Backyard Garden Crop Rotation. Plant your solanaceous crops (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant) in one, cucurbits (cucumbers, melon, squash) in another, and brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, etc.) in another, and then rotate your planting order in the years to come. Using a rotation system, moving that family of crops, each year you can virtually rid your garden of crop specific pests and diseases like fungal root diseases.
Soil nutrients are depleted when the ground is occupied by a large number of the same plant. (There are exceptions. Large groups of the same crop make an easy target for pests. Secondly, since blight is airborne and can travel many miles, moving your tomatoes a few feet won't.
Intercropping or "alley cropping" is a system of planting alternating crops in the same space.
They don't like onions, so they won't be able to feed and grow.
See an easy four-bed crop rotation chart for any small-space gardener. It requires planning and detailed record-keeping every year of what you plant in your garden, but it is time well spent that will pay off at harvest time. Some homesteaders assume it's for farmers and so rarely engage in it.
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