Did I plant too close together?
When I got to Krissy’s house, I was immediately struck by the abundance of greenery in her garden. There were squash plants with leaves that looked like elephant ears, and a winter squash already climbing her trellises. She had bushy tomato plants and canopied peppers. Initially, I wasn’t sure what she was having trouble with. Her soil seemed healthy, her plants were growing, but she had a concerned look on her face.
“Did I plant too close together?” She asked, worry in her voice. She was overwhelmed by the size of the plants, the jungle-like greenery and wondering if they could survive that way.
I asked her why she thought that, and she began to describe the plant spacing she had read about on the packages of seeds and on the plant start tags. I interrupted her, and I told her what I tell so many kitchen gardeners.
“Plant spacing information isn’t for you. It’s for farmers.”
Krissy was surprised to hear me explain that plant spacing on seed packets is directly related to the settings on a farm’s cultivator, where farmers have bulk seeds they’re planting and need to space them out in their rows.
Before the pruning
Here’s what I told Krissy about plant spacing:
Plant larger size plants on one side of your raised bed so that they don’t shade out the other plants as the sun hits them. For Krissy, who has north-to-south raised beds, I told her to plant her tallest plants on the northern side of the beds, where her trellises are, so that as the sun moved during the day, her other plants would not be shaded out.
Plant as intensively as possible! Exposed soil dries out faster than soil covered in greenery. Picture a desert. It used to have vegetation, but as it gets exposed to the sun and elements, it can’t retain it’s nutrients.
Don’t be afraid to kill your darlings. This is a tactic I learned in my writing classes. Sometimes, you have plants that need to be pruned back, sometimes they need to be removed altogether. I pruned some of Krissy’s mammoth zucchini leaves so her parsnips could get some sun. She could have opted to pull the parsnips altogether, as well.
After we pruned back the zucchini - these parsnips are shining!
I can’t help but buy them, so I truly believe there’s always room in the garden for more plants. If this is something you want help with navigating, click the button below and let’s get started!
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