With one raised be complete, the simply lacking soil, and the risk of a freeze fading, it’s time to start planting. Looks like I’m going to cram as much into the raised beds as possible. Lots of herbs and companion plants.
Some things I noted while watching the yard green up is the number of plants perennials that are bug resistant; garlic, onion, and mint. There’s also some sweet peas, wild roses invading from the neighbor yard, a plum tree (thought it was a bush), 3 lilac bushes, and 3-4 things that are unidentified. One plant, Grandma says is Larkspur, seems to be invading everything everywhere. If I didn’t know better I would think it was a weed. The mint is fantastic, green leaf with purple stems, and trying unsuccessfully to choke out the rose bushes. Turns out this is one of the beneficial plant combinations, since nothing likes to eat mint and the flowers attract bug predators.
Not everything will fit in the beds; corn, pumpkin, cantalope, watermelon, peas, and beans. It will be fun to watch it come together. It’s hard to imagine sizes right now. The grass, dandelions, and lambs quarter look to be taking over, but the vines will take care of that. Mom’s pumpkin filled yard last summer didn’t need any weeding. Leaves the size of platters blocked out everything. Of course, the bugs were a problem. 
Anyway here are some links that looked interesting.
Companion Planting
Down Garden Services
Mini Farm Homestead
Wikipedia – Companion Planting
Inspired by Nature’s…