{"id":10654,"date":"2014-08-19T03:18:15","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T10:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=10654"},"modified":"2014-08-13T05:23:19","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T12:23:19","slug":"crammed-garden-with-too-many-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/articles\/design\/crammed-garden-with-too-many-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Crammed Garden with too Many Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Sedum &amp; Fucshia by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/6056737478\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6192\/6056737478_d014d0dc8b.jpg\" alt=\"Sedum &amp; Fucshia\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My son complains that I cram in too many plants into my garden. I guess he is right but I garden for plants not hard landscapes, not sculpture and certainly not for bare soil.<\/p>\n<h2>Problems of Too many Plants<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There is often no space for that great new plant but I cram it in anyway. I often put a plant in the only place available rather than the location that would best suit it. I regret it later because the colour schemes become totally random.<\/li>\n<li>Weaker plants can be smothered and killed by the thugs in the garden.<\/li>\n<li>Plants need space to reach their full potential and look their individual best.<\/li>\n<li>Plants that are too close together can attract mildew and other diseases.<\/li>\n<li>Water needs to get down to the roots and a canopy of leaves can create dry spots.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Morley 020 by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/6056195685\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6064\/6056195685_47957b17c8.jpg\" alt=\"Morley 020\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Garden Areas with Too Many Plants<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>I have started collecting and growing Alpines because I can get a lot more plants in a small space. Even so I find it hard to create gaps when everything is in full flow.<\/li>\n<li>The border is intended to become &#8216;low maintenance&#8217; to give me time to focus on other projects. For this area it is fine for the plants to be close together.<\/li>\n<li>Vegetable gardens need allotted space as you do want good crops.<\/li>\n<li>Natural gardens are fine with lots of wild flowers or local plants but too much grass can then smother smaller plants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Rhododendron group by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4578956696\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3307\/4578956696_ca28de438f.jpg\" alt=\"Rhododendron group\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>The Case for Too Many Plants<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Life is too short not to aim for abundance. I love the free seeds from RHS and AGS seed distributions. This provides me with lots of plants of varieties I have not already got.<\/li>\n<li>A riot of colour, shape and form can be therapeutic as can my informality.<\/li>\n<li>You generally have something available to give away.<\/li>\n<li>If you neglect a part of the garden for a while it can still seem naturalistic and in keeping with the rest of the garden.<\/li>\n<li>You do not need to worry about ground cover, real selected plants can do that job.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Intensive Gardens<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The term intensive gardening is usually reserved for a raised bed system. Deeper richer soil will support more and better plants or so the theory goes.<\/li>\n<li>Interplanting is second nature in a crammed garden, in fact I interplant the interplants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">INTENSIVE SPACING GUIDE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<table border=\"1\" width=\"90%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Plant<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Inches<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Plant<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Inches<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Asparagus<\/td>\n<td>15 &#8211; 18<\/td>\n<td>Chard, Swiss<\/td>\n<td>6 &#8211; 9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Aubergines<\/td>\n<td>18 &#8211; 24<\/td>\n<td>Courgette<\/td>\n<td>18-24<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Beans, runner<\/td>\n<td>6 &#8211; 12<\/td>\n<td>Lettuce, head<\/td>\n<td>10 &#8211; 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Beans, bush<\/td>\n<td>4 &#8211; 6<\/td>\n<td>Onion<\/td>\n<td>2 &#8211; 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Beetroot<\/td>\n<td>2 &#8211; 4<\/td>\n<td>Peas<\/td>\n<td>2 &#8211; 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Broccoli<\/td>\n<td>12 &#8211; 18<\/td>\n<td>Peppers<\/td>\n<td>12 &#8211; 15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Brussels sprouts<\/td>\n<td>15 &#8211; 18<\/td>\n<td>Potatoes<\/td>\n<td>10 &#8211; 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cabbage<\/td>\n<td>15 &#8211; 18<\/td>\n<td>Sweet corn<\/td>\n<td>15 &#8211; 18<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Carrots<\/td>\n<td>2 &#8211; 3<\/td>\n<td>Tomatoes<\/td>\n<td>18 &#8211; 24<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cauliflower<\/td>\n<td>15 &#8211; 18<\/td>\n<td>Turnip<\/td>\n<td>4 &#8211; 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cucumber<\/td>\n<td>12 &#8211; 18<\/td>\n<td>Leeks<\/td>\n<td>3 &#8211; 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Sources<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>University of Arizona for the spacing guide<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Too many plants crammed into a garden can be a joy not a problem unless they are weeds or weedy specimens. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}