Companion Planting 2015

[ninnymary]

Well I have 2 of the same kind. One died over the winter and the other one hasn't skipped a beat. Try to figure that one out. They are probably about 6' apart.

Mary

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'm attempting a companion planting this year, though you might also call it a "defensive" planting. I read somewhere over the winter that squirrels and chipmunks are repelled by the aroma of many alliums (probably why they are one of the few things I grow they don't attack) especially A. rosaceum. So I've saved my rosaceum bulbs and am going to stick one in the hole with the handful of seed in each corn hill, in a desperate last ditch attempt to actually get some of them to make it past seedling stage. No that I have much hope on that account. They've shrugged off chili oil, bobcat urine, ammonia, and all the other spray-able things. and have circumvented every fence I can construct, so a plant they don't like the smell of probably will do nothing. More and more, I get the feeling that the only way I'll ever get a corn crop is to move it to somewhere where the neighborhood bylaws DON'T prohibit me from using traps, or anything else that could actually harm the "cute little critters".

 

[jasonvivier]

My agastache doesn't like me. I've planted it several times. It's only ever come back one time.

Are you planting a straight species or a cultivar?

 

[jasonvivier]

Well I have 2 of the same kind. One died over the winter and the other one hasn't skipped a beat. Try to figure that one out. They are probably about 6' apart.

Mary

Nature is fascinating.

 

[jasonvivier]

I'm attempting a companion planting this year, though you might also call it a "defensive" planting. I read somewhere over the winter that squirrels and chipmunks are repelled by the aroma of many alliums (probably why they are one of the few things I grow they don't attack) especially A. rosaceum. So I've saved my rosaceum bulbs and am going to stick one in the hole with the handful of seed in each corn hill, in a desperate last ditch attempt to actually get some of them to make it past seedling stage. No that I have much hope on that account. They've shrugged off chili oil, bobcat urine, ammonia, and all the other spray-able things. and have circumvented every fence I can construct, so a plant they don't like the smell of probably will do nothing. More and more, I get the feeling that the only way I'll ever get a corn crop is to move it to somewhere where the neighborhood bylaws DON'T prohibit me from using traps, or anything else that could actually harm the "cute little critters".

At the Autonomous garden, we plant perennial Egyptian walking onions (also known as tree onions) and garlic around our fruit and nut trees for that reason. I don't know if it repels them, but I know I haven't had any damage and my garden has regular furry visitors.

With corn, I've always done a variation on the three sisters guild. I don't recall ever having any damage. I would try that one first as it worked for thousands of years for people that relied on growing their own food.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I did try that one, the animals just ate the bean and cucurbit seedlings along with the corn (when I say they eat everything I mean EVERYTHING) And even if that did work, no one in my household likes squash enough to not ensure me a glut of it at years end that would just rot, and being suburban, most of the neighbors are very much of the "if it doesn't come pre-processed and microwave ready from the supermarket, it is not safe to eat" mentality (with the "If you try and convince us otherwise, we will complain to the Village Manor Association and have them force you to stop growing your unsightly gardens and turn them over to a professional landscaping company so they will be utterly identical to all of our professionally landscaped properties, like they should" coda) I think I tried using cucumbers as a substitute one year (and watermelons another) but the timing wouldn't work (one big fault in the three sisters method is it rather relies on you having a corn,bean, and squash variety that are all timed to grow at the correct rate. Fine if you live in a village where you have heirlooms from your ancestors that have already been bred for that timing, or you are not picky about what variety of crops you grow so long as they grow well enough to feed you, but when you are someone who gardens mostly experimentally, not really compatible.)

 

[jasonvivier]

I hear your pain - I'm in an urban environment and just waiting to get a notice from the city.

A couple thoughts come to mind

• Start plants in pots and get them a little bigger before setting out.
  • I do this for about 20 corn plants and then I stagger the seeding of the others - we can only eat 9 ears of corn at a time.
• Replace squash with watermelon - I recommend Blacktail Mountain or Black diamond but this year I am growing Moon and stars watermelon.
• All of those plants can be started early even the pole beans.
• Train an outdoor cat to eat/sleep there - the cat wont poop where it eats.

Maybe these won't work in your situation but I've seen them work for others.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Going down your list

1. I DO start my corn in pots and transplant it (it's the only way I can keep it from all being simply dug up and eaten as soon as I plant it) The problem is that we also have deer and raccoons doing the chowing, so the plants aren't safe from being felled until they are three or four feet tall (and the stems are too tough and unsugary to be of interest, by which point, their root systems have long since expanded beyond any pots capacity. Plus the only place POTS are safe is on the pedestals, and we only have seven of those which are always occupied with something (as I said, nearlyEVERY plant we grow gets decimated by the critters , not just the corn so this problem applies to ALL of them)

2. Tried it, but our season is usually too short for watermelons. In the five years I grew them I got melons ONCE (and that year we had a heat wave through most of the spring and summer. and that was only two of them (one bowling ball sized one baseball sized) with so little sugar I had to juice them to make it taste like watermelon.

3. Have to do that already, but our spring is very unpredictable weather wise. Usually, by the time it's warm enough to put anything outside, anything started inside has gotten too leggy to really do well outside, and the wind destroys it all (I really need to find the space and time to make a cold frame) The only times I've started plants inside and really made them work is when I've started them less than two weeks before they are due to go outside, at which point the catch up is more or less negligible. The only reason I still start indoors is for spacing reasons (a lot of the experimental seed doesn't germinate very well, and starting them indoors means I don't need to budget extra space (which is at a premium) on dead seeds.

Also most of my bean space this year (and for the next two) is committed to a grow out of a bean called Mottled Grey, which is best described as a "nominal" or "conditional" pole (it either makes a short climber or stays a very short upright, seemingly at random) hard to thread around a corn plant.

4. Our current cat is more of the play with animals/chase animals type; not great at catching or killing. And an outdoor cat would, if not killed by our current (our current HATES other cats) probably would suffer the same fate at the few legit feral we did have; having a bad encounter and winding up coyote chow.)

Speaking of critters. I should have mentioned we have a double assault. Besides the squirrels, chipmunks and deer above, there are voles and moles working below. And then there are the raccoons and opossums who, while they wont actually eat seedlings, do tend to dig the up and tear them apart in their quest for any insects they can smell now that I turned over the soil.

 

[jasonvivier]

Going down your list

1. I DO start my corn in pots and transplant it (it's the only way I can keep it from all being simply dug up and eaten as soon as I plant it) The problem is that we also have deer and raccoons doing the chowing, so the plants aren't safe from being felled until they are three or four feet tall (and the stems are too tough and unsugary to be of interest, by which point, their root systems have long since expanded beyond any pots capacity. Plus the only place POTS are safe is on the pedestals, and we only have seven of those which are always occupied with something (as I said, nearlyEVERY plant we grow gets decimated by the critters , not just the corn so this problem applies to ALL of them)

2. Tried it, but our season is usually too short for watermelons. In the five years I grew them I got melons ONCE (and that year we had a heat wave through most of the spring and summer. and that was only two of them (one bowling ball sized one baseball sized) with so little sugar I had to juice them to make it taste like watermelon.

3. Have to do that already, but our spring is very unpredictable weather wise. Usually, by the time it's warm enough to put anything outside, anything started inside has gotten too leggy to really do well outside, and the wind destroys it all (I really need to find the space and time to make a cold frame) The only times I've started plants inside and really made them work is when I've started them less than two weeks before they are due to go outside, at which point the catch up is more or less negligible. The only reason I still start indoors is for spacing reasons (a lot of the experimental seed doesn't germinate very well, and starting them indoors means I don't need to budget extra space (which is at a premium) on dead seeds.

Also most of my bean space this year (and for the next two) is committed to a grow out of a bean called Mottled Grey, which is best described as a "nominal" or "conditional" pole (it either makes a short climber or stays a very short upright, seemingly at random) hard to thread around a corn plant.

4. Our current cat is more of the play with animals/chase animals type; not great at catching or killing. And an outdoor cat would, if not killed by our current (our current HATES other cats) probably would suffer the same fate at the few legit feral we did have; having a bad encounter and winding up coyote chow.)

Speaking of critters. I should have mentioned we have a double assault. Besides the squirrels, chipmunks and deer above, there are voles and moles working below. And then there are the raccoons and opossums who, while they wont actually eat seedlings, do tend to dig the up and tear them apart in their quest for any insects they can smell now that I turned over the soil.

Clearly you should just move. lol Just kidding

How long is your average growing season? Where are you?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Actually, I'm a little south of you, in the Hudson Valley. The problem is less absolute growing season then the fact that the transitions here are not smooth (or at least, have not been smooth for the last ten or so years) Wintry weather (not necessarily snow, but weather too cold for most crops to take) tends to linger on now until the end of May, or even the middle of June. If it was steady I could manage it (I'd just plant cold loving things like peas) but we tend to get wild swings for most of that. Summery heat for a week or two, and then another multiday frost (which more or less knocks everything out on one side or the other) we get steady warmth after that, but usually only until around September, then it tends to do the same swings in reverse.

Add on the fact that we have so many trees (which we cannot cut down, manor association again) nearly everywhere that isn't right next to the house (and covered with concrete) is in full shade 24/7 and soil that is basically a mixture of rocks and battery acid (most of the trees are oaks and hemlocks, so I need to add a whole bag of lime each year just to bring the soil in our 10x10 veggie garden to something that wont dissolve metal) and you see the problem. Lots of people here and in the other gardening forums have suggested solutions but most rely either on things that are not readily available to an urban-suburban (like hundreds of bales of hay) or would cost so much as to basically bankrupt me (like digging the whole garden out to a depth of 10-15 feet and filling the entire hole with potting soil (and with the leaf fall and leaching, having to do that again every year or so)). I'd say it was all an uphill battle, but by now it feel more like trying to walk up the side of a sheer cliff!

And as for moving, it's come to mind, but with finances being how they are, when and if I do move, I'd say my garden problems will be over, but only because all I could afford is a single room apartment where there was no ground to grow anything, and probably not even a ledge for window boxes.

And then of course there is the guilt of the fact that part of me says that, given how bad it is here, trying is not only pointless but evil, since I should be giving away any seed I have or will ever get to others (not sharing it, giving it ALL away) who can make better use of it.