OH, I FORGOT CINDERELLA PUMPKINS,I HAVE 9 SEEDS

hello
I like to plant sunflowers and small merigolds around in the vegie garden, also a small fence or trellis with a vine or 2 looks nice.
sometimes I scatter my toms around in the perennial beds.
and if you want it to look nice as well as eddible, try planting your vegies in patturns instead of rows, I did concentric circles once(maybe I'll do that this year), the inner circle was lettuce, then radishes, then more lettuce, then carrots, and so on with enough space inbetween for me to step.
please plant extra fennel and dill for the black swallow tail butterfly caterpilars :)

michelle

Hi Michelle,
I like that idea of planting in a circle,i do plant the dill and fennel for butterflies,pluse,i love the lookes of both,and they smell good.
Thanks for the idea.

Any one else?

cAROL

There's a commercial farm right near me that has their garden visible from the road. While it's not a HUGE place, it serves the area well.
They have rows of veggies (obviously irrigated and covered in black plastic), and every other row is a flower.
Additionally, their garden has a bit of a slope to it, so it's just pretty to look at since their rows are parallel to the road.
The row nearest the road is usually planted with a dwarf rudbeckia of some sort. Probably Double Gold or Goldilocks or one of the other annual varieties.
I don't think it's a dwarf sunflower, because the flowers stay nice all season without looking 'pecked at' by birds.
Then there's a row of veggies.
Then the next row is mixed dwarf zinnias- probably Lilliput or Thumbelinas or some other shortie.

It's quite the gorgeous-looking veggie patch, if I do say-so myself.

Carol, this is my third year for a veggie garden, which is located in the front yard, and only 60 sq.ft.(approx 5' x 12'). I like to alternate French marigolds (that's the shorter ones) with basil along the front of the veggie bed. It looks nice, but isn't so tall that it blocks the sun from the things planted behind them.

This picture was taken pretty late in the season, and things were a bit of a jungle by that point, but you can get the general idea from it anyway:
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I tried nasturtiums in there the first year, but they kept dying after they sprouted. I think the high altitude full sun was too much for them.

Bonnie

Have you had a look at the Potager forum? They have a lot of ideas & pics. Pretty cool!

Bonnie, that's pretty!

Bonnie,are them tomaot plants in the back ground?wow!their huge!
I do like the little french marigolds,they are pretty easy to find aren't they?

Ajpa, no, i have not looked over there,but i will,thanks.

mmqchdygg,
I do like the idea of zinnias,will have to look up the shorter ones.

Do you think i should plant the pumpkins some place on their own,they will take up a lot of room won't they?
I am getting as excited about the veggie garden as i am the flower garden,thanks you guys,you do inspire me.

cAROL

Try your local library for books on potager or kitchen gardens. Courtyard garden books have nice photos too.

Yep, that is my tomato jungle - 8 plants, and that's a six foot fence! I actually lost one plant, because it got so heavy that it fell over in a wind storm, and snapped the metal stake in two! I'm working on a better support system for this year.

I grew the little mini-pumpkins the year before last, and trained them up a trellis. That wouldn't work for a larger pumpkin though. Pumpkin vines are huge, so yes, I would try to find another spot for them, or they will take over your garden. I tried to find a decent picture, but couldn't locate one.

The marigold seeds came from either Walmart or Lowes's so you should have no trouble finding them. It's the African marigolds that are the tall ones.

Oh, and you listed 'Bright Lights' Swiss chard. That is very ornamental, and would also be a good choice to plant along the front.

Best wishes on your veggie garden. I definitely get just as much, if not more satisfaction from my herbs and veggies, as I do the flowers I grow!

Bonnie

Hi, I would like to ask a related question, but I am too ashamed to ask: would that be too criminal to plant climbing roses with tomato vines ( cherry type) together? If the roses are new bareroots and the toms are started WS, will it work? ( I don't expect the roses to get too big in their first year, but maybe I buy some trelises for them.
Bonnie, what type of support is the net with the big squares that I see attached to your fence? I look for this stuff since forever, I asked at HomeDepot and people look at me like I'm crazy... and I don't know the name of it

Thank you
Sorry to abuse your thread, Carol...

Carol, there's a whole forum on this topic, right here on Garden Web. It's called Companion Planting. The introduction to the forum reads:
This forum is meant for the discussion of plants that work well in combination with each other for aesthetic or horticultural reasons.

Here is a link that might be useful: Companion Planting

I think most herbs will attract beneficial insects that will help control the other insects. Also things with a strong scent like alliums (onion family), marigolds, basil, etc. are supposed to be good. I have also read that there are certain things to plant to improve the flavor of your main crop. For tomatoes I have heard to plant basil and borage to improve flavor. Marigolds are good to destroy nematodes in the soil of tomato beds. Recently I read that this only works if you turn the marigolds under at the end of the season and them breaking down protects the soil in future years. Nasturtiums work really well as a living mulch to keep the soil moist and cool and they are supposed to be an aphid trap. Fill in all the beds with beneficials so there is no bare soil and it cuts down on weeding and having to use mulch too.

Both areas where I plant veggies/greens I also have a wide variety of flowers planted. They are either on the boarders or inter-planted among plants. I really couldn't say if I'm deterring any pests but I do know it attracts many beneficials that are either predators or pollinators :)

I've been reading a great book on this subject. The author suggests dill, borage, mint in containers around the garden, nasturtiums with beans, calendula with squash and such. Loads and loads of combo's. She also suggested using thyme and sweet allyssum as groundcovers among squash and big things. I'm going to try my first big bed of veg. and have some flowers in there too this year. I'm planning on some cosmos, marigolds, chamomile and borage. I'm going to have to add more thyme, nasturtiums and spearmint now. The book also suggested you mix basil and tomatoes together every other and such to confuse bugs. Now I need to go check out that companion planting forum :) I don't know why I didn't think to look here before.

adiro: You really should check out the Square Foot Gardening forum. "Mel" grows all kinds of vines (beans, toms, cucs, melons, etc.) on nylon trellises, which is what Bonnie might have. They have large 7" spaces, and come in packs of 5' x 15' and 5' x 60'. I found a pack at our local Southern States and ordered another from Burpee. It's pretty cheap and the stuff lasts forever!

Adiro, I believe it's called concrete reinforcing wire. I purchased mine at our local feed store, where they sell supplies for ranchers/farmers. It comes on a huge roll, and they just cut however many linear feet you ask for. It also comes in handy for keeping the deer away from young trees.

Bonnie

Thank you so much, Prof. (retired)! I didn't notice that forum! I'm going now to see what's there! I'll look into those nylon trellis for sure!

Tis is all very good information you guys,i did look at the Potager site,but i don't think that is for me,although i found it very interesting.
I will look at the companion planting next.

Molanic,your sounds very much like what i had in mind.
Boy, this is fun,eh?
Thanks every one,
cAROL

Dill and Fennel with their delicate lacy foliage make beautiful filler plants amongst taller perennials or veggies. Both my Dill and Bronze Fennel grew over 3 feet tall last year, the Dill bloomed early summer but died back by end of summer, and fennel bloomed in the fall.

By Lemon Mint do you mean Monarda citriodora? I grew a lot of this mixed other perennials. It has pretty pink flowers and grew about 2 feet tall.

I planted a new border last year, that was a mix of veggies, flowers and herbs, and it worked pretty well. I planted the shorter flowers and herbs such as parsley and oregano in front, taller plants behind. This pic is part of the border with Parsley and Melampodium in front, then Chile Peppers, then Cucumbers, with some Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah' (switch grass) growing behind the cucumbers (the only perennial, which should be bigger next year). Also I won't put the Melampodium in front next year, it ended up growing taller than expected.

{{gwi:358027}}

Can't help you because I unfortunately only do flowers - I really need to do veggies - I did do lettuce last year and my husband planted basil and tomatoes. I need to do more.
Good luck...

Carrie

I have always heard good things about the book "Carrots Love Tomatoes", by Louise Riotte. I think it is out of print but I see that Amazon still has some.

I did go over to the companion planting forum, not much going on over there,you all have helped more.
You have given me some really nice ideas,i talked to hubby tonight,and we will be drawing up a plan tomorrow,i'm excited.
Thanks again,
cAROL