OK, I'll confess. Squarefoot spacing really doesn't work. Mel is really a UFO space alien from Mars--one of a vast army that came to Earth to confuse Earth gardeners. We are all members of a decades-long conspiracy, and we are all going to be called back up to the mother ship this fall before your crops have a chance to mature. (Bummer! You won't even be able to sue us for false advertising.)

/End Dream Sequence

(Please forgive me for a very late April Fool's joke. Relax! There are no Martian UFO space aliens. We are really all from Saturn's 3rd moon from the left....)

Yes, the crowded spacing really works in almost every squarefoot garden in the entire world. (You may have to make adjustments for extreme humidity if you live in a fungus-filled rainforest. I really don't know whether the method doesn't work there, or whether somebody *did exactly like the book said*--only not really.) Many squarefooters do some minor adjusting, although I did not have to in my extreme climate....

Tight spacing is one of the key features of squarefooting: Good growing medium, close spacing, and careful watering keep the weeds out and increase annual edible food yield.

Here is my personal experience growing brassicas in trying conditions in East Texas:

I grew cauliflower, round-head cabbages, broccoli, "leaf-style" collard greens, brussels sprouts, and chives in a long bed with square spacing, and everything did fine. (I should have planted 4-foot stakes just before I planted the brussel sprouts, but they were at the eastern end of the bed--they just leaned over and propped themselves up horizontally on their leaf tips--from the end of an 8-inch raised bed, I might add. Big, tall beautiful, productive plants--several of which were transplanted 2 or 3 times--against all row-garden wisdom. BTW, their root systems were very small in the rich, old-style ammended clay soil bed. The plants got all they needed from the Mel's Mix.)

All I used were regular garden-center transplants, many of which were already stressed when I bought them (constricted stems at soil level), and all of which were stressed before I got to plant them, and then stressed more by a long, dry autumn heat wave. Conventional row-garden wisdom would have said to compost the lot of them, yet they grew bumper crops!

In fact, when I would cut a broccoli head, the side shoots were already so well developed that it looked like another head sprang up into place. I continued to cut until I got at least 3-5 heads worth of broccoli per plant, then moved long before they were played out.

Round-head cabbages may produce a second, smaller head--mine were certainly trying hard after I cut the heads--I expect they made new heads by early spring.

The collard greens (4/1, or 4 per square foot) were sweet and tender long before frost, unlike (VERY unlike) their row-garden brethren, which are left in the field until after the first frost sweetens the leaves enough to be enjoyable.

The chives that grew in squares next to those tall, broad-leafed brussel sprouts may take over the world by next Tuesday, so they surely weren't hurting any, even under the partial shade of the leaning sprouts..... ;-D

The only plants I had to trim were the collard greens that I planted too far apart by accident. At 1/1 (1 per square foot), they grew huge platter sized leaves, and I had to start harvesting the first row early so all the plants could get enough sunlight to thrive. This gave me an extra 2 weeks worth of sweet, tender greens. I can live with that kind of problem....

One of those 1/1 *collard greens* turned out to be a mislabeled cauliflower--which *should* be planted at 1/1 (1 per square foot). It was planted near the middle of the collard green square. I didn't discover its secret identity until the white head got large enough to show among the big collard leaves. Although it should have been tied to protect the white florets from direct sunlight, the head was protected by the close quarters. It was very good, too.

In conclusion, I'd say that if you have a rich enough planting mix, you need to try squarefoot spacing in self-defense. (Heh!)

In my zone, you have to cut the broc before it gets really big anyway as it will start to flower/bolt. I just never get very big heads before the weather turns hot and I've tried to push setting them out back into February. But it doesn't do a whole lot of good as they just kind of sit there until they start getting sunshine. I think the situation in my area is that our spring tends to be rainy, so the cold crops don't get the sunshine they need to get going.