LittleMsGreenies First Four Beds Crop Rotation - Summer 2016

With the extra space at the back garden, I’ve decided to try out the Four Beds Crop Rotation and split up the areas into 5.

Garden Bed 0, as I call it, is dedicated for the permanently planted trees and bushes. It's not part of the crop rotation.

Photo from left to right: Betel, Bay Tree, Sambung Nyawa, Curry Tree.

Garden Beds 1 to 4 are going to be used for crop rotation and I picked the easiest rotation for a newbie, the plant type rotation. Unfortunately, I started planting a bit late in 2016. We moved in to the new place in early November, and I only started planting in mid November. The Melbourne weather at that time was still a bit cold, I heard the winter lasted a bit longer in 2016. I still had to wear my winter coat when working in the garden in the early morning.

So, here is my Summer 2016 4 Beds Crop Rotation.

Garden Bed 1 is for Beans, currently occupied by Dwarf Round Beans, Broad Beans, Snake Beans, Sweet Peas, and Snow Peas.

The first batch of the round beans was harvested a few weeks ago.

Since then I had tied up the vines to the wooden fence to support the plants.

It looks like they are growing better with support.

Garden Bed 2 is for Leaf Veggies and Herbs, currently occupied by lots of different herbs, Chinese vegetables, Cabbage and Broccoli.

 Seedlings Planting

Growing Plants: Spring Onion, Coriander, Bok Choy

We keep harvesting and planting seeds for this bed, I will need to figure out how to seed save to reduce cost of buying seeds.

They’re a lot of fun to grow.

Broccoli and Cabbage are supposed to be winter crops. I’ve been maintaining it and looking after the young plants, caterpillars are very attracted to these, I guess, they must be very yummy. I’ve been spraying them with a mixture of water, chilies, and garlic to get rid of the pests.

Garden Bed 3 is for Fruit Veggies, currently occupied by Tomatoes, Zucchinis, and Pumpkin. The Chili and Capsicum seeds that I planted had not been a success.

From left to right: rows of tomato plants, very small pumpkin seedlings, and giant zucchini plants.

The Tomatoes were a hit and miss, some grew really well, and we’ve got a good harvest.

But there are some that didn’t grow well.

My guess is probably because I was using old seeds that had been kept for too long.

The Pumpkin was planted from seeds and has been a slow grower, although a few weeks ago a few flowers seemed to emerge. So, I don’t know what is currently happening with it. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.

The Zucchini plants are great producers, I've already harvested 6-8 zucchinis in the last 3 months. 

Garden Bed 4 is for the Root Veggies, was occupied by potatoes. I had a few potatoes that had sprouted and I put them in this garden bed. They grew, flowered, and we have harvested them a few weeks ago. I think we should’ve waited a bit longer before harvesting. We could’ve had bigger potatoes.

This bed is currently occupied by lemongrass, ginger, galangal, Chinese Keys (Temu Kunci), garlic and mini round carrots.

So it began my first year journey in Crop Rotation.

The next rotation will happen in September this year, 2017.
I'm hoping by then, all plants will complete harvest with our last harvest being the garlic.