Gardening, whether it is vegetables, herbs or flowers, gets to be a rather easy process once you learn the basics.

Crop rotation is one of the most essential of gardening basics.

When you come to think of it, the reasons for rotating crops is really quite natural. The process is this. Each plant family needs a particular set of nutrients for its growth. In examining the composition of a manufactured fertilizer it is primarily made up of 3 chemical elements Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). It is important to remember these elements in that order because when you buy fertilizer it will list these 3 elements with numbers. These numbers are the ratio of the mix such as 5, 5, 5 or 5, 7, 4. Fertilizers can be targeted for the plants they are treating – grass, hibiscus, roses, orchids, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. Again, each plants absorbs the nutrients it needs for growth and each is different. Nitrogen aids plants in making the proteins to produce growth, phosphorous aids in root development and potassium helps build the plants immune system and improves its overall health. Imbalance in any of these elements in the soil will dramatically affect the growth, development and health of the plant.

In nature, (that is to say, before farming) plants grew randomly and they were fed continuously by natural decay (which is a slow process). The death of a plant would easily be replaced by any of a number of ready neighbors.… Continue reading →