High Desert Hello

Today, while picking up a few more seed packs at the local garden center, I spied the all new SFG book, and picked up a copy.
We got home, and I cracked the cover to see what the fuss was all about, and my was I blown away.
I suspect that I have found the solution to my gardenus overwhelmus whiptmybum that we suffered so severely last year.
We had a huge garden, and got mountains of delicious produce all throughout the year, but come August, we were beat down by the whole process and the sheer volume of stuff we produced.
Add to that heavy clay soils, insane amounts of rain all year, and mud up to our knees at at couple points, and you get the idea.
I needed a solution to mitigate the time investment into the garden, a solution to the sheer volume of produce we grew to budget it out more efficiently, and something easier on our bodies.
SFG appears to be the solution to all of the above.
I'm in the High Desert of Arizona, shortly moving into our new house on a glorious ten acre parcel we are picking up for a steal, with plenty of room for us, the dogs, ponies, and a few other nutritionally geared livestock critters yet to be determined.
First things first, though.
The seeds need to get started if I'm going to see any of my long growers fruit this year, and my tomatoes need to get their legs into some dirt in short order.
Two things I am looking into, and would supremely appreciate any guidance and wisdom on it, is companion planting.
I came across the idea a couple months back, but haven't found much in the way of lists or concepts on how to best determine plants that work well together.
Thanks in advance!
D

Wikipedia has a decent list of companion planting - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

There are of course books dedicated to it, and then there's still the controversy...a lot of people see it as so much mysticism, etc. And they may not be all wrong. Also, don't be surprised to find conflicting info (tomatoes companion onions, no they don't! ad nauseum).

Myself, I take it into consideration when I plant, but it's not the deciding factor. My garden is pure heirloom though, so i give it a bit more weight. Other than that, all I can say is Google is your friend! Good luck!

Here's another, more dense - http://downloads.smilinggardener.com/files/images/articles/vegetables/companion-planting-chart.pdf

Brain chasm,
Thanks much for the insight!
I do know that certain plants, like peas, fix nitrogen into the soil, which corn sucks up like a vacuum. Butternut squash also benefits corn and peas, however, tight now the reasoning escapes me.
it may be for shading the ground to help retain moisture....
Anyway, it's still a month out for me getting to actually play in the dirt at all, and that's assuming i can stand up two horse pens fast too!
Gotta love free horse manure for the compost pile!