Most gardeners know they should rotate crops. Very few actually do it properly.

The mistake? Thinking rotation is just about moving tomatoes to a different bed. It's not. It's about understanding plant families and soil depletion cycles.

Here's a dead-simple 4-year rotation that works for almost any plot:

Year 1 — Legumes (peas, beans, broad beans)

These fix nitrogen into the soil. They're your soil builders.

Year 2 — Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower)

Heavy nitrogen feeders. They benefit from last year's legume bed.

Year 3 — Roots (carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions)

Light feeders. They break up compacted soil and don't need much nitrogen.

Year 4 — Solanaceae + Cucurbits (tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, squash)

Heavy feeders, but they want potassium and phosphorus more than nitrogen.

Then you loop back to legumes and rebuild.

The key insight: each family depletes different nutrients and attracts different pests. Rotation starves out soil-borne diseases and keeps fertility balanced without relying on fertilisers.

If you want a full seasonal planner that maps this out for your specific plot — with month-by-month planting schedules and a journal to track what actually worked — that's exactly what I built the All Year Garden Planner for.