The Modern Victory Garden

Hi there.  I'm new to this group, and am hoping you might be able to provide some insight for me.  My garden planning and organization have been somewhat haphazard in the past, but my husband just built me four beautiful 4x8 raised beds, and I hoping to be more organized in my planting from here forward.

One aspect of this would be to rotate crops in each bed from year to year.  I was planning on planting "like" crops together, such as cole crops, chard and beets, carrots and parsnips, etc..  But then I was reading up on companion planting, which seems to encourage more mixing, matching, or separating.  For example, one site I looked at said not to plant carrots and parsnips together.

Any thoughts on how to balance these potential conflicts in a limited amount of space?

Here's hoping for some nicer weather in the PNW!

Thanks, Sarah

Hi Sarah!  I honestly find planting beds in family groups is a more effective strategy because as you point out it is easier to do crop rotation in the garden by just shifting beds by one each year - but also because generally plants in the same family have much the same nutrition and watering needs and so you can adjust amendments and watering strategies based on what is in a bed.  I personally have not found the companion planting benefits to be all that significant and the benefits of grouping crops definitely does provide significant benefit.

Ditto what Laura said, Sarah.  I've tried companion planting in the past, and never saw any real benefit.  But family planting makes it very easy to plan the next year's garden, since I can look at my yearly diary and say things like "oh, bed #2 has not had alliums in it for three years, so that's where the garlic and onions will go next year".  The one exception to this would be Three Sisters planting (corn, squash, beans), which really is a good combination, in my opinion.

Include Chickens in Crop Rotation.

Orchard>Compost>Chickens>Garden

Of these the orchard is the least portable. It is fenced to keep deer out. We feed the orchard with raw compost from the hoop coop. To work the compost we added Faverolles chickens. They turn, aeriate, fertilize, debug and till it. They are self duplicating. Small sections of the orchard (4X16') hold the compost while the chickens work it and are then are gated off (which opens the bed next to it) to exclude them at planting time and it becomes garden for a growing season. Then it is time to open the gates, add compostables and the chickens go back to work. This is a win, win, win, win situation. The orchard, the compost, the chickens and the garden all win. I do less work, spend less money to feed the chickens and the soil. God gardens in His compost and composts in His garden. We should too!

Excellent approach Robert!   We sort of do the same thing by letting our hens run the garden during the winter (we cover/protect the overwintered beds and soft fruits to protect them) and they work the garden all winter - eating bugs, weeds, and tilling the beds.   I start spring off with virtually no bugs and absolutely no weeds!   And it is all free feed for my laying hens.