When you buy seeds or plants from garden centers the labels on them usually give you a recommended distance between each plant. Usually I follow this guidance but I've been researching and reading that actually there are some plants, including salads and vegetables that you can grow closer together without is causing any issues to the growth or the harvest. This is usually referred to as companion planting.
I only have a very small garden and half size allotment plot so space is something I lack, this is why this year I've decided to experiment with spacing and see just how much of certain vegetables I can pack into each bed. I'm well aware that this can have a negative impact on the harvest I'll get and I'm also aware that some plants may not get all the nutrients they need to survive so some may die off and others may survive. I'm aware of the risks and I'm willing to take them in the name of research and experimentation.
As you can see in the photo above I've packed in far too make vegetables for the size of the bed, what will happen I don't yet know but I'm looking forward to finding out and documenting the process so that I can know for the future.
In the center of this bed are Brussel sprouts, on the outside I don't actually know. I thought they were more spouts but they have different leaves and the label bleached in the sun so no longer tells me what they were. The seedlings got mixed up with the Brussel Sprout plants.
I'm looking forward to seeing how everything grows in this bed and I'll share with you the progress over the coming months. This won't be my only experiment with spacing in the garden. I plan to test the theory with a variety of plants both in my garden and on my allotment.
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