Straddle Weeding Technique to Maximize Your Garden Spacing

Maximizing Your Garden Space

If you struggle with a little amount of garden space to grow a variety of vegetables in the garden you have to find clever methods to improve your growing area. Using the straddle weeding technique allows for planting on tight row spacing. While the Florida weave technique or the Hortonova Trellis Netting provides the opportunity to grow crops vertically instead of on the ground which saves you plenty of room in the garden area. Planting in raised beds instead of continuous garden rows will also save space inside the garden area. If you would like to get more production of plants, growing crops that you can succession plant all throughout the season will save space and time in the vegetable garden as well.

Staddle Weeding Technique

On this week's episode, Travis talks all about how to maximize garden spacing with the straddle weeding technique in the smaller garden areas. By using either our Double Wheel Hoe or High Arch Wheel Hoe these tools allow us to use the straddle weeding technique in the vegetable garden. What it means to straddle weeding is to take one of these wheel hoe tools and straddle the row of plants to cultivate or weed on both sides of the row in one pass through. This technique allows you to either weed or cultivate close to those plants. It also might throw a little soil to the plants to encourage some root development. In the garden, Travis planted several rows of beets with our row maker tool. The row maker creates planting furrows in the soil for easier row spacing and planting by direct seed or transplant. He planted the beets on single rows with tight spacing only 1-foot apart. This ensures that Travis will get maximum garden space and provide him the opportunity to use the straddle weeding technique withing in the garden area. With both the double wheel hoe and high arch wheel hoe there are several different attachments and options that you can use for this weeding technique. The first setup is using our spreader bar bonus. This spreader bar bonus includes the spreader bar and two of our 6-inch oscillating hoes. By placing the oscillating hoes on the far end of the bar this can be mounted on the wheel hoe to use to straddle the row of plants while the oscillating hoes cultivate on both sides of the plant in the garden. The next option is to use the cultivator teeth that are included with every wheel hoe. With this attachment, you place the cultivator teeth behind each wheel on the wheel hoe and that allows you to throw soil more than the oscillating hoe in order to hill the plants. The third attachment that is used for the straddle weeding technique is our new winged sweeps attachment. The winged sweeps are available in a four-inch and six-inch blade. Similar to the cultivator teeth set-up, Travis likes to place them behind each wheel but a little to the outside of the wheel. This attachment allows you to dig a little deeper than the cultivator teeth attachment. On the double wheel hoe, there is a 5 or 6-inch clearance area on the axle. While the high arch wheel hoe has about a 15-inch clearance area which helps when the plants get a lot taller throughout there growing time in the vegetable garden. The straddle weeding technique helps to keep the vegetable garden nicely cultivated, clean, and a weed free area. As well as, save you plenty of space if you have a tighter garden area to work in.