There are so many ways to companion plant as you point out. Here are three groupings I look at: (1) botanical, (2) feeding groups, and (3) "better-togehter". I rotate through the beds using the final (3)"better-together" groupings with some seasonal variations for weather. 1. Botanical families (similar cultural needs and pest problems): * Aster family: chicory, endive, lettuce, sunflowers--usually in cool weather or shade in summer. * Cabbage family: broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, radishes, turnips-- heavy feeders. * Carrot family: carrot, celery, dill, fennel, parsley--coole weather, but some like heat. * Corn (grass family): heavy feeder, lots of water. * Legumes: beans, peas: nitrogen fixers. * Onion family: asparagus, chives, garlic, leeks, onions: light feeders, onion maggots. * Beets and spinach and chard: coole weather. * Squash family: cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, squahs: warm weather, common insects and disease problems. * Tomatoes and friends: eggplant, peppers, potatoes: heat-lovers, similar soil. 2. Feeding groups (similar soil and nutrition needs): * Heavy feeders: celery, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, peppers, pumpkins, squash, tomaotes. * Moderate feeders: broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, Chinese cabbage, kale, lettuce and greens, parsley, spinach. * Light feeders: beets, carrots, garlic, leeks, onions, potaotes, radishes, turnips. * Soil builders: beans, peas. 3. Better-together groups (anecdotal helpmates): * Potatoes and beans planted together with calendulas, cosmos, daisies, dill, rosemany. Three-year rotation. * Squash family members, corn, and pole beans planted together with borage, dill, nasturtiums, sunflowers. Three-year rotation. * Tomato and warm-fruiters, peppers, eggplants planted with basil, cosmos, parsley, Queen-Anne's-lace. Four-year rotation. * Cabbage family, lettuce and root crops planted together with asters, calendulas, chamomile, chrysanthemums, cosmos, marigolds, rosemary, sage, thyme. Three-year rotation. * Roots and greens--carrots, onions, greens planted with caraway, chamomile, dill, fennel, Iceland poppies, asters. Two-year rotation. * Perennial crops--asparagus, horseradish, strawberries, rhubarb surrounded by borage, sweet alyssum, chives, bee balm, chamomile, thyme, tansy, yarrow, cosmos, dill. Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com

The advances in soil amendments and technology make crop rotation obsolete. It was once a great practice but now not necessary. Plant a cover crop when you are done for your edible crop season and then till it in before the next season begins. Use compost and organic fertilizers and you be ok. Unfortunately for all your planning and hardwork your neighbors carelessness could transmit diseases to your garden anyways! The new "modern" practices increased yeild to meet the demands of people hungry for grocery store convenience and abandoned neighborhood or victory gardens. If more people had home gardens alot of the advances would go away cause it would no longer be profitable to produce at such levels. IMO making things better for some makes it worse for others. Some one tell me to shut up now....lol! Anyone can grow alot of food in SWC's in their driveways like me, I wish more would do it!

Perhaps this article will be of some help. Here is a link that might be useful: crop rotation

No nasty popup this morning! A pleasant surprise when I came to read! I've been growing my tomatoes in the exact same spot for ten years now! I only have one place for a veggie garden, and it's on the east side of a two-story house! I picked the sunniest part of the available space for the tomatoes and eggplants--my most important crops! The tomatoes go in the area which is just past the back/northeast corner of the house, so, while most of the veggie garden only gets sun until midday when it moves too far past the house, the tomatoes get sun for all of the morning, and then again after it moves "past" the house at some point in the afternoon--and pretty much until it sets. Tomatoes need SUN, and I'd much rather take my chances of them getting some disease than I would of them not getting enough sun and failing that way! In all the years I've been growing them there, I've never yet had an Epic Fail! Each year one or two plants have some kind of a problem, and when I see something going wrong I keep and "problem leaves" cut off of those plants! I, long ago, stopped trying to figure out just exactly WHAT the problem is! As I've said around here many times by now, if you ask 10 different people "what's wrong" with a tomato plant, you're gonna get 10 different answers! I haven't yet removed an entire plant when "something goes wrong," tho I usually get very few tomatoes from one of those plants! Oh! And when I notice something is "going wrong," with just about anything, it immediately gets a "Palmolive dish washing soap bath!" That's my cure all for just about anything--tho it seems to help less with tomatoes than with most other things! [I keep a 2-gallon pressure sprayer filled with my Cure All!] For earwigs, which can decimate an entire rhubarb plant in less than 24 hours, and which is right next to my tomatoes, I use Bug-B-Gon--no, I'm not organic, and for slugs I use slug bait, whichever is the cheapest. I put too much into my plants, both veggies and perennials to let some little bugs destroy them--and bugs can carry diseases! After I plant them (mine still aren't in the ground--I'm, in the HEAT, trying desperately to get the soil turned over right now!) I mulch them with a THICK layer of leaves from the previous fall, that have been laying out there all winter in the bags insulating the soil so the worms can be Doing Their Thing all winter! The leaves are far and away the best mulch I've found! They hold the water like having layers of sponges laying on top of the soil, and my watering has been cut back substantially since I started using them. In fall they get dug into the soil if I have time, or they get eaten by the worms--under the leaf bags--if I don't have time! In the beginning I used grass clipping as a mulch, but I never had enough and they weren't very effective. I NEVER put tomato plants--even little bits--on my compost pile. Partly because of the possibility of disease, and partly because I don't have a HOT compost pile and the seeds, usually from cherry tomatoes, wind up coming up ALL over my yard! And I do tend to cut off the lower leaves that are in contact with the mulch. Not sure why I do that--just like things looking as good as possible, and a bunch of yellow ratty leaves on the bottom don't look good! So if you're looking for testimony that tomatoes can be grown, pretty much successfully, in the same spot every year, here is that testimony! Gotta go! Have some Potter's Clay I need to be turning over! My tomatoes are asking for water twice a day now in their little 3" pots, and pretty soon they're gonna be screaming bloody murder at me every time I walk by them! Try it and see what happens! You can always change it down the road if it's not workin' for ya! Skybird P.S. Don't ya just LOVE spellcheck, Digit! Sometimes it has me totally cracking up! TOTALLY! EDITED TO ADD: This is their home! [Just noticed, this is when I was still using the grass clippings!] https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Cw1NBnPiOxC6jnPDeHXRmS6_rfsMNJ4Ltqzjr_Nq_pc?feat=directlink https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QqJl2BfmWwhTZsiVqbjG7i6_rfsMNJ4Ltqzjr_Nq_pc?feat=directlink https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vFZDkIzz0uAqYRK5KFOXgC6_rfsMNJ4Ltqzjr_Nq_pc?feat=directlink