How Far to Space Plants When Planting

When you plan and plant any home landscape or garden, you must keep some basic principles in mind: season, growing zone, soil, location and spacing. Your plants, flowers and vegetables should be hardy to your growing zone, and should have adequate space to grow both upwards and outward. Perennials, or plants that survive for many years and expand, require more space than plants that last only once year or grow only upwards. Larger plants require more room from the start. Although every plant has its own spacing requirements, start your planning with some basic guidelines for the entire yard.

• 1

  Locate an appropriate planting site to keep your plants happy and avoid having to transplant. Most blooming plants and all vegetables require full sun to partial shade for growing, and do best in areas that get full drainage. Choose a large site so you're not crowding your plants at planting.

• 2

  Amend the soil to make your planting and spacing easier. Dig the top 2 inches of the entire plot up and mix in a combination of half quick-draining soil and half organic compost. This loose, nutritious mixture is easy to dig and plant in.

• 3

  Plant large bushes like roses 2 to 3 feet from each other to give each bush adequate space for sun, air and expansion. If you're planting large vining bushes like climbing roses or honeysuckle, make sure they also have enough room to grow upward, and a support system like a trellis or arbor.

• 4

  Plant annuals like petunias and begonias more closely, at 6 inches apart. These are one-year plants, and will grow and bloom through the summer then die in fall. This timeline means that the plants won't expand much, and won't come back next year with more blooms. Closer spacing provides a lush, crowded look in the garden.

• 5

  Plant bulbs like calla lilies, lilies, daffodils and tulips at 12 to 18 inches apart. These are perennials, and will return year after year. Each bulb sends up multiple shoots and blooms, and will self-propagate, or divide and expand as time goes on. These plants grow well in crowded situations, but produce so much foliage that they produce their own crowd. Give each bulb plenty of growing space so they don't crowd each other out.

• 6

  Plant large vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants at 12 to 18 inches apart, in rows that are 30 to 36 inches apart. Plant smaller veggies like cucumbers and beans at a slightly smaller spacing. Although these plants can become large, they do well in crowded growing situations, which conserve soil moisture, help to crowd out weeds and make the growing space more efficient.