First steps first: old railroad ties are not recommended for use, especially in a garden that may contain edibles. I know, I know.....we see it done all the time, but that still doesn't change the fact that creosote is highly toxic.

Give us some more information, noobie! ;-) Are you wanting to plant a veggie garden or a flower garden? Aren't you lucky to have a pond handy!

I want it to be a vegetable garden. Being a newb i hope this doesn't sound too naive. But I heard about indians that used to plant vegetables by putting out corn, a climbing bean, and a ground covering plant like squash. All three seeds in the same hole. I was wanting to play around with just a few rows of corn and sugar snap peas, or snow peas, or whatever will grow in 7b/8a, and then maybe some cantaloupe or watermelon. But again thats just an idea, i haven't actually started researching yet to see if any of this is actually possible. Some other veggies i like and I was planning on were, okra, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers. I am not interested in squash, or tomatoes, but I am interested in any suggestions. I also wouldn't mind having a small area for some herbs. Thanks for the interest and the info Rhizo. What would be a good economical substitute for railroad ties?

On second thought, I may do a few tomatoes, if there is room, but it is not a huge priority as people are always pawning their tomatoes off on me.

I'm a firm believer in planning BEFORE planting! You're smart to start doing a little homework before all of the hard work starts.

I'd like to see you make a visit to your county extension office, either in person (best) or on line. If you go to the office, you are likely to meet people who will be able to give you some good brochures and handouts about garden preparation, planting dates for your area, garden layout, space required for specific crops, etc. I'll also suggest that you have soil tests done in the location of your garden. They will explain how to collect the soil properly and submit it for testing at the office (or on line).

Few vegetable crops do well unless in full sun conditions, so shade is rarely an issue. The exception might be tender leafy veggies like lettuce, if brought to size in the blazing heat of summer. The other important site consideration is drainage. Even though you want to build a raised bed, it's essential (I think) that the location is a well drained one.

Attached is a link that will make it easy for you to locate your county office.

Here is a link that might be useful: Come on, let's go to the Extension Office

I'm pretty sure that it's against the law to have a vegetable garden without tomato plants, so you better rethink that part of your plan. :-)

I don't know if the Indian idea was to plant corn, beens and squash at the same time or in the same spot. I don't see a problem with planting squash at the same time as the corn since squash doesn't climb the corn stalks and stays low while the corn grows tall. Lots of folks in the South plant pole beans with their corn but I believe most plant beans after the corn has some height on it, otherwise the beans won't have anything to climb. If you plant bush beans, you shouldn't have that problem. The disadvantage of bush beans is you get one harvest. The advantage to planting pole beans is you can get beans for a long period of time, through the entire summer. I would plant corn and squash and after the corn gets above knee high, I'd plant the beans.

Hey I live in central Alabama and I do three types of gardening. Container, raised bed, and regular in ground. Check out my blog to maybe give you some ideas. Keep in mind gardening is always an experiment!! http://dannysvegetablegarden.wordpress.com/?ref=spelling

Here is a link that might be useful: Dannys Vegetable Garden

Railroad ties are treated with creosote, and eating foods exposed to creosote exposes you to those chemicals. You may want to reconsider building your raised beds with railroad ties. Have you considered using untreated cedar planks to build raised beds? Thoughts?

You might want to read the book about Square Foot Gardening. I haven't read it but I saw the author on HGTV and he had some really good information and ideas. The book has good ratings.

Here is a link that might be useful: All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!

From a totally different perspective, have you ever thought about growing hydroponically instead of in the ground? We bought the vertical hydrostacker system last year and started with day-neutral strawberries and tomatoes and have never regreted it. This year we are planting a variety of vegetables to go along with the strawberries and tomatoes. It's a little pricey, but well worth the cost if you can't or don't like bending over or getting on your knees to plant and/or pick your veggies.

Another positive is that you have no weeds to tend to and the setup comes as a COMPLETE kit, from ground covering to automatic injection system with a balanced fertilizer you can use with all your plantings. We love it because we didn't have to figure out ANY of the technical details other than what to plant and, of course, NO WEEDS to pull during the season.

However, from our first year's experience, we did have to add a 50% shade cloth to allow our strawberries to make it from May all the way to November and a spray system to deal with the magnitude of bugs we have here in Alabama. A picture of our setup is posted on the below link.

If this sounds interesting, we've got it set up at our U-Pick farm here in Millbrook if you or anyone else in the area would like to see it. Just give me a call, as our phone number is on our website, and I would be happy to show it to you.

Hope this helps,

Ken Barber
Barber Berry Farm, LLC
Millbrook AL

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo Gallery