There's a lot of conflicting and confusing about companion planting out there; when I was first putting together a plan I drove myself nuts trying to accommodate and incorporate everything, and then found out there's not a lot of scientific information supporting most of these practices anyway. It IS true that you should plant basil between/around your tomatoes--they yield about 20% more that way, though no one knows exactly why. The only thing I definitely would avoid doing is interplanting legumes (peas, beans) with fruit and root veggies. Legumes 'fix' (leach) nitrogen into the soil, and too much nitrogen can have negative effects on those plants. Instead, plant them with greens and lettuces, which feed on nitrogen. Some other plants, like fennel, are considered alleopathic and should be a little distance away from everything else because they can inhibit other plants' growth. Assuming you're in the northern hemisphere, put your tallest plants on the north edge and as you move south get shorter. This will ensure that your plants get the most sunlight possible. Traditional planting instructions (what you will see on the seed package) will advise you to grow vining crops in hills, with lots of distance between hills (winter squash, cucumbers, etc). This is not a very efficient use of space, especially if you only have a 16'x20' area. Instead, find some cattle paneling or create a trellis with stakes and netting. This will allow you to guide the plants to grow vertically, saving space and making harvesting much easier. They should be relatively tall (at least 4') so they would do well on the back row with the tomatoes. You could grow your tomatoes the same way, if they are indeterminate - they are vines and will grow fine up netting instead of in cages. Finally, you could use a space-saving method like square-foot gardening. You don't need to spend the money to build raised beds; simply mark off a 4'x whatever area and fill it with compost/topsoil so that it is a few inches off the ground. You may also wish to add coir or peat for roughage and water retention. Natural erosion will occur - you will have to shore up the sides sometimes, and add extra compost periodically (you would have to do this anyway, eventually). You may want to save up for beds in the future. Plan for 2-3 feet between beds in each direction. Make sure that the dimensions of the area are no more than 4' one way, so that you NEVER step on the bed and compress the soil. You will be able to reach in from the sides and harvest easily at this distance. The dimensions the other way can be any size - 4', 8', 10', etc. If your bed is longer than it is wide (say 4'x8') make sure the 8' goes east-west for the most sunlight. This method of gardening (as long as you never step on the soil in the beds--super important!) will allow you to plant many crops much more closely together. I've included a link that describes how to space plants under the SFG method. Here is a link that might be useful: My Square Foot Garden: Plant Spacing

What you need to keep the water away from the house is called a swale by landscapers. Here is a picture. There are two swales in this picture. The lower one is about 3 meters away from the garage on the left, there is a low spot cut into the soil. That is the swale. This one starts at the block wall to the right of the gate and walk way. Behind the block wall is a similar swale that ends right at the block wall. There is a drain pipe which brings the water underground to the hole in the curb. A swale is designed to act like a ditch and carry water from the back all the way to the front of the house for drainage. This swale ends right at the front left corner of the grass. The picture was taken on a hot summer day during a dry spell, so the greening is due to water and nutrients collecting in the swales. The upper swale is designed to keep water from flowing down from the neighbor and flooding the lower neighbor's grass. It is just to the left of the upper tree. You can see how the grass is dry on the left side of the berm and fresh looking on the right. The right side is the other swale. It ends at what looks like a concrete water meter cover. The tool they use to make the swale is called a box blade and it goes on the back of a tractor. Getting your drainage right is a job for a professional landscaper. They will know how to move the dirt around. In your case they may haul soil away. As for trees and shrubs, there are other forums on GW for those topics.

I'm not really sure what you are asking. Are you saying that after mowing them down, that they are coming up as stalks that are not branching out into a bush? If so then they will branch out eventually. You may not have to do anything. However, you can help the branching along by keeping them pruned at their present height. If you don't do anything they will grow into the monsters that were there before. This will happen rather quickly since they still have their monster root system.

HI! My father-in-law owns a GC firm, and I worked as a project manager for him. I am also building a home, and we are going to be doing the pay-outs, etc. I was checking out the ideas here and am sending him the UDA Suite 2009 suggested by Big Kahuna for his review. I am thinking that will be what I will use. You should pick your package based on your needs. If you are fully handling the project, you will most definitely want easy to use contracts/change order/purchase order formats...something I cannot fabricate from excel. especially if you can have a list of subs plugged into the suite and cut and paste a lot of the forms. I am thinking that program has it all, but am downloading the 30 day free trial now to check it out. Also, I will let you know what my fahter-in-law says or if he has any suggestions. I want a good program even if it is a little pricey, because I want to enjoy the management side of the project and do not personally love starting from scratch. I also love the timeline and risk features on that program. Talk to you soon...