Question
I have a vegtable garden I am getting ready to plant, but I have no idea how to layout the rows or what should grow beside each other row by row and the space between each vegtable. Its 30ft x 30ft area its a organic garden,its been tilled, fertilized with horse manure and organic compost and ph is at 7.0 I just need a design,listed are the vegetables im planning to plant.  Corn,onions green,carrots,squash,tomatoes,grn.bell peppers,lettuce,cantaloupe,cukes,radishes. I should consider location for each right, i'm in Oregon and the garden will get 6 hours of sunlight perday. I sure could use some help with this, thank you.

Dorinda Wallace

Answer
Dear Dorinda,
Two things for certain, right away.  Use all your corners for different vining plants, because if planted closely, squash, cantaloupe, and cucumbers will cross.  We plant four different kinds of squash, so they go in each corner.  Harvest squash (butternut, spaghetti, and acorn) must be kept away from summer squash (zucchini, crook neck) because they mature at a different rate and will "ruin" each other.  I recommend you try 3 kinds of squash, in each corner, the cantaloupe in the other corner and the cucumbers in the middle of the garden.  I don't mean to get so wordy with this, but these plants must stay apart.  Lettuce and radishes, I think, are easiest on the edges because they don't get very tall.  Plant the corn where it won't shade the peppers and the tomatoes.  One thing about tomatoes, if you are going to stake them, and I recommend that, be sure to do it fairly early so they don't break from their own weight.  We use a fence type "cage" for ours and just put them over the plants when they are still small and the plants just grow up into the cage, gaining full support as they get bigger.  Other than that, it's just a matter of deciding how you want your garden.  Enjoy it!  I've given you a few things to watch out for, the rest is for you to simply design and enjoy.
I wish you well.
Kind Regards,
Kindred
www.eingedi.us