sorry for my ramblings. Just trying to organize my thoughts! LOL
Angie

Hey Angie,
I just realized nobody got back to you on this... and I was hoping someone would, because I've got the same questions, given my raised-bed situation. I'm set for this summer, but what happens in the fall/winter might depend on the input given on this question.

Anyone? Anyone? Please?

Well, a little late to help this year, but I'd still appreciate any thoughts from the experienced gardeners out there! I still feel like I don't have many options for crop rotation! I can't think where else in the yard I could have located the garden to make it a different shape/size to make rotation easier, though. I've got to work with what I've got!

One thing you might want to consider, if you are going organic - the issue of crop rotation becomes very important. Pest and disease can be kept at bay with chemicals, and many non-organic gardeners reuse the same spot year after year. For organic growers - rotation is one tool to keep soil borne diseases at bay. Potatoes are an exception to this and need to be rotated.

For organic gardening you will want to do the crop rotation if possible. As for tall crops, your ability to rotate will depend on the space you have. As I'm sure you know, for the northern hemisphere, the sun moves up in the sky during early to mid summer. The shadow cast by tomatoes and certain varieties of corn (check the seed specs) should not cast a shadow on more than a row or two if moved toward the front every other season.




This message was edited May 28, 2008 11:52 AM

This message was edited May 28, 2008 11:53 AM

I get the impression that Bookerc1 runs the rows north and south the short way. In general if it isn't working one way think about it a different way. There's nothing that stops the rows from running the long way with different vegetables along the row. Or don't plant in rows at all, but in blocks and move the blocks around. In this case I'd run at least the corn and tomatoes east and west and then swap them along the row year to year. If you want a 3 or 4 year rotation then I might grow pole beans insted of bush beans and put the beans in the rotation with the corn and tomatoes.

I do generally run them the long way, E-W, but often divide the length into different crops, so the row only runs half of the long length (does that make sense?). For example, our garden is 40' E-W and 18' N-S this year, so I run rows about 20 feet long. This year I tried a modification of the square-foot gardening idea, but still found that the tall things would shade the shorter things if I put them anywhere different. I guess I need to pay attention to the sun exposure at different times of day, and see just how it would affect things if I did put them elsewhere.

Trying pole beans is a good idea--I've never grown them before, though I've always wanted to do a teepee for my kids.

Pole Beans give a lot of beans for the space they take up. I've planted Kentucky Wonder, Kentucky Wonder wax, Blue lake pole and what I think are pole Ramano Beans. If look local around the solar energy sites you should be able to a graph that shows the sun's elevation at various times of day. The one I'm thinking about is or can be printed on clear plastic so that you can look through it and tell if some thing is in a shadow or not.

Wow, sounds cool! Do you have link you could share?