We have our peas (sugar snap) and garlic about 6 feet apart and are growing tomatoes between them- and they are doing fine. I have stunted peas before when I stupidly didn't realize that chives were in the onion family :) I had one chive plant in the neighboring row and 4 of 6 of my neighboring pea vines were severely retarded. I've read that too much Nitrogen is very harmful to peas- they fix it in the soil- so they can be finicky and loose battles easily. That's why this year I put them at the far end of the garden. Also, this year I have had- so far- my most successful garden ever (I am a newbie- this is only my 3rd vegetable garden- so take that into consideration). The map I used to plot my garden was designed around companion planting. For every vegetable I planted, I planted a neighboring herb that promoted growth and an herb that acts as a pesticide. I placed herbs with short roots closer to long rooted vegetables, etc. For example: I have 4 tomato plants in a square 3 feet apart, bordered by marigolds on one side. Next to them (8 inches to the right) I planted camomile, to the left (8") I planted basil, and in the center I planted Borage. The borage will have to be kept under control and cut back in the summer, but it keeps tomato worms away and it has relatively short roots- while my tomatoes are all planted really deep. I know that in an intensive garden disease and pests become a problem quickly when the leaves touch so we cut our plants back when they start overlapping. We cut off the bottom stems of out tomatoes so that there is about 5-6" of space between the bottom of the plant and the ground. It's a big experiment at this point, but so far very successful. In 2 months my tomato plants are 3-4 feet tall and flowering, and the only pest we've dealt with has been cutworms eating the leaves (we corrected the problem with milk cartons around the base of the plants). This may be a little TMI :) As you can probably tell I am excited. Good luck with everything.

I want the Viburnum lentago shrubs to take up a lot of space. Ideally, I'd like them to grow 12' wide by 10 to 12' tall after decades of maturity, but I'm afraid that they will grow 12' wide by 20' tall. I would plant them 12' apart - two of them in partial sun against a fence. I hope it's that V. lentago will grow taller only when given full room... maybe I better place them closer together - like 6' apart. I do not want to have to prune them; I'm into natural landscapes and want to work-out an arrangement conducive to the trees natural expression of growth habit. I want them as understory shrubs, so if they get taller then 12', I wont be able to pick fruit from the native fruit tree that they will be under. Thanks, Steve

I agree with 'more space is better', because my garden is the opposite and it is becoming a mess. The very close DLS along with the blasted thistles from the seed that blew in from the fence rows dividing the farmer's fields have me continually pulling weeds. My DH retired this spring and he is helping me a lot, but the garden is 'my baby' and really my responsibility, and I am not retired. We have a 100'+ bed anywhere from 15' - 30' wide and we already went through it once and pulled, pulled, and pulled some more. I also used mulch last year. Tomorrow I plan to cut the thistles off at ground level and spray the stem with Round Up. I do not like to use chemicals, but I hate the thistles more. I pulled some early in the spring, but you hardly ever get all the root. And to make it more disturbing, my DH saw a snake. #*&*@%$#$%^&**!!! I am sorry I made a short story long, but when I first planned my DL bed I had staggered rows and the DLs were 30"-36" apart. BUT, I couldn't resist the offers on the Lily Auction and ordering from vendors (all because of the beautiful photos here)so my DLs became 15" or so apart - not a good idea. A person would think having them this close together would create so much shade that the weeds would not grow, but that is something someone made up. : ) Take heed, and use annuals as ground cover. Jane

Try this method of horizontal growing after thinning the plants out as Patty suggested: Drive 6' long, 1" bamboo stakes into each corner of the bed. Set them about 12" into the soil and pack'em tight. "Connect" them by lashing shorter bamboo stakes from corner to corner at about 4' tall. You've essentially framed a box over the plants. Run string from the cross stakes to the base of the saved plants. Tie the bottom part of the string to a 12" piece of bamboo and stake into the ground. This won't disturb the roots enough to disturb fruiting. Train the vines up the string. Because the plants will be oriented outwards toward the side of the bed picking will be easy and you won't have plants on top of plants which can lead to not so pleasant fungus. Sound somewhat familiar? Any of us who worked the tobacco fields in CT remember .... LOL It'll be a bit of work, but tell any available kids that you're building a teepee kind of thing and you'll have plenty of help. Martie