interesting a few questions:
1. did plant garlic in fall?
which type of marigolds:french,Mexican or other!
2 basil does deter pests but it does attract others.
3. are sure you have enough tomato plants?

Yup, I planted a the garlic last fall so it's sleeping happily under the mulch. I'm not sure what type of marigolds. I saved seeds from last year and just ordered a few more varieties. I may put some of them in pots around the garden. I do have a fence and electric strand going around everything to keep out the critters.

Even if the basil doesn't deter pests, I make and freeze a lot of pesto.

Can you ever have enough tomatoes?

Here's a question. I've had problems with something (birds?) eating the tops of my chili plants. I sprinkled bloodmeal around them after this happened last year but was wondering if I should put some light netting over the young plants this year. Anyone have any ideas?

A couple assumptions and questions. I assume the tomatoes are all on some sort of trellise system to get them off the ground, that's a lot of tomatoes!!

You don't give us any information as to orientation. My concern would be shading. Firstly, on the end rows being as the tomatoes are taller that the squash / bean row, and secondly all the interplanting around the tomatoes. Unless you keep the tomatoes pretty tightly managed there's not going to be a lot of sunlight at the ground level for the interior rows.

Have you done this sort of intensive planting / interplanting before? It seems very aggressive, and almost too dense. The other thing you have to think about when planting under tomatoes, is disturbing their roots while planting / harvesting the interplants.

I am chronically guilty of over planting and then production always suffers. Over the years I have learned that where I would normally put two plants, I only plant one, and I still have plenty.

Steve

I second the concerns about the density of the tomato plants. I don't think anything growing around their feet will do very well.

Indeterminate 'maters get to be absolute MONSTERS unless you spend every spare minute pruning them. Who wants to do that?

I give my tomatoes their own space where they can turn the area into a total jungle. We use homemade cages made out of heavy reinforcing wire (for concrete tensile support). The cages are about six feet tall and two feet in diameter. They work best when set up in groups of three so that they can provide each other support (even though the resulting jungle can be more challenging to harvest).

The garden is about 45 degrees off north. So just rotate that counter-clockwise. For the basil and ornamentals I'm not too worried about shading. I did the tomatoes like this last year and while the basil doesn't get huge, it also doesn't get too much sun and I'm not up-rooting the plants, just trimming. Same with the greens for the most part. The areas where I think I'll be doing more up-rooting (like the peas) aren't near the tomatoes.

I've been using round cages for the tomatoes. While it gets tight, I didn't have too many problems last year. The plants shown here are planted 3' apart from the stems.

The leek, brussel spouts and carrots concern me a little bit as I haven't mixed those with tomatoes before, so if anyone has a better idea for those.

I'm not expecting all of the tomatoes to make it or get huge and I'm not averse to pruning them back if they start to get crazy. I'm doing everything from seed so the only major investment is time.

I'm only doing summer squash as I can get great winter squash at the farmers market and they seem to take up more space. First time doing beans, cucumbers, garlic and onions.

The lettuce is all mixes, so not heading varieties so I'll be cutting those young and continuously sowing.

The garlic looks a little tight on here, but they are actually on the corners of the rows on the edge of the slope so they'll be out of the way.

Hi Patrick. Fun diagram :)
My question, other than the shading, is crop rotation. You will have tomatoed, peppered, and eggplanted (same family) every one of your beds. Do you then rotate little sections of the beds rather than the whole bed? Or just not worry about rotation? (I have heard that tomatoes are the one thing that doesn't mind growing where tomatoes have grown before, so maybe it's a mute point.)

My tomatoes become mini-jungles so the best way for me to interplant with them, so as not to shade anything out, is to plant something low (like bush beans or basil) all along their southern side.

This is only the second season with the garden, so no rotation. I'll probably continue doing a lot of mulching in the fall to try and keep things healthy.

Just a few notes.

Orientation looks good, for the most part. Be aware of plant heights when choosing where varieties go, especially indeterminate tomatoes.

I would want way more leeks, radicchio, and Brussels sprouts. These crops don't give continuous harvests, so I want depth and duration. I plant over a thousand leeks in my commercial beds, and I always eat a few hundred. Brussels sprouts - 20 plants, radicchio - 40 plants.

Your dense spacing and intercropping will require more fertility and water. Compost will go a long way in stabilizing moisture levels. Drip irrigation on a timer would save you some work and worry.

Consider putting chiles in pots and beets in the ground. You may be facing shading issues with some of your chiles.

You have an abundance of heat loving crops, but it looks like you're in zone 4. You should have a good amount of seed and transplants ready to extend the season after the first frost.

A well designed and considered plan in my opinion. Well thought out in terms of companion planting, but pushing the spacing a bit, which will likely affect size and yield of some crops.

Your biggest concern is disease that affects nightshades. With the virulent blights that have circulated in the last few years, such heavy planting of solanaceous crops could mean huge losses to one viral infection. Be ready to have something else to plant if you get hit, so the season won't be a waste.

I'm looking at the Nasturtiums. Do you know which types you will use? Traditional trailing varieties will swamp a 3 footwide bed in foliage from a single plant and then set off towards the next bed. An 8 foot stem is not unusual. Think of them as being like a smaller version of a pumpkin growth-wise. Your radishes and garlic wouldn't stand a chance. So try to get non-trailing varieties and give them at least 18ins square each. In my garden they attract aphids, cabbage white butterflies (they are in the same family as cabbages) and shelter slugs and snails. I grow them because they are cheerful to look at, tasty to eat and they self-sow. I've never noticed any beneficial effects.

Thanks guys. Great things to consider there.

I had no idea about the nasturtiums. I've always grown nasturtiums in pots so spreading wasn't an issue. For varieties, I have some seeds I saved from last year and I ordered Jewel Mix and Black Velvet. I've read that nasturtiums are good with tomatoes for nematode control. I guess if they go crazy I can always prune them. I do eat them in salads and can give away the other greens so that might help keep them low. Put I'll probably throw some in pots within the garden so I can move them around with some of the other flowers.

Water isn't actually a big problem. The garden is located on the lowest part of the property. Last year I actually only needed to water every couple of days with the hose and we had a scorcher once the season got going. I don't think I can afford to set up a full drip system this year, but I was thinking of putting a sprinkler head in each corner and putting those on a timer and then looking at a system for next season. I'm actually setting up a bird/bee garden on the edge of the garden where it gets really wet with a bunch of natives and dwarf sunflowers to help control some of the water.

I've got some great ideas now for moving a few things!

A few more thoughts after further reading.

Once your tomatoes are well-established, remove the growth from the base of the plants. Any leaves in contact with the soil should go immediately, and the goal should be to have the bottom 12" of the stem free of leaves or branches. This will make a big difference on light levels to the plants below, and makes working on them much easier. These lower branches rarely produce fruit, and the addition they make through photosynthesis will soon be exceeded by new growth at the top of the plant.

When you remove the pea and bean vines, cut the stems at soil level rather than uprooting the plants. This causes less disturbance to adjacent crops and leaves the maximum amount of captured nitrogen in the soil, after a bit of decomposition.

When transplanting leeks, sink them as deep as you can into the soil, with only a small green tip showing. The best flavor is in the blanched leaves, not the green ones. The more soil you can pile around the growing base early in the season, the better your leeks will be. My goal is to have a minimum of 8" blanched, and can sometimes get 10" or more.

Carrots and leeks want very friable soil to grow and taste best. Carrots under stress create terpenes, which are to be avoided, as they can mask the sweetness of a well-grown crop. Stones in the soil will cause crooked carrots. Peat and compost can be liberally added, but excess nitrogen levels can be detrimental. If you have heavier soil, or a high percentage of stones, shorter and thinner varieties are best. My best carrots are grown in deeply sifted beds in summer, and in the hoophouse for winter harvest. The winter carrots are always the best flavor, as is also true for spinach.

I wouldn't put nasturtiums into a garden! They are beautiful, but invasive!
I have mine in my herb garden where I can train them up and pull them as needed! I also have them on the outskirts of the garden.
The seeds invade a garden! PullPullPull!
Just MHO Nancy

Nasturtiums are easy to control in cooler climates. Just eat the flowers.