Crop Rotation and Succession Planting
Rotating crops each season is just as important in raised beds as in traditional plots to prevent nutrient depletion and disease build-up. Nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants—all native to the Americas) should not follow one another in the same bed; instead, rotate them with legumes (beans and peas, originally from Central and South America) or brassicas (broccoli and kale, originating in Europe). When I failed to rotate my tomatoes last year, I experienced Blight’s return; once I switched to beans in that bed, the disease incidence plummeted, and soil nitrogen improved for the following season.
Succession planting ensures your bed remains productive without lengthy fallow periods. After harvesting early spring radishes and lettuce (both Mediterranean natives), immediately sow a summer crop like cucumbers or bush beans. Once those finish, replant with winter greens such as spinach (native to central Asia) or garlic (from Central Asia as well). In my raised bed, this sequence once yielded three full cycles: spring salad greens, mid-summer zucchini (from Mesoamerica) and peppers, and then a lush late fall collard green patch. This continual planting mirrors the intercropping natural systems where Indigenous farmers in Mesoamerica alternated corn, beans, and squash—a synergy that keeps soil fertile and disrupts pest life cycles!