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When growing a wide variety of crops in the garden, it is important not to forget that some of them are not friendly with each other and should not be planted side by side. A basic knowledge of proper planting will make your gardening life much easier and help you grow a good crop. In this article we will talk about what crops can be planted next to and after garlic, what green manure is and the nuances of crop rotation in the garden.
About crop rotation
Crop rotation is an important part of growing any crop. Be sure to change the location of plants in the garden every year, carefully monitoring which plants grew here before and which ones can be planted next year. In order not to keep all this in your head, you can keep notes or draw a site plan annually.
Planting garlic shows itself well after cabbage, melons (pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant), beans, peas, tomatoes. These crops act as a living fertilizer for the earth, saturating it to the maximum with useful organic microelements, as well as introducing a variety of mineral elements. If you plant garlic and, for example, cucumbers, alternating them every year, you can get the best harvest of both crops, since cucumbers give quite a lot of nitrogen to the soil.
Vegetable crop rotation table
Observing crop rotation, you must follow two simple rules. First, you should not grow crops from the same family in one place. For example, alternate garlic and onions, potatoes and tomatoes, carrots and dill, cucumbers and zucchini. Fortunately, now it’s easy to find out which family cultures belong to, you just need to enter the name into any search engine. The rule follows from an indisputable fact – with prolonged cultivation of one family, they begin to accumulate toxins, lure harmful insects and microbes.
The second rule is less justified, from a scientific point of view – to alternate “tops” and “roots”. Thus, according to reviews, it is possible to maintain the balance of nutrients in the soil.
Also remember that the seed collected from garlic shooters becomes unusable after 2-3 years, so it makes no sense to plant it.
What is better to plant after garlic
After digging up the garlic and treating the site with copper sulfate, fungicidal and insecticidal preparations, you should think about what can be planted next year. There are several lines of thought. First of all, you can let the soil rest and plant green manure.
Green manures, in fact, are annual fertilizers that are grown to restore the natural balance of substances in the soil. They replenish the supply of nitrogen, inhibit weeds. They are usually cut in the middle of the season, fertilizing the soil before autumn plantings, leaving the roots intact so that they make the soil loose and then rot. Phacelia, mustard, green peas “Vika”, colza, spring rapeseed, rye – green manure.
Planting green manure is a good way out when early ripe crops grow on the site, after which you want to plant plants for next year. Harvested in July, the crop allows you to immediately plant green manure and get a workable site by the beginning of September. However, this does not mean that it should not be “washed” with disinfectants before planting new crops.
However, if you do not have the opportunity to give the garden a break by planting green manure, you can later plant annual herbs, winter wheat, early varieties of potatoes, cucumbers, legumes, strawberries.
companion plants
As a garden crop, garlic not only serves as a good predecessor for many plants, but also gets along well with some vegetables and berries, acting as a protector for them.
Tomatoes, beets, strawberries, cucumbers, and carrots coexist wonderfully in neighboring beds. Garlic scares off aphids from planting, preventing it from damaging the fruits of its neighbors. It makes sense to plant it in the aisle, because it also scares off the bear, the larvae of the May beetles, the carrot fly, the Colorado potato beetle. You also need to wash the plants with a garlic solution at the first sign of damage.
During the formation of arrows, that is, in July, garlic plantings act as a natural defense against black spot, downy mildew, and gray rot. Such protection will help protect asters, roses, gladioli and carnations from fungal microflora. At the same time, you can wash the flowers with a garlic solution to fix the result.
To protect garlic from onion flies, plant chicory or calendula nearby. Neighborhood with horseradish will increase the concentration of vitamin C in the leaves of both plants.
However, the best neighbor to plant in any controversial situations is strawberries. Phytoncides produced by garlic protect strawberries from diseases caused by a fungus, as well as from underground pests. Strawberries, in turn, help to tie the best bulbs and bulbs with an abundance of cloves.
The combination of garlic and carrots also shows good results. After the breakage of the arrows, in the presence of enzymes secreted by carrots, the bulb significantly increases in size and mass.
Every year, crops should be planted in new places, alternating with each other. For example, you can plant cucumbers, strawberries, carrots and garlic cloves in a checkerboard pattern.
In July, general feeding should be carried out for plants, washed with fungicides, and after the arrows or tendrils break, they should be prepared for fruiting. Planting strawberries and carrots in the neighborhood is also beneficial in order to increase the keeping quality of the bulbs in the winter.
In addition, the culture bears fruit well if green manure is planted next year or this year. This helps her set up healthy bulbs that finish forming in July at the end of the arrows.
Video “What to plant after harvesting garlic”
In this video you will hear tips and tricks on what to plant after harvesting garlic in the beds.
