I grow some dry bush beans and some cowpeas for the first time this year and they turned out pretty good, but I would like to get a bigger yield.

I planted them in rows with spacing of 3 feet. Is it possible to plant the rows side by side, with 8 inches of spacing to better utilize my garden space? I figured the tight row spacing would help keep the weeds down.

Is this spacing going to cause the beans to be more disease prone or cause other problems?

thanks,

Dean