[sweet nasturtium]

You may know it's been my first year.  I did a wide selection of crops and harvested a little of everything.  But there were huge gaps on my plot where I've had nothing to put in.  It's in the spacing.   Next year I'm going to spread everything out and plant more of them.  So simple!  As our old boy says, some for the slugs, some for the birds, the rest for the table. Just thought I'd share that with you!

[Sally A]

Can you elaborate on where this extra space was, or did you just have it too orderly and pretty?

[Annie]

Likewise,I only have space where the potatoes were and garlic will go in some of that soon.I think that once you get settled and find varieties that work for you then like the rest of us you`ll run out of space!Enjoying is the main thing and this was a difficult year to start but if you read the posts you`ll see we all had disasters this year and this time next year you will have bigger crops and a bigger smi;le as you eat your own veg.

[muntjac]

its what all of have done in the past ,and learned from .so worry not , you did great to get what you did , from novices .....experts are made.. ok yehhhh wellyou can get  nuns but you dont see many nuns digging spuds up :roll:

[noshed]

I can't get that image out of my mind but nonetheless I have to confess I generally plant everything too close together. It's hard to envisage when you're planting out little seedlings but I will try to do better next year...

[shaun]

i got slated the other week for spacing too much  :roll: you just cant win can yer  

[DD.]

i got slated the other week for spacing too much  :roll: you just cant win can yer  

If your name's 'Shaun' - no way!

[shaun]

i got slated the other week for spacing too much  :roll: you just cant win can yer  

If your name's 'Shaun' - no way!

[DD.]

Think you forgot to add something to the last quote, Shaun. Please keep up.

(You'll no doubt edit it now).

[Trillium]

Shaun was running true to form so don't give the poor bloke a hard time, DD  

[shaun]

Think you forgot to add something to the last quote, Shaun. Please keep up.

(You'll no doubt edit it now).

i thought i did the vodka is gertting the better of me  

[sweet nasturtium]

Well my observation / eureka moment was partly inspired by the non-hearting cabbages debate.  My natural instinct to save money means I try to save space.

The other day an old italian named Rambo gave me some of his spare broccoli plants.  I showed him where I wanted to put them (an extremely small bedlet) and he didn't seem impressed, but left me to it.
I stuck them in and there were too many so they're now about 6" apart.
But if I space them properly they'll take up around 40ft (there are 20 plants).  And they should be much healthier.

I suffered this year from having a lot of spare space with weeds growing on it, next year my ambition is to get the ground covered in crops.  It'll be so much easier if I space things properly.

And I'm sure in time I will evolve from being a Novice to just getting in the habit every day.  

[Trillium]

 It all takes time nasturtium. You can only try your best and learn from mistakes. We could all write the book titled "What Not to Do". good idea for you would be to visit as many other gardens or plots as you can to see what others are doing and what they've learned regarding spacing, and write lots of notes for youself. Come spring you can plan it out on paper first to decide what can stay or goes because it takes too much space.

[muntjac]

can i just add this ...space on a plot is always at a premium and believeit or not wasted space is so easy to see if you open ur eyes .. take the path going down the plot . try puttin  frameworksof wood and string over it and then grow runner beans .on temporary arches the  paths on
your nieghbours plot the path edge to thier plot is  also wasted space . plant sweetcorn down them .. how often do you see plots where the planting starts about 2ft from the grass edge.... so sit down and actually look at your p[lot , make a plan of what you can squeeze in this space . even a single lettuce or cabbage is a bonus  

[sweet nasturtium]

Oh no I've plenty of space, it's just that I completely underestimated it and squeezed things in where there was no need.

Great idea about the sweetcorn - I'd thought of doing that before- that'll how many plants per 10 rods?