Episode 3 - The Wide Row Growing Method
tyler | December 21, 2006…The wide row growing method…
This is part three in our four part series on ‘Getting Started with a Vegetable Garden’. This espisode will cover the wide row growing method.
But first let’s look at the calendar.
Tomorrow, December 22nd, is the winter soltice. The winter solstice marks the point where the sun has reached the lowest point in the horizon and will begin to climb higher in the sky. If you haven’t marked out the sun exposure of your garden yet, as discussed in our prior episode, now would be the perfect time! December 22nd should be the worst case scenario for anything that would cast a shadow on your garden. The lower the sun is to the horizon the further that shadows will cast. During the growing season the sun will be higher in the sky and theoretically shadows will not cast as far. Theoretically of course.
So we’ve figured out what we want to grow and where to grow it. But we don’t know how to grow what we want. How to grow something can be a life long passion or a fight you seem to be unable to win. I’m going to cover two growing methods that I prefer, in the next two podcasts. The wide row growing method and the square foot gardening method. As far as I can tell from my research, all backyard growing methods can be boiled down to basically these two methods. Of course these two methods are variations on other methods, and other methods are variations on these methods. One could almost say there are no new ideas in gardening methods, only refinements and variations. Let me mention a few other methods or terms you might read about that will not be covered but would be beneficial to know about. Some of these I may cover in future episodes, but for now just jot them down or visit the mychicagogarden.com website and check out the Learn section for links to more information. They are…lasagna gardening, companion planting, bio intensive, organic gardening, raised bed gardening.
Wide row gardening is based on the fact that traditional row gardening had more path space than actual growing space. By planting multiple rows of plants together and then working from either side of the wider row you require less space for your feet, and you give more dirt to the plants. Instead of having an 8 or 12" wide strip of dirt with one plant in the middle and 6 or 8" of dirt on each side, you mark out a "wide row" of about 3 feet and then plant the crop in sort of a diamond or checkerboard pattern to maximize the area.
The wide row method is almost always paired with the deep soil method, which espouses that plants of all kinds actually need more root zone than other people believe. For example it’s argued that some carrots will utilize and grow better if given the opportunity to throw roots down 3 or more feet and 1 1/2 feet wide. It is conventionally believed, and often disputed by some other method practitionars, that even though carrots COULD use that much space they don’t need to, and will produce the same crop with less space. This is one of those contention areas with the square foot gardening practitionars.
If you have good ground, or want to have good ground, you should be able to utilize this method. Working the ground can be more work than other methods but for 1000s of years gardeners have wanted good dirt to grow things in and were willing to work for it.
So how wide is a wide row garden? This really depends on how comfortable you are when working in the garden. Some folks do not like reaching in between plants to weed or harvest so they choose a less wide row…say 2 1/2 feet. While others are comfortable with 4 or 5 foot wide rows. I’m a fairly tall guy who doesn’t mind hunting in between mature plants so I would probably make mine 3 feet wide to sort of cut the distance for my first try. The key here is that once you have designated your rows for crops, NEVER walk on them. A path is for walking, a row is for growing. If you find that you are having to step on your rows to get to plants for weeding or harvesting, you made the row too wide.
Now the path between the rows. This is obviously needed for working, but it can also be part of the asthetic design of your garden. To maximize growing space you should use as little space as you can find comfortable. My rule of thumb is to pull out my wheel barrel or my garden cart and measure the width of the wheels and then add a few inches on each side. Your path should be no less then that number. You may want to add a few more inches if you intend to plant a lot of leafy or sprawling plants that may bleed into the pathway and run the risk of being trampled or broken while working. My last garden utilized a path of approximately 3 feet wide. More than what some people would argue is needed, but at the time I had plenty of room and I didn’t want to take the risk.
I mentioned earlier that wide row gardening is almost always paired with raised beds and/or deep soil methods. Both of these have to do with providing as much vertical space to the plant as is humanly possible for your situation. This may require double digging, rotatilling, lasagna gardening or simply pilling up composted material onto the top of your rows. How you actually go about getting the depth is beyond the discussion of this episode, but for now, just remember that generally the deaper the better. The first 8 inches of soil are usually easy enough to manage, but you should be shooting for 18 inches if you can swing it. Even more if you believe the horizontal rooting plants like carrots would benefit.
If you have plenty of space for your garden you’ll also want to consider how long the beds should be. Bed length is pretty much arbitrary, but 15 feet is a good start. 15 feet makes it easy to build trellises from a standard 8 foot length of lumber. You may also find that anything more than 15 feet may have a physcological impact in that you feel over whelmed when you see the work waiting for you.
So let’s compare a traditional 1 foot by 4 foot garden bed with a single row of beets down the middle, and a 2 foot by 2 foot wide row garden with a checkerboard style of planting. You would see a planting difference of 12 plants for the traditional garden as compared to 48 for the wide row garden. It’s a mater of using the space more efficiently.
I’ll post a drawing of the garden I would plan if I were using the wide row method on the website. So take a look if you want to see how this all comes together.
That’s all for this edition of my Chicago Garden. my Chicago Garden is a production of AllisonHouse LLC, copyright 2006 and comes to you from my apartment in the Edgewater neighhood on the northside of Chicago. I’m Tyler Allison and I hope you have a little bit of nature in YOUR own backyard. Thanks for listening.
