How to Grow More Vegetables : And Fruits, Nuts ... - Shroomery

An easier, and probably just as effective, method of
companion planting in space is to divide your planting bed into
separate sections (or beds within a bed) for each vegetable. In
this method, a grouping of corn plants would be next to a
group of bush beans and a group of beets. In reality, this is a
kind of companion planting over time, since there are heavy
feeder, heavy giver, and light feeder sections within a bed.
Roots extend 1 to 4 feet around each plant, so it is also
companion planting in space. We recommend you use this
approach. Additional spacing patterns no doubt exist and will
be developed for companion planting “in space.”
MULTI-CROP COMPANION PLANTING “IN SPACE”
corn bush beans beets corn bush beans beets
A spacing example for 3 crops grown together—corn
(a heavy feeder), bush beans (a heavy giver), and beets (a light
feeder)—is given on page 148. You should note that this
approach to companion planting in space uses more bush bean
and beet plants than corn plants.
Compromise and Planning—You can see by now that companion
planting involves selecting the combination of factors that works
best in your soil and climate. Fortunately, the myriad of details
fall into a pattern of simple guidelines. Within the guidelines,
however, there are so many possible combinations that the planning
process can become quite complex. Be easy on yourself.
Do only as much companion planting as is reasonable for you
and comes naturally. What you learn this year and become
comfortable with can be applied next year, and so on. An easy
place to start is with salad vegetables, since these are generally
companions. Also, it is easier to companion plant over time
rather than in space. Since you probably will not have enough
area to use an entire bed for each crop, you might create several
heavy feeder, heavy giver, and light feeder sections within each
bed. You may want to grow a preponderance of crops from one
group, such as the heavy feeders. (It is unlikely that you will
want to grow 1 ⁄ 3 of each crop type.) Therefore, you will need to
make adjustments, such as adding extra fertilizer and compost,
when you follow one heavy feeder with another. Because of lack
of space, you may have to grow some plants together that are
not companions. If so, you may need to be satisfied with lower
COMPANION PLANTING 147