Vian
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What do I put where?

Hello. I am planning my garden for next year and I'm struggling to decide what I should put where. I have several raised beds that vary in size and some large pots as well. I live in Eastern Washington State in the US. Our growing season is May through September. It's about 85-90 degrees during the day and 65-75 at night during the summer. Our summers are usually pretty dry. I'm interested in companion planting, too, so any suggestions on what plants would grow best together would be great!

Below, I've attached a map that I made up of my garden space. The house casts a lot of shade in the evening, so the round pots/containers are completely shaded about half the day. The shed doesn't cast shade on the beds at all during the summer when the sun is very high though. Suggestions on where to plant what and what things could be planted together for the best results would be awesome. Thank you!

I'm planning on growing:
2 types of lettuce
broccoli
green cabbage
celery
celeriac
bok choy
snap peas
snow peas
acorn squash
honeynut squash
zucchini
carrots
cucumbers
green onions
walla walla onions
garlic
white salad turnips
maybe watermelon
Attachments
garden map.jpg

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rainbowgardener
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Wow, no tomatoes? No peppers? Everybody grows those and for a reason.... they keep producing and producing. Carrots have to grow pretty much the whole season and then when you pull one it is done. Swiss chard is my favorite thing to grow. Lettuce is done as soon as it gets hot; swiss chard keeps growing and growing. Watermelon takes up a huge amount of space. Your 4x8 bed would be enough for one watermelon plant and at that it would grow over all the edges and out into the lawn. From all that you get one or two watermelons.

Part of what goes where is timing, early vs late. From your list

early season
broccoli
green cabbage
celery
celeriac
bok choy
snap peas
snow peas
carrots
green onions
walla walla onions
white salad turnips (I think, I've never grown turnips)

garlic is usually planted in October. It overwinters and is harvested June-ish the following year.

late season
acorn squash
honeynut squash
zucchini
cucumbers

So the broccoli, cabbage, and both kinds of peas get planted very early (like a month or so ahead of your average last frost date, or as soon as the soil can be worked). They will get done early. Then your squashes and cucumbers, which need the soil to be well warmed up, can be planted in the space they left.

I like to plant onions and garlic around the edges of all my beds. They don't take up a lot of room and they help repel pests from the other stuff.

Vian
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Thank you for your input. There's a very good reason I am not growing tomatoes or peppers. I am allergic to them. I have Psoriasis, an autoimmune disease, and when I eat Nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, chilies, peppers, white potatoes, eggplant, tomatillos, etc) it flairs up so bad my skin peels off and bleeds through my clothes. By avoiding certain foods, including nightshades and grains, and taking certain supplements, I've been able to put my psoriasis into remission.

This year I planted my cruciferous veg early, and waited to plant my squashes outside once it warmed up more, and the squashes are just getting done now and it's getting down to 40 degrees at night! My cabbages are just recently getting big enough to harvest. I also seed save what I can, so I have to leave room for plants to go to seed. Right now I have broccoli and lettuce that is in seed and I'm waiting for my acorn squash to finish before harvesting.

I feel like my growing season is too short to wait for some plants to finish before planting others in their space after they're harvested.

imafan26
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You should have a trellis on the north side for the cucumbers and peas. Peas can go on the trellis first followed by cucumbers when it warms up more.
Garlic and onions are seasonal like Rainbow said. Have you tried leeks (150 days)? You can start them indoors and transplant out in March.
You have some large plants:
Broccoli, green cabbage and squash Each of these will take 24-30 inch spacing and about 70-90 days so you need to start them indoors early. When they are young you can plant lettuce between them until they get to where they need all of the space.
The greens like the lettuce, radish, beets, carrots, bok choy (baby bok?) I would plant one row of lettuce spaced 8-10 inches apart. You can get between 4- 6 heads in a 4 foot wide bed.
followd by one row of carrots (roots grow down top needs about 4 inches of row space.
One row of bok choy (8 inches apart and one row of radish or beets.
Wait a couple of weeks and repeat planting of lettuce, carrots, beets, bok choy, and radishes. That way you will get succcessive harvests. Each crop takes anywhere from 45-70 days to finish so when one is harvested it can be replanted and you will have the other row to eat.

Bush squash and icebox watermelons will take up about a 36 inch circle. In a 4 foot wide bed offset planting will squeeze in a few more, but when the pic n pic squash started producing, I only needed 1-3 plants. It produced so much. Lately zucchini yields have been very bad so I switched back to a squash that was more reliable for me. Green onions do well in a container and I don't use that much so I have three one gallon containers. I just cut the tops and they grow back again in a few weeks and for me they are good for about two years or until they get fat and tough.

Vining squashes and watermelons will take up a bed with vines up to 50 ft. so either trellis them up or plant them where they can be allowed to sprawl

You could plant sweet potatoes in the 40 inch bed or in a very large container like a tree pot. It is in the morning glory family so the tubers and in some varieties the leaves are edible as well. Sweet potatoes can go crazy here and they are easier to dig them up in pots.

Consider some herbs in pots. Basil, oregano, mint, thyme, rosemary. Basil is an annual but the others can come inside for the winter.

Short season crops
lettuce 45-70 days
Asian greens, bok choy, amaranth, daikon, choi sum, komatsuna, mustard cabbage 50-70 days
cool season herbs cilantro, arugula, stevia can grow in pots. Cilantro 70 days in the ground. It does not like heat > 70 degrees
Sprouts - do that indoors.
Kale and chard should do well too. Kale and broccoli can handle light frosts.

Vian
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I was going to start the squashes indoors in peat pots so I don't have to disrupt the roots. Not sold on growing watermelon, I think I would rather grow things that make better use of the space. I like the idea of planting onions and garlic in with other things, and lettuce between plants that get larger later. Thanks!

I'm just not sure what to plant in which bed based on microclimates and such. The peas were going to go in trellises in the pots along the fence. Some areas are sunnier than others, like the beds that are more to the south get more sun than the ones more to the north which are in shade part of the day.

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rainbowgardener
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RE: "I was going to start the squashes indoors in peat pots so I don't have to disrupt the roots." I don't like peat pots for seed starting, but if you do use them, be sure to peel the pot off before you plant the seedling. If you cut it, you can just peel it off with minimal disruption to the roots. They say they are biodegradable and I'm sure they are, but they do not biodegrade in time to do your seedling any good. The roots will be trapped inside it and it will smother.

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applestar
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In my experience you need to plant significant amount of peas to get sufficient harvest. Choose earlier maturing varieties if your summer season is short and you want to succession plant, or if your spring season is short. I like planting peas almost everywhere and especially where I intend to plant heavy feeder warm season crops.

It's important to track position of the sun. Especially further north, the sun's angle and where it rises and sets in the sky will make significant changes in available sun exposure for your garden over the course of the year.

For me, peas do best where it will be sunnier during the shorter days but NOT the sunniest area where it gets too hot once the days start getting longer in May and early June. This causes them to fry faster when we have the occasional early heat wave. By planting in different locations, you will have the advantage of different micro-climates and extend their harvest.

I pre-germinate most big seeds in the house to get a jump on the season -- it takes 2 to 3 weeks for them to sprout outside. I've documented most of what I did this year in the seed starting forum -- you might find the information useful.

I have found that some of my beds get NO SUN AT ALL in the winter and also become shaded earlier on in the fall even though it seemed like a sunny spot. This also means the area remains in the shade of something -- trees, house, etc. -- during the spring thaw when overwintered crops like garlic will start to wake up, and ground will remain colder and not thaw or dry out as quickly so you can start planting.

When the shadow is created by trees with leaves that don't fall until later, or by a solid structure like one of the surrounding houses, the garlic doesn't seem to grow as well. It's also important that the area is not in a low or cold spot where snow drifts are heavier and the ground remains wet and soggy, though extra high mounded rows or raised beds in those areas will alleviate the situation. I have been in search of ideal garlic planting beds but not all of mine will grow them well.

When you are succession planting, you don't always have to wait until (all of) the previous crop is harvested. Leave a little extra space with mature plants in mind, and you can plant the new seedlings or sow (pre-germinated) seeds in between. Harvest a hole in the lettuce bed and pop in a seedling, etc.

You might still be able to start some of the cold hardy non-heading crops like lettuce, Asian greens, cilantro, etc. if you give them some protection. Walla Walla onion is supposed to be able to overwinter, though it might be a little late -- I think they were supposed to have been started in August. I'm still going to start some now though, just to see if they will survive. But based on previous experiences, I have pick a spot where I can be diligent about keeping them weed-free. :roll:

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applestar
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I asked about space saving, early maturing winter squash in this thread --
Subject: Winter squash for smaller gardens?
I'll probably try growing Sweet REBA acorn squash next year, even though that one is a C.pepo and subject to SVB infestation.

Honeynut is a variety of butternut squash. I remember seeing it in catalogs but since I didn't put it on my candidate list, maybe it's not a space saver....? Is it a hybrid?

Vian
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I bought some honeynut squash at the grocery store and they were really tasty, so I saved some seeds. I don't know about the plants, but the squash itself is much smaller than a butternut squash. They are like single-serve little squashes. One website I found said they are 7 to 10 foot vines, so I could probably curl them around themselves, or let them wander between other crops.

Walla Walla onions, I usually buy starts in the spring. A local pet and garden store sells bundles of them every spring. I'm planning on growing herbs too, but those will probably be in pots on the deck, not in my raised beds.

I wasn't aware that the peat pots don't break down fast enough. The seed packet for the squashes I grew this year said it's recommended to direct sow them outside because they don't like having their roots disrupted, but they matured so late once the soil warmed up and I could actually plant them outside. I thought peat pots would be a good way to get around that. If that's the case, I'll probably just use regular pots as I can just slide the squash seedlings out when I'm ready to plant with almost no root disruption.



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