Overcrowding in the garden

I knew when I made it that my planting map was a bit optimistic in terms of how closely space my plants were. Part of it was just that I wanted to plant a lot of different things and in order to get enough of each type to make it worthwhile, I really had to cram things in. I also figured that some crops might fail completely, giving other crops more room. Early on in the season the spacing seemed pretty reasonable, and in a couple places I even tried to fit a few more things in because it seemed like there was extra room. Now that we are in the middle of the growing season and many of the plants are getting pretty good-sized, things are getting awfully crowded. Many of the paths are disappearing under foliage, and plants are growing over and around other plants. I knew that the Spaghetti Squash plant was going to want to expand beyond its 5’ X 5’ allocated area, but I didn’t realized the size that many of the other plants would achieve. I figured the Zucchini (which is an heirloom bush-type), might stay within a 4’ x 4’ area. While its not really growing vines, it is turning into a gigantic bush that is managing to take over some of the surrounding areas.

I initially figured 18” for Broccoli spacing, and that might have been ok, but when I transplanted seedlings I had a few extra that I tried to cram in, and now that the biggest plant is over 20” wide, things are getting a bit tight in that area. The row of bush-beans is now almost 3 feet wide. The pea plants got pretty big and the more southern of the two rows is blocking most of the light to the northern row because they were too close. Obviously the potatoes got bigger than expected, too.

I think I’m going to encourage the Spaghetti Squash to take over the Melon area. The Melons were small, slow-growing, and behind schedule when I transplanted them at the end of May. After they were killed by some evil critter, I planted seeds in early June, but the plants are only to the 4-leaf stage and we’re hitting July now. The other viney plants have been flowering for a while and are now starting to set fruit. I think the Melons may be a lost cause, but the Squash would be happy to use that area. I’ve also decided to let the Zucchini take over the Swiss Chard area since Jaime and I don’t really like the Chard. Actually, I’m not sure what I could do to stop it even if I wanted to.

I’ll probably add a column in my planting dates spreadsheet for size of the mature plants. It started off just as a way to keep track of when I planted stuff, then I started putting comments on it about how well stuff was growing, then I added on a column for weight of vegetables harvested, and now I’ll add a column for size of plants. The spreadsheet will be very useful for next year.