Elephant-Friendly Shopping
Inquiry Activity
 ​A learning activity by Tom J. McConnell, 

Plan Your Own Multi-crop Garden

If you've read the pages about multi-cropping and repelling wildlife, you're ready to create a plan for your own multi-crop garden. Remember the goal is to produce the most vegetables and fruit while using the least amount of land space. You should also think about what you could plant that would help to safely keep wildlife out of your garden.

There are two main approaches to multi-cropping. One is to plant crops that can grow next to each other easily. This is called "intercropping." The other is called "sequential cropping," and it involves planting one crop that can be harvested early and planting another crop in the same space. Let's read more about these!

Build a Garden Plan

For this activity, you can use a notebook, journal book, or a file on your computer that lets you draw a diagram of a garden plot. 

Intercropping
Intercropping is when you plant different crops next to each other so they grow at the same time. There are some crops that do not grow well together, and others that do! When you find plants that get along well with each other, these make an easy grouping in your plan!

One of the ways to plan this type of garden is a phrase about food flavors: "If they go together, they grow together!"  For instance, corn and beans make a good pair in a meal, and they grow well in a garden or farm field together. So do tomatoes and basil. If you want to look for other examples, visit this page: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Garden Planner.

Multicropping can also include vertical spacing! You can often plant vegetables on the ground under fruit trees, or plant shorter crops between rows of tall crops - Leaf lettuce between rows of brussel sprouts for instance. 

And as you think about your plant, be aware that some plants are natural repellents for animals. Rabbits don't like the smell of tomato plants and marigolds. Mosquitos and some other pest insects avoid plants like mint, basil, rosemary and garlic. Use this idea to help plan your garden.

Sequential Multicropping
Sequential cropping, also called "succession planting," takes advantage of the different growing seasons for some plants. Some vegetables can be planted early, grow quickly, and can be picked in late spring or early summer. Other crops can be planted later, and will be ready to pick in the fall. In some cases, you can grow three crops in a season, one after another.

Some early-growing crops include spinach, radishes, leaf lettuce, sugar snap peas, snow peas, kale, baby turnips, carrots, broccoli, cabbage and beets. If you want to crop that grows every year (perennials), asparagus grows early each spring.

Vegetables you can plant in late spring as the early crops are being picked include zucchini, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. These will begin producing vegetables in mid-summer. 

Crops that will give you another crop in late summer or fall include squash, pumpkins, potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. You may need to plant these in late spring or early summer, but these crops are best when they ripen in the fall. 

Between these seasons, you can plant other crops that grow quickly to get a little extra production from your garden! Good crops for this can include green onions, radishes, and leaf lettuce.

Learn More About Multi-cropping
Click here to learn what multi-cropping is, and how it can help protect elephants.

Learn About Repelling Wildlife
Click here to learn about strategies to safely repel elephants to protect crops... AND elephants.

Sample Garden Plot Plan

Intercrop example: Wheat and soybeans