Does everyone grow their veg in straight lines?

[Flo]

I've done blocks of vegetables this year - block of swedes next to block of cabbage etc so that I can do the rotation but plant small or large amounts of seeds as required. Rows is boring.

[javaMan]

Geoff Hamilton was enthusiastic about ornamental kitchen gardens, and did a lot to promote them when he hosted Gardeners World. You can still get his book from various sources e.g. via Amazon traders. I was disappointed by his book. Most of it was given over to describing plants and methods – like a normal plant encyclopaedia.

I am sure that I have read that the ‘Cottage’ garden (ornamental kitchen garden, etc) was a bit of a myth – largely perpetrated and romanticised by Victorians with their chocolate box type decorations. I would be more than happy for anyone to present evidence to refute this, but I do remember reading something along these lines.

Many of the plants we think of today as ornamental (aka flowers) were in the past grown for their medicinal purposes and uses as herbs. I am always surprised when I read through a really good book on ‘herbs’ what flowering plants were used in this manner. One that has sprung immediately to mind (apart from Marigolds) are roses. Their hips were used as an important source of vitamins (e.g. C, E and K), and for various flavouring, syrups and wine. While their petals were used in cooking or for making rose water. The latter used for cooking or medical purposes.

Some hapless Victorian painter or researcher would look at existing gardens or research material, and view the mixture of ‘ornamental plants’ and vegetables as a carefully crafted mixture, unaware that the flowering plants were actually used as food and medicine.

Until the mechanised age, and the rise of leisure time for many (rather than the select rich few) eking out a living was hard, and the vegetable plot could be the difference between going hungry or not. So it just didn’t make sense to have flowers competing with vegetables for nutrients, water or light. You needed a fairly maximum yield of vegetables from the available land, with least expenditure of time and effort. So apart from the select (rich) few who had sufficient leisure time, your ordinary peasant is stuck with growing plants for food or medicinal purposes, with perhaps the odd ornamental flower here and there.

Naturally, in this day and age we are, largely, free to garden as we choose. There are no rules which we have to adhere to in garden layout and design. So if you want to have a go at mixing up your flowers and vegetables I would say go for it. Experiment and see how it goes. Find something that works for you. It does take more effort, and you have to patrol your garden regularly – harvesting crops when ripe, having replacements ready, cutting back the flowers so they do not encroach on the vegetables, and having lots of compost and/or manure to replenish the depleted nutrients – remember your vegetables are now competing with flowers.

Angus

[Minnesota]

I tend more towards the grid method John Jeavons describes in his books. I don't actually have a grid - I think he suggests 1" chicken wire so that you can space accordingly - I just do it by eye.

The best thing about it is you can plant closer together by this method and up here everything benefits. They support each other better in the high winds we regularly get.

I agree with Green Aura, I do this in raised rows that are 3 feet wide and 75 feet long. I didn't read it in a book, I learned it from trial and error, They do support each other.

[Big Al]

I tried an experiment this year in my deep beds in which I planted on a diamond grid of 5" I.E. planted an onion or a leek , beetroot etc every 5" in a diamond. I also planted a lot of onions in a ring of 5 inches and left them to fight their way up. The troubles with this method were weeding, it was all hand weeding and a real pain.Secondly it was heavy on feed and water of which I failed miserably on both accounts and thirdly we got a lot of hard winds and downpours over one weekend and the crops were lifted out of the soil mainly because they were close together and acted as a clump rather than a row so like a good militant union when one came out the all came out.

This meant small onions but I'm still using them now and these were pulled in late june and we use a lot of onions each day.

I've also planted in between flowers like the poterger gardens you mention and again this worked well but weeding was a problem as I have a chronic back problem and once down it was hard ot get up but finger weeding was needed in my case. I will always use my deep beds but why not try both versions this coming year and see what happenns for yourself.

As we are being told that land is scarce and we will soon run out of food to feed ourselves then I think either or both methods will be of use in the future.
HTH




BA

[Peggy Sue]

My lines start of straight but turn wiggly ... I know thats no help

A wonam after my own heart!
I have always been dead against anything too ordered but there are some advantages on an allotment when time is always pressing to get the weeding done so rows a hoe width apart are kinda useful (with a bit of a wiggle for the hell of it!)

I've tried a few things in blocks- dwarf peas for one for mutual support but the chickweed is just overwhelming and so much quicker than the peas the weeding is once again a problem- but that depends on your soil and inherrent/hereditary problems.

[Millymollymandy]

I start off every season with my stakes and string and everything is just perfect to start with, then after that I do it by eye.

But obviously my 'eye' is rather wonky! Funny how when you are kneeling down planting things they seem to be perfectly straight until you stand up and look from the end of the row!

[grahamhobbs]

Most of the issues/options have been covered by others already but for me it comes down to what is your priority, to have a garden that is visually attractive or one where you seriously want to produce food or somewhere in between.

If you are serious in being self-sufficent in food you will end up growing things in lines, whether it be rows, squares or diagonals. But within that you can have areas where you grow flowers and herbs, etc and these of course do not need to be in lines.

[herbalholly]

Thank you very much for all your really helpful replies. I've decided that I shall just start small and see what unfolds. I think I'll try the keyhole planting in one area, the straight lines in a couple of the raised beds and have one bed that's a higgledy-piggeldy mix of vegetables and flowers and I'll see how I get on.
Many thanks