With plants closer together they shade the soil becoming a living mulch. There are many gardening methods basically falling into two categories. The garden can be grown anywhere if containers are used.

Beds may be planted in traditional rows or in a grid arrangement where plants are planted closer together and thus makes more efficient use of the available space. It can even be changed if it gets contaminated. 1) traditional or row and 2) beds, including boxes or other containers. If containers are used the soil can be mixed for the containers and remain usable for years without tilling and cultivating.

The shade also retards weed growth. Using the square foot method the same amount of food can be harvested in 20% of the row garden space. Since smaller spaces are used in beds and containers they are not as work intensive as row gardens. Row gardens make use of only about 20% of the garden space because of the wide areas between rows.

If the seed packet instructions are to plant seeds three inches apart that plant will grow well placed in a grid every three inches or sixteen plants per square foot.