I'm planning out our garden for next year, and I'm looking for advice on planning crop groupings and rotations for subsequent years. The garden as a whole is intended as a combination market garden and kitchen garden. Total area is approximately 1/2
acre, to be divided into four sections. My current thoughts are as follows, by section:
1 -- Potatoes interseeded with alyssum and buckwheat as cover/weed suppression, and nasturtiums for pest control.
Tomatoes (single row per bed, supported by posts and twine) interseeded with carrots, basil, and borage.
2 -- Garlic (planted the fall prior), followed by late salad greens and fall beans. Onions interseeded with parsnips. Bush beans interplanted with marigolds, with beets seeded along the edges of the bean rows.
3 -- Okra and sunflowers, interplanted with melons/cantaloupes and vining peas in a sort of 3 Sisters thing. Sweet potatoes. Cabbage, kale, collards, and chard. Radishes and turnips, scattered, for weed suppression but harvested too.
4 -- Fallow and cover. Probably a small grain, to be harvested and the
straw spread back on the ground. Will likely incorporate chickens and/or ducks to clean up grains, scratch around, eat weed growth, and fertilize.
In what order would you rotate those four areas? What
should follow what, and what should NOT follow what? Would you make any major changes to any of the combinations, and if so why?