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Last year my wife and I planted our first ever organic vegetable garden (raised bed made of cedar) and pretty much just "winged it"; and surprisingly had very good yields. By "winged it" I mean, we didn't really do any homework on gardening, just spent a weekend watching videos and reading blogs/articles.

This year, we're getting more serious, and so I'm actually reading up on vegetable gardening. And in preparing our second year's garden, there are two pieces of seemingly contradicting advice I keep coming across over and over again:

  • Plant onions and scallions around the perimeter of your garden to ward off pests; but...
  • Never plant the same kind of vegetable in the same location (in other words, rotate your crops), so as to help prevent fungi/disease

This is contradictory because on one hand it leads me to believe that we should be planting certain vegetables around the perimeter of our garden every year, but on the other hand, this might make those vegetables susceptible to disease since we're not rotating their position every year.

So I ask: which is it?

J. Musser
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Zac
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1 Answers1

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In my experience, planting onions etc around the perimeters isn't very effective. On the other hand, rotation is not only effective, but necessary for a good Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system. It is one of the most effective cultural means of pest/disease prevention, and it also helps the soil maintain a balance, as different plants use vastly different amounts of the various minerals/nutrients. Rotation maintains the balance, preventing the nutrient depletion common in the soil of multi-year monocultures.

I'd say this is a fairly easy question. Definitely go with the rotation rather than the perimeter planting.

J. Musser
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