Five friends and I are going in to grow a garden in one of our back yards. Our plot is 20ft x 30ft. And we've only had 2 requirements... 1) LOTS of tomatoes... and 2) A variety of things... and well 3) make something grow!

I've been playing around with the software for a bit now.. been reading books, making lists.. and I'm a little confused by the space differences that the software allows when putting just a plant in, versus a row. Down the middle in two directions I've added a wider walking row... but I worry we've got too much going on and we may need to not be so ambitious.

You'll also see on the left my first attempt at this, and then on the right my latest attempt (we're not growing two gardens). A friend suggested I need to order it by height... so that's what I've tried to do in the 2nd plot.

Thanks again for any help you can lend us. I really feel like I have no idea what I'm doing... but I'm eager, and excited to see this garden flourish.

The only thing we can't move right now are the peas. We were eager to put something in the ground, and plated the peas last Saturday.

You are better off in your second attempt to leave space to walk.
The plant spacing shows how much room the plant can take up.
The difference between row and plant is the plant follows Square foot gardening more closely and row follows row spacing. We may tune these numbers over time, but the are estimates. Plants will be plants and can we smaller are larger than expected.

Enjoy and keep us posted on the garden progress.

After some conversations with a friends, I've updated the plot yet again, this time doing long rows. I'm concerned about the 'overlap' in the tomatoes. But it seems like I'm getting more stuff in this way? Or at least its more organized.

Im a rookie gardener so I don't have any advice to offer, but wanted to tell you that I think your plan looks really nice! You put a lot of thought and work into it and it shows. I wish you and your friends great sucess!

Hi,
I just took a look at your third garden plan. I like it, you've really worked hard to maximize your space. I noticed that you ranked things in the garden by height but I also noticed you have a tree on the corner of the garden. I would advise you to plant cooler loving plants like broccoli and lettuce under the shade areas of the tree instead of the sunflower and tomatoes. It's been my experience that tomatoes in shade grow tall and thin and don't produce very many fruits. But that is just a suggestion. Good luck, hope you get a ton of veggies this year. Jrlawatc