CROP ROTATION and GREEN MANURES

	Crop rotation is vital to organic gardening.  Crop rotation is the 
practice of changing the type of plants that are grown in a particular garden 
bed each year so that you avoid depleting the soil of the specific nutrients 
that a particular plant requires and so you prevent a build-up of weeds, disease 
and pests.  Certain crops benefit the plants that grow in the same garden bed 
the following year, and some crops are a detriment to the plants that grow in 
the same garden bed the following year.  By carefully arranging which crops will 
follow which crops, you can minimize the detrimental effects of some crops and 
increase the beneficial effect of other crops.  This is a topic that requires 
much more description and information.  If you would like more information on 
crop rotation and what our crop rotation system looks like, please let us know.  
	In addition to rotating crops, it is a very good idea to plant ?green 
manures? or ?cover crops? in your garden (either after the harvest of a 
vegetable is completed or by incorporating green manures into your crop 
rotation).  Green manures are an assortment of plants that are very beneficial 
to the soil, and are planted strictly for the purpose of improving the soil for 
future crops to benefit from.  Some of these plants deepen the accessible layer 
of soil by using long roots to loosen the soil.  Some add a lot of organic 
matter to the soil, and others fix an enormous amount of Nitrogen in the soil.  
Many of these plants will also attract beneficial insects to your garden.  We 
make two green manure ?blends? of seeds that provide our garden with all of the 
above benefits.  (All of our green manure seeds are available at Peaceful Valley 
Farm Supply ? www.groworganic.com)

For beds that will be growing root crops the following year, we make a blend 
that will really loosen and deepen the soil.  The recipe is:
Pre-Root Green Manure Blend:
4 parts Rape seed
3 parts Nitro-Persian Clover
3 parts Berseem Clover
2 parts White Cayuse Oats
2 parts Buckwheat

For all other beds, we make a blend that focuses more on fixing nitrogen in the 
soil and adding organic matter.  The recipe is:
Basic Green Manure Blend:
3 parts Nitro-Persian Clover
3 parts White Cayuse Oats
2 parts Berseem Clover
2 parts Buckwheat
2 parts Rape seed
1 part Foenugreek

