How to Space Plants for Vegetable Gardens

Spacing plants in the vegetable garden is one of the most difficult tasks a new gardener will face. It just may challenge the skills of more experiences gardeners as well. The problem arises from the inability to envision full-grown plants and the space they require at maturity. A newly planted garden looks bare. In order to compensate, many gardeners add more plants than the space is equipped to support. With a few simple steps, these difficulties can be avoided. Read on to learn how to space plants for vegetable gardens. Does this Spark an idea?

Instructions

1

Measure the gardening area to determine your complete growing area. This should include all allowable growing space.

2

Outline the dimensions of your garden on graph paper. For small areas one-inch blocks can represent one-foot areas in the garden. Larger gardens may require inch blocks to represent one foot. An accurate sketch of your vegetable plot is necessary to determine the spacing of your plants.

3

Decide which plants you wish to grow in your garden.

4

Consult a gardening book for growing conditions for that particular plant. "Fast, Easy Vegetable Garden" by Jerry Baker provides planting instructions that tell the amount of space each vegetable plant will need at maturity and the space needed between rows. Many seed catalogs, like "Burpee's Seed" also provide this information.

5

Determine the amount of space you must leave between rows and mark this clearly on your graph paper.

6

Sketch the plants onto the graph paper according to the space requirements for that individual plant.

7

Continue the process for all plants you wish to grow in your garden.

8

Mark the rows in your garden by following the layout you have already created. Inserting a small stick into the ground at the ends of each row and running garden twine to mark the row will provide straight rows.

9

Follow the sketch of your garden to plant your vegetables.