[Ch4rli3]

Hi all,

I have just taken over an allotment and am currently planning where to sow all the veg I want to grow this year.

What I really want to know is are there certain vegtables that cant be planted near to each other?  Also where is best to plant sweetcorn and beans as wont they block out the sun for the rest of my veg?

I am sure these are really simple questions but I am totally new to this and cant wait to get stuck in.

Any advice would be really appreciated

[Trillium]

Beans aren't too keen to be near onions, but other than that, most veg behave among the other kiddies. Sweetcorn needs full sun and gets quite tall so you'll want to put it at the north end of your patch where it won't shade your other plants. Can't help with your neighbour's  but that's life. Climbing beans should also be at the north end of the plot with the corn. Depending on whether or not you're growing short tom plants or vining tom plants; vining ones should go near the back (north) as well.
Some folk advocate north to south plantings, others like east to west. The plants will grow regardless, but just make sure the tall ones are at the back.

[nobby]

trillium is right if you plant short at the front and tall at the back then you will get the most of the sun
as you get more expeareanced you will start to rotate your crops and lern that some plants prefer more sun/shade than others
it all comes in time

[MoreWhisky]

Im personally thinking of planting my spuds next to my strawberrys reading that spuds are greedy does anybody think these Not  good neighours?

[Stripey_cat]

Will you be able to earth up and dig your potatoes without damaging the strawberries' roots?

[MoreWhisky]

so are you saing this not a good neighbouring match stripey?

[woodburner]

I don't think much at all goes with spuds (until they're cooked ofc ) The soil around them gets a lot of disturbance for earthing up, it would be next to impossible to grow anything in between them. 

[Stripey_cat]

It was a genuine question!  Partly, it depends on what you mean by "next to".  I have long, narrow beds, so I could have (say) a metre of strawberries next to another crop, and so long as a left a gap that was big enough for any cultivation necessary they'd be fine.  If you want to plant traditional rows of each adjacent, you'd need several feet in between so you have somewhere to stand when you're earthing up.  Maybe someone could sketch the difference?

[andreadon]

I put my pots next to the strawbs a couple of years ago.  It seemed to work fine until all the strawb runners took over the potatoes' soil.
Having said that, it didn't do any harm to the strawbs when I pulled up the potatoes.
They seem to grip the soil like they're expecting an earthquake!!
(especially the runners you try to get rid of....)

[Ch4rli3]

Thanks for all the advice guys.  I guess it does make sense to plant tall plants at the northern end of the plot.

I will start planning and ordering seeds in the next few days.  Bring on the spring