2022 Review: Intensively Planted Bed
I planted one 4 x 10 foot raised bed intensively this summer. I was attempting to replicate a small-scale garden to both remind myself and help be a better teacher to the many of you who grow in limited square footage. I fully recognize the scale at which we grow is a luxurious, and permits a lot of exploration of vegetables and ensures ample plant spacing, but these things, especially plant spacing, are no less critical at any scale.
And I admit with the onslaught of abundance at large, I didn’t prune my tomatoes as much as I should have. I initially pruned to 3 main leaders like I’ve done for the past four years, but it quickly got out of control and top heavy. Sprouts also continued to come out of the ground level, especially with our Vesuvio di Piennolos.
Why didn’t I prune as much? The drought was the main reason why. We had minimal disease pressure, so the tomatoes weren’t screaming for attention — this is true not only for this planting but in the garden as a whole. My tomatoes took over this bed by mid-August. We had one semi-determinate and 4 indeterminate tomatoes. They were a real mess, and completely shaded out the onions and cilantro. At the same time, they were also really productive and are the reason I was able to make a few batches of bloody mary mix in September.
Onion in the top right was from our normal onion planting (block planting, no interplanting) versus this mixed bag I harvested underneath sprawling tomatoes.
The onions, interplanted in front of the tomatoes along with cilantro, were a sad attempt at what we know should be. It was reminiscent of our former urban gardening attempts to interplant onions – they were more like pearl onions than useful medium sized onions for a family dinner.
The cilantro, however, lingered for a good 2 months or so. It was probably one of the biggest wins of this bed. We relied it from late June until August. It was the best cilantro garden I’ve planted to date, and I hope to replicate it for many years to come. The shade of the tomatoes definitely helped it linger for a long time.
The Vesuvio tomatoes did not grow true to form and seemed determinate for about half the season and then eventually also started to climb, causing quite a mess that I didn’t manage as actively as I could have.
The flowers in the corners were also a bit of a gamble, occupying much needed leaf area for food production. Definitely grow your flowers outside this bed if this is your only space – take over a bit of grass adjacent to this, add a planter, or grow flowers in part-shade (they’re much more adept at this than food) if that’s all you have.
The carrots I planted in the northeast corner behind the tomatoes did okay. I didn’t thin them to the degree they needed, and they produced 3” - 5” carrots. Definitely not the beefy ones I grow elsewhere, but also not the same variety so that’s also why. The massive carrots we grow, Danvers 126, are a specific type of carrot known for its massive girth.
The gold rush bush beans in the corner did not fare as well as I’d hoped. We got some handfuls, but not as many meals as I’d hoped to get from these. The nasturtiums were definitely inhibiting their productivity. If Japanese beetles weren’t an issue for me (they decimate the foliage of pole snap beans here), I’d maybe do a main trellis with half tomatoes and half pole beans as the main planting in this bed.
I still think splitting the bed in half is a good method. This way you can get a few extra plantings in back while still harnessing the full sun aspect in front of the trellis. The veg in back is carrot, parsley, and parsnips from front to back in this photo, all that remained after our first fall frost.
The parsley and basil tucked behind and in front of the tomatoes, respectively, also fared well. I made a batch of pesto for the freezer with the basil and we enjoyed the parsley as needed in various salads and some chimichurri.
The head lettuce I interplanted early on also did pretty well, and the timing was good — it went in with the tomatoes and was mature in June and early July.
As I’m writing this I’m realizing I haven’t yet harvested the parsnips! Gah. I started to late last week and decided to wait. Why, oh, why did I decide to wait?
What will I do the same?
I liked the tomatoes placed in the middle of the bed, leaving equal space both in front and behind for lower growing veggies.
The basil in the front of the bed did really well and I’ll definitely do that again.
The direct-seeded cilantro between each tomato plant was awesome and worthy of being expanded to our main tomato beds too.
Place shade tolerant leafy crops behind (parsley, lettuce, cilantro) the tomato trellis and full-sun veggies in front (basil and beans).
What would I do differently?
I would return to our single leader style of tomato trellising we used to do in the city, which will remove much of the sprawling leaf area that shaded so much out. I will also only plant half the width in tomatoes, leaving the other half for squash or beans.
The carrots probably need to be planted in front of the tomatoes, and maybe even as a fall crop instead of a main season crop, allowing lettuce and arugula to go in first and then in July transition to fall carrots.
The onions really need their own space, so I’ll have to dedicate a portion of the bed entirely to them – I think onions are amazing homegrown and will try this in part of the open half of the bed, along with some green beans too.
Summer squash is a huge producer and worthy of small gardens because of how productive they are, so I’d like to try a summer squash too, though I already know this is problematic for the amount of space I’ll have.
Flowers will need to be re-evaluated. I feel so strongly that flowers are necessary, but I am not sure with such limited square footage the flowers I love to interplant are suitable.
It all comes back to what our goals are with our space. My goal was to grow a wide variety of food, and several successions within the same bed, in a small space. I will replicate this again next summer but likely in a different location within the garden. It’s a great learning tool for me and also helpful for garden tours (there will be at least one public garden tour here next summer, hosted by my county master gardeners).
