Garden Plotting 101 . . . NOT!

I am planning a garden this year (I know, I know, Will has already groaned and made the obligatory derogative remarks so y'all can just leave that alone). I don't want a huge spot b/c I don't want to invest forever and a day in this endeavor. I want a small plot for a few things (tomatoes and jalapeno for salsa; chili peppers for pepper sauce; cucumbers for sweet pickles; squash, okra, potatoes, multiplying onions, watermelons, and cantaloupes). So I started out in my search for how to plot out a garden spot. There are no stinking pictures!!! All the sites I seem to come across have tons of words telling you to plant tall plants on the south side, short plants on the north side, and watch the shade b/c lots of things don't want direct sun. Where are all the pictures of garden plots that I can work with? Even the sites for beginner gardeners seem to think you should have a basic knowledge already. Well, guess what? I don't.

The entire time I was growing up we had gardens. I can remember the order of the two gardens that held corn and peas (yes, you read right, peas, plural, as in different types—purple hulls, zippers, creams, big boys, red rippers . . . the list goes on and on) b/c I picked them year after year after year and sold them to make money for school clothes and supplies. Lest you think I felt left out in the fall, I also sold pears by the bushel in October. 

But, for some reason, I cannot for the life of me remember the order of the third garden. I remember cucumbers were the last row on one end next to the pear orchard so they could run out the edge. Then there were several rows of potatoes. Then a few rows of butterbeans (absolutely delicious food, heck on the person picking and shelling those little buggers—they were about 4 inches tall and the hulls have sharp points on each end). Then who freaking knows?!?!? I know we grew onions, multiplying onions (which we ate fresh from the garden with fresh peas that had snaps in them!), tomatoes, squash, okra, turnip greens, beets, radishes, sweet banana pepper, hot peppers (for pepper sauce), and eggplant (ICK!! not in my garden!!). I also know that there are some plants that should be planted next to each other and some plants that should be planted rows apart (very good information here). But who knows what goes where? I finally found this great chart and will use it extensively!

I do know that I am going to build a trellis as seen here for the cucumber plants to grow on instead of having them run across the ground and the cucumbers rot on the bottom b/c they are on the ground.

I'm sure there will be more garden posts as spring goes one. For now I am going to have to figure out how to unhook the mower from the tractor and hook the disk up to the tractor. Sigh. Not that I am not capable of this but it's not my favorite thing in the world.