There are two primary benefits to crop rotation, and they apply to the smallest of backyard farmers as much as to huge agro-conglomerates.

The first is based on the fact that all plants are prone to certain pest issues. For some it is a specific insect, while others are likely to get fungal infections. To prevent these issues from becoming overwhelming, one of the best tools of smart and chemical-free gardening is to put a given type of plant in a new place every year, as space allows. The idea is that any pest specific to your plant that is living in the soil from last year won't be able to find the plant in its new home. This is a great way to keep blemishes and worms off of root vegetables, minimize leaf miners, and generally keep the pests populations low for any kind of plant.

The second is the fact that each plant needs, depletes, and sometimes adds, a different combination of nutrients from the soil. Some plants, like peas, beans, and clover, will add nitrogen. Others, like carrots, tend to strip nitrogen out of the soil really quickly. As a result, you can accidentally create nutrient-poor zones if you keep planting something in the same spot.


Orderly rows make crop rotations easier

So how does a regular backyard gardener take this into account? The most basic part is simple: Plant each zone with a different plant than last year, and try to do it in an orderly fashion so that you can remember what you did. So, for instance, if you imagine each bullet below is a garden row,

if year one's rows are organized:

• carrots


• peas


• tomatoes


• onion


• potatoes

Then year two should go:

• potatoes


• carrots


• peas


• tomatoes


• onion

And year three:

• onion


• potatoes


• carrots


• peas


• tomatoes

There are some tricks here, like the fact that potatoes and tomatoes are biologically similar, so it helps if you don't make them direct neighbors. And the carrots are always marching behind the peas, which helps with soil nutrition. But really, the most important thing is to keep your plants on the move throughout the years. Even if you just grow two things in a single swath of dirt, switch them from side to side each year.

In another post, I'll delve a tiny bit into plant families, which will help the more adventurous gardeners plan a better crop rotation scheme. For most backyard veggie gardeners, though, just a one-year row shifting scheme as written above will do the trick.

About this time of year, I come home in the evening after it's dark and walk around the garden with a flashlight. Everything seems ready to explode. Like the kale plant above: It seems to thrive in these cool, rainy spring days.

That means it's time to improve the soil. Specific instructions vary with your soil type. But whatever the soil, it's a good bet your garden could benefit from some organic fertilizer, compost and a mulch about now.

Every year, I buy a big bag of organic fertilizer and broadcast it across the garden. In my case, much of the garden is covered with clover - this helps protect the bare soil from deteriorating in the winter rain. It's important to use organic fertilizer because it's truly "slow release," unlike chemical fertilizers which pass too quickly through the soil. Here's my favorite local organic fertilizer, formulated for Seattle's rainy climate:


The three numbers stand for nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash (a water-soluble form of potassium). Those are three of the main elements plants require.

Next, I amend my soil with compost. I typically add an inch or so across the garden. If you don't yet make your own, you should - more on that later. But you can also buy it at garden centers.

Then I turn over the whole garden with a shovel, chopping up the cover crop with the shovel as I go.

Then I cover the whole bed with a mulch. This year I used a heavily composted horse manure. As a mulch, this material is reputed to be full of weed seeds. But it was so full of wonderful worms that I went ahead and added 2 inches on top of my garden soil. The horse owners assured me they buy expensive hay, so the manure should be weed-free. We'll see. But it's full of worms, so I know it'll add life to the soil. Most people wouldn't add so much, but my soil was in need of a little love this year.

I immediately planted peas in my newly prepared bed. They say you should wait two weeks for the cover crop to decompose. But I'm late, so what the heck.

Bagging or burning your autumn leaves is so last season!

At least that's what I'm hearing in my neighborhood. There's a definite shift in perception regarding chemical fixes for lawns. The buzzwords around here are "compost tea," "soil food web," and "organic." I'm not sure how it happened. Many of these gardeners have been using chemical fertilizers and pesticides for years, but are now standard-bearers for simpler, cheaper, and safer alternatives to lawn care and gardening.

While I'm happy about the simpler, cheaper, and safer aspects, I'm also delighted that it's less work.

See, I don't mind raking leaves on a crisp, sunny day. But then I have to get rid of them. I can't stand the smoke from burning leaves (and in fact am perplexed why it is still popular and legal in many towns). Bagging is time-consuming, and then I get to pay the trash collector more to haul those extra bags to the landfill.

So I can really get behind the idea that my leaves are actually valuable, a kind of black gold waiting to happen. Not to be thrown away lightly. And they can be used in many ways:

• Mulch. Add 3-4 inches around the base of tender perennials, and 12 inches around the base of shrubs and over bulb beds.


• Composting now. Add leaves to your composting bin to provide the "brown" carbon component to balance out the green stuff you've thrown in.


• Composting later. Can't use all your leaves now? Save them in garbage bags to keep them dry -- you can use them next spring and summer when you start feeding the compost pile again.


• Lawn care. Mow over the leaves a few times to break them up, and let them add to the overall health of your lawn.


• Camouflage. Leave them on the lawn to hide the fact that 1) you didn't mow all summer, and 2) it's mostly clover and dandelions anyway.


• Satisfaction. Finding out that past lazy behaviors are actually acceptable gives a deep satisfaction that should last until spring.

If you're still not convinced and just want to get rid of those leaves easily, here's a thought: Forward this post to your gardener friends. Then surprise them tomorrow with a lovely bag of freshly-raked leaves. It should get you on the list for a plate of holiday cookies come December.