Crop Rotation is a useful deterrent in the fight against Damaging Insect Pests in your Herb Garden
Crop rotation is practiced to break the life cycle of damaging insects, or to protect against depletion of specific soil nutrients. Most insect pests need time to become established in the soil. The damaging insect may take more than one season to establish their life cycle. Practicing garden plant or field crop rotation by varying the type of plants grown in a particular area of your herb garden from year to year, avoids establishing plant specific types of garden pests.
Consider root depth and fertility needs of each plant and the effect each has on your garden soil.
To accomplish this, simply ask yourself what each herb or vegetable adds or takes away from the soil in your garden. Think also of the effect that the proximity of certain strong herbs may have on the flavor of adjacent vegetables or aromatic herbs.
Some things to consider.
Leafier herbs or garden vegetables draw more nitrogen (N) from the soil than do other plants and herbs. Legumes such as peas or beans can react with soil bacteria called Rhizobia and replenish needed nitrogen back into the soil.
Some herbs or garden crops feed heavier certain soil nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and others more heavily on potassium (K). Consider what you might plan to sow in the same spot in your garden next season. Side dress along the rows of the heavy feeders of P and K with fertilizer high in P or K to help keep the soil balanced from each year to the following season. Or you might think of spreading the rows of predictably hungry plants spaced evenly throughout your herb garden.
Crop Rotation is the simple practice of never planting the same herb, crop or plant in the same location in two consecutive seasons. One of the oldest and most successful soil management and pest control practices in agriculture is Crop Rotation.
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