Plant Intensively

If you are like me, you’ve been busy planting in the garden! And that’s a good thing. We need to keep the garden full of sprouting seeds, thriving plants, beds lined with herbs working to deter pests and flowers to attract the pollinators. What we don’t want to see is the soil. I am not saying we don’t need soil, I’m saying something is going to grow in the space between the plants (like a weed) so why not make it another plant that fills the gaps. This is what’s called intensive planting.

We are gardeners, not farmers who plant in long rows, so when the plant tag says “space 3 to 4 feet apart,” it’s talking to farmers who will have 40 or 60 feet in each planting row with space allowing a tractor tire in between. We are gardeners and when planting a kitchen garden, I suggest breaking the plant spacing rules. When plants are spread way apart with nothing in between, there is a lot of soil left exposed to the elements. Bare soil dries out more quickly and is much more difficult to manage. I would rather water and harvest another plant than pull weeds.

Intensive planting is a work with nature method. Next time you are visiting a nature center or national park, notice how nature’s plants grow close together, creating their own eco-system.  So instead of planting one garden bed with just one type of plant, I plant a variety of large, medium and small plants all together in every single bed. This means after the plants are established, I hardly have to water, I rarely find a weed and I don’t need to continually fertilize. Plants prefer being together and were never meant to grow the way we were taught.

For example, in a small 4 by 4-foot bed using the plant spacing on the tag for tomatoes, you would only be able to plant 4 or 5 plants in that bed. With intensive planting you are able to fill the bed with that and so much more. Follow this plan to fill a 4 by 4 bed with 13 to 15 different plants. Plant the entire edges of the bed with loads of herbs such as rosemary, basil and sage and mix in flowers such as marigolds, zinnias and calendula. Next add a ring of large greens such as Swiss chard and kale, tuck some garlic in between. Working your way toward the middle add another ring of leaf lettuce which will benefit from the shade of the Swiss chard and kale. Then plant four tomatoes in the center to grow up an obelisk trellis; add peppers and bush beans around the obelisk outside of the tomatoes. Follow the plant spacing rules and wait 3 months to get just a few tomatoes or follow this plan and get daily harvests from a variety of plants. 

This year, I began planting the cool season plants in mid-March and now I am harvesting peas, kale, leaf lettuce, spinach and radishes. As the warm season has kicked into gear, I am pulling the spent plants and filling in the many gaps with warm and hot loving plants such as peppers, eggplants, squash, beans and trellising cucumbers and tomatoes. When you plant intensively there are so many benefits but the greatest benefit is more plants to provide a bigger harvest. Contact me at goodenergygarden@gmail.com for help planting your garden intensively!