You Can Ignore the Plant Tags - Intensive Planting in the Kitchen Garden

Welcome to the Grow youw Self Podcast. Surprising stories about the food we eat and inspiring conversations about what it really takes to live the whole and happy life we're all craving. I'm Nicole Johnsey Burke, your host and the owner of Rooted Garden and Gardenary Incorporated and author of Kitchen Garden Revival. Is it obvious yet? I'm kind of obsessed with the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden may just be the answer that you've been looking for on your own journey to health and wholeness in this podcast. It's gonna inspire and enable you to make garden magic right in your very own space. If you're someone who wants to eat more good food that's actually good for you, fill your day with great stories you want to text to a friend. If you wanna hear more about inspiring people and do a little bit each day better than the way you did it, The Grow yourself is what your ears have been waiting for. You won't just learn about gardening here, you'll learn how to make growing as a person a big part of your everyday life. And your life, your community. And your garden, of course, will be all the better for it. So put in your headphones, turn up the volume, and let's take a walk, go on a drive, or just hang out in the kitchen garden together. Welcome to Grow Yourself. Dear Nicole, it appears that you are absolutely breaking all of the plant tag rules when you set up your kitchen garden. I mean, your plants are packed so close together, I can't imagine that you're not having serious pest issues and that your plants aren't producing the way you want them to. Please explain. This is just one of hundreds of messages I get all the time about the fact that my gardens present what I'm actually doing, which is breaking the plant spacing rules. It's what I like to call intensive planting and it's the subject we're going to dive into today for Chapter six of the Kitchen Garden Revival Book Club. That's right, I am a rule breaker and I'm going to teach you how to break the plant's piece facing rules too. And why it's okay. My episode today, episode I believe is 37, is brought to you by the Kitchen Garden Academy. Kitchen Garden Academy is my eight week course that brings you step by step to set up your kitchen garden the right way right away. Learn more about Kitchen garden academy@kitchengardenacademy.com and now let's get intense about our plant spacing. Let's do it. Well, welcome back to the Grow youw Self Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in week after week. It is so fun to come and dive into these subjects a little bit deeper with you in a different kind of way. I just love sitting down and chatting. I just pretend that it's me and you and we're walking through your garden together. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you for tagging me. When you're listening, please take a little selfie of yourself in your garden or on your run or in your kitchen or whatever you're doing and show me where you're listening to the Grow youw Self podcast this week. I'd love to see your selfie on Instagram. Just tag me gardenaryco and I will repost if you're okay with that. But even if you don't want me to repost, just tag me so it feels like we're together. You know what I'm saying? All right, today we're gonna talk about chapter six. We are. Wow. Six eighths. What is that? Three fourths? We are three fourths of the way through the book together in Kitchen Garden Revival. Book Club. Book Club finishes up at the end of September. So if you don't have your book yet, hello, you can get it@gardenary.com book Kitchen Garden Revival was like, sold out. Sold out, Sold out for so long. But now it's available and we are past 10,000 copies. So thank you so much for all your support. I just got my first like, sales report from my publisher the other day and I was like, oh my gosh, how cool is this to see how many people are bringing back the kitchen garden with me. It's just a dream come true. So thank you so much for being part of the revival. Now today I wanna dive into the idea of intensive planting. This is something that I do in all my gardens, we do in our clients gardens. And I think it's super important to talk about because there aren't a lot of people that do talk about it. And I often get some like, what are those people call it? Whist blowers. I get some whistleblowers. I don't know if it's appropriate for this, but anyway, it feels like they're trying to like, get me in trouble with the plant Spacing police sometimes because they're like mad at me when they see my gardens because they're like, wait a second, you didn't follow the rules. So. So today I'm going to encourage you that you can break the rules too. And we're going to do that by. By taking the Intensive planting pledge. Oh, yeah, girl. There is a pledge you have to take if you want to be an intensive planter. It's not for everybody. And you are going to learn why. In today's epis. I'm actually gonna be reading quite a bit from chapter six. Because, you know, I took the time to write it and it got edited and it's like, it's good. So we're gonna read, I believe it's like the first four pages of chapter six together. Are you ready? Get on your running shoes. Go on a run. Go on a walk. Go tend your garden. Do something fun while we talk about breaking the rules. I love the idea of breaking the rules. Cause, like, for my whole life, I feel guilty when I break rules. And so this is one of those times where you can break rules and you don't have to feel bad. So let's do it. Okay. Chapter six is begin to grow in your kitchen garden. By the way, I have to say I'm recording this in my basement. All my kids are home all day, every day in every room. So my recording studio is now occupied by a student who is listening to her teacher. So if you hear some unusual noises, it's because my children are all like running like wild horses above my head. So just bear with me. One day we're going to get professional here. All right, chapter six. Plant begin to grow in your kitchen garden. I'm going to come right out and say it. Okay? You can pretty much ignore the plant labels because guess what? The plant tags in nurseries weren't created for kitchen gardeners. The plant tags tell you how far apart your plants should be if big, if there. Guys, you're growing crops in long and wide rows on a farm or in a large in ground vegetable patch, not in your backyard's raised garden. So when the tag says something like space three to four feet apart in three foot rows, it's talking to the farmer who will have 40 or 60ft of each planting row with 20 or 40 or more plants along the hill. Is this you? This is not me. And this is not a kitchen garden. Don't get me wrong. I'm so thankful we have farmers who farm in rows and plant lots and lots of food. We need more of them. This is in no way meant as disrespect to the farmers who plant in the rows. Farmers, if any of you are reading this, please keep planting all the delicious things however you want and I will buy them all. And please don't hate me for breaking the plant spacing. Rules. See, this is my insecurity here where I feel bad when I break rules. Just want to look at my gardens and you'll know I like to pack in the plants. As in please don't send the proper spacing police my way because I will certainly be brought in for questioning. I started planting my gardens this way after following all the plant tags advice for spacing like any proper new gardener would. 2 to 3ft apart. Okay, planted 12 inches apart in 3 foot rows. Yes sir. I promise. I was a very obedient gardener in the beginning, but a few months in I regretted following the rules. 1. I got very little production out of my small space. Our first garden boxes were 4ft by 4ft, only about 16 square feet total growing space. Following the plant tug spacing guidelines, I had room for about four, maybe five tomato plants and that was it. So I'd waited all year for this one little box to grow something. Let me turn the page for me and all I got were tomatoes. And if those failed or were stolen by the squirrels, which by the way, they were, I was devastated with no backup plan. Meanwhile, the tomatoes were very comfortable lounging in their spacious, luxurious garden condo while I was left with an empty harvest basket and a bunch of plant tags. 2. The bare soil was not my friend. When plants are spread way apart with nothing in between, there's a lot of soil left exposed to the elements a lot. Bare soil dries out more quickly and is much more difficult to manage. When the soil was bare between my plants, I was constantly watering. Constantly. And on a hot sunny day, I might have to water twice. Did I mention I have four kids and a few other things to do besides hold a hose? As much as I enjoyed my garden, I did not love lugging a heavy hose around the garden. I wasn't hugging it, I was lugging it around the garden beds in the summer heat twice a day. Number three things grew in those open spaces whether I planted them or not. After careful study, I can say with confidence that it is the weeds that write the plant tags. They know if you put two or three feet between your plants, they're going to have way more sunlight and space to grow themselves. At least they did in my garden after I was done wrangling the hose and keeping the bare soil watered for a few weeks. Guess what happened? Can you guess? Things grew in those spaces. Grass, clover and purslane. They weren't things I wanted to eat and they were growing between the plants that I did want. So I thought to myself, self, if the Bare soil is hard to manage, and smaller plants seem to grow there anyway. Why not plant smaller plants that you'd actually like to grow in that space? They'll protect the soil so you don't have to water so much. They'll keep you from having to pull weeds. And you might even get to harvest some extra things from your garden and not bank your entire season's success on those four tomato plants. And myself said, that is a very good idea. So I went with it. And guess what? It worked. Not perfectly, but as well or better than following the plant tag suggestions. It went so well that I started doing this with our clients. It's called intensive planting, AKA packing in the plants. If you've made it this far into the book, clearly you're a reader. But here's my advice. Don't read the plant tags. I mean, you can if you want, but take the plant tag instruction as a mere suggestion, something to keep in mind, not a rule or a law or a must. Because we've created deep raised beds and we're gardening in a smaller space that will be tended more often, we can afford to plant our plants closer together and more intensively. Which reminds me of another thing I like to say. Anything worth doing is worth doing intensively. The idea behind intensive planting is that it will provide you with more harvests of more varieties more often. Sounds good, right? It's great, but it's not for everyone. Intensive planting does not work for people who don't tend their gardens. Why? Because intensive planting isn't a set it and forget it kind of garden. The generous spacing is for someone who will plant, water, fertilize, and harvest just one crop and call it a day. But the whole point of setting up the garden in the first place is to create a space for us to practice a new hobby, to be entertained, to learn something new, right? There's a reason tended regularly is in my definition of a kitchen garden. If you've only got four plants in your box, there's just not enough in there to keep you coming back on a regular basis. At least not for me. So it's up to you. There isn't a right or wrong way. And the rule keeper inside, you may just not be able to defy the plant tag rules. If that's you, as you read this chapter, modify your planting to keep more space between your plants. Whatever you choose this season, I'd like to dare you at some point to join me in planting your garden as full as possible. But you can only do this if you agree to a few things, so please raise your right hand and take the intensive planting pledge with me. All right, Are you ready? I'm going to turn the page back. We're going to take the intensive planting pledge together. Are you guys raising your right hand? You have to. It's serious. Okay, number one, I will tend my garden regularly, weekly, maybe even several times per week. Number two, I will prune my garden regularly and use the harvest as often as possible. Three, if some plants are getting crowded, I'll remove the ones that aren't as important to me. Four, I will double check on my plants so they feel cared for, even though I have a lot of them in a small space. Five, I will be okay if not everything works out well because I got to try growing lots of things all in one season, which means I learned way more than I would have if I'd just grown a few rows of one or two things. Number six, I will not be intimidated by rule followers who tell me I'm wrong for not following the plant tag instructions. And number seven, the most important, I'll message Nicole when I harvest. So much. So much more than any of my rule following friends. But I'll do my best not to be too braggy. All right, did you take it? Did you take the pledge? Only seven things. You have to promise to go all in on intensive planting. All right, let's finish up this section. As you grow from season to season and try various methods, you'll find a rhythm for how much is too much and how little is too little. During some seasons, I wish I'd planted more, and during others, I'm trying to hand off plants to neighbors. I'm currently feeling that way about my kale, but that's part of what keeps it interesting. Now let's stop talking about it already and start planting. All right, friends, so that is intensive planting. That's my thoughts on that. What do you guys think? So it is true story, when we were growing in Nashville, our first raised bed that we did. You guys have probably heard of our row garden. So we did our row gardens, but then when we started with a smaller raised bed, we only put four cherry tomato plants in there. That's it. Four cherry tomato plants in a four by four garden. So Jason is a very good rule follower. He's a chemist, and he has to, you know, there's so many things he has to live by the books on because, I mean, he's like, the lab could blow up if he doesn't do it. You know what I'M saying, so he's definitely a great rule follower in the garden. And he was doing that. He was doing that with our planting in Nashville. And it is a true story. We had These tomatoes, just four tomatoes in 16 square feet of space. We followed the, I think the planting. The tag said give them three feet each, like three square feet each. So, you know, you do. I guess we could have fit in one more, but basically we maxed out at four to five tomato plants and some of them produce. I mean, we did get some cherry tomatoes, but a lot of them got eaten. I think we had a raccoon in our backyard that year and that was it. So you get through the whole 60 to 90 days and maybe you get some tomatoes, maybe you don't. And that's all you got to show for it. And so I just learned my lesson. And then as I started growing in Houston, I wanted to grow all the things. I realized there were so many things I wanted to grow in the garden and each season was only 60 to 90 days and I only had so much space. And so it kind of put me in this little box that literally pushed the limits and made me discover new things, right? Like I had all these wishes, all these things I wanted to try growing. I had a limited amount of space and I had a limited amount of time. And I don't know about you, but one thing I've learned is whenever we have limitations, it pushes our creativity and helps us to. To actually discover things that we otherwise wouldn't try. So oftentimes I think what we can do is we long for more, for more space, more time, more. I don't know, something when really it's our limitations that actually help us learn and grow the most. So I think probably if I had had a huge acreage or rows and rows and rows of space, I never would have tried this because I could have experimente and planted all the things, you know, in a much bigger space. But because I was limited in Houston, our boxes, we had 120 total square feet. And even now here in Chicago, I've only got 90. And so because I'm limited, because the seasons are only 60 to 90 days each, it just kind of forced the issue for me and I'm so glad it did. So I'm going to close this up, this idea of intensive planting with my main reasons for intensive planting. I hinted at this in the chapter, but I'm just going to kind of reiterate. So the first main reason, if you haven't listened to the episode Called think about Nature. That is really a perspective that is super important to me. It's a main tenet of gardenary and our garden consultants kind of adhere to that, or we do adhere to that, and it's absolutely true in the idea of intensive planting. So think through anytime you've gone to a national park or a state park or any, any place that is not, you know, gardened or farmed by a person, so where plants are just naturally growing in their own habitat, as they naturally do. Have you ever seen plants widely spaced from one another with lots of soil in between? Ever? I'm waiting. No, you haven't, because it doesn't exist. So plants do not. Unless you're like in the desert. But even in the desert, if you stumble upon a plant, it's going to be with other plants, it's going to be very, very rare that you would see just one plant all by itself unless like everything died. And it's like the superhero in general. If you ever see a plant growing in nature, it's growing very close to many other plants. I've never once just, you know, been in a national park or something and seen, you know, one plant standing alone and then skip three feet and then there's another plant, right? It's, they're all together. And that is because that's the way that plants work in nature, right? Like you'll have the, the towering plant and then you'll have kind of a medium sized plant and then you'll have a lot of low, underground, you know, kind of small size plants and they all work together and serve one another and kind of protect each other in nature. So when we grow our garden in that way, we're literally imitating nature, which is what we want to do in the first place, right? So that's the main reason why I love intensive planting is because it's imitating what I see out in nature when I see plants thriving. The second reason. So that's the overall reason and then there's three main reasons under that. The first is water retention. So as I mentioned in the book, you know, when you have open, exposed soil, open, exposed soil is the most likely to have to be stressed in any way, whether it be running out of water, running out of nutrients, exposed dry soil, or soil that's just open and exposed to the elements is the worst situation we can have. In fact, it's a lot of the reason why we have, you know, global warming and challenges in our environment is just this open, exposed soil. What we want is soil to Be covered. It's like a blanket for the soil. It protects it. It helps the soil hold in its nutrients and its water. So if you are challenged with water in your garden, if you feel like you're always having to water, if you feel like your plants are drying out and getting weepy and, you know, losing their moisture too fast, a lot of time that can be because your plants have too much space between them. And so there's just too much exposed soil. And it is just the water in that soil is evaporating much faster than it would if it had plants growing in it. The second reason is because of weed prevention. So, as I mentioned in the chapter, things will end up growing in those spaces whether you want them to or not. I remember an interview my first year of running Rooted Garden. It was with a company, I don't know if they're still doing their thing. It was Urban Organic Gardener. And they said, oh, your gardens always seem so free of weeds. What's your secret? And I said, well, if a weed can grow there, then I just plant something else that I actually want to grow there. So to me, weeds are a sign that I should plant something else. Because if something's growing there that I don't want, then it doesn't mean I need to pull it out and just have a void there. It means something wants to grow there. Nature is wanting some growth from that part of the soil. So why not put in something that I'd enjoy eating and harvesting or even just looking at, you know, even if it's just a flower. So weed prevention is the second reason for intensive planting. And then the third reason is maximum production. So, as you'll learn in Kitchen Garden revival and inside the Academy, is I categorize plants based on their size and their duration. And there are lots of plants that are going to take 60 to 90 days in the garden. Those are our large and lengthy plants. Well, those plants are going to be in the garden for a long time, and it will be a long time before we get to harvest from them. So we may need to tend them and prune them and fertilize them. But for the most part, we're going to have quite a wait before we can start to harvest from them. So we're talking a wait of 60 to 90 days. Well, guess what? During that time when we're waiting, we could have all these smaller plants that have a smaller duration and a smaller size growing underneath them. What that does, first of all, is it makes the garden more interesting. Like I said, it's hard to be a quote unquote gardener who goes out and takes things from the garden regularly if there's not a lot happening out there. So in that time when we just had four cherry tomato plants growing, I didn't love going out to tend the garden because it was like, well, there they are again. They're still cherry tomato plants still growing. You know, it just wasn't that interesting. But nowadays I can go out and during the time when the cherry tomatoes are taking off, I've got Swiss chard and lettuces and carrots and peppers and beans and peas. I've got all these things happening and growing down below them that make it super fun and interesting to head out to the garden. And not just interesting, but more productive. So while I'm waiting those 60 to 90 days for the tomatoes to come ripe, I'm harvesting tons of other things that have been ripening in 30, 45, 60 days while I'm waiting on the tomatoes. So packing in the plants means that you bring more interest to the garden and you're going to get to harvest more. Now, I don't mean that you're going to get to harvest more from every single plant. What I mean is you'll get to harvest a wider variety and there'll be more things coming more often. Don't forget the key point of the intensive planting, which is to prioritize. So what can happen in this situation, and has happened often to me, is I have some plants that I'm, you know, more interested in that are more important. And accidentally, because I intensively planted, I have some plants that, you know, take up extra space or just take off and end up dominating the garden and taking up the space of the plants that I liked the most. So in that situation, you've got to go back to your planting pledge and remove the things that are taking up too much space or taking over and make sure you prioritize the things that are more important. So I'm not saying the intensive planting, you know, situation is, is perfect. What I'm saying is it sets you up to really enjoy the garden in a totally new way. But it does have the caveats, right? You can't just let it go and do its own thing and expect to get perfect production from all the plants that you put in the garden. It's a very different way of looking at the garden, I think. And of course I love it because it's my style. But like I said, intensive planting is not for everyone. So those are the three reasons why I love it remembering overall that it imitates nature. And that's basically what I'm trying to do in my boxes, is just imitate the magic of nature that's happening. When I walk in a park or, you know, out in an open field, I want to kind of feel that way when I'm inside my raised beds. Well, I'm not in my beds. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm walking alongside them. And then the three main reasons is that I get great water retention. So I water my garden much less, Much, much less than people who space their plants way far out. I don't have to worry about weeds. So if I see a weed growing, I just plant something. I want to be there. And then I get maximum production, so I get more growth from my garden more often with a much wider variety of plants that I get to harvest all throughout the season. What do you think? Are you down for breaking the rules with me? I hope I've convinced you. All right, let me close up with the end of chapter six. Let me turn the page here. Planting a garden is a little like burying a treasure. Even after planting hundreds of gardens, I still wonder how this season's plants will do. In every season, there are surprises and disappointments. I'll work desperately hard for one harvest and get nothing and then do very little for another plant and be overwhelmed with the outcome. The truth about gardening is that we never know how it's going to turn out. I think that's why I. And now you just can't get enough of the experience. The mix of careful planning, hard work, and the need for a little bit of luck, good fortune, or God's smile creates an addictive experience, perhaps the best and most wholesome thrill you can get in your own backyard. Remember how I said your food would become a wonder? Well, keep your eyes open, because these seeds and plants are about to amaze you. But the thrill only happens when you close this book, make a plan, and start planting. So gather your impressive seeds and head to the plant store. Yes, you may finally go shopping. As soon as you dig in, you're going to wonder exactly what to do next. And that is exactly what you'll learn in the next chapter. And that's what we're going to talk about next week. Chapter seven is all about tending the kitchen garden. But first you got to decide if you're going to do some intensive planting with me. I hope that today has inspired you to see your garden in a new way, to see the potential and to see that it is okay sometimes to break the rules. Especially when you're growing in a raised bed kitchen garden and you're following, you're feeling tempted to follow the plant spacing rules. Do this and you're going to be getting DMs and letters just like I do that say Dear you, it appears that you are breaking the rules. Please tell me more because it looks fabulous. Here's to doing the best kind of things intensively. Listen, if something's worth doing, it's worth doing and being intense about it. So here's to you. Here's to me breaking the rules in the very best way. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Self Podcast. I'll see you next week for Chapter seven. Thanks again for listening to Grow youw Self. I hope you enjoyed this dive into breaking the plant spacing rules with me as we talked all about Chapter seven. Listen, the goal is to become a gardener. A gardener is someone who gardens. So the goal of this episode is to pique your interest in the fact that the garden can be be so much more interesting when you break the rules and experiment and learn along the way. If you want to learn and work with me as I teach you all the details about growing a kitchen garden, you got to come check out Kitchen Garden Academy. It's my eight week online course where I teach you all about setting up your kitchen garden the right way right away. We've had hundreds of students join me this year and their kitchen garden gardens are amazing. So come check it out@kitchengardenacademy.com and let me help you set up your fall garden right now. Thanks again for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. I'll see you next week for Chapter seven. Bye. Sa.