2023 Vegetable Garden Planting Guide

The hardest thing to do when starting a vegetable garden is figuring out what you can plant next to each other. There are so many things that cannot grow side-by-side for various reasons. Sometimes a plant will attract unwanted pests and bring it to the other plants nearby. Other times the conditions are simply unfavorable for the other plants.

There are many companion planting guides already out there. It is a lot of reading and remembering. We spent too much time reading and it is hard to remember all of what you read. After you decide what you are wanting to grow is the time to layout your garden and look at companion planting. The best way is to look at each individual plant and make sure it can grow next to the other plant. We like the Farmers Almanac guide for a reference. Here is a link to their companion guide.

When designing your vegetable garden, you need to layout each plant in order to avoid the mistake of planting next to a plant that is not a companion. Last year we had planned on doing a row of garlic and onions in between the tomatoes and watermelon. Tomatoes and watermelon should be separate. We ended up with one less row than originally expected and they ended up planted next to each other. We did not have the best results on watermelon or tomato, this could be why. Although, there are many other factors involved in getting a great production, doing what you can ahead of time will save you time in the long run trying to figure it all out.

It takes a lot of time cross referencing each plant with every other plant. That is basically what you have to do. Take onions for instance. They work well with beets, tomatoes, carrots and lettuce. Onions do need to be separate, however, from beans, beets and beans. It is a puzzle! The minute you think you have figured out the best layout you realize there is something next to another plant that is not good.

After one year of mostly success in our vegetable garden we decided to create a Garden Planting Guide to know how to layout the garden. Also, to have something as a reference. Last year we had wrote on a piece of paper the planting layout. It worked OK, but the paper got dirty, wet and well it wasn’t the best method. Now, we can reprint this guide, if needed. We can use for next year and make revisions. We can also make notes and begin documenting better what vegetable varieties we planted and how they performed.

Here is the layout for the garden for 2023. Feel free to download this for free with the button link below the image. We left the specific varieties general, as we have several different squash, melon, pepper, tomato, onion, pepper and lettuce. Several new ones we are just adding this year from Eden Brothers Seed. We are really excited about the new things for 2023! Like an Italian squash and rainbow color beets. Why wouldn’t you better your garden from year to year?

We spent time making sure all of these plants are companions for the garden. We had to move around things several times. We feel good about the layout we have finalized to this point. Feel free to download for your garden ideas. Even if you are growing a smaller garden it may help as far as your layout goes. Having a guide is super helpful, as once you get busy planting and growing time seems to disappear!

Need to know what you can plant together? There are some notes that last year we made for reference when figuring out our comparison planting. It is basically a together/seperate list that we used many times to check if squash can be grown next to peas or corn, for instance. But, squash cannot be planted next to potatoes. So, we put squash next to corn. And so on…

This simple list helped us remember what can and can’t be planted side-by-side. We made two easy lists for Together and Separate. Vegetables you can plant next to each other, and the ones you should not.

The first is what you can plant together, or side-by-side.

Together

• Carrots & Onions
• Basil & Tomatoes
• Basil & Peppers
• Onions, Spinach & Tomatoes
• Beans, Celery, Corn, & Lettuce, Peas & Radish
• Onions, Beets, Tomatoes, Carrots & Lettuce
• Chives & Lettuce
• Mint & Lettuce
• Squash, Corn, Peas, Beans & Radish
• Radish with Anything
• Tomatoes & Carrots
• Marigolds and Anything
• Beets & Broccoli
• Broccoli & Lettuce
• Watermelon, Lettuce & Onion
• Peppers, Spinach & Tomatoes
• Cucumbers, Beans, Celery, Corn & Lettuce

The second is what needs to be separate, or not planted side-by-side.

Separate

• Corn & Tomatoes
• Onion & Beans
• Beets & Beans
• Onions, Beans, Asparagus & Peas
• Squash & Potatoes
• Tomatoes & Watermelon
• Broccoli and Tomatoes, Peppers, Beans, Squash, Watermelon, Asparagus, Corn
• Garlic and Peas or Beans

This does not cover every possible vegetable you may be growing. If you have other vegetables you are planning on planting you could easily check its companions and plug into this layout. Our next step in getting the garden ready is building some trellis for the beans, peas and cucumbers. We will post the results soon and the products we decided on. We are definitely building trellis for the snow peas, green beans and cucumber. Possibly more!

If this is your first garden, welcome to the world of gardening! It will be the most rewarding experience you have. Our garden journey has been a light in our lives and we hope you enjoy growing your own food as much as we do. Plus, it is a ton of fun! Nothing beats picking your own homegrown vegetables, bringing it into the kitchen, and preparing a meal with what you pulled out of your own garden.

For some garden products and other home products we have found that we love check out the Rainy Day deals on the Welcome page. Also links to seed and berry bushes, too!