I do this a lot. Some might argue that too much, but there are many good combinations and i like this companion planting because it lets me grow more crops in a small garden.

Bad combinations:

Any bean with any allium (garlic, chives or onions). They stunt each other's growth. I have done this accidentally and seen it happen.

Do not plant tomatoes and corn together (supposedly they attract the same pests? - I have not done it)

From my own experience, keep the tomatoes away from the roses (I got rust from a rose jumping into one of my tomato plants and it is now history - the rose was fine...)

Fennel should be kept away from just about anything else.

Rue should also be kept away from everything else.

From recent experience; keep tomatillos together (they need other plants to pollinate) but do not plant other things with them, they tend to smother other plants.

Zuchs and cukes can be planted with other things. They do well with nasturtiums, but I have melons (cuke family) growing well with okra in a bed that also has roses. Also, I have planted cukes with corn, they do great together, the cukes act as living mulch and the corn shades them.

Many good combinations and some bad ones. I would keep extremely poisonous plants away from edibles but I do not know if the edibles would get tainted. Hopefully someone else will post. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice--that's encouraging! Today I put some newspaper down and covered it with mulch to kill the grass over the winter. I can't wait until spring!

Could pumpkins grow in with other things? My kids would like that!

Just a tip- mulching over winter does nothing as the weeds are dormant. In spring add heaps more mulch.

thanks for the companion planting tips - they are great

killing grass: till, or dig up NOW (you have to do it in spring to plant anyway) - and the freezes will kill the grass roots (mulching now protects them); if it is bermuda, goatshead or some other grass that is extremely sturdy - I would strongly recommend tilling now and again before the last freezes = so you freeze out all the roots! It will be worth it. You can leave the old grass as mulch in the soil or rake it to the side and reuse it as mulch later. (I removed mine to be sure its full exposed and permanently dead, then re-use it).

Killing grass for future planting areas you can lay down newspapers (I have an area of my rose garden that I'm saving for future roses... so I laid down newspaper and covered with landscape fabric and landscape cedar mulch... by the end of summer it was covered in grass and weeds, but all I have to do is rip back the landscape fabric and I have virgin topsoil for my roses)

Or in the heat of summer you can lay down black plastic or clean plastic and kill the grass and weeds (but its also very hard on the micro-organisms underneath

mulch (even lawn clippings) is great around plants after they are in because it promotes microorganisms underneath and keeps the soil cool in hot summers, it helps with weeds because seeds that land on the mulch are easily pulled out

but my experience has been that mulch does not kill the grass underneath - it has to be removed first or it will just grow through

its a learning curve... I'm sure still learning and I read constantly,

A little late responding but we all have plenty of time still....miscindy you asked about pumpkins inter-planted with other things. I have not grown pumpkins (I do not much care for them) but last year I planted Corn (blue meal and flour corn) with butternut and acorn squash. I had some of the squash shaded too much by the corn so it was late, but the ones that received enough sun did well. This is part of what is called a 3 sisters garden, corn, beans and squash. Best is to grow for dried beans, winter squash and flour/grits corn. This way you are not disturbing the squash or the beans while harvesting the corn. You simply let it all be and harvest late in the season. Growing flour corn is better than sweet corn, since the stalks are stronger and will not get pulled down by the beans. See some of the threads in the vegetable forum for recommendations on specific varietals for 3 sisters garden.

You're right! The grass didn't die over the winter and the newspaper is still there udner the mulch. We had a good thaw a couple weeks ago and I went out to check on it. It'll be like I did almost nothing. Oh, well, it's under a good 8 inches of snow now. I'll just have to wait and see. I assume this spring I'll be raking the mulch and pulling up the newspaper from Sept. and will still need to kill the grass. Live and learn I guess.