The colored background on each plant icon in the Garden Planner indicates which crop family the plant belongs to and makes it easy to group plants for ease of crop rotation.

Crops from the same plant family tend to suffer from the same soil-borne pests and diseases, and have similar soil and maintenance requirements. When growing vegetables, it's important to rotate plants to a new bed or area at least every year. This helps to avoid problems with pests and diseases, and prevents the soil from becoming exhausted of specific nutrients.

The area of the colored background also indicates the minimum space needed for that plant to grow successfully.

When you create a follow-on plan for subsequent years, the Garden Planner will help you plan your crop rotation by warning you of where you've grown related plants before. You can then filter the plant selector by crop family to choose plants from a different family.

You can also view where you planted crops from a particular family previously by clicking on the Crop Rotation drop-down menu in your plan's toolbar and selecting the crop family you wish to view.

Click on the Live Chat icon in the Garden Planner if you need help or have questions for our gardening experts.