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Rotating annual polycultures

 
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What are some good, tried-and-true annual vegetable polycultures for zone 1 garden beds? Zone 7a, southeast Pennsylvania.

I have read about a few of the more standard successional and companion crops people have tried, and it's an intriguing approach, definitely more interesting and I can believe it's both more productive and self-sustaining than the usual annual beds with just a few companion plantings apiece. I've also used rotation for the standard 4 annual veggie categories (legumes, roots, brassicas, nightshades, with a little companion overlapping) around some beds on an annual basis. But figuring out polycultures for each bed and in rotation sounds more complicated!

That said, I will have six 4x8 garden beds to work with, and I'm currently building deer cages and trellises for them. I might set aside a couple of them for propagating perennials for the forest garden, but I can see reserving ~4 for the annuals for the next few years, and I can also easily rotate those beds year-to-year for pest control/confusion. I do also plan to add some perennials throughout for herbs, additional vegetables, and insectary support. So, maybe ~4 within-bed successions would be good? Open to suggestions!
 
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I've been doing something similar in 7a for a few years now, mostly working out which combinations actually play well together rather than just theoretically complementing each other. The one that's worked best for me is a summer bed of climbing beans, squash and lettuce underneath, then flipping it to a winter brassica and broad bean mix once the summer stuff comes out. The beans fix nitrogen for the brassicas coming in behind them. Main thing I've learned is that timing matters more than the actual species pairing. If one element in the polyculture gets a head start and shades out the others before they establish, the whole thing falls apart. Starting everything at the right relative stage rather than all on the same day made a big difference.
 
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