We have our peas (sugar snap) and garlic about 6 feet apart and are growing tomatoes between them- and they are doing fine. I have stunted peas before when I stupidly didn't realize that chives were in the onion family :) I had one chive plant in the neighboring row and 4 of 6 of my neighboring pea vines were severely retarded. I've read that too much Nitrogen is very harmful to peas- they fix it in the soil- so they can be finicky and loose battles easily. That's why this year I put them at the far end of the garden. Also, this year I have had- so far- my most successful garden ever (I am a newbie- this is only my 3rd vegetable garden- so take that into consideration). The map I used to plot my garden was designed around companion planting. For every vegetable I planted, I planted a neighboring herb that promoted growth and an herb that acts as a pesticide. I placed herbs with short roots closer to long rooted vegetables, etc. For example: I have 4 tomato plants in a square 3 feet apart, bordered by marigolds on one side. Next to them (8 inches to the right) I planted camomile, to the left (8") I planted basil, and in the center I planted Borage. The borage will have to be kept under control and cut back in the summer, but it keeps tomato worms away and it has relatively short roots- while my tomatoes are all planted really deep. I know that in an intensive garden disease and pests become a problem quickly when the leaves touch so we cut our plants back when they start overlapping. We cut off the bottom stems of out tomatoes so that there is about 5-6" of space between the bottom of the plant and the ground. It's a big experiment at this point, but so far very successful. In 2 months my tomato plants are 3-4 feet tall and flowering, and the only pest we've dealt with has been cutworms eating the leaves (we corrected the problem with milk cartons around the base of the plants). This may be a little TMI :) As you can probably tell I am excited. Good luck with everything.

k, thanks guys for the info. Can you place those breathable weed barriers with lotsa mulch on top of that close around plants like Pawpaws that sucker to stop the suckers from breaking through? Guess I could be persistent and just cut suckers off to maintain a better tree form but was just curious

Dan, if he's more than 20 feet from the trunks of either do you think it would be ok? My personal guess is there might be some shock but they'll pull through. junebug, if you go under that root, how far away will the pipe be? My concern is if the root is touching or nearly touching the pipe and the root gets a few inches rounder then one or the other is going to have problems.

I see what you mean about brown leaves until the plant reaches the fence, so I think you might be right about the heat. I think I might try a mounding clem between two of those and see what happens. I think no one can really tell you what will happen and this may be a time for some experimentation on your part. Are you sure the clems you have planted are only 8" apart? It looks like more to me, but maybe the photo is misleading. I've never overwintered clems in a pot in our zone unless they were buried up to the pot tops in soil, but when I've done that, I've had very good luck. Again, you may have to try and see what happens, but I wouldn't do it unless you can sink them somewhere for the winter.