Last year I had all of my pepper plants at the recomended 1 ft spacing and not one pepper matured. They shaded each other. I find I have this same problem with broccoli and cabage as well. However, this could also be the directionality of my sun as it travels over the beds and not across the beds, if that makes sense.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, but the sun traveling over your beds and not across them confusses me :( If my DH was home I am sure he would explain it to me! The 8 ft lenth of my beds would leave my peppers on the east side of the bed, 2 rows deep with tomatoes in the rear of the two rows. Does that make sense?

I honestly planned on putting cabbage & cauliflower in areas that only get morning sun, before I cooked my cabbage in the sun. Here in OK our sun is so horrible it is almost like growing in the desert!

Sorry, hmmmmm...here's another go at it.

My beds aren't layed out in a straight pattern, but more geometrically. You can see a picture in the sidebar on the link below. I have a huge issue of shading because of this, but I have a very small space that I can use. As for the directionality of the sun...say one of my beds is 4x8. My sun travels over the bed - the 4 foot direction (over the trellis), so everything in the bed behind would get shaded if I had tall plants.

If the sun traveled the 8 ft. length (in line with the trellis), I wouldn't have so much shading issues.

I don't know about the spring and fall OK sun, but my cabage in 5 hours of sun (morning-early afternoon)here in GA won't head up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Look at sidebar for garden layout picture

Ribbit -

I planted all of my bell peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower 18 inches apart from each other. I had a huge amount of peppers from the eight plants - around 50 pounds total.

I wonder if you didn't get much harvest because of planting them only one foot apart - that seems awfully close. I guess this is another one of those things that Mel says is possible - but may not be possible to get a decent yield. It is amazing what an extra six inches of space will do. Of course, it also varies upon your soil mixture and nutrients in the soil as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Right you are, bsntech. I certainly chalk it up to the spacing which compounded the shading issues. I'm leaving 18 inches this year....and....since we cut down a falling tree earlier this month...I may just have earned some more sunlight which would allow me to...dare I say it..build another huge tomato bed. I'm thinking 8 or 10x4.

I'll wait until May or June to decide. It's still plenty of time to transplant toms here.

I think I will go with 18 inches apart and see how they do. In Mel's book it says you will get less out of each plant, but more plants, which equals more food. (at least I think that was in Mel's book, might have read it somewhere else).

Oh, and I said cabbage & cauliflower was being planted in AM sun, but it is neighbors trees shading my area so I actually still get filtered light in the afternoon. I figure try it one time & hope for the best!

When I'm planning on what to grow and where to plant in my raised beds (which are only 2' apart) I try to take into consideration what will be tall and what is shorter, etc. I try to plant all the tall plants on the far north side of my garden so they do not shade the other plants.

Remember that early in the year, the sun is going to rise from the southeast and set in the southwest (depending on where you live). Just use this as a guide...

Also, I have a couple of beds that run North/South instead of East/West. I always plant my pole beans in a North/South bed for the same reason as above.

Hope this helps a little.

Here is a link that might be useful: Judy's Square Foot Garden