I have been running my rows of veggies west to east. Should I run them north to south? The plot is approximately 30 x 80 feet. I would like to make my rolls shorter than 80 feet but I don't know if they would get the sun they need.
Not the picture I intended. Sorry will try again
This message was edited Apr 26, 2008 9:56 AM
If you run your rows E -W, you can put the shorter crops in the southmost rows and the taller crops [eg corn] in the back. That way they won't be shading the shorter vegetables.
My only concern is that rows need to be run across any grade ( hillside) for cultivated crops. Other than that I would think that the shape of your plot would determine the orientation. O f course you would make an effort to plant the shorter sun loving plants on the sunny side.
Current status of kitchen garden
Oh, my. Major envy here, farmerdill. How I'd love to have a garden like that, but I'll have to move from here to get one. As it is, I'll have to put up shadecloth over the itty bitty space I do have. :(
Not to make you more envious tomato freak, but this is what the main garden looks like in June.
By the looks of the picture, I'd say run north to south. A couple hundred miles south (LOL).
Frank
I have more rows running n-s than otherwise. However my main concern is drainage....Since I have a very slight slope which to me is better than flat., I run the rows up and down grade to facillitate drainage if I have a 2 to 3 inch rain.
hahahaha I was thinking the same thing about 'running' south. It is pretty to looka tho.
I run almost all of my rows north to south here in FL. If not, like mentioned above, just plant the shorter things up front.
My rows run east and west due to the fact that I irrigate the garden by running water down the hill next to the rows. The slope is just a bit steep for that, but when I tried north/south rows there was not enough slope to get the water to run more than a few feet at a time. Besides, with the water flowing through a miscellaneous collection of odd lengths of pipe, plants were often in just the wrong places. And so I only did that once. I'm sure my set up is unique.
We get so much sun here that having one plant shade another or a row shading the one next to it hasn't been a problem. Often I try to plant something in the shade of other plants.
