A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Interplanting

Does anyone have a vegetable garden that they used the interplanting technique? I'm wondering how it worked for you and if you can give me any advice.

Hello again.
I've read in the almanac that if you plant corn with either pole beans or peas growing up the stalk and squash or melons on the ground they help each other out. The beans fix nitrogen in the soil and the squash/melons act as living mulch to cool the soil and protect from weeds while the corn gives the beans something to grow on. Apparently the indians called this the three sisters so I figure if they used it enough to give it a name when they probably didn't have to worry about space it should work decently! I hope this what you were refering to otherwise it seems helpfull any way. The only thing I'd worry about is if they were to close the squash/melons not getting enough light, but for all I know they may not need as much!

Jennifer,

Interplanting is great!!
Find some books on "Companion Planting"
(*MY personal fav is Rodales' Campanion Planting")
Gives you alot of ideas for such.
And is a good space saver!!!
Especially in small spacers!!
Some plants grow slower, and others faster,
so some can be planted and harvested before
the others are full grown???
Some smells deter bugs, some plants enhance
flavors of others?? Lot's of things can be
interplanted!!!

Do you have specific plants you intend to grow?
Maybe I can help you out with a few if you
give me a list...

Weezie

I have some corn, 2 types of lettuce, 2 types of watermelon, a musk melon (cantelope), eggokant, and 2 types of cauliflower. I was looking at the website for arizona st. univ. and looked at some info for what i have. Unfortunately, everything I got is a heavy feeder, so I'm going toreally have to watch that. I did get beans, but I was planning on letting them grow on lattice that will be going over the gate to the garden.

I'll take a peak at some of my books
and get back to you, I don't grow eggplants,
watermelon, a musk melon (cantelope), or cauliflower...............

See what we come up with!!

Weezie

I've been growing an interplanted, raised bed garden for the last 20+ years. It's an experiment and learning experience that doesn't end. The possibilities are endless, as long as you give everything enough room and you keep your soil fertile. You can grow pole beans and tall varieties of peas on trellises that are oriented north/south and plant shade tolerant and cool weather crops on the east side so they get afternoon shade. Then plant cabbage or broccoli on the west side of the trellis to shade the roots of the peas. Onions help repel pests from all cabbage products, as does garlic.
My latest experiments involve planting flowering herbs near plants that are subject to the more common pests in the area. Many flowering herbs draw a lot of different species of wasps. They can be one of your best pest controls. Fennel, Oregano, thyme, boneset, sweet alyssum, valeriam and others all supply food for wasps. They are rarely aggressive unless you make an effort to hurt them. I've had a yellow jacket take a cabbage worm off of a head of broccoli I was holding at the time. It was something to see.
Feel free to experiment. The more interplanted your garden is and the more species/ varieties you have, the better balance it will achieve.
Rick

...My garden is an interplanted one..... with weeds!

I've interplanted tomatoes& marigolds
& by the way..have decided to go with orange gems this time.
course they were interplanted in a hanging basket& doing a bucket this year.

So weezie...what can interplant with sweet potato?mine gets ate on.is black specks and mainly on the vine part so makes laef turn yellow& fall off.

Rick,
Thanks for the great advice! I've been trying to draw a design of the garden so that I can figure out where everything is going to have to go. I'm planning on putting all of my herbs in medium or large sized pots so that I can bring them in for the winter, as we get snow and cold weather. I'm a little weary of putting flowering herbs near an area that I will be spending alot of time in. I'm horribly allergic to bees and such and have a very spasmatic reflex whenever I see a bee come close. I've gotten stung only once and the experience has totally freaked me out (not to mention the throat closing sensation!!!)

I've been doing research to find that I'm supposed to put tall things...like corn... on the north side of the garden so that it doesn't block the sun for the other plants. Is there something that I can put in the same rows as the corn since I don't have anything else that is really tall like that??? Can you tell me what exactly eggplant looks like when it is growing??? I really can't remember. ( note to self...do your own research!! ) Anyways, thanks for the info!

Okay,
Here's your list of what you gave me!

#1. Eggplant=Beans, Spinach, Lettuce, peppers.

#2. Melons=Corn, Sunflowers, Radish.

#3. Cauliflower=Peppermint(*Keep in a pot, not in the ground) Kale, Sage, Thyme, Onions, Leeks,.

#4. Corn=Peas, Squash, Cucumber, Melons, Beans.
..................(*Keep corn away from Tomatoes)

#5. Lettuce=Beans, Cucumbers, Radish, Carrots, Strawberries, Onion.


(any legumes that you grow, put nitrogen back into the ground...)

Weezie

This is kind of off topic but I'm also horribly allergic bee's wasps exc... I once got stung by a yellow jacket on my wrist and my hand litteraly was like one of those rubber gloves blown up for a week. I couldn't move my fingers for two . If I had a pic I'd show everyone, It was amasing but not in a good way. Another strang bee story was when I was at a friends house and me and two other people were eating those honney brekfast sausages. I didn't finish mine and it was sitting on the plate.(FYI we were on the porch) So anyways this wasp comes along and starts flying around it for a minute then finally sits it's self down on it and starts carving a chunk out of it! Nothing to big but still neat. So it flys away. A few minutes later a bee comes and does the same thing and goes. We started getting interested and we put all our left overs on the plate. So back comes the wasp with a freind they both start carving and the bee comes back. They quickly formed an attack pattern(I don't know if it was a pattern i'm just trying to add dramatic value) the bee still landed on the meat but the wasps kept knocking it off finally the bee honerably gave up and took off. After a while the wasps setle down and go back to thier carving. The first one took off with another chunk but the other one had a better plan. It started working on a circular piece that was litteraly a centimeter wide. All of a sudden, out of nowhere three bees come back to try and reap the bounty.
The wasp wouldn't have it be and stoped it's work to fight. Within seconds it was a square foot battle field, knocking into each other fighting to take clame, the glorious prize. AHHA!!! The wasps friend comes back to save him. They swiftly manuver around the bees like nothing and take turns cutting away at the piece. Finally the piece is lose and the wasp slowly huvered away barly able to lift it! They left the evil bee wariors to the rest and we went in as we didn't want to be there if a swarm of bees came.
As strangas it sounds this was a true story!

Wow....that would of been very interesting to watch....from INDOORS!!!!lol

I learned something new!...I never knew wasps ate meat!

Me neither! I think that when they make those sausages they just leave them in maple surup for a cuple days(sausages wrongly described as honey flavored) :p I'm glad I didn't finish mine.

For interplanting in corn, I've had good luck with winter squash. It doesn't mind a little shade and the leaves help keep racoons down. It does slow the maturity of the sqash a little. What you can get away with depends alot on the length of your growing season.
Some herbs may not like being potted. In fact, some actually require the winter dormancy to survive. Most are much tougher than you might think. If you want potted herbs for fresh use in winter, then by all means, but I'd leave the main harvest of most herbs outside. Are there specific ones you're thinking of?
How you initially design the layout of your growing beds can allow you to grow insect attracting herbs away from main traffic lanes. My main garden is approximately 50'x120' with the long dimension running east/west. My main growing beds are standardized at 5'x20', running north/south. they are in 2 rows, one on the north side and one on the south side of a main center path that runs east/west down the center of the garden. Between each growing bed is a one foot wide path that connects to the center path. The beds along the south half all end against another bed that runs the length of the south edge of the garden. I plant most of the perennials there. Here's a rough sketch of a section of the garden bed setup. They're away from the main traffic lanes that way. When I'm drawing out my garden plan during the winter, I treat each 5'x20' bed as 4 5'square beds, each drawn on a single sheet of graph paper. Here\'s an example. I have several that are reused each year, and add more as I find combinations I like. With all beds being the same size, it becomes easy to schedule crop rotation. Several of the 5' squares along the center path also grow perennials, like the rosebushes, lavender, and a couple climbing vines on trellises. Changing things around is half the fun, and every year I learn from it. Give your soil a serious examining. Look for the fertile areas, the damp areas, drier and less fertile spots, where the shade is and when, and try to plan to take advantage of it. I have woods to the east of my garden so the west half of it gets more sun than the east half. I put the ones that require the longest growing season and most sun on the west end. Make every year and every season an experiment, and KEEP NOTES!! Consider a long term plan too. Every year, spring here is dry and windy. This is always drying the surface of my soil and interfering with germination. My long term solution? On the west and north edges of the garden, I planted a fast growing, flowering hedge. In 3 years it's reached over 10 feet tall and has helped to significantly reduce my spring watering. It also attracts and feeds the bees in the spring and feeds the birds in the fall. Try to look at your yard this way, and picture what you can make it. Never stop planning and don't be afraid to make changes.
Rick

that's awesome rick! glad to see you "back in the saddle" posting. it's been awhile since you had this much to say keep 'em coming.

Thanks alot Rick!

My garden is going to be alot smaller than yours...probably 20'x15'. But the information still applies. I'm going to sit down again to look at what I've done soo far and thendraw up other plans that may work. My husband is still shaking in his boots....scared of what chaos I will be creating in a few weeks!

Found a Companion Planting Guide on another site, they also have one for herbs.

I apologise for editing this LargeLady, but the url went to a "Page does not exist" message so I removed it. I hope you can find the url to that site again for us, and repost it!
Bill

additional info on intensive vegetable gardening (interplanting):


http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/vegetable/intensive.html

Maximum Veggies HGTV


(Papito, just gave your URL a shorter link,
so it doesn't go off the end of the page! Weez)

Thanks papito. The one for Arizona I've been to many times and have taken lots of notes on. I found it really intresting when I looked throught it a while ago. I didn't think about looking on HGTV's site.

Rodale Press used to publish "Getting the Most from Your Garden". It covers raised beds and interplanting in detail. If it's still in print, it's one of the best.
Rick

I have the Rodale's "Companion Planting"
I love it!!!
Lot's of good pictures and great info!!!

Got a good sized set of Rodale Books!!!

I'd have them all if I had a little more $$

Weezie

flower,
Don't underestimate the idea of weeds as interplanting items. Some weeds really punch down into the subsoil and absorb nutrients that vegetables often can't reach. Dandelions are a prime example, not to mention being a valuable medicinal herb in their own right. They're one of the only diuretics that don't cause a potassium loss. If you ever dig carefully around one, you almost always find earthworms there. They actually contribute to the life of the soil. They also feed the bees, especially in the spring. When they die, their deep roots become tunnels of organic matter into the subsoil. As lons as you keep them from going to seed or overrunning your crops, they can actually be a benefit.
Rick

Rick,
I am glad you said that!!

I posted that info a while back,
and I think I got a few of these, :rolleyes:

I don't think they'll believe it.

But I agree 110%!!!!!!

And when they are in bloom, the woodchucks like
them the best and stay away from my other plants!
Isn't that what part of companion plantings' all about?
Sacraficing one plant for the sake of another??

Weezie

It doesn't have to be on "sacrificing one for another terms". Often it's on "stronger together" terms. A tall pigweed plant can open up the subsoil for a weaker rooted lettuce plants roots, and supply it with some afternoon shade. Low growing Purslane can act as a "living mulch" for taller plants. The best way to look at it is this:
A weed is a plant whose uses haven't been tapped.
In an interplanted garden, any plant that's out of place can be a weed. In commercial agriculture, a plant growing too fast or too slow is a weed. Some of my "worst weeds" are medicinal herbs that I didn't stop from setting seeds. Comfrey, Valerian, Nettle, and Yarrow can all be very invasive. Once established, Comfrey can be almost impossible to get rid of. Try to get rid of Nettle once it starts spreading. I wish I had harvested more of it this year. Hard to guess just how much of what you'll need in medicinal herbs from year to year.
Rick

Sorry Bill, I have that site on my favorites, didn't know it would not work, this one should.


Companion Planting Guide



LLady, I just gave your URL a shorter link
so it doesn't make the page go off the end.
Just so you know!! ***Weezie***