How close do you space your plants?

Never underestimate a huntress wearing a pink scarf ! hahahaha.

After getting rid of the lifeless snake...this is the view I had for 3 hours solid while I was working out in the garden! Good dog!

psssssssst does Dave ever jump in and say "heh you kids get out of that jello tree" ie. get back on topic? Just wondering. Is there a Dave? Just wondering that too.

Ooooooops...Dave is definitely here! But I guess he just can't be everywhere at one time! hahahaha

I'M A CRAMMER!

An a beatiful crammer you are too! ABSOLUTELY FABBY katg!! I'm greeeeeeen. I don't think I can grown any of those here LOL

Love that pix Kat. Hey my So you think you can dance was not on. :(.

That pink scarfed loonie.

hehehe~she is a loon!

kat, the pic of your pooch, the planter in the background with purple red plant , we call that a chicken liver .yours is the only other one i've ever seen .what do you call it? i take cuttings every year to keep it going.sally ps, sorry dave, had to know,next time,dmail

With very limited space, I am a crammer.

Yeah cause they never read dmails. Not!

i don't care if they read mine . i know they don't like for me to clutter up the threads,some times i just get carried away. thank goodness,i'm normal.( i think.) lol sally

That is why you need to go on the parking lot and talk on Best/worst or a few others that talk about everything all over the spectrum

Despite my efforts to space them, they look "crammed together" after a couple of years!

So..... Where are all of these "spacers" we're seeing in the votes. Everything I've read so far has been by the crammers like myself.

Janet

I don't think there are as many as they would have us believe- I'm with Dahlianut and Kat - we are more honest - Maybe they are weeding - Spacers Where are you?

"Officially" I'm a spacer. I *try* to allow enough space around each plant for it to grow to the full size that the PlantFiles and other sources indicate that it wants to grow. I'm not always that good about adhering to that policy, especially as I began discovering the numerous environmental enemies that my plants have here in the midst of the Mojave Desert (high temperatures, ultra bright long day sunlight, arid conditions only partially compensated for in one Pretty Flowers Row by a soaker system, ferocious winds sustained for hours on end regularly whipping through my land at 40 mph and higher) which tend to prevent them from ever reaching full size.

It is only in my Pretty Flowers Row where I have been able to provide any defense at all against some of the environmental conditions: afternoon shade provided by the garage next to which it is growing, brickwork wind break walls at each end of the planting row which help "some" to minimize wind damage, and the soaker system which I run as often as twice a day when it is especially hot. So bottom line is that I voted for "spacing" but tend to be a little skimpy on what I provide because of experience with not getting things to grow to full hoped for size.

I like to give them early growing space so that their peak for our guests to peek is about the middle of the season when we burn the most weiners and have the most friends in to enjoy the show. When the wear out my compost piles start to grow and I mulch for the winter if not using a cover crop. It's like a circus setting it all up again in the spring. It's like getting up each morning when I realize I'm still alive. I like to tinker the beds in the early spring.

Due to space considerations and plant buying eyes being bigger than my garden--I am a consistant crammer and proud of it:lol:

Thank-you DMAC!

Wow! There are a lot of crammers on here. I am a spacer. First of all, I'm cheap so I buy small plants and let them grow. I also have that luxury seeing as how my growing season is nearly year-round. However, because I live in an incredibly hot, humid climate, if I didn't give my plants decent air flow they would all die in this weather. Do the rest of you not have mildew or mold? Or humidity, LOL! The only time I plant things close is if I plant a taller plant to shade my shorter plants.

Melanie

Yes to be fair to spacers, it's hard to be a crammer in humid or wet conditions and still have healthy plants. It's bone dry here mellielong so I can cram to my hearts content.

No humidity here mellielong! - every drop they don't drink evaporates - Here they huddle together and hide from the airflow - Today I think it might blow them away - Yesterday I had to move the petunias out of the sun - they were shriveling

Kitty

Dry, dry here and not much space, either. Crammer conditions!

SOJ- I'd rather dig up a few crammed plants than weed, and weed, and weed, and weed!!!!

Maggie

I leave enough space for my Hostas to grow but not so much as would be the ideal amount. Spaces really bother me because it just reminds me how immature my garden is, especially this one because I just moved here 19 days ago ;)

Erynne

P.S I have other plants too and I'll happily cram those!

bgrumbin we almost said the same point only you described the issues in more detail, but likewise.

We talked before, it is heck in the Mojave Desert to garden, in pots or otherwise w/out a good micro climate and more. I freely admitted to both scenarios that is why I put other. There is just too much whining we can do and nobody would get until they Have It.

That is why your grumblin and my zone is from Hades. Sunset Zone btw, you crammers won't get why I identify w/ the Sunset zones, but grumbin would.

I CANT WAIT TO MOVE AND TEAR UP SUMMORE GRASS TO CRAM 40 PLANTS INTO 3 SQ. FEET!! lol:) i keep all my large plants, like trees and shrubs spaced out so they can grow comfortably, but when it comes to annuals, i like a lush, bushy carpet of flowers, +, it keeps those pesky weeds out:)

Go for it Tropicsofohio...and please post photo's! LOL

I'm a spacer- I want the edges of my plants to "just touch", so that they have their own graceful form w/o touching anything else.... then again I do hate those brown spaces...

o fellow crammers I'm STILL not sure how this happened but appears we're gonna get kicked on this pole by the spacers sigh. anyhoo GREAT chatting and sharing with those who aren't on the forums I frequent. Maybe we could have a Crammer chat reunion one day LOL?

Ummmm...the numbers don't look good DahliaNUT. Can we start a Crammer forum?

And you know that the "spacers" will try to infiltrate when their gardens start overgrowing! phhhhfffff!

LOL Kate I think we have to recognize that alot of the spacers got swayed on the " try" part of the question. Personally I think there are many spacers that are crammers at heart. Like we don't all "TRY"! (well I never do but work with me ^_^) I think we're hooped on the pole no doubt about it sigh. RECOUNT without "TRY" in the spacer option please DAVE!!! ok now I'm a radical Crammer LOL

hellnzn11 of Rosamond, CA (Zone 8b) lives just a little southwest of me and so knows exactly what I'm talking about when I say the word "arid". I would have been amazed sometimes at the things that people elsewhere can get away with, relying on the environment to provide moisture that we simply haven't got at all ever, but for the fact that I used to reside in some of those areas or have travelled there and know what it's like.

The one thing that pleases me, relative to your comments about "good micro climate", is that the combination I set up of brickwork wind break walls on both ends, partial protection from the leeward side of the garage both from the afternoon sun and from some of the ferocious winds, and the newest element the soaker system, has enabled me to place three new coleii in my Pretty Flowers Row (originally intended to be "Coleus Row") and they have actually survived for almost two weeks now without shrivelling up and dying. They are likely, I think, to have to do some reorganizing to smaller leaves in the long run, but considering that my first attempt with coleii was shrivelled and gone within three days, I feel like my "good micro climate" has done wonders for my prospects.

As for the Sunset Zone vs USDA zones, the whole thing revolves around not "how cold" it gets in winter (USDA zones) but on "how HOT" it gets and how long it stays hot Hot HOT! during the daytime. We're currently going through a period of near or above 100 degrees every day, hence hellnzn11's referring to our area as "from Hades". With, I might add, sustained 40 mph winds and stronger to make the evaporative and dessicating process even more severe than the heat alone would.

I'm a crammer! figure if there is no room for weeds, they wont grow?

The comment...if you can see lawn or can walk thru without a machete is a riot! It is so true. I'm a spacer/crammer...

I live on a tiny lot and hope to have ALL the grass gone soon. I TRIED to give everything room, I spaced according to recommended space and ... well... I got more plants and HAD to put them SOMEWHERE. I'm making new flower beds as fast as I can. I hope to have them ALL crammed full before I consider myself DONE!

WONDERFUL plan psychw2 and true to the Crammer Creed:

1. "If they're not smearing their DNA on each other, they're too far apart" -Victorgarden quote
2.'If it isn't smooshed then i dont consider it a garden" -crimsontsavo quote
3."If you still have lawn areas, you still don't have enough plants!" - LariAnn quote
4 "If you can walk between your plants without a machete, you've got way too much space in there!" - LariAnn quote

edit: any more I missed???

This message was edited Jun 5, 2008 10:37 AM

good job of capturing the essense

I space plants apart in the cheerful but futile hope they will grow madly
and lushly. It never happens and I end up with bare spots or a missing
color. Desert gardening is not for the faint-hearted— or the optimistic.

June, you said it! I'm a crammer because so many plants in our harsh environment grow to about half the size of "normal" plants! The planting instructions come from Wisconsin or England, perhaps. Dahlia, love the Creed!