Bobby asks about garden spatial arrangement and design :
Since 2012 , I have tried many different method and styles of domicile gardening , mainly in Northern Kentucky and Northeast Georgia . The most productive method were found to be semi - intensive spacing in raised rows and raised beds . ( One major rain storm show me the benefits of raised rows over schematic flat rows.)As I am in my 60 ’s , I really like the theme of tall raised beds , but I can not get my head around all of the additional ‘ resources ’ required for the intensive spacing typical of raised bed gardens . These ‘ resources ’ would include , but are not trammel to , intensive watering ( irrigation ) , intensive fertilizer , re - charging the soil , etc . In light of this , Steve Solomon ’s musical theme of semi - intensive or extensive plant spacingmakes more sensation , specially when resources are scarce .
With that said , have you experimented doing semi - intensive or extensive spacing in raised bed ?
Since I will be starting a new garden in Eastern Tennessee ( zone 7a ) in 2023 , my thought was to do tall heavily - sided call down bed for forgetful grow veggie , raised wrangle for vertical vine plant life ( Lycopersicon esculentum , beans , pea , etc . ) , and soft - sided elicit beds for horizontal vine plant ( potatoes , sweet murphy , melon , etc . ) . Any thoughts ?
I agree with you , Bobby – the amount of effort and imagination that go into producing vegetables in intensive beds is n’t worth it for me , especially since I have more space available . When you’re able to plant a piffling farther apart , you apply less water and get yield with less work . You may also get magnanimous plants with more issue per industrial plant .
I have switched almost all of my horticulture to mound beds , from my row garden to my Grocery Row Gardens . If you want a few permanent raised beds for salad , have at it , but I commonly grow those in the mound beds too . In my fast - leach sand , I like to grow lot of treat crop in between and mulch when I can , but at the very least I have done well with simple individual rows 3′ apart , with no irrigation .
Those are grandiloquent enough to keep us from flooding out during heavy rain events . However , they do even better when I make slashed hay in between the rows . Just check that it ’s your own hay , and notGrazon - sprayed poisonous hayfrom a provender store .
As for your vining crops , you may get away with just planting them on smaller circular pitcher’s mound . That ’s how we ordinarily acquire our pumpkin . fresh potatoes usually go into 4′ wide beds .
All the good ,
David
