Planting a raised bed: crop rotation & useful tips

If you plant your raised bed with the same family of plants, problems can arise. Here's how to avoid that.

Everyone has their favorite vegetables and tends to grow again this year after year. You can find it in small gardens where there is not much space broccoli then almost every year in the same place as in the previous year. On the one hand, this means that the same nutrients are always withdrawn from the soil, which leads to so-called soil fatigue. Furthermore, parasites and diseases are adapted to their hosts and can reproduce particularly well on certain cultures or plant families. However, both of these cultivation problems can be avoided relatively easily with good crop rotation.

If you are wondering why this article has not mentioned strong, medium and weak consumers before, read this other article on the subject first Plant raised beds: It describes the basic principles according to which raised beds are planted.

Crop rotation and crop rotation in the raised bed

Each plant species is assigned to a plant family. Vegetables belonging to the same plant family often attract the same pests or plant diseases as fungi or viruses. In order to avoid annoying growing problems, there are two important precautionary rules to be observed:

1. Non-perennial vegetables should never be grown in the same spot for two years in a row.
2. Vegetables from the same plant family should also not be grown in the same place for two consecutive years.

These two rules correspond to the principle of crop rotation. In the same place means that the same plant should not be grown a few meters around the original planting site. With a raised bed of around 2 square meters, it is best to take a break from cultivation, especially with sensitive plant families. Sensitive or endangered plant families are those that have a crop rotation that is too close (i.e. species of the same family that are grown one after the other) are often heavily infested with pests or diseases will. These particularly sensitive plant families include the cruciferous, umbelliferous, daisy and butterflies. Some associated vegetables are listed here as examples:

• Cruciferous: all Types of cabbage, radish, Radish
• Umbelliferae: carrot, celery, fennel, parsley, dill
• Composite: lettuce, endive, chicory
• Butterflies: pea, Bean

Ideally, a crop rotation is set up for several years, in which, for example, cabbage is only grown every three or four years. If there are several (raised) beds in the garden, which are conveniently distributed, you could alternate with the plant families in the beds. Should be in winter Green manure plants want to plant in your raised bed, be sure to check the associated plant family. Because, for example, mustard or oil radish (very popular green manure crops) are among the Cruciferous vegetables and lose all positive green manure effects if cabbage next spring is planted. You can find out more about green manuring in raised beds at the end of this article.

tip: You can also provide the plants in your raised bed with sustainable nutrients with a primarily organic long-term fertilizer. Ours is one of those Plantura organic universal fertilizer, which releases its nutrients slowly and gently over a period of three months and stimulates the soil life in the raised bed.

Planting a raised bed: mixed culture

Different types of vegetables can promote each other's growth or keep pests away. That is why these are often planted next to each other in the sense of mixed culture. You can see from the following table which crops benefit from a neighborhood in the raised bed and which vegetables do not get along well with each other:

• Green cross: These species are mutually beneficial
• Red Cross: These species do not get along
• No cross: No inter-species effects; can be grown side by side without any problems

Planting plan in terms of mixed culture

The following two exemplary crop rotations take into account the effects between the Plant neighbors and the sensitive plant families so that there are no annoying pests in the Multiply garden. The order was chosen for newly filled raised beds. If your raised bed has been planted for a few years, it is better to start at year 3 or 4.

If you have several raised beds, you can, for example, plant crop rotation 1 in raised bed 1, crop rotation 2 in raised bed 2 and raised bed 3 and 4 with the crops from the 2nd Start year of crop rotation 1 and 2. This way you are provided with many different types of vegetables.

Plant raised bed: growth-promoting / pest-repelling additional plants

In addition to the types of vegetables, which can mutually support each other, many strongly smelling herbal and aromatic plants as well as strongly flowering plants have a great influence on neighboring vegetables. Another advantage of these plants: They attract many beneficial insects into the garden. Often, root excretions from certain plants also ensure that harmful soil animals are driven away. Two classics known for their soil conditioning properties are the Marigold and the Tagetes, also called "marigold".

With both plants, care must be taken that the plants do not reproduce themselves in autumn. Therefore, it is best to cut off the faded flowers or shake off the seeds before they fall off. Then the seeds can be sown again next spring exactly where the flowers are wanted. The following table gives an overview of neighbors who protect plants:

tip: Proper planting can also protect against Snails in the raised bed to serve.

Planting a raised bed: preventing growing problems

At this point, I would like to summarize again what you can do to avoid soil fatigue and to keep parasites and diseases out of your garden and raised bed:

• If possible, do not grow the same crop in the same place for two years in a row (with the exception of perennial crops).
• Avoid planting vegetables of the same plant families in the same place for two consecutive years.
• Types of cabbage (cauliflower, broccoli, White cabbage and Red cabbage etc.) at best not growing in the same place for several years.
• Check the mixed culture table to see whether the crops planned in the raised bed are compatible with one another.
• For endangered crops (leek, Carrots, Types of cabbage, Strawberries) see if there are protective co-plants.

You can find more inspiration on the topic of “raised beds” on our Pinterest page