Please help the newist of newbies!!!!

[ninny]

I am doing a garden this year. We are still trying to get the area tilled. The weather is not helping in any way. Im putting seeds in and some plants. Could someone tell me what to plant next to what? Also im not sure how to do the sprawling plants. Should I plant them at the edges and let them mix together? Or should i till a line and leave so many feet between them? Also I'm not saving seeds so would it be okay to plant all peppers together etc..
Should i mulch them with straw to keep weeds down?
Can i grow several tomatos on one terllis or do they each need one?
Is there any i should wait on. This is my frist garden.
Heres what i have
cantaloupe
squash - spaghetti, acorn, buttercup
cucumber
zucnhini
watermelon
pumpkin
radish
carrot
tomato, cherry and big
peppers, bell, sweet banana
sugar snap peas bush type
green beans bush type
cauliflower
broccoli
lettuce

i also have apple trees and raspberries.

 

[hoodat]

I hope you have a lot of room with all those runners. I plant mine at the edge and train them to head away from the garden. They pretty well shade out weeds on their own. The only runners I see that might give you trouble are the cantalopes. You will need a good deep bed of straw under them if you want to keep the ground crawling bugs from burrowing into them. Cukes can either be trellised or bedded on straw.
No problem with planting all the peppers together. It won't affect the taste.
Most of your other questions can be answered by browsing the board. Someone is always willing to help if you get in a bind.
Good luck
BILLY

 

[ninny]

I hope you have a lot of room with all those runners. I plant mine at the edge and train them to head away from the garden. They pretty well shade out weeds on their own. The only runners I see that might give you trouble are the cantalopes. You will need a good deep bed of straw under them if you want to keep the ground crawling bugs from burrowing into them. Cukes can either be trellised or bedded on straw.
No problem with planting all the peppers together. It won't affect the taste.
Most of your other questions can be answered by browsing the board. Someone is always willing to help if you get in a bind.
Good luck
BILLY

Thank You!

 

[lesa]

Sounds like you are jumping in with both feet!! Good for you. Tell us what zone you are in. Each tomato plant will need its own support. Always a good idea to make aisles for harvesting, etc. if you are planting in rows. Are all the plants you mention transplants or seeds? Tell us more- Good luck!

 

[ninny]

Sounds like you are jumping in with both feet!! Good for you. Tell us what zone you are in. Each tomato plant will need its own support. Always a good idea to make aisles for harvesting, etc. if you are planting in rows. Are all the plants you mention transplants or seeds? Tell us more- Good luck!

Im in illinois not sure what my zone is. Some are transplants some are seeds and some are both.

Do my peppers need support?

 

[digitS']

Line things up mostly by height so that short plants are on the south side, tall plants are to the north. Most of these "companion" plants tolerate each other. Or, one benefits and the other isn't too inconvenienced. It is a dog-eat-dog world out in the garden . The plants compete for water, nutrients, and, very importantly, sunlight.

I don't see corn on your list but you can imagine trying to grow something like carrots on the shady, north side of 8 foot corn plants.

Tomatoes usually need about twice the support you think they'll need when you put the plants in. They can get heaaavveeyy!

Do my peppers need support?

Maybe, maybe not. A single stake should be all that is necessary and tie them to it if they begin to lean.

Steve

 

[Kim_NC]

Sounds like you are jumping in with both feet!! Good for you. Tell us what zone you are in. Each tomato plant will need its own support. Always a good idea to make aisles for harvesting, etc. if you are planting in rows. Are all the plants you mention transplants or seeds? Tell us more- Good luck!

Im in illinois not sure what my zone is. Some are transplants some are seeds and some are both.

Do my peppers need support?

Congrats from me too! Gardening is such a fun challenge and so rewarding!

Your hardiness zone is an important factor in gardening. Please take a look at this Illinois zone map and tell us which zone you're in.

http://www.bestplants.org/zonemap.htm

As a general guide, you plant things in order of what weather they prefer. Based on your list...

Likes/tolerates cooler weather:
cauliflower
broccoli
lettuce
sugar snap peas bush type
radish
carrot

Likes warmer weather/tolerates some cooler nights (but above 50* is best):
cantaloupe
squash - spaghetti, acorn, buttercup
cucumber
zucnhini
watermelon
pumpkin
green beans bush type
tomato, cherry and big

Likes hotter weather:
peppers, bell, sweet banana

 

[Kim_NC]

Do my peppers need support?

Maybe, maybe not. A single stake should be all that is necessary and tie them to it if they begin to lean.

Steve

Agree. We usually end up giving our peppers a stake (shorter than the tomato stakes) and tying them off once or twice....just enough to keep them from layng over from the weight of the peppers.

 

[Ridgerunner]

These links might help you determine which zone you are in. Different zones use different criteria, but they mainly look at freezing or frost dates in your area. Freezing and frost dates are different. We all have our own microclimates in the zones, so they are just approximations, but you will often notice a zone in the write-up of plant descriptions, especially trees. According to these three, I live in three different zones, 6, 7, and 7A. I'm right on the border and these three obviously use different criteria, but I know I should never plant a tree that will not do well in both zones 6 and 7.

Arbor Day Zip Code Planting Zone
http://www.arborday.org/treeinfo/zonelookup.cfm

Zip Code Planting Zone
http://www.gardenweb.com/zones/zip.cgi

Zip Code Planting Zone
http://www.garden.org/zipzone/

I do not mulch squash and zucchini since that gives the squash bug (not the squash borer, the squash bug that looks a lot like a stink bug) a place to hide. Besides, once they get started, they pretty much shade out the weeds anyway. You do need to keep them cleaned of weeds and grass until they get started though. The squash bugs do not bother my cucumbers, so they can be mulched. I don't know if the squash bugs bother cantaloupe, pumpkin, or watermelon. I would think you can mulch them and they would greatly benefit, but I don't grow them. They take up too much room for me.

I direct sow my leaf lettuce, radishes and carrots and do not mulch them. You'll probably need to weed them once, at most twice for the lettuce and carrots, then they should shade out about everything else.

The tomatoes, peppers, sugar snap peas bush type, green beans bush type, cauliflower, broccoli, and head lettuce can all be mulched if you wish. I've done the peas, beans, cauliflower, and broccoli both ways. I've never grown head lettuce but it should be about the same as broccoli and cauliflower. The peas, broccoli and cauliflower are not long producing plants and, once they get going, they pretty keep the weeds down. I think mulch helps them in a couple of ways other than keeping the weeds down. The are cool weather plants and mulch helps keep the soil cool if you use lighter colored mulch. Dark mulch will warm up the soil. They also greatly benefit from keeping the soil moist but not soaking wet. Mulch helps keep moisture in. Keeping the moisture relatively stable is a great benefit.

I think it is important that you do mulch tomatoes and peppers. They should produce over a long period of time in your area. Once they get going good, it is hard to keep the weeds out without damaging the plants, they grow so big. Constant moisture helps reduce splitting of the tomatoes after a rain. If the ground is dry, then it rains, tomatoes will soak up so much moisture that it splits the tomatoes. It still happens with me, but the mulch helps some.

The main reason I think it is important to mulch tomatoes and peppers is that they can get a blight that can greatly reduce production or even kill the plants. This blight gets splashed up on the plant from the soil when it rains or maybe when you water. If you have a layer of mulch it keeps the soil from splashing up on your plant.

There are several different ways to support tomatoes; stakes, trellises, and cages to name the basics, but there are many variations of each. A stake is one dimensional, having height but no width or length. A trellis is two dimensional, having height and length but no width. A cage has all three dimensions. The tomatoes will compete with each other for sunlight. As long as you can figure out how to let them all have sufficient sunlight, there is no harm in letting them share a trellis or cage. The disclaimer to this is that if one tomato plant gets diseased, say blight from the soil, the disease can spread through all the tomatoes much easier if they are touching each other than if they are separately supported. I tend to trellis or cage my tomatoes together.

I also trellis my cucumbers. They take up less space and are easier to keep the weeds down if they are trellised.

We all do things differently and have different climates and conditions. Hopefully some of this will help you in your specific conditions.

 

[ecopepper]

I think the farmers almanac is a great place to look for when to plant and what to plant. They have a zone finder too http://www.farmersalmanac.com/ Hope this helps and books are a great way to get info in your zone or a county extension office.