On Jun 11, 8:26�am, "Nancy Young" > wrote:
> Giusi wrote:
> > "Nancy Young" > ha scritto nel messaggio
> >> Thanks for that tip. �I planted them according to directions and
> >> now I have to thin the plants. �These are the bush type.
>
> > I plant my bush beans every 4" each way. �Thay form a shade structure
> > that keeps weeds away and they do very well. �My old friend George in
> > WV taught me that.
>
> I'm planting another row this weekend. �The spacing is so close,
> I believe 6 inches, that I thought How's this going to work? �You
> say even closer, so that's just how it is.

Eight to ten inches apart in the row is fine but you need more space
between rows... plants are not all above ground, they have roots too,
the roots need more space than foliage... and you'll need space to
walk when you harvest, if you grow beans in rows all jamed together
you will have a lesser crop due to root crowding and you'll need to
step on plants when harvesting.. if rows are too close you will alos
be compressing soil over roots when harvsting, the crop will suffer...
leave plenty of space to walk. My garden is now all planted, over
many years of gardening I've learned not to crowd plants.... and there
are far better methods for controling weeds, crowding is the worst,
teh weeds will still grow, right between the plants where you won't
notice untll they're well established, and then you'll disturb the
bean plant roots when pulling the mature weeds. Crowded plants also
shade themselves, space between rows lets light in, vegetable plants
don't grow well without full sun. With space between plants it's very
easy to weed with shallow hoing/cultivating.

My tomato plants are doing well, as you can see I believe in space
between plants and my method of weed control works well.. high quality
weed block cloth from Lee Vally lasts more than ten years. I leave it
down all winter too, just roll it up in spring so I can till and lay
it back down again... the extra holes are from previous year's plants,
after a while I may use some extra holes to put in other plants,
perhaps even flowers:
http://i27.tinypic.com/mwsjgw.jpg

I have four fruit trees to plant (2 plum, 2 apple), but it's been much
too hot to dig holes, maybe today:
http://i30.tinypic.com/5cmx6q.jpg


In a couple of weeks that will be a lush garden. My beans are in that
far corner, just coming up. Some crops work better with bare ground,
I may use corrogated cardboard between rows later, I use cardbord for
walkways, it simply decomposes and I add new. As you can see I can
make my garden a lot larger, but that 2,500 sq ft plot is more than
enough for any three families, which is why I already devoted about a
third to blueberries... there's a small stream in that depression
along the right side, I rarely need to water:
http://i31.tinypic.com/2ecoxv9.jpg