I know it sounds industrial but crop rotation is one of the best ways to prevent depletion of minerals and buildup of pests and disease. Crop rotation simply put means that you try to space planting the same family of plants in the same spot by at least 3 years. If you are like me and companion plant I do think that you get a little more wiggle room.
Here's a rotation in real time:
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Swiss Chard
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This was last fall. We overwintered with row cover, so the large plants are long gone, but the smaller ones are really nice now.
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| Same bed, frame removed and amended with 1" loosely incorporated compost |
Now here come the tomatoes, OK you can't see them, but they are inside the walls of water.
There you have it, simple crop rotation. I'll leave the Chard in for another month or 2. It will bolt when it gets hot and we will pull it out. This is about the time the tomatoes will start to really take up space.
This is not to say that I've never had pests or disease, but its pretty minimal in our garden so far and we've grown in these beds intensively for the last 6 years.
For a really good reference on Crop Rotation, I recommend
The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman.
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