"The only difference between a rut and a grave, is the depth"
An old lesson, recently remembered. Things are fluid and things change. You have to adapt and keep trying things, keep learning and keep going forward.. Doing the same things is comfortable, but ultimately not so productive.
I started my garden with a good plan, some research, and some good lessons on how not to do things - and I've done pretty well, but there's always some room to improve and keep pushing forward. In the past year I've had a lot of things that worked, some that didn't, and some that were so-so.. I started this blog with some words about Big-Ag, and the economy of scale, while trying to produce the maximum amount of food in a small space - and if you've been reading carefully you'll see a couple of places where I walk that same line into hypocrisy a couple of times. I won't deny it, I'll own it :)
Pushing a lot of plants into small space sounds good on paper, it can - and does work, but you do have to experiment a lot. I get from friends and family here and there 'how do I make this work - I did it just like you did....' but the truth is, you can't do it 'just like I do' - you can't do it 'just like this book tells me' or 'this forum says I have to....' - it just doesn't work that way.
My climate, my soil, my seeds, sunshine, rain, fertilizer, isn't going to be the same as yours - and thus your results will vary - and if you keep pushing the party line, you'll push it all the way to failure.
If it doesn't work, change it...
I'm going through this at the moment with my own plantings - SFG (Square Foot Gardening) says that you can grow X amount based on planting spacing in a square foot - for a lot of things you can, but for some you cant, or some work - but the info is misleading.
For example: you can grow 16 carrots in a square foot - fact - you can. HOWEVER, this is because they will grow at different rates naturally (as they would if you planted them in a row) - as some are pulled to eat, they make room for others - by the end, if you had 16 good seedlings at the start, you can have 16 carrots.... just not all at the same time... and it's the 'HOWEVER' that you won't see written in a book or touted on a forum.
Now planting 9 also won't give you 9 great carrots at the end.. in fact you'll get the same results, only with less... The way forward is to say 'ok I understand how that is - I'll plant 3-4 squares'.
Swiss Chard - you could technically grow 4 plants based on the planting spacing guide - however dollars-to-donuts you'll have one medium plant, 2 small, and one runt... and in that case you'd have been better off with just one (as I'm doing myself) that you can harvest off of, and again, 3 - 4 squares.
Peas - 2 lines of 8 separated by a trellis. Fine, but I've never gotten the back 8 get enough sun to really make a difference in my output - I'd have been better off with just 8.
Basil - you'd be told to grow one per square - but as I proved this year (in photos no less), that you can grow 4, and the square holding that single plant won't grow large enough to give you 4x the basil - side note: I also learned that I grew about 4x too many plants when it came to basil.....
Spinach - depends on variety I think - I've done 12 plants to a container, yet 9 plants to a square produced plants so weak and crowded that not a single plant produced much at all.
Sometimes a container can produce nice, productive and manageable plants. Sometimes not. My Toms grew into nice healthy bushes that were fairly productive for their size, the same plants in the garden vined everywhere and showed NOTHING. My broccoli ended up dying, and my eggplants never produced in containers, yet went ballistic when transplanted.
None of these things are hard-and-fast. To get the results you want you'll have to get in and do. Change, and adapt, and learn.. don't be afraid to try new things, and don't be afraid to risk failure - because risk also hides success.
I'll be changing things up here as I progress - not just spacing of plants either. When it comes to preserving food I'll be making some changes as well. I'll be using a method not really covered much called 'Don't pick the damn stuff'. The worms have ate well on food I've picked on a Sunday - partly so I'd have that picture of a bowl full of stuff that shows 'wow I know what I'm doing!'. Well once picked the goodness in that food starts breaking down, even in the fridge or freezer - and if it sits and isn't used, then what's the point.
Last post I had a pic of a small amount of veg that I picked today (well technically yesterday) - but that small basket was more than enough for my meal. My new strategy will be to pick only what I'm going to eat THEN, or if it absolutely is a case of 'use it or lose it'.
In the military we used to say that the plan was the first casualty of war - and it's true in all things, never get to attached to your plan or your comfort level of workaday life. If it's not working as you want it - change it - modify it - make it your own.
Happy Gardening.
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