Re: [CH] Plant layouts

tucker (tucker@ticon.net)
Sat, 31 May 2003 18:11:23 -0500 

Constance Allen wrote:

> I do not have a garden per se, but have a kitchen garden, flower
> beds, roses and lawn.  And...a very. very good underground sprinkler system
> installed by my professional landscape installer son with mister and
> controlled cycles.
>
> Which is the t-up to my question:
> what plants have the same water needs? and can best be planted in close
> proximity to each other?
>
> I.e., onions next to calla lilies.  Cucumber climbing behind  bush
> beans?  Cucumbers near tomatoes, squash...

  I had some minor problems with the cucumbers I put in for my wife last year.  I hadn't
grown them previously, and didn't realize quite how invasive they would be.  It was probably
a few times per week that I had to wrestle one or more of their little feelers from around
the stems or leaves of my nearby chile plants.  We did put up a trellis for them to climb,
which they did, but also, of course, wanted to spread out in all directions.

  For watering routines, keep in mind that some folk like to deprive their chiles of water
from time to time to stress them into producing hotter fruit (something Sandy and I don't
have to worry about...).  So if that's something you would like to do, you may want to rely
on container growing instead of planting in your existing, sprinkler serviced, areas.
Though that may depend on your preference for chile varieties, space available to place
containers, resident deer population, etc...  I just recently finished some renovation /
landscaping of my raised bed area, and now have a nice little area to place containers, with
room for about 9 -10 five-gallon sized containers.  This is all safely tucked away behind my
rabbit fence, which also (so far) keeps the deer out.  If I had a web site, I'd post
pictures, as I really like the way it turned out, considering it was pretty much a dump last
Spring when we moved in here.

  Otherwise, I would guess it depends on how much extra space is available in these beds,
and perhaps whatever pest problems might arise combining flower and veggie gardening.  If
all goes well, let me know, and I'll ask the wife if I can put some chiles in her rose beds
that have an automatic watering system.  Yeah, right!

  Good luck!!!

--
Erich
C-H # 2099 & First Lieutenant of the Moderate Corps.  Inexperienced in many areas or
gardening, ... ok, most, but replying anyway...