If you are looking to grow more food then taking a closer look at plant spacing might help you grow even more. Learn more with this intensive gardening technique!
This post contains affiliate links: I am grateful to be of service and bring you content free of charge. In order to do this, please note that when you click links and purchase items; in some (but not all) cases I will receive a referral commission. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to keep blogging to help you start homesteading and it doesn’t cost you a penny extra!
See Disclosure, Terms and Conditions for more information. Thank you for supporting Misfit Gardening.
Grow More Food!
This post is part of a new mini-training series! I’m passionate to help people grow organic food at home and have food security. You can join over 25,000 people who listen to the Homesteading & Gardening In The Suburbs Podcast and listen to this post by clicking play below or read on to learn more!
Intensive Gardening Beats Rows
Rows of vegetables are probably what you are thinking of when you consider a traditional vegetable garden. Visit any farm, allotment, or community garden and you will see vegetables grown in rows.
Rows make it easy for weeding and harvesting but they come at a cost. You grow less food when you grow in rows!
All that space makes it easier for you to get about but using intensive planting means you have fewer weeds and you grow more food. Winner!
What is intensive planting?
Planting seedlings in a close spacing pattern. Plants are in blocks in an offset pattern like a zig-zag or 3 points of a triangle and at each point, a seedling is planted. Each plant is the same distance from all the other plants around it. So when the plants are mature, their leaves are barely touching.
What are the benefits of intensive garden planting?
As your plants grow, their leaves will touch and begin to shade out weeds, keep moisture in and protect soil from erosion. This mini climate along with deep, fertile soil helps to keep your garden healthy and abundant.
Plants that are healthy are better at fending off pests and diseases!
How to use intensive plant spacing
Knowing your garden bed sizes helps you hone your planning skills to plan your garden beds and plant spacings. Measure out the garden bed and take notes on how much space you have to plant in.
The best way to plant an intensive garden is to sow a seed or plant seedlings in a triangle, diamond, or hexagonal shape.
These shapes allow for more plants to be in the garden bed. The spacing of the plants needs to account for how big the plants will be when they are fully grown. For example
- Swiss chard 18 to 24 inches
- Corn 3 to 4 inches
- Tomato 18 to 24 inches
- Lettuce 6 to 8 inches
- Zucchini 18 to 24 inches
- Carrot 2 to 3 inches
- Fava beans or broad beans 4 to 6 inches
So between each point of the triangle or hexagon, make sure there is enough space between them to allow your plants to grow to full size. Most seed packets have information about the ideal plant spacing for the plant you are trying to grow.
Learn more about reading seed packets in this post.
Plant Spacing Varies
Not only does the amount of space vary for the type of plant you are growing but your climate plays a role too! Hot and dry climates need smaller plant spacings to help shade the soil and create that micro-climate to retain more moisture in the soil. Humid climates need more space or wider plant spacings to provide more airflow around the plants to reduce diseases.
Try an experiment in your garden to see what plant spacings work best for your area. Keep notes in your garden journal!
What about plant spacing between different crops?
If you are planting different crops together this is called interplanting. It’s a useful technique in the garden and can be used for vegetables, flowers, and herbs. When interplanting 2 or more different crops together, it is important to figure out the correct spacing so both crops grow well.
When planting 2 different crops together, take the space in inches for the 2 crops and add them together. Then divide the total by 2.
For example, if you are planting carrots and lettuce together, add the spacing recommended for carrots (2 inches) to the spacing recommended for the lettuce (6 inches). This is a total of 8 inches. Then divide this total by 2. For carrots and lettuce, this is 4 inches. The spacing between these crops is 4 inches.
Learn More
This post is part of a mini-training series! Click the links below to dig in and learn more about intensive gardening.
Grow More Food In The Space You Have
Cover Crops
Integrated Pest Management
Training isn’t live yet? Check out some related posts below:
- The Complete Seed Starting Guide
- How to Improve Soil for Gardening
- Plant These Food Crops For Better Food Security
- Landrace Gardening: How To Adapt Your Garden Plants To Local Conditions
- How To Choose Vegetables To Grow In Your Garden
What will you plant intensively in your garden? Let me know in the comments or over in the Facebook Group!
Liked this post? Pin it and save it for later!
Always ensure to operate safely. All projects are purely “at your own risk” and are for information purposes only. As with any project, unfamiliarity with the tools, animals, plants, and processes can be dangerous. Posts, podcasts, and videos should be read and interpreted as theoretical advice only and are not a substitute for advice from a fully licensed professional.
As remuneration for running this blog, this post contains affiliate links. Misfit Gardening is a participant in Affiliate or Associate’s programs. An affiliate advertising program is designed to provide a means for this website/blog to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to websites offering products described in the blog post. It does not cost you the Reader anything extra. See Disclosures, Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy for more information about use of this website.
Share this:
