First time plan

Well I hope it is a better year than last one. My neighbor and I tried a combined garden last year - and as I posted in my welcome post, it didn't go too well. Neither of us have really had a GARDEN before and we started in the middle of June, didn't add compost or anything, hard tilled the soil, and just threw stuff in. Need less to say we got a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatos, a few peppers and a few watermelon.

I sat down to try and plan out how to plant enough to deal with 5 adults and 5 kids for the year and ended up with a 50x50 monstrosity. Then I tried to figure out what the heck we would do with 64 head of lettuce coming ripe all at once. A friend gave me a SFG book that she didn't use (didn't like) and it was like the clouds opened up !!!

This is the plan I am actually going to be using this year



I am probably going to break it down into 4 beds instead of 2 - just to avoid walking 24 feet just to get to the other side. And the Tomatos and peppers are being moved side by side and the butternut moved in its place.

I am doing ALOT with companion planting - let me know if I really missed something

3 versions of 3 sisters: Corn, Pole Beans, and Zukes - Corn, Peas, and Cukes
Yellow Straightneck Squash & drying beans

I will prob be dropping some of the #/ft down on the onions and corn - but overall any thoughts?

Trish

this is my first year so I don't know much, but that is an ambitious SFG! One note on the three sisters... I thought the corn went in the middle 4 squares and the other items went around the outside.

The corn does go in the middle.... and I hope you are planning wider aisles than that, otherwise you're going to need a machete to get in there.

If you will be depending on the food, I would honestly consider planting the corn, beans and squash separately. Corn does well in a block to pollinate. I played a major game of "find the bean" on my pole beans last year, they really did grow all over and I was finding them everywhere, including 10 feet up on my corn and way over thataway on my cucumbers. As for the squash.... (Maybe your arrangement will be better-behaved than mine, though!)

I couldn't figure out an easy way to show the triple planting. What the plan is is one ground vine in the center of each 4x4 with 1 corn in each block and 1 bean planted with it. The outline was more of a fyi for me looking at the plan.

I may expand the aisle to 3-4' If I train the vines to the outside of the boxes it should give pleanty of growing room, or at least I hope so

You really should keep your aisle at least 3 feet wide if you can possibly help it. Mine was narrower last year and I had access problems. You think, at first, how could these tiny plants possibly take up all that space, but they DO... and they will grow outside the boxes at the wink of an eye. I ended up walking on squash vines last fall.

I read all the advice you all gave as well as doing some additional reading on here and have revamped a bit. Think it looks better and hopefully will work out better as well. Here is the update.



I am using garden planner for the layout, but I definatly don't think I am going to subscribe. It is nice for layout but there is no planner, tracker etc ... I paid for the plangarden subscription and will definatly use that for the tracking. Doesn't work as well for SFG layout, but then again nothing is perfect - LOL

That looks much better. One thing that leaps out at me is that cantaloupe box. It will probably work out, but you may have a little trouble reaching the back/left of the box without stepping on your soil (which is a big No-No.)

The other thing is your Three Sisters boxes... generally, the corn goes on the INSIDE of the box. If you plant it around the perimeter of the box, you are going to be knocking your corn down while you try to get at your pole beans / peas. Those grow every which way, so there is no way you can be a contortionist to get in between the corn stalks to pick them.

I know what you mean about the growveg site. I am using it too. I am still debating whether I'll pay up.

I paid for the Growveg site. It does have a plant list that tells when you can plant things based on your last frost date. You also get e-mails that tell you when it's time to start something indoors or sow directly outside. I also like being able to go back and change things up anytime I want. I have a bad habit of changing my mind a gazillion times before making a final decision.

As to the three sisters - I did it that way as a reference to me. actual planting will be one vine per center, one corn and one bean in each foot square.

I do like the email and planting date function on the growveg, plangarden is supposed to be adding those functions this spring, and I do like the log functions there. we'll see how it goes.