Plot Problems No 1 – Plant Spacing in Raised Beds

Posted on 23. Feb, 2011 by Tracey in Pests

One of the problems I have when growing vegetables in my raised beds is Spacing. I have kind of self taught myself and use the not so scientific way of ‘guessing’ how close I can sow or let vegetables grow together. Of course this method lends itself to the phrase ‘learning the hard way’ with a few crop failures because vegetables that are grown so close together attract pests or diseases which can spread like wildfire and wipe out my crops.

When I first started growing vegetables, I tried using the packet sowing instructions and spacings in Carol Klein’s Grow Your Own Veg book, however I have found these spacings are for larger allotment sized beds and not suitable for smaller raised beds. I could use the Square Foot Gardening Method which means dividing up the raised beds into squares however I feel this is too restrictive and regimented as I want to grow vegetables in a relaxed and natural way.

For Example:

Plot Planning

According to my seed packet for sowing Spring Cabbages, they should be spaced 40cm away from each other, however as my beds are 152cm in width, this means I would only be able to grow 3 cabbages in 1 row and only be able to have 2 rows in my plot, a total of 6 cabbages in total.

Allowing for wastage and possible pests, I may only get 4 cabbages at most out of these sowings. I feel this is a waste of space to dedicate the whole raised bed to a maximum of 6 cabbages so I sow closer together and then always find myself having the following dilema when the spacing gets a bit tight in my raised beds.

Spring Cabbage Spacing Problem

Dilema:
This month, my spring cabbages are beginning to put on growth and the small patch where they are growing is becoming a bit overcrowded as I’ve sown them so close together.

Close Spaced Spring Cabbage

Here are my options:

1. Thin out the weaker plants and leave the stronger plants, but they will still be fairly close together,
2. Dig up and transplant some of the plants into other spaces available in my plot but will the disturbance hinder their new growth?
3. Leave them where they are, but run risk of small cabbages and disease problems then crop failure?

Do you have any other suggestions or advice on my dilema?

I’d love to hear your experiences with plant spacing, please leave your comments below. Thanks.

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Tags: grow your own veg problems, growing vegetable problems, problems with plant spacing in raised beds, raised bed spacing problems, spring cabbage spacing dilema problem, square foot gardening, veg plot problems, vegetable plot problems