Brian

A lot of what you see written on this topic is folklore(akin to witchcraft). However there is some valid information out there. For a complete listing of companion plants and things to avoid I like Ed Smith's "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible". It is also an excellent general reference on successful vege growing. If you dont want to buy a copy, brouse in Borders or Barnes and Noble. It is currently stocked by both chains.

I will second that book. It is a fantastic reference, and was one of the first ones in my collection

So what your telling me is my "POP" has been wrong all these years? LOL...but you can tell him...I don't have the heart!

Thanks on the book recommendation. As soon as I am done here I will look on Amazon and order that thing. I found all the Foxfire books on there yesterday. I had the Vol 1 - 2 already...priceless reading.

Folklore and wives tales are truly apart of Americana. My mother still tells the story of when she was a girl. Her best friend had a wart on her hand. An old indian woman told her to steal her grandmother dirty dishrag and bury it her own yard. Supposedly when the new moon came out her wart was supposed to fall off...didn't happen! LOL

Thanks for the advise...I will see what Ed has to say!

Think diversity! Since many vegetables, herbs, flowers, and other plants grow very well together, be creative. Don't just think about a vegetable plot and an herb plot. Instead, think about vegetables, herbs and flowers.

I grow herbs and plants with flowers that attracts beneficial insects and pollinators to the garden. That is, if you don't use pesticides. Below is one of many websites which discusses plants which are beneficial to the garden. Be careful though as some will self-seed and become pests. Love in a mist, mint, catnip and lemon balm come to mind.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Attracting beneficial insects

In general:
Keep in mind where the sun is, and don't shade out the shorter plants.

Cross polentation only matters if you're gonna save seed, even then you can just bag those blossoms and hand polinate.

If I remember you're talking about several hundred plants, so you may be able to crop rotate, however I think most of us just add compost/poo/etc. rather then put everything in new spots.

You can check out the book, carrots love tomatoes, for the info you origionally asked for.

All else fails, to keep pop happy, you can shove in a few marigolds, or whatever in with your "crop" plants as a "detterrant", some times it's worth the additional fuss to make old pop know you really did listen to him as a kid.

I am trying to teach my own kids "Honor thy father and mother"...LOL!

fishymommas...you made an interesting point about the composting & poo. We have goats and chickens. Everyone don't cringe on what I am about to say...but we usually just throw all the manure on the garden at the end of the growing season right before I turn it under.

No one start yelling quite yet or threaten to "key-hole" me. I have been reading on the compost site and will start on this diligently.

We also use it to make a manure tea to water with. Does anyone know how goats / chicken poo rates to the other manure. I do know rabbits are supposed to be the kings of poo.

Thanks for the link also. I will check that out.

Thanks for the input...

Brian

Next to my desk is a 16 sqfoot, 2.5 ft high 3 floor "bunny palace" (homemade, I think we spent maybe $45 for supplies, and i'll happily send pics if anyone wants the directions). Inside Mocha & Latte are fed the veggie scraps (carrot, cuke peels, old pes vines & tendrils, left over apple wedgies the kids don't eat, in other words things ppl compost any way), they are fed a basic bunny pellet, I grow them organic grasses for spare "roughage" and they are happy, plump (but not obese) pets. in return they use a litterbow with feline pine or newspaper litter, which then in buried into the garden to feed the plants. When we 1st moved here the soil was a adobe brick, now it drains some, has worms and grows wonderful veggies. Since we hand raised the bunnies, they are truely pets, allowing much petting/handling from the children (part of thier home is an open 6x6 platform, that they can crawl up onto and stick thier heads up to be petted). I think chicken poo is too "hot", but bunny poo is ready to go at once (disclaimer, he poo doesn't stink, the ammonia pee soaked litter does, bury a few inches deep, or dump into compost).

I think what you're asking about is "Companion Planting." There are lots of books on that. Search GWeb for those words as well. The square foot garden forum probably has some info too.