I haven't tried multiple plants in the same container yet. Will be giving it a try this yr. with a pole bean tree in a container and bunching onions etc.. But I would think one would want to stick to the spacing suggestions.... For example.. last yr I had two extra bell pepper plants I started that someone never came and got. So I put both in a 5 gal. bucket! As the plants didn't get as big as the ones in individual containers.. they still produced useable fruit, just not as big and as fast as with the ones in individual containers. Still not sure if it was because I potted them up late an or cuz they both were in the same container. That has been my experience to date..

If you are building a garden roughly 6 foot x 5 foot, you may have a hard time reaching into the center of the bed without walking on it. You may want to decrease the width of your garden especially if you plan to have a trellis up one side of it at any time in the future. It is hard to reach though a trellis to reach plants growing low on the ground on the other side. Most people can reach about 2 feet in with their arms, so 6 foot x 4 foot would maybe be a better garden size. Or, as cyprusgardner suggests, you can have a walkway in the center which would leave you with a garden basically in the shape of a U. x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x : Â : x x x x : Â : x x ^ 5 feet As far as row spacing goes, you can ignore row spacing in a small bed or in a raised bed. If the carrots say plant 3" spacing, you would plant a row with each carrot 3" away from each other. Then the next row would be 3" away from the first row, and the thrid row would be 3" away from the second row. Even the packages that specify row spacing, you need to ignore the row spacing in a small bed. For example, my bush beans say to thin seedlings to 6" spacing with rows 18-30" apart. However, you would ignore the row spacing in a small bed ... just like the carrots. So, with my bush beans, I would plant a little row with each bean 6" away from each other. Then the next row would be 6" away from the first row, and the third row would be 6" away from the second row. There are only 2 of us and we are not growing to can or freeze leftovers, we only want enough at a time for eating fresh. So I did not plant the entire packet of beans. I planted 12 plants in 2 short rows ... one row of 6 plants each spaced 6" apart and then the next row of 6 plants just 6" away from the first row. This is how our beans are planted ... x x x x x x x x x x x x Even though the packet said to plant them this way ... x x x x x x x x x x x x Also, because I only wanted 12 plants of beans, I could have planted them in 3 rows of 4 plants instead of 2 rows of 6 ... x x x x x x x x x x x x Since bush beans harvest only lasts about 2+ weeks, I planted the first 12 plants at the beginning. Then about 3 weeks later another 12 plants, then another 3 weeks later I will plant the last 12 plants. This will give me fresh beans all through the season. If I had planted 36 plants all at the same time I would have more beans than we could eat for about 2+ weeks and then after that, I would have no more beans. Pole beans are different though, they continue to produce over a longer period and you grow them up a trellis. I could not plant pole beans because I did not have any space left on my trellis. My trellis was already completely taken up with other things.

Concur, except that you need to know which variety you are planting. Some purple hulls like Pinkeye Purple hull are semi vining and take up a lot of space. Quick Pick and Top Pick are also pink eye/purple hulls but have a compact upright bush so if you are using only a couple of rows you can away with your spacing. Most than 4 rows you will need to provide a walkway. Knuckle Purple hull Crowders take even more space. If you are planting a semi-vining variety 3 ft rows is minimum spacing. Vining varieties are happiest with 4 ft. I use standard bean plates in the planter which gives me about 4 inch spacing.

How far from the dripper does the water spread?