No, it's not crowded, in fact, you only need one foot of space for each of your cherry tomatoes, and you can plant your peas 3 inches apart. The problem that I see is that you don't have any walkways in such a large area. If you really want to use this design, I suggest a 2-3 foot walkway down the center, lengthwise, so you aren't stepping on your soil. You should never have an area more than four feet wide so you can reach inside.

Kristal, your comments lead me to believe you didn't see the dimensions of this bed. It is 4' wide so a 2-3' path down it wouldn't be practical.

You might consider planting the same number of tomato plants, but use the entire 10' instead of 7. Just plant the peas as you were going to. The peas will be done by the time the tomatos get large.

Your pepper plants concern me a bit because of their close proximity to the cukes and cantelope. You will really have to keep an eye on the growth of the viners to make sure they grow how you want them to and not right over the pepper plants. Easier said than done if you aren't out there daily in the summer when they are growing practically before you eyes.

Other than that I think you have a sound plan for a really intensive garden.

Is it too crowded? For my personal preferences, yes. For yours? Let us know at the end of the season ;-)

Anyone else with ideas or comments? To make matter worse, Im gonna go get another pack of seeds, probably swiss chard or the like. I think I am going to extend it to 14' or add another 6' x 4' patch. What do you think?

Holly

Sorry, not paying attention.

let me start off by saying my garden is a modified SFG, probalby like most people's here, so this is all just what has worked for me......i tend to like seeing a solid wall of vegetables in my garden!

how much do you love cucumbers? there are 9 in your diagram......of course every garden/gardener is different, but just to let you know i got 82 cucumbers from 2 plants last season. so you're going to have A LOT from 9 plants :)

my garden is tighter in some spots than yours, not as tight in others. i plant my peas practically on top of each other, about 1" apart. i also pull the trellis forward from the edge of the bed about 4" so i can plant a row of peas behind as well as in front of the trellis (my trellis runs almost exactly E-W, so sun isn't a problem for me when planting this way). also, i think mel's spacing for lettuce is 6" per plant, i tend more towards 4 or 5 per square (so 3" or 4" spacing instead). i harvest pretty continuously and the plants didn't seem to mind being so cozy

bush beans i planted 9 to a square. they seemed better when they could lean on each other a little.

peppers i planted one to a square....they probably could go a little tighter, but mine tend to become the favorite hangout of spiders, so i like to see between the plants before i reach in!

so overall i think your diagram is very realistic.....i don't know how long your arms are, but it might be easier to deal with the cherry tomatoes if you can do it by reaching through the trellis behind then rather than across the tops of the peppers. you could fit a ton more stuff in there if you extended the bed another 4'. as it is i can see spaces between the cherry tomatoes for a few radishes maybe, they would be ready to harvest well before the tomatoes shaded them out. or a basil plant, i had some right between 4 tomatoes last year and it did great (all my toms are in cages like your cherries, i have the space and can't bear to prune them!). i have a row of spinach right at the feet of my peas....looks like you would have room for something like that too, especially between the peas and bush beans.

i hope any of this is helpful, good luck and let us know how it goes!

Beth

If it were mine, I would add another bed mainly because most of the plants you have are TALL or vining and WILL shade others around them.

I know from exerience, last year I had some tomatoes and watermelon sprout up after we did our planting. Not having the heart to move them (volunteers seem to need less watering etc.) I let them grow, well they crowded out the oregano, rosemary, & onions we had planted.

Be sure to put your taller plants on the north side & orient the bed east-west.
Gumby_CT

Hollo Holly.
I had to chuckle. Looks like you got a totally different set of opinions in the square foot gardening forum than in the veggie forum. Its not so crowded after all!
;-)

Always an. . .Angel

I have serious doubts about the positioning of those cantaloupes. You've got three plants per square foot, with no support for a vigorous vining plant. Positioned that way, they would either take over the whole garden or sort of trail off across the lawn. The FAQs for canteloupe (aka muskmelon) suggest 1 plant per square foot, along four feet of trellis running along the north edge of the bed (assuming your bed is running east-west, that would be some of the places you have tomatoes).

I also wonder about your placement of tomatoes and peas along the trellis. Peas are an early plant, and in many places are ready to be removed when the tomatoes go in. Are you taking seasonal replacements into account?

Finally, with the caged cukes in front, the peppers will be heavily shaded in between the cherry tomato cages and the cucumbers. You might also have trouble reaching between the cages to get at the peppers.

it looks to crowded to me but that is only because of how you have the plants placed.

The cherry tomatos may be too crowded. I planted grape tomatos last year and they took up 3-4 squares each and grew all over the place. I didn't prune them much, so it may be my own fault

*Kristal, your comments lead me to believe you didn't see the dimensions of this bed. It is 4' wide so a 2-3' path down it wouldn't be practical. *

Since the gardener didn't mention any barrier like a building or fence, it isn't out of line to suggest a little widening. As Kristal said, that would be the biggest help for the gardener and the plants. A few feet of space for branches to spread out into and a bit more sun available to the peppers would be good.

For spacing, my peppers were at 1/1 (1 per square foot). They should have had supports from the start, too. (They get so heavy from the ripening fruit.) I would use 2 rows of short fence along the sides, or maybe the "large" commercial tomato cones for peppers--and eggplants, brussels sprouts, and I'm experimenting with the cone idea this year for zucchini. (Plant the support, then the plant.)

Canteloupe may also do better for you in 1/1. In fact, I put all my melons at 1/1 on a separate, west-side trellis. (In Texas, some veggies rejoice in summer shade.) Canteloupe "slip" off their stems when ripe. Either rag slings or really deep, soft mulch to land in fixes your problem with "canteloupe bombs".

The bush beans can go 9/1--just make a tic-tac-toe board in the square and plant in the centers of the spaces. I used the wire cages, pushed down almost half-way into the dirt. Nothing ate the bean seeds, and the 2x4 wire supported the plants. (They twine around and support each other pretty well, too. You don't *need* to provide any support or barricade.) You will probably get 2 harvests from the beans, and maybe a few stray pods after that.

I'd be sure to plant a basil on either end of the tomatoes--great chemistry for each other. I had 19 tomato plants, and not one lost to insect damage. The basil may get huge on you. Just whack it back to 24 inches a few times, and use the leaves fresh with tomato slices and mozzarella cheese--or hang cut branches and harvest the dried leaves.

You can sow the mesclun so very thickly that none of the plants ever mature. Harvest with scissors--just snip off near the base and let them regrow. If you allow about 4 plants to a square, you have standard squarefoot spacing, and then you just pull the outer leaves as you need them.

Short-time growers like radishes can tuck into the corners of the lettuce squares for extra veggie harvests. Radish leaves are excellent in soups and salads, and particularly in stir fries. You can put in more peas on that trellis for the fall, too.

I haven't grown your onion. Mine did fine in 16/1 (Draw a giant plus sign. In each of those 4 spaces, pop 2 fingers into the dirt twice, so you have holes at the corners of an imaginary box, centered in that square.)

Isn't it funny how we keep shoe-horning MORE stuff into the plot? ^_^

Most importantly, plant a comfy lawn chair to enjoy your garden properly, and have fun!

My main suggestion is basically what others have pointed to. I would swap the peas and the cantaloupe. The peas can probably get by with simple stakes and with trellis space at a premium, the cantaloupe could use it more.

I wrote in a thread last year that if I could do it all over again, I would not build beds 4 feet wide. It's hard to get to the row in the middle on the trellis side when the trellis is full of growth. From the other side, it's a substantial reach. I've been trying to think of how to construct staked foot rests that I can place between the two middle rows. That way I can maintain balance and not step in the soil.