Yesterday I put together a small vegetable layout plan for my raised bed garden. It’s just one of many possibilities for companion planting and it only deals with a small number of plants. This plan features tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and marigolds in a 4 foot by 8 foot bed. All of these plants are listed in various companion planting guides as being compatible with each other. The cucumber will serve as a green mulch, which reduces water loss and helps to protect the soil. The onions will do well in the smaller spaces and the marigolds will help to repel unwanted insects and pests. I may substitute squash in place of the cucumbers. You could also replace the tomatoes with peppers.
A Few Good Tomato Companion Plants:
Asparagus, Onions, Basil, Marigold, Nasturtium, Beans, Celery, Carrots, Cucumber, Peas, and Parsley.
Filling Raised Beds with Layering
The layering technique is my favorite way of filling new or replenishing already established raised beds. Layering (also called Lasagna Gardening) doesn’t require tilling the soil which can disturb the lives of beneficial microbes and soil dwelling organisms. It also doesn’t destroy the soil structure…
Reclaiming the Vegetable Garden
To say that I am ashamed of certain spots in my garden is an understatement. Several gardens have become filled with weeds run amok and whether or not the weather is cooperative I have to get some work done. Today I spent some time outdoors…
Building My Raised Beds
This post may be a little late in coming but I thought I would talk about how I built my raised beds for my vegetable garden. If you you are interested in learning about the advantages of gardening in raised beds be sure check out…
Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Update
Since I decided to remodel the raised bed vegetable garden this year a lot of work has been done. The beds have all been built for this year and all the grading I wanted to attempt is finished, for now. The fence will be something…
Building A Raised Bed for the Garden
Building a new raised bed for a vegetable garden isn’t difficult and doesn’t have to be expensive. This week I put together a new raised bed that measures 3’x10′ with materials I had laying around the garage. It’s wider than I originally intended in my…
Homemade Cucumber or Melon Trellises
I’ve been trying for several weeks now to get my garden trellises built for the vegetable garden. This weekend I finally managed to put two together, one for my cucumbers and one for my ‘Tigger’ melons. Building these two trellises can easily be done in…
good post on companion planting.
You are educating me about companion planting. Are marigolds edible? A little arugula and other lettuces and there is a fabulous salad in your backyard.
gail
Looks good to me. I saw another version that is 10 x 10 with an X for walk ways. That way you have 4 different pie shaped beds easy to get to. Sure wish I knew more about companion planting. I knew some plants help others. Then there’s rotation planting. Makes my head spin.
Pierce holes in a large plastic cola bottle. Bury the bottle in the middle of your veg patch and top up the water in the bottle when needed. The plants get the water into the roots. Very successful.
I put up 3 4×8 boxes today.
What do you use to stake your tomatoes? I was planning on putting my tomatoes is separate self watering boxes.
I'll be back for more tips.
Hi Robin,
Last year I jury rigged a structure out of tomato stakes and bamboo. It held up but wasn't the best solution. Probably the best way to stake up tomatoes is to use concrete reinforcing wire or fence panels with 4" openings so that you can easily pick the fruits. Traditional tomato cages just don't cut it for indeterminant varieties!
A good use for stakes are old tension curtain rods and ripped up pantyhose. LOL the tension rods can 'grow' with the plants and re-using pantyhose works well for holding them to the 'stakes'. pantyhose are also great for holding melons such as cantaloupes up off the ground- they stretch to allow the melons to grow but keep them off the ground. also, human hair clippings around the edge of your garden will help to keep critters out- rabbits, etc.
Hope this helps someone! 🙂
Happy gardening!
Aislynn
Im about to plant my first veggie garden ever! I was interested in companion planting. I was wondering how close together the plants can be,i.e. planting carrots and onions to tomatos. My other concern is that I have to wait about a month longer to plant the tomatos due to frost. Will this be distrubing the crop I already have going. Any tips will help. Thanks,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Good questions! In general the guidelines on the seed packages work well. I try to give my tomatoes about 2 square feet each to start with. They will need pruning as you go to keep them tame. If you take a pot and turn it upside down in the bed where you want to plant the tomatoes then plant the other plants around it you should give yourself enough room to plant the tomato plant without disturbing its neighbors!