westland garden health logo

Consumer helpline 01480 443789

10am-4pm, Mon-Fri

Crop rotation

Crop rotation is simply a way to ensure that crops are grown in different section of the garden year on year.

It does require a little organisation (ideally you should plan at least a year in advance), but you could reap massive benefits by letting nature do the hard work for you:

Controlling disease

The main reasons for doing this is to avoid diseases specific to that vegetable causing problems after being allowed to build up year after year. A good example of this is clubroot, which attacks many brassicas and can be greatly reduced by changing where you grow them each year.

Increasing nutrients

Certain crops, such as legumes (peas, runner beans, broad beans), increase nitrogen levels in the soil while they grow and this is then available for the next crop.

It is a good idea to grow leafy brassicas, such as cabbages, brussels sprout and broccoli or potatoes the following year, which thrive in high nitrogen soil.

Controlling weeds

Vegetables such as potatoes tend to smother out weeds, so they are unable to grow.

It’s a good idea to follow these with a hard-to-weed vegetable, such as onions.

Related articles

5 Ways to Create an Organic Garden

5 Ways to Create an Organic Garden

A growing number of gardeners are seeking natural and organic alternatives to chemicals.

Top 10 Veg to Grow

Top 10 Veg to Grow

Deciding which variety of vegetables to grow can prove to be challenging. Here are our top 10 veg to grow, we hope this gives you...

Vegetarian and Vegan Gardening

Vegetarian and Vegan Gardening

Vegetarian Gardening Vegetarian and vegan gardening is growing more and more popular year on year. The Vegan Society conducted research several years ago that showed...