The Monday Hum: How Does Your Garden Grow?
It all depends what you want to do. A little summer-eating garden, a herb-and-flower-filled potager, a garden big enough to can and cold-store some winter eating? Here are some general thoughts on how much to plant and how much space it will take.
Look at it this way: A tomato plant takes about two feet square. You will easily have enough through the summer if you plant one for each family member who actually likes tomatoes. If you want to can or freeze them, plant more.
Corn grows well in “blocks,” or short rows, of five or six seeds spaced four to six inches apart. This is so they cross-pollinate and produce well. You can make as many of these short rows as you want, one after another about a foot apart, to create a corn patch. In longer growing seasons, I have no idea how well corn produces. Here in the Canadian prairies, we can count on one to two husks per plant.
Lettuce and spinach very space-efficient, and so are radishes. For each of those, I pick a patch about two feet square and scatter seed on it. They’ll have to be replanted several times over the summer—leaf crops taste like they’ve got skunk-juice in their veins once they start trying to “bolt,” or go to seed.
Onions can be four inches apart. I tend to plant mine in a bed about three feet across, all spaced just a few inches apart, rather than rows. They don’t like to be buried deep. They like to grow on the surface. To estimate for my market-garden customers, I plant three or four onions per customer per week of growing season. For myself, I just get a giant bag of onion sets (tiny bulbs, rather than seeds) and plunk in a whole whack of ‘em. We use them all winter.
Carrots can also be grown in a relatively small space. Just remember to thin them to an inch or two apart, or they’ll be all top and no root. I plant beets fairly close together, but thin them and use the young tops as a salad green or cooked green. They end up about three inches apart. We do not like beets, so I only grow them for my market customers. The rate is perhaps six beets per customer per week, or a little more, ideally.
Last year, I threw my broccoli and cauliflower transplants in the ground only about eight inches apart, fully expecting them to die. They just weren’t thriving for me. On the contrary, they lived. Massively. They should have been much farther apart, about the same as tomatoes. All the same, they produced, thanks to plentiful watering and good soil. Each plant gives one large head, but will also yield several smaller side-sprouts if left after cutting the main flower stalk.
Pepper plants – bell peppers, hot peppers and so on – can be potted plants. They take almost no space at all, and produce like crazy as long as they have enough water.
Potatoes are incredibly forgiving. You can layer them under straw, then just lift it away and collect your tubers. You can plant them in wooden boxes with open slats, so that the leaves can grow out through the gaps, and literally stack them up by layering potato seed and dirt. Don’t plant too many in a layer, is all. They like a bit of room. In our big garden, we plant them three feet apart on all sides. To get a family of six through the winter with seed left over, my mother-in-law used to plant four hundred hills. You may be more conservative in your potato consumption.
Peas go very close together, an inch or two, and can climb the wall of your house or garage if you’re short on space.
I never worry about crowding my string beans. They seem to do just fine competing with each other at three to four inches. They just don’t like competition from weeds. Try starting with a small row, and see how it does for you. Increase it next year if you want more. Well tended, each plant can produce enough beans to fill a quart jar or more. They just don’t do it all at once.
Check the space requirements on the seed packages you buy. Talk to an experienced gardener to find out how well different varieties produce. Figure out how much you need, of both produce and room. Make a plan on paper, walk it out in your yard, and use your measuring tape. Start now, in the fall, and prepare your ground for spring. While you do, dream a little. It’s good for the heart.
