October garden review: Plan your 2027 beds in four steps
Before winter sets in, take a look back: if you note down now what grew where, you can plan next year's crop rotation much more calmly.
In October most beds are cleared and everything is still fresh in your mind: which tomatoes did well, where did the cabbage struggle, which bed was too shady? In six months you’ll probably remember only half of it. That’s why a small season review is worth doing now, and it doesn’t need long spreadsheets.
Step 1: Record what grew where
Sketch which crops grew in each bed this year. It sounds trivial, but it is the basis of any crop rotation. A photo of the bed as it is now plus one sentence per bed is plenty.
Step 2: Identify the feeder group
Classify each bed by what stood there last. Heavy feeders such as cabbage, pumpkin, tomato or potato draw a lot of nitrogen from the soil. Medium feeders such as carrot, onion, fennel or beetroot need less. Light feeders such as lettuce, radish, herbs and beans are undemanding.
The rule of thumb: heavy feeders are followed by medium feeders the next year, then light feeders, and then the bed is built up again with compost.
Step 3: Don’t repeat plant families
Even more important than the feeder group is the plant family. Tomatoes, potatoes and peppers are nightshades and share diseases such as late blight. Brassicas can suffer from clubroot, and carrots and celery, as members of the umbellifer family, share pests. As a guideline, leave three to four years before the same family returns to the same bed. Clubroot spores survive in the soil much longer, so an even longer break pays off there.
So note the family alongside the crop in your records.
Step 4: Prepare the bed now
Once you know what goes into a bed next year, you can prepare it accordingly today. A future heavy-feeder spot gets a layer of ripe compost over winter (or alternatively in spring), while a light-feeder bed needs none. In between, keep the soil covered, for example with leaves, mulch or a green manure that stays over winter.
This way the bed works for you through winter without any digging.
What the review gives you in spring
Come March you won’t have to think long about where the tomatoes should go: you can see at a glance which beds are free of nightshades. That saves time, helps prevent disease and keeps your sowing plan calm. In Rootivo, the bed editor shows your beds and the garden journal lets you keep track of what you observed this year.