Double Down
I have a heavy hand when it comes to planting vegetable seeds. If a few seeds are nice, a lot of seeds just has to be better. Trouble is, that when the seeds germinate and are too crowded it not only impairs the growth of the plant, it also creates much more work for the gardener. All those extra sprouts need to be weeded out of the row. I don’t like weeding, never have.
A tip I had gotten from Grandparents about 30 years ago still comes in handy today. Many times, a single row in the garden can be planted with two different vegetables grown from seed. When I mention this to friends, I get the same reply. If you already tend to sow your seeds too thick, why would you double the amount of seeds in each row?
My explanation comes in two parts
- I do this to trick my brain. It hurts me when I wait a week or more only to find I have large gaps in the row where the distribution was not even (Oh sure, I could re-seed these areas. But that would be like admitting defeat. Tricks are easier and more enjoyable). When I know that I will be planting twice in the same row, I don’t worry about seeds that don’t sprout or having gaps where the seeds were not distributed evenly. My brain allows me to be more thrifty with the amount of seeds knowing the second packet will hide any mistakes.
- I hate weeding. I hate weeding. I hate weeding. By planting the quick harvesting radishes with vegetables that have a longer growing cycle, it inhibits growth of weeds from lack of space. It also disturbs the ground as the radishes are pulled and destroys newly germinated weed seeds. Harvesting is much more fun than weeding any day of the week.
By the time all the radishes are harvested, the row is all weeded and ready for the second crop to really take off.
I have found this double seeding to work especially well with carrots, turnips, beets and other root crops. No worries about disturbing the tender roots of the second harvest crop since they are so early in the development cycle during the radish harvest, they grow just fine.