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Evon, except for the cranberries, I believe you could easily do the block method that Terry mentions here... http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/695535/ ...lots of good advice in that thread!
I'll defer to someone else to give advice on growing cranberries too. ;-)
The strawberries are going to put out runners and just keep expanding their area. I would plant them out of the vegetable garden. We ripped up our strawberry patch a few years ago because the grass had grown into it and it was so hard to keep up. The only way was to crawl around on my hands and knees pulling up all the grass. We are going to build a tiered bed and put just strawberries in it. The grass won't be able to take it over if it's up off the ground.
I don't know anything about cranberries either.
The rest of the things you have listed will easily fit in a 15 x 30 plot, depending on how much of each you want to grow.
Since this is your first year, one thing I would suggest is keeping a map each year of where things are planted and rotate the crops so the same crop isn't planted in the same place two years in a row. It's even better to not plant the same crop in the same area for 3-4 years. This will help control any diseases that may occur.
When I first started veggie gardening, I discovered I was a creature of habit, with a good memory. Each spring, I'd be out in the garden with my seeds and bedding plants thinking, okay, the tomatoes go here, the onions go here, the beets go here...etc. Always planted in the same place every year. That was a big mistake, and I've since learned the importance of crop rotation the hard way. Now I have a chart that I make up for several years in advance. It has the row numbers along the top, the years down the side, and I move each crop one square to the right each year. That way, if I have a garden with 12 rows or squares, the same crop doesn't get planted in the same place but only every 12 years.
I probably have you really confused now. If I did, I'll do my best to make what I was trying to say more clear.
As a beginner myself, thanks for all the advice 'old timers'...hee hee.
But I don't think that's quite what Evon meant...and correct me if I am wrong Evon.
I am trying to map out my layout as well and having some difficulty. What I need, is an example of WHERE to put each veggie. Like tomatoes down the first row, then eggplant and peepers next, then peas, then herbs, then lettuce, then cucumbers...and this would be going from NW to SE.
Are there no "designs of veggie gardens" out there somewhere?
Is this what you mean, Evon?
I think placement is mostly an issue of available sunlight (and please, someone correct me if I'm wrong!), and that as long as the taller plants (e.g. corn, trellised peas, caged tomatoes) are to the north of shorter plants, with enough space to grow and receive ample sunlight, you should be okay. :-)
