Intercropping - Carrots Love Tomatoes!

I've been reading the book Carrots Love Tomaotes by the late Louise Riotte - its a great book on companion planting and also a really helpful general garden reference.  Most people know that marigolds (as I overheard at the garden center yesterday) - "keep something bad away from your tomatoes...or something."  But most people don't know that there are plenty of other plants that will protect each other - for example mint planted among cabbage will repel the cabbage butterfly, cucumbers "are offensive to raccoons" so are good to plant with corn to keep them away and corn seems to protect cucumbers from wilt, if you plant garlic in a circle around fruit trees it will protect them from borers.  Did you know any of that?  I didn't.  The book is an excellent reference and her writing style is old-fashioned but cheeky.  This book should be on any gardener's shelf.
 
So, with Louise as my guide, I'm trying to do a little more intercropping than I have in the past - while some parts of my garden are just rows of stuff (with consideration about what is to each side), others are (or are going to be) more of a blend.  The three-sisters area (which I'm repeating from last year) is an example of this, but this year I'm doing a different take on a tomato patch.

I had just watered it before this picture was taken, so it gives a better visual.  To break it down - there's a big square, segmented into 4 smaller squares. The big square is marigolds around the border (I just put some full grown ones in as markers, but there are others seeded along  the sides) and also intersecting the large square and basil at every corner and at the intersection in the middle.  Each smaller square will be a tomato plant in the center, an onion at each corner, and one or two Paris Market carrots (I've just ordered them from Seed Savers (dot) org) at the North/South/East/West points on the smaller squares.

This is what a Paris Market carrot looks like:

Isn't that fun?  I'm so excited about them.

These are some of my more-developed seedlings having some outside time.  Three corn plants and two luffas (which are for the aforementioned 3-sisters area), a cucumber, an eggplant, and two tomato plants.

I'm sure that my neighbors will be happy when this is gone.  There are a few bigger (purchased - I'm impatient) tomato plants, a stevia, some extra basil and some trays of corn, watermelon, jenny lind melon, and pumpkin seeds that just went in yesterday.  On the sides are pots of morning glory that are staying there and hopefully swallowing up the railing.

And speaking of things that I impulsively bought at the garden center yesterday - lime tree!  With limes!  Anyone have a good name for a lime tree?

Out in the garden-proper - the broccoli is starting to make food!

The lettuce is starting to look like salad!

Beets are really starting to do their thing!

And it won't be long before my Titans will be knee-high!

A little progress, a little snow.

So my greenhouse is busting with little lives and I just seeded my next set-- so I thought I'd post a few pictures.


From the outside!

We found a grow light in the basement just as I was going to buy one - which was nice. A few weeks ago I put in tomatoes, brussels sprouts, onions, and broccoli as well as pansies. I also had to resuscitate my rosemary which was doing fine until about 3 weeks ago.

At first I was a bad plant mom and the grow light would be on for days and off for days-- but I got a timer from home depot this week and so the kids are getting 12 hours of light every day from 6am to 6pm. I plan to up the time soon.

Today I seeded in eggplant, cucumbers, balloon flowers, and marigolds. I put geraniums and dahlia tubers in pots. I also put garlic, daffodils, and spinach outside...oh and a clematis vine. I wasn't going to buy a clematis but there was a whole shelf of them and they were in this little phalanx and one right in the middle had sprouted this feisty little vine. It won me over.

I don't have any pics of the outside plants - but here's a little tour of the greenhouse:



In the front are marigolds that I just put in today. I think I might pot the spares and put them out as decorations for the bridal shower if they're big enough...6 weeks? That should give them time to be a little bushy. To the left are the brussels sprouts. The big tin pot is the sad rosemary. In the back are the tomatoes-- I really want to grow them upside down. I registered for the tomato upside down hanging things and I have my fingers crossed that those arrive at the bridal shower. The two little 4-tops in the middle are the cukes and eggplant. Just in today.



That's still the tomatoes at the back, marigolds in the front and you can see the cucumber 4-top. The set of 6 beside it has more pansies in as does the 4-top to the right behind it. The other two 4-packs are basil and broccoli. The random singles in there are miracle fruit seedlings that haven't done a whole lot yet.



2nd shelf-- my baby lime tree is at the back. I need to repot it this week. In the middle is my supermarket rose bush that lived in the garage all winter and is starting to bud. There are sprouted onions at the back and balloon flowers up front.



This is the somewhat boring shelf- the two little pots are dwarf bedding dahlias and the big pot is the geranium. We'll see how these go.

This is my boring back yard:



There's snow in this picture-- we had a random flurry today. It's hard to see.

The landlady says that the gardeners "don't speak much English" and "whip through there with the mower" so to be careful about that. I plan on making clearly marked guerilla garden installations. So far I have hidden spare dahlia tubers in what I hope to be a safe place. I have clearly marked the clematis vine below the porch railing (not shown). I also plan on putting some titan sunflowers along the garage. I have to get a few more seeds, there are only 5 left in my packet from last year and I can't find the ones I saved. Square one.