What to put where?

MamaHawk

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2024
Messages
204
Reaction score
60
Location
A corner lot in Akron, OH
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
Hi everyone! I’ve got 3 8x3 raised beds in a row, and I’m planning on cattle panel trellises connecting each, long-ways. I want to grow potatoes, pole beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, watermelon, sugar snap peas and corn. Should I be worried about shading the beds if I fill the trellises? Should I only do one arch on the bed furthest west?
 

Meadowlark

You never know unless you grow 🤠
Moderator
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
6,084
Reaction score
6,176
Location
East Texas
Hardiness Zone
old zone 8b/new zone 9a
Country
United States
How much sun will these beds get before trellis?


Assuming full sun, here's how I would do bed 1, FWIW.

I have had good luck with three sisters corn, pole beans, and watermelon. The traditional method used by the native American Indians was corn, beans, and squash but I find substituting watermelon for squash works well also.

Plant the corn first then after it is up a few inches plant the pole beans in proximity and watermelon/cantaloupe "mounds" on each end outside the corn to enable the vines to run along with the corn but get full sun on the mound itself. You could do a watermelon mound with 4 or so plants on one end and a cantaloupe mound with 4 or so plants on the other end. I would dedicate one 3x8 bed to that set-up with three rows of corn, one on each outside row and one down the middle with something like 8–10-inch spacing on the corn plants.

In bed 2 I would do the following:

Plant your seed potatoes about 12 inches apart in two rows equally spaced in the bed. Plant sweet peas in between each seed potato after the potato begins to break through the soil. These make excellent companion plants, and I have been planting in this manner for many years. The peas will provide some nitrogen to the growing spuds.

Then in bed three, plant three equally spaced rows with one row each of carrots, spinach, and lettuce respectively.

Just a suggestion...with no need for the cattle panels. If I was using the cattle panels, I would only do so on bed 3 and plant cucumbers to train up the panels on one side that minimally blocked sunlight.

That's just how I would do it...not intending to say how you should do it.
 

MamaHawk

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2024
Messages
204
Reaction score
60
Location
A corner lot in Akron, OH
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
The beds do get full sun, currently anyway.

I like your ideas! Plus the way you have it structured, most things are getting shifted a bed so it’s leaning into a good crop rotation.

I think I just really like the idea of arches, but don’t have a real reason to use them. Except the smaller melons and pole beans…I have about five cantaloupe breeds I want to try out all at once but they might cross pollinate and skew the results. Thoughts?

P.S. we also put more wood into the bottoms for Hugelculture; we’ve learned from you!
 

Meadowlark

You never know unless you grow 🤠
Moderator
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
6,084
Reaction score
6,176
Location
East Texas
Hardiness Zone
old zone 8b/new zone 9a
Country
United States
…I have about five cantaloupe breeds I want to try out all at once but they might cross pollinate and skew the results. Thoughts?

P.S. we also put more wood into the bottoms for Hugelculture; we’ve learned from you!
They won't cross with watermelons. They will cross with different varieties in their species. However, that won't affect the fruit this year and only affect fruit in the future if you save seeds. Then you could easily get hybrids with unpredictable fruit...at least that is my understanding and experience.
 

MamaHawk

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2024
Messages
204
Reaction score
60
Location
A corner lot in Akron, OH
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
They won't cross with watermelons. They will cross with different varieties in their species. However, that won't affect the fruit this year and only affect fruit in the future if you save seeds. Then you could easily get hybrids with unpredictable fruit...at least that is my understanding and experience.
Ohhhh that makes sense! All the cantaloupe are heirlooms so I was planning on saving seeds, and this makes it even more exciting if not predictable haha!
 
Joined
Aug 11, 2023
Messages
23
Reaction score
14
Location
north east ks.
Country
United States
Hi everyone! I’ve got 3 8x3 raised beds in a row, and I’m planning on cattle panel trellises connecting each, long-ways. I want to grow potatoes, pole beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, watermelon, sugar snap peas and corn. Should I be worried about shading the beds if I fill the trellises? Should I only do one arch on the bed furthest west?
potatos are cheap to buy and not worth the effort to grow in a small bed. for spinach lambs quarter and amaranth will give you good spinach all season til frost kills it and both are easy to save seeds for. And by mid summer no stooping to harvest. ooold gardiner from ks.
 
Joined
Aug 11, 2023
Messages
23
Reaction score
14
Location
north east ks.
Country
United States
potatos are cheap to buy and not worth the effort to grow in a small bed. for spinach lambs quarter and amaranth will give you good spinach all season til frost kills it and both are easy to save seeds for. And by mid summer no stooping to harvest. ooold gardener from KS.
 

Meadowlark

You never know unless you grow 🤠
Moderator
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
6,084
Reaction score
6,176
Location
East Texas
Hardiness Zone
old zone 8b/new zone 9a
Country
United States
potatos are cheap to buy and not worth the effort to grow in a small bed. for spinach lambs quarter and amaranth will give you good spinach all season til frost kills it and both are easy to save seeds for. And by mid summer no stooping to harvest. ooold gardiner from ks.
Home grown new potatoes are most definitely one of best veggies I grow...and are certainly more than worth the effort. To each their own.
 

MamaHawk

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2024
Messages
204
Reaction score
60
Location
A corner lot in Akron, OH
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
potatos are cheap to buy and not worth the effort to grow in a small bed. for spinach lambs quarter and amaranth will give you good spinach all season til frost kills it and both are easy to save seeds for. And by mid summer no stooping to harvest. ooold gardiner from ks.
Thanks! I’ll look into those!
 

GFTL

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2023
Messages
242
Reaction score
157
Location
Michigan 6b
Country
United States
If your beds are running east to west you shouldn't have any problem with shading with the trellises between the beds or with the trellises running S to N on the north side of the beds.
 

MamaHawk

Full Access Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2024
Messages
204
Reaction score
60
Location
A corner lot in Akron, OH
Hardiness Zone
6b
Country
United States
If your beds are running east to west you shouldn't have any problem with shading with the trellises between the beds or with the trellises running S to N on the north side of the beds.
Oh good! That's mainly what I'm worried about as the trellis would be relatively high. Thanks!
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
29,934
Messages
288,933
Members
16,136
Latest member
Adil

Latest Threads

Top