There are all sorts of techniques and tricks of the trade you can employ when it comes to gardening at home that will help elevate your outdoor spaces and ensure that your flowers, shrubs, fruit and veggies thrive and grow year after year… but if you really want to take your gardening to the next level in 2022, you might find investigating crop rotation beneficial.
When it comes to veggies, we tend to grow what we enjoy eating and what grows well in the soil we have to work with – which makes perfect sense, of course. But different crops interact with the soil in their own unique ways and they’re also all susceptible to different garden pests and diseases.
By rotating your crops and planting your favourite veggies in different places each year, you’ll find you’re able to achieve better soil balance, as well as reducing the risks associated with diseases and pests.
The different types of vegetables fall into different families, with the main ones being legumes, nightshades, chicories, umbels, chenopods, brassicas and allium.
Each family feeds and uses your soil in different ways – tomatoes, for example, will use up a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus, while something like a parsnip will absorb lots of potassium and calcium. If you continue planting the same crop in the same soil each and every year you’ll find that various nutrients are depleted, depending on the crop in question.
But by swapping the location of your crops each year, you can help to balance out the level of nutrients being absorbed and allow your soil time to recover and recuperate. You can also help your soil by focusing on nitrogen fixing, as well, such as by planting legumes as these can produce nitrogen and help return it to the soil via their roots.
Do you need help with the landscaping for your Wirral home? Get in touch with LW Landscapes today.