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rainbowgardener
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diverse and dense plantings

Here's how I like to plant my garden beds:
E bed again.jpg

Down the middle is a row of potatoes, left of them is a row of mixed lettuces, on the outer edge is a row of garlic. In between the lettuce and potatoes are a couple of interesting looking weeds that I haven't pulled yet until I figure out what they are. On the other side of the potatoes is more garlic and onions. Stuck in there between the stakes is one extra tomato plant that was left over. Across the south short edge are two green basils and a pepper plant. Across the north short edge are purple basils and marigolds.

It is all well mulched with straw raked out of the hen coop. It should not need anything done to it until the lettuce is finished and I pull it and plant beans in its place. When the potatoes are done, I will probably plant squash there. By the time all that stuff is done, it will be time to plant cool weather crops again, greens or broccoli. It is 8 x 4' and will give us a bunch of food.

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rainbowgardener
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Here's another one:
S bed again (2).jpg

Next one: three tomato plants down the middle, row of baby kale seedlings down the left edge with a Thai basil plant in the middle of the row. Swiss chard row to the right of the tomatoes, with onions on the outer edge. Both short edges have pepper plants and marigold.

In another month, these beds will be very lush and full!

imafan26
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I don't plant in rows very much except maybe when I do corn. I have a small garden so I interplant a lot, so I do more French intensive style. When I plant the pots with tomatoes or eggplant, I can under plant them with a short crop like cilantro or lettuce while the seedlings are still small. I can get a couple of more lettuce heads if I offset planting of lettuce on the diagonal and there won't be so much bare ground or row between them so it helps to keep the weeds down. I have done beets and strawberries between the cucumber and pole beans. I did make a mistake and planted both strawberries and kale under my citrus tree in summer. The strawberries and kale did not like to be next to each other. I usually plant green onions, leeks, chives or garlic chives as a border around the outside of the garden. Fennel is grown next to arrowroot and ginger because it does not seem to bother them. Fennel cannot be grown next to almost anything else because it stunts the other plants once it starts to bloom . I have thyme, oregano, borage, onions and peppers planted together. I have planted sunflowers, marigolds, alyssum, nasturtium, daylilies, gazania, and melampodium to add more color and attract more beneficial insects to the garden.

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rainbowgardener
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These are wide-ish rows with little space between them. Once the plants get bigger, there won't be space and the ground will be shaded. And I do mix things up a little bit, like the Thai basil in the middle of the kale row.

I often put nasturtium in the garden beds with the marigolds. Otherwise I don't have a lot of flowers in the gardens, but I have flowers for pollinators all along the fence lines of the yard -- coreopsis, bee balm, lemon balm, coneflower, milkweed, sunflower, heliopsis, sweet alyssum, salvia, black-eyed susan, yarrow, anise hyssop, penstemon, liatris/gayfeather, asters.

Now that I have the picket fence around the main garden beds, I may plant flowers around the fence too. And I have lots of herbs in pots, lavender, thyme, oregano, tarragon, chamomile, fennel, summer savory, mint, sage, rosemary. In the garden beds are basil, dill, onions, garlic, chives, parsley. I do let my herbs flower some for the insects.

imafan26
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At home I usually put most of the flowers in the front yard (faces east) and the HOA does not allow "vegetative" plants in the front yard. However, I do like to sneak in some edibles like roses, chives, marigolds, lavender, thyme, nasturtiums in there since the idiots who wrote this stupid rule don't know that technically all of these things are edible or that if someone actually wanted to make a case out of it, grass is not only technically edible, it is definitely "vegetative".
I have most of the edibles in the backyard, but I also have most of the orchids, succulents, and some flowering plants (hibiscus, gardenia, and roses) there as well.

I put a lot of the larger plants like the tomatoes, vines (cukes, squash, beans) in large pots. I have a lot of other potted plants both edible and ornamental surrounding the garden. In the garden itself, I plant mostly corn in summer, broccoli, and Asian greens in the cooler months. The pots contain citrus, peppers, tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumber, eggplant, taro, ginger, turmeric, herbs lavender, spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, thyme, greek oregano, bay leaves, green onions, dragon fruit, persimmon, and strawberries. I have bay leaves (California and bay laurel), Indian curry, bilimbi, and some accidental pepper, lemon, confederate rose, calamondin and Mr. Lincoln roses that have gone to ground Some of them will have to get pulled out because they are not in a good place. I have aloe and a Mexican oregano in my main garden and they will need to come out eventually as it was not intended for them to be there permanently. I have to thin the aloe a few times a year just to keep them from spreading.

I tried to grow squash under the corn once or twice, but the vines have a mind of their own and want to stray either up the corn or out of the bed, so I don't do much of that anymore. Once, I planted a Tahitian squash, it took over half my backyard and tried to go through the fence and take over the neighbor's yard. The dragon fruit like to go through the fence too, I have to keep pulling it back and cutting it. My back yard is 54 ft wide and 15- 30 ft wide. It is not a big space and I have just a trail between the pots.

DarrenP
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I've gone for a more random planting this cool season, mixing up the beds with all sorts of things together. I read that planting in rows makes it easier for pests to find your plants. Also, I am trialling this method to see if companion planting can negate the need for too much crop rotation. I have beds of cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, leafy vegetables, carrots, onions, turnips, beetroot, peas and beans to name a few are interplanted randomly. Also used nasturtium and marigolds as bee attractors; the nasturtiums are also great chook food.

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rainbowgardener
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Love it, DarrenP. Show us a couple pictures, please! :)

And I didn't know that the chickens liked nasturtiums. Don't have any right now (nasturtiums that is, not chickens!) but later. But our lawn is mostly clover which is in blossom now and the chick ladies are loving that. And my most common spring weed is chickweed, which is aptly named because they like that too.

imafan26
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One of the purposes of crop rotation, beside disease and pest management, is nutrient management. Planting different plants that use different nutrients can help keep the soil in better balance. It is the reason why I follow my nitrogen hungry corn with Asian greens that scavenge the excess nitrogen. I could follow the corn with beans instead to fix nitrogen, but I don't need that many beans and I would still have to fertilize for the next crop of corn anyway. I don't have to fertilize the greens after corn because they get by with the nitrogen left over from the corn. I did try to double crop corn without fertilizing the second set of corn but they ended up only 5 ft tall with fewer and shorter ears.

DarrenP
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20180508_155214.jpg
20180508_155207.jpg
Sorry for the late reply, Rainbowgardener. I wanted to the beds to look right, and the plants were only small.

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rainbowgardener
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Squash, especially summer squash, is difficult for many of us: squash vine borers, squash bugs, powdery mildew ....

imafan26
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It did not used to be that way. I remember I planted 2 zucchini plants in my main garden and did not realize how big they got and had more zucchini than I could use. I tried planting parthenocarpic zucchini last year in a pot and while the zucchini grew fine, I did have problems with downy mildew earlier than expected. Mainly I had problems with fruit flies that stung every fruit so I ended up with nothing. The zucchini attracted a lot of melon flies and they even started stinging the cucumbers. I usually don't have as much problems with the cukes. It did not stop until I pulled the zucchini and cut the ti leaves, then the cucumbers were able to mature to harvest. Ti is a host of fruit flies and my GF120 is too old. I just got some yeast from Amazon to make more bait. I don't want to buy a gallon of GF 120. I bought some methyl eugenol and cue lures to trap the oriental and melon flies (males only). I need to spray the bait on the host plants to kill both males and females. Ti, panax, sorghum are good hosts.

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rainbowgardener
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We don't appreciate all your Faroe Island spam. I am reporting all of them as spam and they will soon be deleted, so you are wasting your time.

(this was in response to a spam post that has since been deleted) :)



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