Vegetable Garden Spacing Cheat Sheet

Crowded beds look productive in May and collapse into mildew by August. This cheat sheet is the row spacing table from our crop data — not a hand-copied blog list that drifts when we update crops.ts. Tomatoes, for example, are locked at 24 in in-row, 36 in between rows, 90 days, and 10 lb/plant. Size a bed with the garden spacing calculator, then open any crop name for culture notes. Bookmark this page for planting day; it is faster than flipping seed packets in the wind while holding a trowel. Bring a grease pencil and mark only the crops you ordered this year so the full table does not overwhelm planting morning.

How to read the columns

Column	Meaning
In-row	Center-to-center spacing along the row (inches)
Between rows	Distance between parallel rows (inches)
Days	Approximate days to maturity
Yield	Planning yield in lb per plant

Thin or transplant to the in-row number. Between-row spacing assumes you walk or mulch the path; bed width must fit at least one row plus edge margin.

Full reference table (from data)

Spot-check: Tomatoes should read 24 / 36 / 90 / 10. If that row ever disagrees with a screenshot of this page, the data file — not a stale paragraph — is the source of truth. Peppers should show 18 / 24; carrots 2 / 12; bush beans 4 / 18. Those four checks catch most copy-paste drift if someone ever forks the component incorrectly.

Using the table with a 4×8 bed

A 4 × 8 ft bed is 32 sq ft. That is plenty for mixed plantings if you respect spacing:

• One tomato row along the 8-ft length at 24 in centers → about 4 plants (and they want the 36 in between-row idea — so a 4-ft-wide bed is essentially one tomato row, not two).
• Peppers at 18 × 24 fit tighter; a single row of peppers along 8 ft is roughly 5 plants at 18 in.
• Carrots at 2 × 12 fill a block when thinned; count plants from final spacing, not seed packet enthusiasm.

Deep beds need soil volume — pair this sheet with the raised bed soil calculator when you build new frames.

Maturity and succession

Days-to-maturity tells you whether a crop fits your frost-free window. Zone pages and the seed starting calculator turn those days into calendar dates. Fast crops (radish, leaf lettuce) can follow peas; slow crops (winter squash, garlic’s fall plant) need reserved real estate.

Succession planting does not change spacing — it changes when the same spacing is occupied. Two waves of bush beans still want 4 in in-row and 18 in between rows each wave.

Yield column for harvest planning

Multiply plants × lb/plant for a rough harvest. Six tomato plants × 10 lb ≈ 60 lb — canning math comes later. Zucchini at 9 lb/plant means two plants are a household event. Treat yields as planning estimates, then adjust after one real season with your varieties.

Common spacing mistakes

• Using seed-packet “thin to” distances that conflict with our table without choosing one system.
• Double-rowing tomatoes in a 4-ft bed (between-row 36 in does not fit).
• Planting corn in a single skinny row (pollination wants blocks; spacing is still 10 × 30 in our data).
• Ignoring mature width on sprawling cukes (12 × 48) and blaming “bad seed.”

When in doubt, give airflow. Slightly wider than the table rarely hurts; tighter than the table is how blight parties start.

Families that share (and fight over) space

Nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) appreciate rotation away from last year’s wilt problems — spacing within the bed still follows the table even when the bed moves. Cucurbits (cukes, squash) need the wide between-row numbers for vines and mildew control; trellising cukes can reclaim path space but does not shrink in-row centers below 12 in in our data.

Brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kale) at their listed spacings leave room for side-shoots and airflow against cabbageworms’ humid hideouts. Root crops live or die by thinning: carrots at 2 in final spacing will not size up if left as a seed carpet.

Alliums (onions, garlic) are skinny in-row but still need the between-row figure for weeding. Herbs vary — check each crop page rather than assuming “small plant, tiny spacing.”

Intensive beds vs the row table

Square-foot and intensive patterns squeeze more plants into rich soil with hand watering. That can work — it is a different system. This cheat sheet remains the row reference from crops.ts. If you intensify, start from these numbers and only tighten where you can prune, stake, and irrigate like a greenhouse grower. Tomatoes forced to 12 in centers without airflow become a disease clinic.

The spacing calculator helps translate bed area into counts under row assumptions. Use it when a neighbor asks “how many peppers in my 4×8?” rather than inventing a third spacing folklore.

Printing and sharing

Sort order on the table is alphabetical by crop name so you can find parsley without scrolling past pumpkins twice. Crop names link to their pages for days-to-maturity nuance and seed-start offsets. When you update data in the repo, regenerate the site — the table updates with it. That is the entire point of not hand-typing fifty rows into Markdown.

Keep a printed sheet in the shed if you like, but treat the live page as canonical whenever crops.ts changes. If you maintain a garden journal, copy only the rows you plant this year — fewer transcription errors than rewriting the whole fifty-crop list by hand each spring.

Bottom line

Use the live table above — it is generated from crops.ts, including tomatoes at 24×36 in, 90 days, 10 lb/plant. Run bed dimensions through the garden spacing calculator, follow crop pages for culture, and keep days-to-maturity tied to your frost dates so spacing decisions land on time.