Interplanting Saves Garden Space

Old English gardeners devised the idea of interplanting, or companion cropping, to use this empty space more fully. Several factors must be kept in mind about interplanting. Although space is used to its maximum, plants must not be placed so close that shading and nutrient competition develop. The crops planted together should mature at different times. Generally, this means that a quick-growing, early maturing crop is planted and harvested before a later-maturing crop fills in the same space.

Crops selected for planting close together should require about the same light, moisture, and fertility conditions. If little or no spraying is desired, plants close together should be unrelated so that a single pest or problem does not sweep across the entire planting. When sprays are used, those applied to the later crop should not be applied while the other crop is being harvested.

There are many combinations possible. Radishes are particularly useful as a companion crop since they mature quickly. They can be sown with leaf lettuce, beets, or carrots and can be harvested before the others need the room. They are also useful between onions or transplants of cabbage. Although early crops may already be growing in the garden, later crops can be added between them now or later. Crops such as leaf lettuce, spinach, peas, or radishes, could have plants of cabbage or broccoli placed between them.

After the soil is thoroughly warm, the area might be used for peppers, tomatoes or eggplant or for seeding other warm-season crops. Some crops can be planted between rows of cabbage. Onions for use as green onions or beets for use as greens are possibilities. It is also possible to plant pole beans among cabbage to take over the area after the cabbage has been harvested.

Cucumbers might be seeded between rows of early lettuce or beets. Leaf lettuce may even be planted near bush types of summer squash. The large leaves of the squash provide some shade for the lettuce and thereby keep it cooler and producing longer. Bush beans and cucumbers may even be planted close together. Beans germinate and grow rapidly to produce their crop before the cucumbers overtake them. For the greatest space conservation, however, vine crops such as cucumbers should be grown on a fence or on cylinders of wire fencing. Sweet corn and winter squash or pumpkins make suitable plants for the same space.

This combination is most successful if early maturing varieties of sweet corn are used. Early sweet corn has shorter plants than later types, so their shade is not as dense for the young squash plants. Also, the earlier corn can be harvested before growth becomes tangled and passage through the patch becomes difficult. Through experience, the gardener will find many other workable combinations to provide maximum use of limited garden space.

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, by Edward C. Smith.