Well, I had originally planned
To do a squash planting video today, but it's just way too wet
I can't even get in there and get my ground prep much less plant some squash. You can see here in this tater plot
Where we planted our taters last week, we got standing water
In this plot and over here in this plot
Just too too wet. So instead of planting anything today
I figured it was a good day to talk about our crop rotation and our crop planning among all 10 of the subplots
We have right here. We'll talk about what we had planted there last spring
summer, fall,
Winter since we're growing food year around here
And just kind of how we work out that
Schedule and determine what we're going to plant next in a plot to make sure we have a good rotation.
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It's always good to have you back. So crop rotation. Why is crop rotation
important? Why do we want to make sure we don't plant the same family of crops in the same spot
in consecutive years?
So certain families of crops are more susceptible to certain diseases and insect pressures
Than other families and if we plant the same family in the same spot year over year
We're going to have those disease and those insect problems just multiply and get worse and worse
year over year
but if we rotate our crops we can give that plot a
Break from that crop family for a year or two
Or maybe even three and it's going to drastically reduce our disease and insect pressure
And make gardening a lot easier for us
So whether you've got an inground garden with several different
Subplots like I do or you've got a raised bed garden with several different raised beds, or maybe even a container garden
Where you've got several different plots you still want to make sure
You rotate those crops and don't plant
The same family in the same container or plot or raise bed
Year over year. Now ideally I like to be on a two to three year rotation
but we can't always make that happen here because we only have so much space so
My goal is to at least not plant the same
family in the spot in consecutive years if I can stretch that out and not plant the same family in the same plot and
You know two to three years, that's even better
We just do the best we can so in addition to having your garden broken up in subplots a couple other things
We can do to help crop rotation. One of those is cover cropping cover crops kind of help refresh the soil
Reset the soil and are going to allow you to have a closer or smaller window where you can
Go in and plant that family in that plot again
Another thing you can do is just plant a wide diversity of crops
If all you plant is squash beans and corn it's going to be pretty hard to rotate because you're just working
with three families there
So I always encourage people to plant a wide variety of things in their garden because that's going to allow you to rotate
More successfully. So we've got ten plots here on my homestead that we're going to be talking about today
We've got these six plots here in the dream garden
That are all 30 by 35 and then we've got two plots over here behind the dream garden
This one here is probably my biggest plot
It's about 40 foot long by about 60-70 foot wide and this plot over here is about 50 foot long
By about 20 foot wide and then the last two plots over here on the other side of my barn or where we planted
Our potatoes we've got this small plot here
which is about 20 by 30 and then this longer plot behind it, which is about
20 by 60.
So now let's go to the drawing board or to the sketch pad and
Map out what we have planted in each plot in the last year and figure out what we should plant in
Each plot this spring. Okay. So I've got my dream garden layout right here, and these squares aren't perfect
I'm not the greatest artist in the world that side of my brain doesn't function very well. I've got up top here
what I've planted in each plot in the last year and
Then down here is what we're planning on planting this year and I'll go over each plot here. So let's start over here
on the right side of the dream garden
So last spring we planted squash I should add cucu there too. We planted squash and cucumbers in that plot
Those just did okay. We follow that with a cover crop of Sorghum Sudangrass
And then this fall we planted some brassicas in there and we got a few rows of leeks planted in there now
The brassicas are almost gone. The leeks will still be there a little while
but this is where I'm going to plant my okra and I'm gonna do like a
Trial with several different varieties of okra the jambalaya and some of these new varieties we've got and see which ones I like better
now
This plot here we had our potatoes planted in the spring and
Then we followed that up with some okra that we let grow all the way until the frost got it
Right now there are some brassicas in there. I had some broccoli that just did okay some rutabagas
that did really good and I got some kohlrabi that I need to harvest and get out of there.
So this plot here is where we're gonna plant our squash and our cucumbers
this spring.
Summer squash several different varieties of zucchini, patty pan, and then some pickling and some slicing cucumbers.
Going over to this plot here this is where we had our tomatoes planted last spring.
Then we did a cover crop of Sunn Hemp on this plot to help build that soil right now
We have carrots and beets in that plot, we're getting those out of there.
By the week they should all be gone within the next few weeks. So we'll start planting some beans in there and
Plant more beans as we get more carrots out of there and kind open up some space
This pod up top here in the dream garden, we had our peppers and eggplant planted in
The spring and around here those things grow for many months out of the year. So they grew up until the
First frost date there in November - early December or
So we've got a cover crop of winter rye on there now which
should be adding some good nitrogen to that soil and this is where we're going to plant our sweet corn.
This plot down here is where we planted our incredible sweet corn last spring.
We then did a cover crop of Buckwheat followed by a cover crop of Sorghum Sudangrass and then we planted
cabbage, kale,
Rutabagas, and
Cauliflower in this plot, all those did really well and this is where we're going to plant our peppers.
This plot right here we planted winter squash in last spring.
We did some small wonder spaghetti squash and some kabocha squash
We then planted a cover crop of Brown Top Millet now
It has brassicas in it still have some collards and kale that will keep growing
Well into the spring and through the spring, we just planted some carrots and beets in this plot on the last video
I should've wrote that down there. So this plot here is just going to hold on for a little while
Once some of this stuff is finished later in the spring early in the summer
We might find something else to do with this plot but we're just going to let this one
Stay like it is for right now. So that's what we've got planned for our six dream garden plots now
Let's talk about those four other plots.
Alright, so this is our biggest plot right here last
spring
We had some squash in there some cutes also some flowers, but we don't really consider those in the rotation right now
We've got lots of alliums in there between those squash and the alliums
We did do a pretty long-term cover crop of Sorghum Sudangrass but right now
It's full of alliums onions, garlic, shallots, leeks all that good stuff.
So those will be wrapping up probably around May or so, which is perfect time once it warms up to plant sweet potato
So we're going to do a big plot of sweet potatoes in that plot
We'll also put a lot of our cut flowers in that plot right there
This plot right here is pretty close to where my beehive is. So we get those flowers in there keep those bees happy.
This plot right here, which is just below that one we had brassicas planted in there last spring we've had lettuce planted in there
this fall/
Winter in between there we did a cover crop of Sunn Hemp
And this is where I'm going to plant my tomatoes and my eggplant this year. I haven't grown tomatoes or any nightshade
in this plot right here for
About three years, I think so. This should be a really good plot for tomatoes and
Eggplant over here are those two plots where you saw us plant those potatoes on a previous video
So last year we had shallots in there some Brassica, some collards,
We had okra in there for quite a while until the frost got it, we've got potatoes in that one now
Once those potatoes are done in May. I think I'm gonna do me a big plot of those Cherokee tan pumpkins
Those things are pretty resilient and they'll be able to handle some of that summer heat.
So once those potatoes are harvested, we're gonna plant a big plot of winter squash/
Pumpkins with those Cherokee tans, and then this plot down here we had sweet potatoes in
last year.
Then we followed that with some brassicas and beets
this is where we did our beds of greens that you may have saw us plant on a video had some beets in there as
well still got one row of beets to get up
Potatoes are in there now waiting on those to come up
Not sure what I'm going to do with this plot after the potatoes are up
I might plant me a second round of squash and cucumbers in this plot here since I've never planted
Anything in the cucurbit family in this plot. Alright. Alright. Alright. So this is what we're planning to plant
this
Spring. Now this is not set in stone by any means
it could change slightly
But for the most part we'll stick to this
diagram or plan here and I encourage you to do the same whether it be on a little sketch pad or whatever or you can
Take your phone and make little video journals
Which help you to remember what you
planted and what you're going to plant but try to keep some record of it so you can keep up with it and
Have a better crop rotation. Hopefully we can get some dry weather pretty soon here
We can get these soils to dry out a little bit and we can start getting some of these things planted
We're going to start off with our squash and cutes.
Then we'll do our beans
Then we'll do our
sweet corn
by that time our Tomatoes should be ready to transplant peppers and
Eggplant, then we'll get our okra in the ground
Last because you know, it likes those warmer soil temps.
We'll get our okra in the ground and then come May like I mentioned we'll get those sweet potatoes in the ground and somewhere in
The middle we'll be putting in several rows of cut flowers
To you know, help our pollinators and also increase our beneficial insect populations.
So if you haven't started planting your spring garden yet. It's time to get on it
I'll put a link below to all our garden seeds and that may help you out a little bit you can kind of figure out
What specific varieties you want to plant in each plot and make sure you have some kind of rotation there don't plant your Tomatoes
Or your squash in the same spot year every year because that insect pressure that squash bug pressure
Is just going to get worse and worse and worse
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And if you enjoyed this one, I think you'll enjoy these two videos right here. So check those out and we'll see you next time.