Planning and Planting My First Main Season Bed (w/Pics)

Hi Folks,

I just received the following starts from Seed Savers Exchange and am excited to put them in the ground tomorrow. I'll be planting them in my westernmost bed, supported by tomato cages with snap bush beans in between. I'll be lacing the rows with carrots and planting summer squash and cucumber supported by cages down the center channel of the row. I'll also be planting a small stand of black aztec sweet corn at the northernmost section of the bed. Around the perimeter of the corn I'll be planting red bunching onions:

The starts I received:

3 Mexico Midget Tom.
2 Stupice Tom.
2 Amish Paste Tom.
2 Beam's Yellow Tom.
2 Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry
2 Alma Paprika Peppers

Any advice would be great!

Why ground cherries? Just curious.

I'll be finishing up my chiles tomorrow, and hopefully the tomatoes will be done on Sunday. Or Monday. Excellent gardening weather over the past few days, don't you think? I haven't had anything have even the slightest hint of transplant shock so far - even the Thai chile plugs that I accidentally dropped upside down into a patch of sprouting cleome. Ooops. Sorry, fellas! What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. Or maybe just hotter.

Indeed, it's been excellent gardening weather. Not too wet, perfect temps, able to get things hardened earlier this week. I wish we always had a week like this each May.

I'll look forward to a report of the varieties of tomatoes. There are so many to try. I'd love it if we kept a running list (I started a post already) of what we like, their characteristics, etc. This can be for any plant we eat. It helps when time to make next year's decisions to know a bit more about a tomato or pepper plant than it bears fruit or bears abundant fruit. Duh!

Good idea! I totally sold Customary Dining Companion on the many virtues of the simple Yellow Pear and Red Pear varieties last summer, and the fun of experimenting (hence my earlier strawberry inquiry - he's been wanting to try for a year, and this looks to be the time to pull the trigger).

It's funny how different plants respond to stress. Non-pear/cherry tomatoes develop thick skins and/or blossom end rot, or succumb to aphids, etc. Chiles, on the other hand, show their true colors, responding to excessive hot winds or sparse watering - or even being grown in small-ish containers - with Scoville ratings that can range from 'whoa' to 'ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!' Very satisfying, indeed, especially since store-bought jalapenos and serranos have lost so much of their fire through too-perfect growing conditions. So, coddle your tomatoes, but practice toughlove with your chiles.