Joint planting in the garden, advice from Galina Kizima. Joint (mixed) planting of vegetables Joint planting of onions and
Mixed planting is the cultivation of several vegetables or berries in a limited area at once, mixed or according to a scheme for the rational use of space. Plants provide multifaceted assistance to each other.
For example, flowers planted next to vegetables and blooming simultaneously with them attract pollinating insects, some spicy plants secrete pests that repel pests from vegetables or flowers, others synthesize substances with their roots that stimulate the development of the roots of vegetable and fruit plants.
This is only a small part of the positive relationship; often gardeners notice a favorable juxtaposition of plants, but cannot even guess the reason, or find an answer in the literature that would explain such a relationship. Perhaps it’s a mini-ecosystem, because in addition to plants, millions of microorganisms live and reproduce on a tiny piece of land, plants breathe, consume various elements nutrition, release various substances into the soil and air.
Sometimes the influence of one crop on another is indirect, for example, weed bushes adjacent to currants can attract aphids, and, roughly speaking, take the blow while they become active ladybugs. Some flowers planted even at the other end of the garden (yarrow, asters, rudbeckia) are attractive to lacewings, which eat not only aphids, but also the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle.
Benefits of joint plantings
Joint plantings herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit and berry crops offer great opportunities:
- allow you to reduce or reduce the use of high doses of mineral fertilizers
- give up pesticides
- get a larger yield from the same area compared to monoculture
- receive a harvest throughout the season, occupying the freed up area for early ripening vegetables
- improve the taste of fruits or berries (for example, bush beans improve the taste of radishes, mint improves the taste of cabbage) and their nutritional value (the content of sugars and vitamins increases)
- prevent unilateral soil depletion (for example, greatly reduce nitrogen or phosphorus content)
Companion plants
Among the whole variety of spicy and salad herbs, vegetables and berries, there are special groups - pairs that have the most beneficial effect on each other:
- watermelons - peas
- beans - rosemary
- grapes - mustard
- melons - radishes
- melons - corn
- wild strawberry (strawberry) - parsley
- wild strawberry (strawberry) - cumin
- onions - carrots
- cabbage - oregano and marjoram
- cabbage - thyme (thyme)
- parsnips - peas
- pepper - basil
- radishes - bush beans
- radishes - parsnips
- turnips - peas
- salad - all types of cabbage
- salad - radish
- celery - cabbage
- soybean - corn
- asparagus - parsley
- pumpkin - corn
Some vegetables are so friendly that they give good harvest There are many other cultures nearby:
- leeks welcome celery, bush beans, head lettuce, carrots, beets
- cucumbers - all types of beans, celery, beets, lettuce, cabbage, garlic, onions, chives, radishes, spinach, fennel
- strawberries love garlic, onions, radishes, radishes, beets, cabbage, lettuce
- beets - all types of cabbage, radishes, radishes, lettuce
- chard can be planted next to beans, any type of cabbage, including kohlrabi, peppers and onions
- potatoes respect spinach and bush beans
- garlic not only gets along, but also has a beneficial effect on tomatoes, beets, carrots (not counting the above)
- parsley is good for celery, leeks, tomatoes, radishes, strawberries, peas, lettuce
- savory is suitable for eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes, bush beans
- sage - cabbage, carrots, strawberries, tomatoes
- Tarragon is generally good for everyone, no matter what vegetables you put it with, but it helps eggplants the best
It is reliably known about spinach that it promotes the growth of tomatoes, beans, beets, kohlrabi, radishes, and lettuce - its roots secrete saponins that stimulate root growth processes by increasing the permeability of cell membranes to water and nutrients. By the way, in addition to spinach, primroses release quite a lot of saponins into the soil.
Shared boarding rules
If you suddenly don’t remember the various combinations of crops in the beds, or doubt the beneficial effects of some herbs and vegetables on others, there are always rules that have decisive weight when drawing up planting schemes:
- Do not place crops of the same family next to each other - they have common diseases and pests, with the exception of eggplant and pepper
- Combine early ripening greens and vegetables with plants that are more long term growing season:
- short ripening period for radishes, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, onions, kohlrabi, watercress, lettuce, white mustard, early potatoes and early cucumbers
- long ripening period for cucumbers (not counting early ones), zucchini, pumpkin, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, beets
- Orientation by light in such a way that tall plants do not shade short light-loving plants, but shade seedlings sensitive to excess light
- light-loving vegetables: watermelons and melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, corn
- those who like to grow in shade: Chinese cabbage, lettuce, parsley, zucchini, rhubarb, young seedlings of any vegetables do not like the hot sun
- moderately light-loving: carrots, cabbage, garlic, onions, beans, radishes, turnips
- We take into account the rules of crop rotation - good and bad predecessors -
Mixed beds
Traditionally, three crops are grown in one bed with mixed plantings: the previous (early), the main, and the subsequent.
Example of a mixed bed
We take into account the predecessors and compatibility of vegetables.
After preparing the beds in the spring, as soon as the soil temperature allows, early vegetables, such as radishes or lettuce, are planted in a continuous carpet.
By the time the radishes ripen and the lettuce bunches grow, they can be safely thinned out and a suitable successor, such as spinach, can be planted. The optimal planting pattern is staggered.
If you don't mind legumes, you can plant bush beans next to the spinach in place of the radishes. You just need to take into account that on the side of the bed where the beans will be, there is free access to its bushes from the boundary for convenient collection of the pods.
When the spinach and remaining radishes are harvested, you can replace them with early-ripening varieties of cucumbers and head or leaf lettuce.
After harvesting the beans, you can plant early ones in their place next to the cucumbers. white cabbage, kohlrabi or broccoli (sowing time - July, choose varieties that ripen in 50-55 days). Of course, you need to prepare cabbage seedlings in advance and calculate exact dates sowing in order to have time to harvest from the previous crop.
Mixed planting scheme
Another mixed planting scheme taking into account co-rotation.
Any gardener, faced with a lack of space, poor germination or low yield of crops, the prevalence of diseases or pests, tries to optimize conditions external environment, without even realizing that most of these problems can be solved in a much simpler way. So, if instead of planting vegetables by species groups you use mixed plantings vegetables, you can not only rationalize the use of land, but also provide some plants with protection from weeds and pests, others with immunity from diseases, others with a nutrient medium, and others with improved taste.
But, before mixing all the available crops, it is necessary to clearly understand in what conditions how certain types of plants behave, otherwise the result may be completely opposite to what was expected. Here are some basic rules that, if followed, will prevent plants from harming each other:
- The soil should not be dry and loose, but have good breathability.
- Cultures of the same family should not be mixed.
- A species with a much more developed root system will inevitably displace all others.
- short light-loving plants should not be in the shadow of large neighbors.
- The best results are obtained by planting the main species (up to 60%), diluted with one or two species with different ripening periods.
Now let's look at examples of mixed planting of vegetables in the garden and the advantages of just such combinations.
Companions for cucumbers and tomatoes
These two plants occupy, perhaps, the first place in the number of unsuccessful attempts to grow together with other vegetables. Such statistics are caused, rather, by the wrong choice of neighbors and unscrupulous care. Let's try to understand the origins of such errors. Let's start with cucumbers. They belong to the pumpkin family and are a friendly plant that will easily get along with:
- legumes;
- cabbage;
- onions;
- garlic;
- dill;
- eggplants.
However, the best results will be achieved by corn or beans, because, firstly, they will not create a dense shadow, providing light-loving cucumbers with a sufficient amount solar energy, secondly, they do not require the same microelements for their development as the main plant, which means that the depletion of the soil will be uniform and not too severe. Under no circumstances should you combine cucumbers with potatoes or herbs.
To get a harvest of healthy and strong tomatoes, you can use an unusual combination scheme in which they will be combined with three plants at once: lettuce, spinach and radishes. All of them are planted in the garden bed in two rows without additional spaces according to the pattern: tomato - lettuce - spinach - radish - tomato, etc. In addition, good results will be obtained by planting tomatoes together with the following plants:
- beans;
- carrot;
- celery;
- parsley;
- basil;
- mint.
In case of pest invasion, you can protect tomatoes by planting borage between their rows. Its smell perfectly repels harmful insects.
An interesting effect can be achieved by planting between rows of cucumbers and tomatoes of certain colors, such as marigolds. They will enrich the soil and attract beneficial insects, which will pollinate vegetables, helping to increase productivity. Some sources, by the way, recommend in this case the scheme tomato - marigolds - cucumber - marigolds - tomato, etc.
What to plant with potatoes?
Potatoes are not a very sociable plant, capable, thanks to their developed root system and tall shoots, of destroying many weak crops, but, in turn, suffers from proximity to strong and tall ones. You need to select vegetables for mixed plantings with it very carefully. Potatoes do not tolerate:
- pumpkin;
- sunflower;
- tomatoes;
- cucumbers;
- kohlrabi;
- raspberries
However, it will bear fruit perfectly without disturbing its neighbors if they are:
- cabbage;
- legumes;
- eggplant;
- carrot;
- corn;
- horseradish.
As in the situations described above, marigolds can give good results. However, it would be best to take into account the parameters of crop rotation and use potatoes as an intercrop that uses resources not affected by the predecessor and unnecessary to the successor. For example, having finished collecting lettuce in the spring (leaf or cress, or better yet, a combination of both), we plant it in the same bed early ripening varieties potatoes, and after they ripen we use the land to grow Chinese cabbage and kohlrabi. In this case, they need to be planted in a checkerboard pattern. Other types of plants that develop well after harvesting potatoes are strawberries and wild strawberries, so this land plot Excellent for propagating these plants through rosettes.
Zucchini, melons and pumpkins
All these vegetables belong to the pumpkin family and have general requirements to growing conditions. They are friendly to almost everyone, with the possible exception of the notorious potato. But garlic will be the best companion for them - it will repel pests and protect plants from diseases. You can plant garlic randomly, but orderly rotation will give the best results. Other plants that cucurbits feel comfortable with are:
- corn;
- radish;
Besides, good effect gives the use of colors and herbs, which attract pollinators and protect from harmful influences. Some herbs can also improve the taste of zucchini and pumpkins by adding valuable micronutrients and organic matter to the soil. These plants include:
- nasturtium;
- marigold;
- borage;
- savory;
- tarragon.
The latter is a universal “thinner” for almost any vegetables, not only harmonizing with certain types, but also smoothing out their interspecies differences by stabilizing the soil composition.
Combination with cabbage
Cabbage (both white cabbage and broccoli, kohlrabi, etc.) is an extremely capricious plant. He has both friends and enemies. The latter include tall climbing plants, primarily climbing beans and grapes, as well as:
- peas;
- tomatoes;
- strawberry;
- mustard.
Upon landing vegetable crops and trees, their characteristics are taken into account - plant growth in the sun or in the shade, abundant or moderate watering, differences in root systems. However, not everyone knows that when planting crops in the garden, their compatibility with each other should be taken into account. Summer residents who grow vegetables know that productivity depends not only on favorable conditions and caring for plants, but also on their location in the beds. Adhering to compatibility rules garden crops, even beginners will be able to rationally use the land and get a good harvest.
If neighbors in the garden bed are chosen incorrectly, this can cause poor growth and development of crops, accumulation of insects and the formation of fungus due to excessive watering. Correct placement of plants in the beds, on the contrary, has a beneficial effect on their growth and also makes them more resistant to disease.
The principle of mixed beds is used by farmers and hobbyists who grow organic vegetables, fruits and berries, since the correct compatibility of vegetables during planting helps repel pests, and there is no need to use chemicals. The right neighborhood and rational use garden plot allow you to increase productivity up to 20%.
Mixed plantings are not as complicated as they might seem at first glance. Before you start sowing, the plants need to be divided into groups, taking into account the intensity of watering and lighting, and the need to apply fertilizers. It is recommended to draw up a site plan with the distribution of plants. By adhering to the rules of vegetable compatibility, the gardener will receive the following benefits:
- saving land area;
- reduction in the incidence of diseases;
- plants attract harmful insects less;
- applying less fertilizer;
- increasing the yield and taste of fruits.
Rules and table of compatibility of vegetables with other crops in the garden
By planning a scheme for the joint planting of vegetables, herbs, flowers, shrubs and trees, it is possible not only to increase the yield and quality of fruits, but also to create a beautiful garden bed. When distributing crops in the neighborhood, the following rules must be taken into account:
- “neighbors” must have similar requirements for light and moisture, acidity and soil structure, as well as the same rate of development and period of fruit ripening;
- it is unacceptable that the width of the bed is less than 1 meter;
- the garden is divided into several sections (in the middle part tall plants are planted, the fruits of which take the longest to ripen - tomatoes, peppers, cabbage);
- Early ripening plant species are placed closer to the borders - most often these are greens and herbs; this place is also suitable for grapes and strawberries;
- In order for the soil to remain fertile, it is important to follow the rule of crop rotation (planting plants several times in a row on the same soil is unacceptable);
- correct proximity involves the distribution of vegetables in the beds, taking into account their root system, the most best option- when crops with small and more developed roots alternate.
The table will help you plan what and where to plant, taking into account plant compatibility. The table shows the most common vegetables.
Vegetable Good compatibility Poor compatibility Eggplant Peas, potatoes Onions, tomatoes, fennel, garlic Peas Eggplants, potatoes, corn, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, beans Onions, garlic, tomatoes Daikon Zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, spinach, pumpkin Peas, strawberries, cabbage Cabbage Potatoes, onions, lettuce, beets, celery, dill Strawberries, beans Potato Eggplants, peas, cabbage, onions, corn, parsley, lettuce, beets, horseradish, beans, garlic, radish Cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, fennel Onion Black currants, garden strawberries, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, watercress, spinach Beans, peas, beans, cabbage Carrot Peas, onions, tomatoes Fennel cucumbers Peas, dill, beans, lettuce, cabbage Potatoes, tomatoes Pepper Onions, lettuce, beets, tomatoes, basil, eggplant Peas, cucumbers, celery, beans Parsley Onions, lettuce, peas, beans, tomatoes, radishes, beans Carrots, beets, celery, horseradish Tomatoes Green crops, cabbage, onions, gooseberries, asparagus, beans Potatoes, kohlrabi, cucumbers, fennel Salad Cabbage, garden strawberries, carrots, cucumbers, onions, radishes, spinach, peas Tomatoes, pumpkin, beans, beets Beet Cabbage, onion, lettuce, beans Fennel With fruit and other trees
It is not recommended to plant shrubs, berries and vegetables in the rows of a young garden. This is explained by the fact that plants, and especially crops from the nightshade family, take everything useful substances from the soil.
If the trees have long taken root and delight their owners with their fruits, you can sow seeds of parsley, cilantro, dill, radishes and lettuce under them. These crops do not harm their neighbors and ripen in the shortest possible time; in addition, there are greens in the shade for a long time remains juicy.
You can also choose perennials- strawberries, wild garlic, jusai, mustard, mint, lemon balm.
In mid-summer, Chinese cabbage, radish and radish seeds are sown in the shade of trees. Beans feel good under the canopy of a tree. Thanks to it, the soil is enriched with nitrogen, which in turn improves productivity.
Under old trees, some gardeners successfully grow cucumbers, lagenaria, pumpkins and zucchini. The plants climb beautifully along the trunk, and thanks to the fertile soil they produce a good harvest.
Regarding tomatoes, expert opinions differ - some believe that the plant will stretch due to insufficient lighting, others say the opposite, reaping a good harvest under a tree. Gardeners also claim that planting is mutually beneficial for both tomatoes and fruit trees, since the latter are protected from the codling moth, and tomatoes are less likely to suffer from late blight.
If you want to decorate your garden with roses, you should know that planting them next to plum, pear and apple trees is not recommended. Under walnut Greens and vegetables will not grow well. It is also worth considering that tomatoes and potatoes are bad neighbors for apricots.
With flowers and herbs
Vegetables do not really like being in the vicinity of marigolds, while placement near marigolds is favorable. They protect plants from nematodes and make the beds beautiful. Calendula improves soil quality, and pests are afraid of it. Both plants are planted near cucumbers, carrots and potatoes. It is best to sow marigolds and zinnias near tomatoes.
Nasturtiums will help against aphids, whitefish and snails. Flowers are sown between rows or randomly near garden crops. Daffodils and tulips are planted near carrots.
Herbs such as chamomile, tansy, yarrow and wormwood protect plants from pests. Gardeners love nasturtium because it resists pests and weeds, and also delights with its beauty until late autumn. In addition, it can be eaten by adding to salads. It gets along best with potatoes and cabbage. Garlic planted with roses repels beetles.
Also to edible plants refers to borage, or borage. It repels pests, loosens the soil, removes excess moisture and blooms very beautifully throughout the summer, attracting pollinating insects.
With bushes
You can sow greens in the garden near the bushes. Gooseberries, raspberries and other berry bushes do well near fruit trees, provided that they do not shade them too much.
Combined plantings of raspberries and bush beans are characterized by mutual beneficial effects, but the plants will not like the proximity of raspberries and blackberries. To protect the bushes from the codling moth, sow tarragon or tarragon.
It is recommended to sow lupine, hyssop, onions, and garlic near grapes, but planting cabbage and hazelnuts leads to the death of the young grapevine. Near it you can place currants, raspberries, radishes, legumes, beets, and cucumbers. It should be borne in mind that grapes planted near a bed of berries have a special taste. The most favorable is its proximity to strawberries - this is how the grapes turn out to be large and sweet.
Gooseberries get along well with red currants; they do not compete for space and do not attract common pests. You can also plant lemon balm, mint, basil and sage with gooseberries - the herbs repel sawflies, aphids and moths. For the same purpose, tomatoes are planted near the gooseberries. An unfavorable neighbor is onions. Raspberries and gooseberries can be planted under plum trees.
- It is better to place eggplants near onions, beans, spinach, and thyme;
- It is better to plant onions, herbs, tomatoes, carrots, kohlrabi, and zucchini next to hot peppers;
- strawberries and parsley located nearby feel good;
- cucumbers are friends with most plants, especially beans, zucchini, celery, garlic, onions, spinach;
- the legume family gets along well with peas, parsley, cucumbers, corn, potatoes;
- beets grow well near strawberries and onions;
- It is recommended to plant carrots in a bed with onions, garlic, and radishes;
- cabbage gets along in the same bed with celery, dill, rosemary, and beans;
- It is better to plant sorrel, carrots, lettuce, radishes, radishes, spinach near the strawberries;
- It is better to plant garlic next to celery, carrots, roses, and gladioli;
- sweet peppers are planted in the same bed with basil, okra, beets, fennel;
- tomatoes prefer to grow separately, and not together with other vegetables, but do not mind being adjacent to onions, beets, and corn;
- pumpkin gets along with legumes and radishes;
- loves potatoes if nasturtium, marigolds, beans, and cilantro are located nearby;
- excellent companions for onions are carrots, beets and all types of melons.
Examples of successful plant combinations
When drawing up a plan for the beds, taking into account the principle of joint planting of vegetable crops, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the options successful combinations. Examples of good neighbors with good fertility and minimal morbidity rates:
- alternating pumpkin, corn, legumes and nasturtium;
- a bed of radishes, lettuce, kohlrabi, spinach, early potatoes;
- alternating rows of carrots, parsley, dill;
- a plot with legumes, tomatoes, cilantro, carrots, marigolds;
- a bed of cucumbers, basil and tomatoes;
- rows of potatoes, cabbage, spinach, beans, corn.
What plants are best not to be planted next to each other in the garden?
Improper placement of vegetables and trees can cause reduced yields or attract insects. To avoid mistakes, gardeners are advised to familiarize themselves with crops that are poorly compatible with each other:
- green onions should not be planted next to garlic;
- you should not plant turnips, tomatoes, asparagus, rhubarb, or zucchini near cucumbers;
- garlic should not be planted close to peas, beans, soybeans, peanuts;
- for gooseberries, black currants are a bad companion;
- juniper and cherries cannot be placed together with a pear;
- mint, basil and cilantro have a bad effect on the growth of garlic;
- It is not recommended to plant apricot, lilac, cherry, sweet cherry, barberry next to the apple tree;
- cherries do not do well near currants;
- Raspberries and strawberries planted nearby become a favorable environment for weevils.
Alternation of crops in the beds. There are two approaches to classifying plants into good and bad precursors, which will be discussed later.
Predecessor- a crop grown in the previous crop or 1-5 months before the current crop.
Green manure- plants such as: white mustard, phacelia, buckwheat, rye, legumes. In summer cottages, they are grown not for harvesting (except for legumes, of course), but for subsequent crushing and incorporation into the soil in order to enrich it with many minerals primarily nitrogen. Where does nitrogen come from in these plants? The roots of green manure contain entire colonies of special bacteria - nitrogen fixers. Another benefit of green manure: their roots do not need to be painstakingly pulled out and chopped, let them remain, because the passages from them allow the soil to “breathe”, and the roots of vegetables planted after green manure will develop better. That is, the roots of green manure loosen the soil. Again, it’s less work for us; we don’t have to loosen and fertilize the soil with pre-dissolved mineral fertilizers from sachets. And green manure costs much less than fertilizers in powders and ampoules. They are cold-resistant, you can plant them any time, they grow very quickly. Three harvests of legumes will enrich the soil as if you had fertilized it with a good dose of manure. Green manure also allows you to deoxidize the soil. And this problem exists for many summer residents, because our allotment was given to territories previously used for collective farm fields, therefore, the soil was depleted.
Organic farming- a method of caring for an area that does not use artificial mineral fertilizers, sold in stores in bags. But this does not mean a complete abandonment of mineral fertilizers. You can use peat (to loosen the soil); lime - ordinary, for whitewashing ceilings (to deoxidize the soil); ash as a source of easily soluble potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, manganese and other micro- and macroelements. Same list chemical elements You will read from the periodic table on bags of mineral fertilizers, which you also need to work with gloves and even sometimes in a respirator, without children nearby. The best ash comes from burning wood; it has the most balanced composition. But it can also be used from the burning of the thick stems of some plants - sunflower, for example. If you add ash, do not use other mineral fertilizers, otherwise you will upset the balance in the soil. Also when organic farming do not diligently dig up the soil, only loosen it superficially so as not to mix it beneficial bacteria upper layers and lower ones, because These bacteria work only in their native layer. Also, with this method of farming, the soil should not remain “bare”; there should always be something on it: either a growing crop or green manure, or at least the soil should be covered with a layer of chopped lawn grass, or, temporarily, rotted weeds, or mulched with compost.
Mulching- a technique used in the above farming method. We finely chop the weeds (without fanaticism, you can just chop them with a sharp shovel or weeder), put them around the sprouted and more or less developed plants on watered and loosened soil, otherwise thick layer mulch will crush young shoots and they will rot. That’s it, until the end of summer you don’t have to worry about frequent watering and loosening after each watering.
Mixed plantings- when different crops are planted in one bed. They allow us to save space for sowing on our small plots, cover the soil with leaves so that it does not dry out, repel various pests of one crop by secretions of neighboring crops into the air and soil, and even serve as a support for neighboring crops. climbing plants. Sometimes plants even improve each other's taste, such as beans planted in a narrow strip among strawberries. But there are also irreconcilable enemy plants that cannot be planted nearby.
I'll tell you about all these techniques.
Basic principles of crop rotation - two ways to separate plants into good and bad predecessors
The first way to divide plants into good and bad predecessors is according to the plant’s need for nutrients Oh. Vegetables “take” from the soil and also add useful substances to it in different ways; all plants are divided into three groups according to their need for nutrients: with high need, with medium need, with low need. It is necessary to alternate crops of different groups so that the soil is not depleted.
Plants with a high need for nutrients are easy to remember; they are mostly large fruits: potatoes, cabbage, pumpkin, zucchini, rhubarb, but they also include small ones: spinach and celery. However, it is necessary to note some peculiarity of crop rotation for this group of crops - for several years in a row (2-3 years exactly) you can grow potatoes and cabbage in one place, not forgetting about sowing green manure before winter or early spring, this even allows us to “clear” the soil of weeds, because we field and loosen these crops twice a season, or even more often.
With an average need for nutrients - smaller plants: cucumbers and melons, kohlrabi and radishes, eggplant and tomatoes, climbing beans, leeks, beets and carrots, and horseradish.
Finally, plants with a weak need for nutrients: peas and bush beans - they can even be used as green manure, they bring a lot of nitrogen, as well as onions, radishes, lettuce, and herbs.
The second way to divide plants into good and bad predecessors is by what family the plants belong to. It’s easier to navigate here; just remember your school knowledge. The principle of crop rotation here is as follows: you cannot plant plants of the same family in the same place for two years in a row. The most common crops in our areas are from these families: brassicas (cruciferous) - radishes, turnips, radishes, daikon, cabbages (naturally), horseradish and watercress. Nightshades - you need to be especially careful here, because... this family has many diseases and pests: potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, physalis. Pumpkin - they need to be distributed not only at the time of planting, but also in place, since they are cross-pollinated - zucchini and squash, pumpkins with melons and watermelons and, of course, cucumbers. Butterworts are excellent green manures, so it is not advisable to plant them in the same place every year - peas, beans, beans and lentils, the latter is rarely grown.
How to draw up a crop rotation scheme on your site
Anyone can draw up a correct scheme for crop rotation, although it seems at first glance that it is impossible - as if solving a complex logic problem Einstein. It is enough to draw a diagram of your beds and number them. In the table, write down the numbers of the beds in rows and the years in columns. Then arm yourself with a pencil, an eraser and spread the names of the crops across the table. Remember the two principles of crop rotation, that is, do not plant plants of the same family in the same place, as well as plants with the highest need for nutrients ahead of plants with a lower need for them. That, it would seem, is all. But it turns out that there is also the concept of mixed plantings and plants, “good neighbors” and “bad”, because our plots are small, we cannot spread them across fields the size of half a hectare different types crops, you have to distribute the crops not only over time, but also over place, and this is in one season.
List of good and bad predecessors
So, a list of crops, good and bad predecessors, at the end - what to plant after this crop (so as not to search through the list of bad and good predecessors again).
I note that green manure, including grains and legumes, can be considered as good predecessors for any crops except legumes, and they can also be planted after any crops except legumes.
Watermelon, melon, pumpkin. Good predecessors are onions, cabbage, root vegetables. The bad ones are sunflower, potato, pumpkin. After planting: beans, lettuce, peas, beans, herbs.
Cabbage. Good predecessors are carrots, onions, cucumbers. The bad ones are all cabbage (with turnips, radishes and radishes), beets, tomatoes, horseradish. After planting: watermelons with melons, pumpkin, cucumbers with zucchini and squash, onions, carrots, celery and tomatoes with peppers and eggplant (after fertilizing with green manure), garlic, and possibly potatoes, the latter only after fertilization.
Peas. Good predecessors are cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage and potatoes. The bad ones are legumes. After planting: everything except legumes.
Carrot. Good predecessors are cucumbers and zucchini, cabbage, onions, and tomatoes. The bad ones are carrots themselves, potatoes, as well as related parsley and, oddly enough, beans. After planting: onions are the best, as well as garlic, and maybe tomatoes. I don’t recommend potatoes; I didn’t have a successful harvest after carrots, although the crop rotation tables advise. Apparently, they still don’t plant root crops after root crops.
Parsley. Good predecessors are cucumber, onion, and tomatoes. The bad ones are carrots, parsley itself, celery, especially after root parsley. After planting: zucchini, squash.
Radish, turnip, radish. Good predecessors are potatoes, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes. The bad ones are cabbage vegetables, as they are also classified as cruciferous vegetables. Also, carefully weed such beds to remove the weeds, for the same reason. After planting: zucchini, squash.
Celery. Good predecessors are cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers. The bad ones are carrots, root parsley, and especially celery itself. After planting: lettuce, bush beans, onions, herbs.
Beet. Good predecessors are cucumber, onion, garlic. The bad ones are the beets themselves, as well as other root vegetables - carrots, celery and chard, although they are leafy, but still a relative, as well as cabbage. After planting: zucchini, squash, potatoes, lettuce.
Nightshades - tomato, pepper, eggplant. Good predecessors are cucumber, cabbage (only after green manure), and onion. The bad ones are all nightshades. After planting: onions, garlic, carrots, parsley, cruciferous vegetables (radishes and radishes), cucumbers. Often they even alternate planting cucumber, tomato, and pepper plants in greenhouses, which is very convenient.
Cucumber. Good predecessors are tomato, cabbage (after green manure). Bad ones - zucchini, squash, pumpkins, melons, watermelons. After planting: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, carrots, parsley, beets.
Zucchini, squash. Good predecessors are cabbage (after green manure), radishes with radishes and turnips, onions, carrots, and greens. The bad ones are pumpkin ones. After planting: carrots, bush beans, lettuce, radishes.
Onion. Good predecessors are nightshade, cabbage, and legumes. The bad ones are the onions themselves, garlic, cucumbers. After planting: everything except onions, garlic and cucumbers.
Garlic. Good predecessors are tomato and cabbage. The bad ones are onions and garlic, cucumbers, carrots. After planting: everything except onions, garlic and cucumbers.
Potato. Good predecessors are beets and cabbage (after green manure). The bad ones are the rest of the nightshades. Then plant (but only after green manure): cabbage, pumpkin, garlic, onions, root vegetables, herbs.
Mixed plantings
To enhance the effect of proper crop rotation, you can experiment with mixed plantings.
A few rules for mixed plantings. Basically, you can use the above table of bad and good predecessors. Plants of the same family should not be planted next to each other; there will be many pests.
Tall ones will shade short ones; when orienting plantings, take into account where the sun rises and sets.
Shade-tolerant: dill, parsley, rhubarb, spinach, sorrel (especially), lettuce, zucchini, Chinese cabbage.
Photophilous: tomato, pepper, eggplant, melon, watermelon, cucumber, peas, beans.
Moderately light-loving (meaning, if there is shadow for some part of the daylight hours, then this is even beneficial): onions, garlic, cabbage, beans, carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, radishes.
Consider which group the plants belong to based on their nutrient needs, so as not to deplete the soil.
The densely branching roots of some plants can entangle the thin roots of other plants.
Fast-growing crops can be planted in slow-maturing, classic example- the proximity of carrots and onions.
No plant is compatible with fennel (a relative of dill), so it is planted in the farthest corner of the garden.
Most aromatic herbs and seasonings, and even dandelions, have a beneficial effect on plantings by repelling insect pests; this knowledge has been used since medieval times, in monastery gardens. Those interested in medicinal herbs can find the article by N. M. Zhirmunskaya “Good and bad neighbors on garden bed", there is a detailed description of herbs. I don’t plant grass yet, because... I don’t use them much in cooking, so we’ll focus on vegetables.
Examples of beds with mixed plantings
Classic - carrots and onions. Onion fly and carrots will not grow in such a bed. You pull out the onions in August, and the carrots a little later; also, with this method, very few weeds grow.
Planting corn, pumpkins and beans has been a classic since Indian times. The pumpkin provides shade to the soil, fewer weeds grow, and tall corn prevents the sun from burning the pumpkin, while beans simply enrich the soil with nitrogen. I tried corn next to potatoes. I liked it.
From unusual neighbors: cucumber and corn (or sunflower). The cucumber wraps around a thick stem, oddly enough, without interfering with its support to develop, and they, in turn, protect the cucumber from the wind. I wrote down this method for myself, maybe I’ll try it.
Garlic, and around the edges - plant radishes or beets individually. Then plant green manure.
Onions, along the edges there are a few early radishes, I especially liked the “Early Red” variety, very large. But such a load on the garden bed - root crops pull out a lot of nutrients from the soil, although onions clean it - must be accompanied by sowing green manure in the fall or August.
Rice. 1. Beds prepared for sowing onions and radishes.
Rice. 2. The same beds after harvesting the radishes.
Rice. 3. After harvesting the onions, with already sprouted green manure (white mustard). Beginning of October.
Daikon, around the edges - early radish. Despite the fact that these are both root vegetables, the ripening period is different, so the daikon will still be huge, 30-35 centimeters.
Rice. 4. July. Daikon 'Minowase', grown with early radishes, was planted in early June.
A row of radishes, a row of spinach, lettuce, dill around the edges. The very first landing, the very early harvest, dill is picked last. In general, dill can be sown in many crops. They say that the proximity of spinach to lettuce improves the taste of the latter.
Cabbage, marigolds around the edges. It’s beautiful and repels pests.
Cabbage, cauliflower and regular cabbage, with dill is the most ideal combination. Dill also benefits from this placement.
Onions on greens among tomatoes in a greenhouse - while the tomato stem is developing, the onion grows quickly in such luxurious greenhouse conditions.
A row of onions, a row of beets, a row of lettuce, another row of onions. Looks beautiful. The salad was ripe - it was quickly removed, the beets and onions had more space to develop. The next harvest is onions, again there is room for further development of beets.
I tried other mixed planting options recommended on the Internet, but I didn’t like some of them.
I didn't like the beans and beans among the potatoes. They only interfere with hilling and wrap around the potatoes. In addition, these crops are potassium-loving crops and draw potassium from the soil. However, it is good to grow black beans around the potato plot, it seems to repel the moles a bit. But you need black beans to grow around the entire perimeter, in a closed loop. This method of repelling moles came to us from Estonia. I'll definitely try it.
There is also a means to control mice; our neighbors have almost successfully tested it. It is necessary to plant white mustard around the perimeter of the plot. In the fall, use it again to incorporate it into the soil and enrich it with nitrogen.
Lettuce and spinach did not grow among the winter radishes and daikon. They crushed him under the shadow of their powerful leaves. Although I also read this method on the Internet. Like, lettuce and spinach are harvested early, and radish and daikon much later. Nothing of the kind. Cruciferous leaves grow very quickly and shade lettuce and spinach.
The spinach among the leeks was small in size and absolutely unimpressive.
Rice. 5. Spinach among leeks as an example of an unsuccessful mixed planting.
Garlic among strawberries never grows large for me, although this is considered a classic planting. But he grew well after green manure.
Rice. 6. The size of huge cloves of garlic after green manure.
Rice. 7. Medium-sized garlic grown among strawberries.
Technology 1-2-3-4-5-6 for creating a bed for strawberries - immediately applying the principles of crop rotation and mixed plantings
A widely known scheme of crop rotation using joint planting is the “1-2-3-4-5-6” technology, as I called it, for creating a good bed for strawberries in the sixth year.
Based on the creation of high beds. It is possible with fencing with boards, or without. Branches are laid down for drainage - from berry bushes, for example. But they need to be chopped. I didn’t chop some of them, but by spring they sprouted and even produced leaves. Apparently, they were very tenacious. You can even put an old chain-link under the branches to protect against rodents. Then a layer of soil is laid, then compost, and so on, we also throw in the weeded weeds, preferably those that have not had time to produce seeds, without roots. In the spring, we cover everything with a small layer of soil with compost and use “new technologies.” Such a bed already has time to warm up when there is snow everywhere, because it is closer to the sun, although only 20-50 cm from ground level.
Compost can be used from annual plantings of zucchini, even though it is immature; compost specially collected and rotted for 2-3 years, already black and crumbly; purchased - but it is very expensive; as well as just pea tops and top part soil from pea beds.
Rice. 8. Such dry pea tops, as well as the soil from under them, are an excellent source of nitrogen and can be planted in any garden bed.
Rice. 9. Unripe annual compost from under zucchini.
But you can use it as soon as you have created a bed, even from unrotted compost. For this purpose, the 1-2-3-4-5-6 technology was created. You just need to cover the entire bed with black film, or better yet, black agrotex, and cut out the holes.
In the first year When the weeds have not yet had time to rot and release a lot of nitrogen, we plant plants that do not accumulate nitrates - cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini. Under no circumstances should you plant greens, cabbage, beets and radishes. At the end of summer we will plant white mustard, since pumpkin plants, as we remember, draw out a lot of nutrients. If we have time, we will chop the mustard in winter and plant it in the garden bed, then cover it with film for the winter. If we don’t have time, we’ll cover up the remains in the spring, but without using a shovel, only with weedgrass, loosening the soil shallowly.
Rice. 10. Beginning of construction of the first year bed.
In the second year Don’t forget to create a similar bed next to it, a second one. We plant on it what is supposed to be planted in the first year. And in the first bed, which has been living for two years now, we plant kohlrabi, cauliflower or tomatoes, you can also plant beets from the edge, if the bed is flat and not fenced with boards. For the winter we do everything the same as in the first year.
In the third year We are creating a third bed, so we already have three such high beds for this technology. On the third we grow what we are supposed to grow in the first year. On the second - what is supposed to be grown in the second year. And on the first one, which is now three years old, we grow early cabbage, carrots or celery, you can also use peppers and eggplants. Along the edges you can use nigella onions. We remember what to do in the fall.
In the fourth year adding another bed. We place crops by analogy with previous years. And in the oldest bed, four years old, there are beets or carrots, along the edges you can have onions for turnips, large ones grow. In the fall, don’t forget to take care of the garden bed again.
In the fifth year in the oldest, five-year-old bed, we will grow greens - lettuce, dill, parsley, because a lot of nutrients have already been drawn out of the soil by the plantings of the previous four years, despite the fact that we planted green manure for the winter. And greens do not require highly nutritious soil. And in the four-year-old, three-year-old, two-year-old and (don’t forget to make one new high bed every year!) in the new bed we plant what is supposed to be planted in beds of that age. In the fall, we have already sowed green manure in five beds.
In the sixth year the oldest, six-year-old, bed will no longer be as high as before. Just for strawberries, since raised beds require watering more often than ordinary ones located flush with the ground, because the berry requires rare watering. We plant radishes on it in early spring, and then, after harvesting, strawberry tendrils, which will grow in such a bed for three years.
Then, three years later, after harvesting the strawberry tendrils from our oldest garden bed, we start all over again.
Don’t be afraid to get confused in the rules of crop rotation and the principles of joint planting: in any case, there will be a harvest, indulge in berries and early vegetables It will work out, and you will certainly enjoy the experiment. Have a rich harvest!
