Garden plan – companions, friendly neighbors and not so friendly ones…

Plants, just like us thrive when among friends, and die when planted midst animosity. Beneficial companion planting helps in improving quality of soil, nutrition, attracting friendly insects, and keeping the not so friendly ones at bay.

With 21 beds of which 3 are perineal beds, I have the liberty to plan my garden for crop rotation for preventing disease build up, and leaching nutrients.

Here’s the 2017 garden plan…

Bed 1  (5 * 2.5)- dedicated to asparagus, stevia
Bed 2 (6 * 1 ft) – raspberry

Setting those two aside, the ones below I regularly rotate seasonal produce.
Bed 3 (4 ft * 4ft) – okra planted in may; carrots and radish planted under them in August. Okra forms a shady canopy which gives carrots the necessary shade to germinate and grow. It also has 2 blueberry bushes that I’ll transfer to containers in Spring. They dont seem to be too happy in the summer heat.

Bed 4 (4 ft * 4ft) – pepper overload. 20 pepper plants (Big bertha, pablo, orange cayenne) in 16 sq foot. The plants are loaded with peppers. I planted these from transplants in early-mid May.
In August I planted lettuce, radish.

Bed 5  (5ft * 2.5 ft)- Strawberries.

Bed 6 (4 ft * 4ft)- Tomatoes (Amos Coli, Mr. Stripey), Black beauty zuchini from baker creek, Italian basil, 4 red cayenne pepper plants

Bed 7 (5 ft * 2.5 ft)- Tomatoes (early girl, yellow pear, sweetmillion). I had a huge celery that overwintered that shaded the tomatoes early in the year. Unfortunately the salad tomatoes never took off. I’ve moved the to a sunnier spot and cut off the celery, but lets see how that goes! Also growing here are pole beans, swiss chard

Bed 8 (5 ft * 2.5 ft) – Lousiana eggplant, chocolate pepper, okra, nastrutium. Early spring, I had peas growing here, along with lots of fava beans. They are great nitrogen fixers in the soil.

Bed 9 (5 ft * 2.5 ft) – strawberries, thyme

Bed 10 (5 ft * 5 ft) – Straight neck yellow squash, more pepper varieties, 2 broccoli plants

Bed 11 (5 ft * 5 ft)- habanero peppers, lousiana green eggplant, black satin italian eggplant were all planted in May / June. Mid december last year I had planted onions and garlic in this bed, which I harvested in July. In August, I have a few radishes, and 4 brocoli plants growing. Also starting to sprout are fava beans which was a big hit in Spring.

Bed 12 (5 ft * 2.5 ft) – eggplants that were struggling in Bed 11, due to the overpowering squash plant and the shade under the birch tree. Also, these eggplants were planted way too early perhaps, end of April, which may have resulted in stunted growth. These were the little prince variety, which must have been a prolific bearer. Last year, I had an abundance of eggplant that I made quite a few jars of eggplant spread & Indian dish “Baingan Bharta”. This year I might not be so lucky, but you never know the possiblities and miracles! Behind eggplants, growing are fava beans.

Bed 13 ( 2 ft * 2 ft) – mini bed has tomatoes and rosemary growing here. Also sprouting are fava beans.

Bed 14 (6 ft * 6 ft) – This bed was vacant for most of the year. I had planted turmeric and ginger roots last year, and they finally started to sprout once summer is here. I had a whole bunch of small planters sittig in this bed, needing the water from the sprinkler system as I was away for a month and could’nt take care of my garden babies. That was a wise choice, as when I returned all the baby plants that I had ordered from Hirts nursery not only survivied, but thrived. I had Henna, longevity spinach, okinawa spinach, drumstick growing here in containers. I moved them all out, and prepared the bed with fresh soil, and have planted carrots, beets, radish and amaranth seeds. Many of these have already germinated and ready to grow.

Bed 15 (8 ft * 2 ft) – Its actually two beds, linked together. They are mostly leaves- kale, spinach, malabar spinach, sorrell, carrots, radish, lettuce and generally anything that needs bit of cooler environment. This bed gets about 3-4 hours of sun, and is under the canopy of trees. Perfect spot for a leaves hideout!!

Bed 16 ( 2 ft * 2ft) – Lemon balm and apple mint.

Bed 17 ( 2.5 ft * 5 ft) – Butternut squashes, cantaloupes

Bed 18 ( 1 ft * 7 ft) – chives, lemon verbena, spearmint, ginger in a container, romano pole beas

Bed 19 (2 ft * 2 .5 ft) – borage, echinacea, bittergourd. Last year I had german chamonile growing here, and they did wonderfully well. I decided to use this as a perinneal bed and planted chamomile elsewhere in the garden. They dont seem to be too happy in their new place, so perhaps a cooler spot for chamomile next year! I got a HUGE batch of chamomile flowers last year, of which we continue to make our night time teas, with lavendar and thyme.

Bed 20 ( 5 ft * 2 ft)  – cucumbers (6 plants) – persian and few other varieties. Radish and carrots growing in the shade of cucumber trellis.

Besides garden beds, I have several plants growing in containers, big and small. Some of which I am planning to bring indoors in my garage to overwinter. Our area does get cold and occassional frost, so frost tender plants do need protection.