If you’ve visited the Soil&Water garden, you might be wondering why we created a layout with mixed edibles in small rows.
“What’s the philosophy behind small-scale garden rows, anyway?”
I thought it would be a nice way for people visiting the garden to consider ideas for planting edibles mixed together in a small space. If you have limited planting space at home – and who doesn’t?! – how would you plant it? There are a ton of cool ideas out there for small garden plots, container gardening, even vertical gardens. (Check out this article on 16 cool raised bed designs from Sunset.com.)
Our small-scale garden layout is based on an article from Sunset Gardens that plants mixed edibles in a 16′ x 16′ plot which came down to two main beds 11′ x 3′ approximately with beans and sunflowers along a back fence.
In the Soil&Water garden, our garden rows are 3′ wide already so where two rows come to an apex was perfect to mimic the same idea. Thus I used their model for planting our small scale garden ‘plot’ with mixed edibles.
Another reason this is a nice method is because you can consider companion plants, natural pest deterrents, even pollinator attractants in the plantings. I modified the design slightly based on veggies that made it on our planting list.
The small scale garden was planted pretty early in the season (for stuff like tomatoes, squash, and eggplant) so another thing this will provide is a comparison of how these crops do with an early planting vs. regular suggested time.
