all that grew in my small plot last year was quite a bit of kale and some marigolds. this year i was planning on some potatoes, corn, carrots, radishes, and maybe some onions, will all this be ok in the same plot?? i know a little about crop rotation but not alot . . . . am i right in thinking i should avoid brassicas in this area due to all the kale from last year?? :-D
Hello Luke, You are absolutely correct to avoid brassicas on that plot this year. I would usually follow brassicas with leafy veg, like spinach, lettuce, Swiss Chard...or perhaps carrots, parsnips or beetroot. I suppose that your choices above ought to be oké. I am not sure about the onions because they like the same sort of ground and chalky conditions. I should look that one up.
sjoerd your a star, i will look into the onion issue. hope its ok as i have nowhere else to put them :-D
Nowhere else to put them? How about filling a flowerbox--you know the long ones that folks sometimes put outside their windows or hand off their balcony's? You could fill it with soil and plant the onions in that. You'd need to keep an eye on hydration throughout the season, but it might work. If you uses the ordinary round containers, you wouldn't be able to grow as many. Well, Luke--if research proves that it is oké to plant the onions where brassicas were the preceding year, then Bob's yer uncle! Good luck with this, mate.
Lukey, onions like brassicas, so you should be fine planting onions in your plot, even though the kale is gone and they won't be neighbors. I have planted onions where I had broccoli or cabbage before, with no problem. Also, the wonderful Carrots Love Tomatoes book on companion planting states that onions and brassicas are compatible.
