Oops. I put this on Gardens earlier.

Is there a rule of thumb for spacing when you companion plant veggies?
I want to do corn with my bush beans. I'm putting in my beans soon
and the corn about April 1. Do I space the beans further apart than
normal? Or does the corn just go "in between"?

Thanks.

Dave ....

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 09:00:24 -0800, Dave .... wrote:

Oops. I put this on Gardens earlier.

Is there a rule of thumb for spacing when you companion plant veggies?
I want to do corn with my bush beans. I'm putting in my beans soon
and the corn about April 1. Do I space the beans further apart than
normal? Or does the corn just go "in between"?

Thanks.

Dave ....

What I recall (from years ago) is to go with the average of the planting
distances.

X inches + Y inches / 2

Thus, 6" between corn seeds plus 12 inches between bean seeds is 18
inches. Dividing by two gives us a 9" interval between plants.

However, no matter what the initial measurements are, in short order you
are going to come across a multiple that calls for both seeds to occupy
the same hole.

Plants aren't that precise.

I use interplanting (where each plant uses the space differently) and
succession planting (where the first plant matures in time to surrender
the space to a second plant for the balance of the season).

As an example of interplanting, I might plant lettuce at the base of peas
being sent up a trellis. The peas provide some shade and lots of nitrogen
for the lettuce, the lettuce serves as a living mulch and helps keep the
soil moist. Succession planting sees garlic planted behind a legume such
as beans. The garlic occupies the soil until June / July. Beans like hot
weather. When the garlic comes out I dig in the existing compost that was
serving as a mulch and plant innoculated beans to rebuild the N level in
the soil. Then, somewhere after the first hard frost, the beans come out
and the garlic goes in again.

There are lots of other combinations. You might like to add squash to your
mix and plant in hills in the grouping Native Americans call "three
sisters". The squash runs between the hills, the beans run up the corn and
the corn reaches for the sky. You have to watch where you step when
picking, but you get a lot of yield for the amount of sq ft involved.

Bill



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