3 Tips For Planting Vegetables Close Together

Planting vegetables close to each other provides you the best utilization of the plant space thus maximizing any available vacant area for increase in your production. Although it’s more productive to plant vegetables close to each other, you’ve to study well the growth requirement of each plant, space utilization and their nutrient needs.

You should be acquainted what kind of vegetables can be grown closely together. Some vegetables have different growth, space, and nutrients requirements. So, it’s vital for you to study each plant’s needs before planting them together.

Look closely the following factors to consider when planting vegetables close together.

1. Soil condition. Keep updates on the soil condition of your garden such as available soil nutrients and space utilization. The rule of thumb says, “When the soil is fertile keep the distance wide, while in poor soil keep the plant distance closer”.

So, don’t plant closely when the soil is fertile since it will cause space competition and overcrowding.

Another consideration is the topography of your garden. If your garden is rolling or hilly, you should plant them at a wider distance to avoid sunlight and shade competition between plants.

2. Plant maturity. There are vegetables that are early maturing and others late maturing especially the leafy ones. This way, you can combine the early maturing leafy vegetables with the late maturing type. While you harvest the short season crops ahead of the late type, after harvest there is a more space for the remaining crops to recover before reaching maturity.

For example, you can combine lettuce and other leafy vegetables with beans or any legumes. Legumes are soil enhancer crops and could supplement with the soil nutrients needs of some common leafy vegetables.

3. Plant height. As much as possible you can combine closely some taller crops with shorter ones. But you should arrange planting by placing the taller types at the back of the short crops facing the source of sunlight so that all can receive the same amount of light.

Although close planting have some benefits in terms of increase productivity and maximum space utilization, you should also consider some drawbacks as against the benefits you can get. Learn what vegetables can be grown closely together without sacrificing the rest of your main crops especially there growth requirements.

Happy gardening!