Garden Plan

scmelik 1/17/2011, 10:30 am

Well I have been thinking about this, reading about it, and working on it all weekend and I hope that I have got everything positioned where it should be, but I am sure I made some mistakes. This years garden is a complete experiement, more of a mission to learn the basics and with alittle luck I will have enough product to make a few jars of salsa and maybe have a mater sandwich or two. I have no decided on the variety of each plant that I am going to use, that will come down the road (I do know that I am going to do two beefsteak tomatoe plants and two roma plants).

Can you all take a look at this and tell me if I have this setup in a good manner with companion plants next to each other and conflicting plants planted away from each other. I got conflicting information on beans and peppers, one site I went to said do NOT plant them next to each other, and another site said its okay so I am not sure.

Cyannes	Cyannes	Beans	Beans
Onions	Onions	Pablanos	Pablanos
Carrots	Carrrots	Jalapenos	Jalapenos
Tomatoes	Tomatoes	Tomatoes	Tomatoes

Lavender Debs 1/17/2011, 10:40 am

Looks good.....now why am I hungry for chili?

scmelik 1/17/2011, 10:41 am

Lavender Debs wrote:Looks good.....now why am I hungry for chili?

haha, maybe its the cold down here in texas that has me thinking the samething, hopefully that didn't influence my plan Wink

**camprn** 1/17/2011, 10:44 am

What variety of beans are you planning on? I know everything will fare better if the tallest plants go to the north, so they will not shade everything else that is sun loving.
My poblanos got to be about 2.5 foot tall last year and my heirloom Gilbertie toms were 10 foot.

My companion planting resources do indicate that beans and peppers are neutral companions.

scmelik 1/17/2011, 10:47 am

camprn wrote:What variety of beans are you planning on? I know everything will fare better if the tallest plants go to the north, so they will not shade everything else that is sun loving.
My poblanos got to be about 2.5 foot tall last year and my heirloom Gilbertie toms were 10 foot.

My companion planting resources do indicate that beans and peppers are neutral companions.

I am planning on a pole green bean of some variety. I figured that they should be on the north side like the tomatoes so that they do not shade out other plants so I may switch those and the Jalapenos around, if they work well with carrots, I don't want to completely shade out my carrots.

quiltbea 1/17/2011, 11:59 am

Won't the pole beans on one side and the toms on the other shade out your pablanos in the middle? Those peppers really need the sunshine.

Unfortunately neither pole beans nor peppers are friends to tomatoes but bush beans are so instead, try bush beans between the toms and the peppers. Bush beans like everything, you get nine to a square foot, are lower growing, prolific so you have to pick daily to enjoy all the beans, and it won't shade out those peppers.

I hope this helps.

miinva 1/17/2011, 12:16 pm

It depends on whether you want determinate (one crop with the possibility of another small crop later in the season) or indeterminate (keep producing all season). You may have to change up the positioning to avoid things getting shaded out, though.

Blackrose 1/17/2011, 12:50 pm

quiltbea wrote:neither pole beans nor peppers are friends to tomatoes

My companion planting guide says otherwise about bean, peppers and tomatoes.

"Tomato allies are many: asparagus, basil, bean, carrots, celery, chive, cucumber, garlic, head lettuce, marigold, mint, nasturtium, onion, parsley, pea, pepper, marigold, pot marigold and sow thistle."

Do I have bad information or is that from your own personal experience? If they don't like each other, I'm going to have to do some major re-planning. Mad

quiltbea 1/18/2011, 1:08 pm

Blackrose....Not from personal experience. This info is taken from a garden book with charts listing 'Good Friends' and 'Bad Friends' so I guess we'll just both have to try and see what happens.

Blackrose 1/18/2011, 1:58 pm

quiltbea wrote:Blackrose....Not from personal experience. This info is taken from a garden book with charts listing 'Good Friends' and 'Bad Friends' so I guess we'll just both have to try and see what happens.

I'm always up for a challenge/experiment! Laughing

We should compare notes at the end of the season. I will have tomatoes, peppers and basil all filling one 4x4 this year. We'll see how it goes!

tomato	tomato	tomato	tomato
tomato	tomato	tomato	tomato
pepper	basil	basil	pepper
pepper	pepper	pepper	pepper

I may adjust this layout as now I see that it may not work having the tomatoes together in that 2x4 area of my 4x4. But, that's for another thread. Smile

quiltbea 1/18/2011, 2:29 pm

Blackrose....You're right. Putting tomatoes side by side might not work for you. They take up lots of elevated space with their branches so its better to have a smaller crop beside them.

CarolynPhillips 1/18/2011, 2:48 pm

My companion sources say:
Peppers help Peppers
Peppers help Marjaram
Toms help Peppers
Geraniums Help Peppers
Petunias help Peppers
Don't plant peppers with beans, cabbage, brussels

Basil helps Toms and Peppers
And onions don't like beans

**Furbalsmom** 1/18/2011, 5:20 pm

So much to learn. I never thought about companion planting before except to add a couple of Marigolds and Nasturtiums that I hoped would help with the bad insects.

miinva 1/18/2011, 6:28 pm

Nasturtiums are so beautiful! I wish I could find a variety pack of nasturtium seeds that included most of them, because I could spend a fortune buying them individually. Last year I just bought some plants, but that was before I knew how useful they are in companion planting. Hey, I know, I'll put a post on the ISO thread! *scampering off to do so*

Megan 1/18/2011, 6:35 pm

Please note: Nasturtiums are tomato friends because they ATTRACT APHIDS. I learned this only after I planted one right between my two big tomato plants! For whatever reason, I had no aphid problems, but I think that was just sheer luck of the draw.... Shocked

**Furbalsmom** 1/18/2011, 7:15 pm

See, I did not know any better than to put it in and among the plants, so I was actually attracting the aphids, rather than repelling them. silly me

I guess it is time to do a little more studying.

miinva 1/18/2011, 10:03 pm

Thanks for the head's up! Smile

Maybe my peas will last a bit longer if I put some nasturtiums nearby as a trap plant.

Megan 1/19/2011, 3:19 am

Yes, those companion plant books are dangerous, because way too often they don't tell you the "whys". After all my reading last year, my biggest takeaway was to keep the brassicas and curcurbits away from the spaghetti sauce. Very Happy

nancy 1/19/2011, 9:53 am

Holy crap, Megan - I'm so glad I saw this!!! I'm planning out my beds RIGHT NOW and (on paper) added nasturtiums to my butterfly bed to try to help keep the aphids away. I guess that would be a very bad decision. Thanks tons for the heads up!! **grabbing my eraser**

Selandra 1/19/2011, 3:43 pm

Megan wrote:Please note: Nasturtiums are tomato friends because they ATTRACT APHIDS. I learned this only after I planted one right between my two big tomato plants! For whatever reason, I had no aphid problems, but I think that was just sheer luck of the draw....

That's interesting to note... hmmm didn't have any on my nasturtiums last year.... oh yeah, they were to busy annihilating my huckleberries to notice the pretty flowers. Rolling Eyes

Megan 1/19/2011, 8:26 pm

I didn't see any aphids on my nasturtiums either... but I'm just sayin'.

Also, nancy.... butterfly bed flowers draw aphids??? :?:

I think what I want to do is build a trap bed. Maybe a 1x6 or 2x6? And put it well away from everything else. Nasturtiums, radishes, Giant mustard, catnip, etc.

miinva 1/20/2011, 11:46 am

That's a great idea! You should start a new thread about a trap bed so everyone can discuss it, I hadn't thought of doing anything that direct and proactive.

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