Improve garden with rotation, companions

I recently received a phone call from a lovely-sounding lady, new to the area, who wondered if crop rotation works here. I enthusiastically told her “yes!” and promised to revise and reprise an article from a couple of years ago on just that subject.

While most people think you need a large area for crop rotation, the practice is valuable and effective on small garden plots as well — be they square, rowed, or even raised beds. Changing crops each year benefits both soil and plants, with only the addition of mulch at the end of the season to enrich the soil.

Size or design doesn’t matter, either. Even a small integrated garden can be rotated — per-haps a large wheel design, with a large culinary sage or blueberry bush as a centerpiece. The five “spokes” could be paths or planted edible ground-cover such as parsley, Alpine strawber-ries, thyme or marigolds — as you choose.

Though early December might be considered a strange time to ponder the possibilities, it’s really the perfect time. Walk out, take a look at your dormant vegetable garden and visualize it divided into sections for yearly change-of-veggies — and herbs and flowers as well — for that’s the mix I recommend. Draw a picture of your plot on paper and consider the following ideas.

Here’s the plan for a four-year rotation schedule: On paper, compose a garden grid of five sections across and four down for your chosen crops. The cross sections suggest the main crop; the down sections represent the years. As an example, from top to bottom, your plan could look like this:

Year 1: plot 1 —tomatoes; plot 2 — peas, beans; plot 3 — carrots; plot 4 — spinach; plot 5 — squash;

Year 2: p1 — spinach; p2 — carrots; p3 — squash; p4 — peas, beans; p5 — tomatoes;

Year 3: p1 — squash; p2 — tomatoes; p3 — spinach; p4 — carrots; p5 — peas, beans;

Year 4: p1 — peas — beans; p2 — spinach; p3 — tomatoes; p4 — squash; p5 — carrots.

Remember that crops named are only an example, and represent a plethora of other possible selections. Following is a list of companions/substitutions/additions for each planting block that will aid you in achieving a workable plan for a years-long successful rotating crop garden. Non-culinary herbal and floral companions provide protection and add beauty to your plot and often save you the time of worrying about pests. Consider pots for “movable companions” — for in-stance, nasturtiums, marigolds and mints (best potted anyhow) to accompany their favored to-matoes wherever they’re moved to.

Choose the veggie/herb/flower companions to interplant from our chart to provide protection and beauty to your personal garden landscape. Each alphabetical listing will feature a “B” for Beneficial and “E” for Enemy depending on their tolerance of or antipathy to certain plants

Asparagus — (Perennial crops like asparagus will naturally have their own beds, but you can interplant seasonal companions among the spears for mutual benefit and beauty as well). B — tomatoes, parsley, basil;

Beans (green and/or wax) — B — corn, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, petu-nias, oregano, mustard, summer savory, rosemary, larkspur; E — onions, garlic, gladiolus.

Pole beans — B — corn, squash, oregano, mustard, summer savory; E — onions, beets, sunflow-ers, Cole crops.

Beets — B — onions and Coles; E — pole beans, larkspur.

Coles — (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi) — B — mint, dill, sage (and most aromatic herbs**), potatoes, celery, beets, onions, Feverfew (especially with cab-bage); E — strawberries, tomatoes, pole beans, Rue.

Chinese cabbage (different from American Cole crops) — B — peas; E — pole beans.

Carrots — B — peas, lettuce, chives, tomatoes, onions, rosemary, sage; E — dill.

Chives — B-Roses and ornamentals, most veggies; E-beans, dill.

Corn — B — potatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, squash.

Dill — B — cabbage, onion and lettuce; E — carrots, tomatoes.

Cucumbers — B — beans, corn, peas, radishes, sunflowers, Chamomile; E — aromatic herbs, potatoes.

Eggplant — B — beans, basil.

Fennel — While a valuable delicious bulb with licorice-flavored fronds, fennel is not friend to most anything in the garden. (It is Enemy to slugs and snails however, so may work for you among Hostas). Otherwise, give it a pot or a private space with sunlight and rich soil away from the veggie garden;

Garlic — B — Roses; E-beans and peas

Leeks — B — celery, carrots and onions; E — sage, peas, beans.

Lettuce — B — carrots, radishes, strawberries, cucumbers. E-Feverfew, Chrysanthemums.

Melons — B — beans, corn, peas, radishes, thyme, sunflowers; E — potatoes, most aromatic herbs.

Onions — B — beets, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, chamomile, summer savory; E — Sage, peas, beans.

Parsley — B — tomatoes, asparagus, roses.

Peas — B -Most vegetables/herbs; E — onions, garlic, gladiolus, potatoes.

Peppers (Sweet bells/Hot) — B — most vegetables and herbs; E — onions, garlic, gladiolus, pota-toes.

Potatoes — B — beans, corn, cabbage, horseradish, eggplant, gladiolus, Lamium; E — pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes, raspberries.

Pumpkins, gourds — (See squash).

Radishes — B — peas, nasturtiums, lettuce, chervil, cucumbers (planting lots of radishes with your peas and cukes will trap many harmful pests).

Roses — B — Borage, chives, garlic, lavender, leeks, mint, parsley, rosemary, rue, sage, thyme, wormwood (Artemisia), Tansy.

Rutabaga, turnips — Friends to peas, but NOT each other — Remember that these related crops (including radishes) will cross with each other, also with Chinese cabbage and Oriental mustard, so don’t plant together if you want true-to-species produce.

Squash (Summer and Winter) — B — nasturtiums, corn, catnip/catmint. (Plant only one variety of squash per species to prevent crosses).

Spinach and Chard — B — strawberries — plant in the strawberry bed for mutual benefit.

Tomatoes — B — chives, borage, thyme, onions, parsley, asparagus, marigolds, carrots, mints, nasturtiums; E — Cole crops, potatoes, fennel.

Watercress/Mustards — Compatible with most vegetables and aromatic herbs.

Note — Some companion plants serve as “trap crops” –drawing the foliage/bulb eaters and their larva away from the main crop. A case in point is parsley, which serves as food for the swallow-tail butterfly’s larvae — a striped green/black caterpillar — providing needed food for the beneficial larvae while still maintaining edibles for our own dinner tables. (I’ve often suggested using the “sacrifice” parsley as a beneficial ornament in the rose garden and planting the kitchen parsley in the veggie garden).

OK, get cracking with your map and lists! Everything goes with something, and somewhere you’ll figure out the garden of your dreams!

Valle Novak writes the Country Chef and Weekend Gardener columns for the Daily Bee. She can be reached at bcdailybee@bonnercountydailybee.com or by phone at 208-265-4688.