My First SFG Plan

Hello,

Just joined up, been lurking for a little while and just finished my plan, I think. I'd really appreciate any feedback. I'm an avid flower gardener but this is my first attempt at veggies

I'm anxious to get things in the ground, the beds are prepped and our last frost is supposed to be May 6. I was thinking that I should be ready to put the onions, carrots, turnip and spinach in asap but wanted to get a little advice before proceeding.



Thank you very much!
Michelle

Michelle, Your plan looks pretty good. Which way is North?

Oh and can you give us the names of the things in the chart. Some of the pictures are not so obvious.

Oops, guess that's pretty handy information to know in order to give feedback

-North is the lower lefthand corner of the diagram.
-the brown lines on the lefthand side of the left boxes are trellis

Top-Left

Pole beans	Snap Peas	Carrots	Yellow Onion
Pole beans	Snap Peas	Carrots	Yellow Onion
Pole beans	Snap Peas	Carrots	Green Onion
Pole beans	Snap Peas	Carrots	Green Onion

Top-Right

			Empty
	Pumpkin		Empty
			Empty
Empty	Empty	Turnip	Turnip

Bottom-Left

Spaghetti Squash	Spaghetti Squash	Carrots	Carrots
Roma Tomato	Roma Tomato	Carrots	Carrots
Cucumbers	Cucumbers	Yellow Onion	Yellow Onion
Pole beans	Snap Peas	Yellow Onion	Yellow Onion

Bottom-Right

Baby Romaine	Bush Bean	Spinach	Strawberries
Baby Romaine	Bush Bean	Spinach	Strawberries
Baby Romaine	Beets	Spinach	Strawberries
Baby Romaine	Beets	Spinach	Strawberries

Thank so much

Thanks for your post Michelle. I never thought about posting my plan for feedback. I'm going to do so right now because I definitely have questions about where to place certain plants and what should go next to them etc.

Thank you for the additional info!

Your plan still looks great. There are a few things that caught my attention.

Onions do not get along with peas and beans. Your top box where the two are separated by carrots may be ok.

Your carrots next to your roma tomatoes by be a bit smaller than the others. Tomatoes stunt their growth, but they also have a beneficial relationship. You may want to leave them where they are.

My other concern is your trellis placement. In general you want your
tallest things to the north and maybe to the west. Right now your
trellis is running north and east. Your trellis will probably shade your
bed a little bit. Having said that, it may not be enough to be
concerned about depending on exactly where north is.

FYI, I use this companion planting guide to determine which plants play together and which don't.

No problem Buttaflie I was very anxious to get started but at the same time apprehensive about going through with the actual planting in fear I might get it wrong, but I'm sure it will all be a learning curve and I'm already excited to see how things will turn out

Thank you Dizzygardener for your feedback!

I'm curious about the onions in the same box as the peas and beans...it's not essential that we have the onions there, but if it might be ok I may just leave it and call it an "experiment"

With regards to the trellis, it's unfortunate that I didn't actually get Mel's book until after building/placing and filling the boxes last year (I only topped up the existing garden soil the first 3-4" with MM this year). There are several issues with regards to their placement that might require moving them next year. Our house is only about 6' from the edge of the top boxes and we know for certain that the boxes will not be receiving direct sun until 11am or so. When building them I had read another book that talked about having the boxes close to your house so you'd be more prone to tend them and the water is right there. The box aisles themselves are not quite 2' wide and even the mower won't fit between them...major pita That is in part why it was important to me to have everything else right since we may end up with repercussions based on the box placement alone.

Thanks again for your feedback, I really appreciate it Happy gardening everyone!!

Michelle