If your weather is hot like ours is sweet peas won't germinate well. They need cool weather to sprout well. Those that know in your area say they stop blooming when the really hot weather comes. For other years--Sweet [peas like garden peas climb by using tendrils--little cork screws to cling to things. A split rail fence has nothing for them to grab on to. You can grow them there if you put something in front of the fence they can grab on to. However you are not too late for other annual vines like Morning Glories. They too will need something to climb on. I've never heard of protecting vines with bird netting so I can't comment on that

I take all of your cautions about Morning Glories to heart, and I won't plant them so that they actually use the roses as trellises, but I do think that those of you who rail against them are thinking of the perennial version and not the annual versions that are available. I am well aware of the shed or house-eating qualities of the perennial Morning Glory; I planted one because I wanted it to hide an ugly shed, and it does a pretty good job of that. But the annuals are....just that....annuals which die back (at least here in Zone 9), and occasionally (only occasionally) reseed and even then only minimally. To get MG's to do well here I have to start them indoors because they like more heat than we get. Still, I do think you are all right that they would be too big and too heavy and block too much air if planted as a true companion to roses, and so....I'm just not gonna do it. Gee, it's so much fun to have been able to log on at all that I'm just going on and on.... Susan

Here's what I do - it takes time, but way less energy than digging. Stockpile heavy corrugated cardboard (appliance and furniture boxes are great, but the grocery store is a good source also) and an organic mulch that you won't mind looking at for a growing season. (My personal choice is natural wood chips or shavings, but chopped leaves will work also. I avoid dyed mulch since it's hard to judge what has been camouflaged by the dye.) Mow the area really short or clip or hoe it to ground level. Cover the area with the cardboard with overlaps - no gaps at all, and cover the edges with something to weigh it down - bricks, heavy chunks of wood, etc. Cover the cardboard with at least 4 inches of mulch and water well to settle it. The combination of cardboard and mulch will smother your weeds and then will over time decompose to give you soil of wonderful quality. Wait a year to plant - and watch like a hawk during that year, pulling any tiny sprig of green that might emerge. Resist the temptation to plant now since gaps in the mulch will allow your persistent weeds to regrow. During the year you can plan how you will plant it. To get ideas, visit public gardens, wander around neighborhoods with gardens you like, go on garden tours, and visit nurseries over the course of the season, not just in spring. If you really need to plant, you can put out pots of annuals or even of perennials & shrubs hardy to 2 zones colder than you are (if the pots are frost-proof.) If you are planning vines for your fence, you can shop for or create your trellises. If you don't have an edging that discourages the lawn from entering your beds, you can do that also, either a cut edge or an edging that is buried to keep the grass in the lawn. So if you do this now, you can plant the bed next spring. Just pull aside the mulch, plant, and tuck back in without piling mulch against the stems. Since you will have chive and sweet peas seeds that may have survived, watch for them and pull immediately. Or spread corn gluten around the plants you put in - it's a natural discourager of seed sprouting, but won't affect your newly planted plants. I'd love to see an after photo when you've got it planted!

I am having a hard time finding info on less grown crops like black eyed peas lima beans sweet potaoes strawberries in the south (north texas) eggplant peanuts celeriac sunflowers shallots first companion ideas for the above would be helpful and good web sites or info on how to grow the above would be greatly appreciated Do sweet potaotes need something to climb on? If so, what do they like to clinb on? Do black eyed peas climb, or better left to sprawl? Are egg plants caged like tomatoes? I have read on strawberries and sweet potaoes, both have me stumped. I am having to learn so much already, maybe I will figure that stuff out later. I grew up on a strawberry farm in Vermont. But it was chemically grown, and vermont and texas two different creatures. We are hot hot hot here. 95-100 all summer. We do not have much of a spring or fall, so cool weather crops are tricky. Winters can freeze or be in the 80's. Hard to keep plants happy here I think. I am a brand new gardener and have no clue. Well no clues, beyond my mistakes I made last year with my only crop of squash, and what have read on-line. So many conflicting opinions. Plus most info is geared for the north or europe. I am planting the black eyed peas and limas in a three sisters garden with corn, squash, melons, cucumbers, green beans and radishes. Had trouble getting the radish to come up direct seeding, so I presprouted in a paper towel and that worked. So radishes are so small not to be of much help now. 4 beds, a different legume and differnet curcubit in each bed. It is an experiment at this point. So far I have had to pull the squash, all were full or evil borers. I replanted the squash. The corn is getting little tiny bugs in the stuff that is heading out at the top. And they are leaving a dust. Either it is too hot for the corn, it might be a northern variety (I have golden bantam, and country gentalman) or maybe soil fertility is not great yet. I am a no til gardener, so it will take a while for things to get just right. I have hilled the soil, but mised a hill and they fell over. I have those staked, and I put in pole there to help the beans climb, since the corn is weak. I wonder if any will produce despite the problems. Beans are not appreciating the shade of the corn, and neither are the black eyed peas. Melons are taking forever to sprout, so I am trying presprouting. Taking forever that way too. The pack was free with the order. Maybe they were old seeds. The cucumber pack was also a free with order thing. They are slow to sprout too. I am behind in my planting due to a bad case of poison oak I got on may 2 and I still itch. Almost gone, thank the lord. I am no longer doing any spring gardening. I have bad tree alergies in feb and march. So I can sart the corn in april and be ok. The spring veggies did not do well anyway. Too hot. I have nice sized tomato plants, only two small tomatoes now though. I think since it is upper ninties the fruit is not setting. I have in the same bed as the tomatoes, beets, scallions (not too happy in the heat), basil, borage, a 6" sunflower plant, chives, garlic. The chives and garlic are under the tomatoes someplace. They were not under there when I planted them. I had no clue tomatoes spread so. I wish I had paid the slightest bit of attension when my grandma gardened. I am just planting the remaining presprouts: beets, scallions, radish, borage, basil, cukes, melons. I know the cool veggies are a long shot. I just kept trying to get them to sprout, outside, and now that they have, inside, it is too late in the season. I directed planted them outside two or three times. By the time I got the idea to paper towel them, it was april or was it may? too hot. All those guys are mear babies, not even true leaves yet. I know to avoid the cool spring stuff now. I know I do not have enough humus from the mulch breaking down, for all that I am trying to grow yet, but I just wanted to get started. I do not buy compost and or manure from the store as most of theat stuff at the garden store is watse from the toxic factory farm industry. Some compost is now made from human sludge. They also pasturize all the good microbs out of it too. I find the idea of companion planting neat, but do wonder if it works. One can only experiment with it I guess. Have to try to grow with the companion plant and without to be sure the combo helps at all. I like the way the garden looks interplanted though. I do not have too many of the same kind of plant in any one place. I need to go on over to texas gardening to see how to get strawberries, sweet potaoes, and peanuts to work here. Celeriac is probably not going to do well here. I just want to try everything to find out for myself