Gardening in rows, please give me feed back

[Joshua]

it's my first year with a garden, My Grandma, sister and I started planting the garden just over a week ago. We planted onions, carrots, beans, peppers, ect. Things that grandma said wouldn’t be affected by the cold temps we still sometimes get (we live in northern Minnesota)
After we were done planting I sat back and looked at the garden and couldn’t help but think what a large waste of space. I mean the way we planted it.
Our rows are about 30’ long, we planted a single 1â€

[gixxerific]

do a search for "square foot gardening" on this site or Google and there will be a wealth of info on how to maximize space.

[scot29]

I plant in rows, and I'd like to help, but I'm having a hard time picturing your layout. Maybe you could explain it one more time, or draw & post a crude picture?
Are you saying you planted 1 foot of seed, then left 3-4 feet of space, then 1 foot of seed & so on? All within the same row? How much space did you leave between the rows?
You will have to watch out for frosts with the beans & peppers.

[applestar]

Some people plant in "wide rows" -- similar to what you're talking about. The idea is to plant two, three, or four closely spaced rows that are wide but narrow enough that you can reach the middle of the wide row from both sides (typically 3~4' width) The distance between plants is usually dictated by the in-row spacing. So peppers that are usually spaced about 18" apart would only be planted in two rows, usually staggered (in zigzag pattern), whereas, carrots could be spaced 4~6" apart AND can be reached from overhead, could form 4 rows spaced 4~6" apart.

[jal_ut]

It depends on what you are planting. Onions can go in rows 12 inches apart. Beans 20-30. Cucumbers leave 4 feet both sides of the row, unless you are going to trellis them. Corn should be planted 30 inches between rows. Potatoes 30 inches. Peas can be planted 10 inches apart. Plant 5 15 foot rows of peas spaced ten inches for a great harvest. Radishes can be planted in a small area 2 inches apart both ways as many as you like. Summer squash need a space about 8 feet square. Plant 5 seeds close together. The trick is to imagine how large the plants get and leave them enough space.

I garden in rows too and most of my rows are 32 inches apart. This gives me room to run the tiller between rows once or twice to remove weeds while the veggie plants are small. Later when the plants get big, they will pretty well cover all of the area. I plant squash and melons in rows 6 feet apart. Tomatoes 4 feet apart. Hope this helps.

[TZ -OH6]

You could have block planted with several short rows for each variety, using recommended distances between rows. Put walkways wherever you think you need them to get at the plants. You can usually squeeze between rows to work with the plants, leaving wider walkways for faster movement. Squarefoot gardening recommends dense planting because of the quality of the soil formulation, and often relies on humans to provide the water needs of the plants, so you would not want to use the same spacing for plants in "field dirt".

[supagirl277]

If you originally plant your seeds really close, can you thin them to be about those spaces apart? What happens if you plant closer and you don't thin? My rows are very close together, but I am planning on thinning the plants. I'm a little worried they will compete with each other...

[jal_ut]

Yes, plants too close together do compete. They compete for sun, water and nutrients. Sometimes they will not even produce what you want. A good case in point is radishes. If they are too crowded, none will make the large root you are seeking. Any of the root crops need space if you want a large root. It is not hard to see that if you want a 5 inch onion, it cannot be closer than 5 inches to the next one. 6 inches would be better, however if you are after scallions, they can stand much closer.

Often there is good information on a seed packet about thinning and spacing for the variety. If it says thin to 12 inches, there is no use to put 50 seeds in that 10 inches. Put 2 or 3 just to guarantee germination of at least one. If the packet says it will plant 20 feet of row, it will actually plant about 100 feet if you plant correctly. The seed companies want you to plant more seed. They are in the business of selling seed.

Yes, you can and should thin your plantings if they are too dense.

[jal_ut]

There are two ways to do a wide row planting. I have most often used a wide row for peas.

One: mark off an area 4 feet by 15 feet and broadcast some seed on it, then rake the seed in a bit and mulch. When the seed comes it is just haphazard, but puts on a good crop of peas in a small area.

Two: Plant 5 rows 15 feet long spaced 10 inches apart. This planting is more organized and easy to drag a hoe between the rows to eliminate weeds when the plants are small. Assuming you use the same amount of seed as above, the harvest will be the same but weeding is so much easier.

Same applies to radishes, you can broadcast some seed on an area, or be more precise and place seed on a grid pattern spaced 2 inches both ways.

[Gary350]

I plant in rows too. My tiller is 24" wide so I make my rows 36" apart so I can get the tiller down the center when the plants are small. You just have to learn from experience how close together to space the plants. Corn, tomatoes, squash, egg plant spread out so they need that 36" space between rows. 36" is actually a little crouded for squash and tomatoes but there is an advantage to crouding tomatoes they shade themself in the hot summer sun and that keeps the tomatoes from getting sun burn. I sow peas like grass seed 2" apart about a foot wide 6" each side of center line of the row. Peas need something to climb on. Beans go in a straight line down the center of the row seeds are 3" apart. It seems like a lot of wasted space now but wait 2 months from now the tomato spacing seems way too close you have to look hard to find all the ripe tomatoes. Squash will totally use up the full 36" width of the row and so will corn. If you had planted it closer it would have choked itself so bad there would be much fruit to harvest. I leave a space 8 feet wide to plant melons and cucumbers. If you do not stake your tomatoes they they need a lot more space.

[supagirl277]

Thanks that's some great info.

[GardenJester]

I plant staggered double row layout. I offset one row with respect to the other so there's max. space between plants and its neighbors.

[kgall]

I plant staggered double row layout. I offset one row with respect to the other so there's max. space between plants and its neighbors.

If I stagger my rows how far apart should the rows be for tomatoes...Does this really save that much space?

[GardenJester]

I plant staggered double row layout. I offset one row with respect to the other so there's max. space between plants and its neighbors.

If I stagger my rows how far apart should the rows be for tomatoes...Does this really save that much space?

2.5' feet between plants, if you stagger a double rows. The space between the two rows would be 2', and you can still maintain 2.5' between the plant and its neighbors. I squeeze 4 rows in the space that use to only hold 3 rows. of course you will be one plant less due to the staggering, so longer the rows the more ecnomical.

I just don't see the point of having walk paths on both side of the plant, seemed like a waste of space. if you companion plant, you might be able to squeeze a row of something small and does well in shades.