I space beets about 4" apart, as well as rows of beets 4" apart. For carrots, 2". For bunching onions, 1"; globe onions, 4" or 5". Then, when I pick, I try to pick every other one, leaving the remainder to grow a bit larger.

Howdy, tufaenough (neat nick!)!

Squarefoot spacing for these vegies is:

beets: 9/1

carrots: 16/1 (damp square of carpet upside-down over seeds for a couple weeks until they germinate helps a lot)

onions: 16/1

radishes: 16/1 (although for the big storage radishes, you might go 9/1)

Donna_Loomis uses a good plan--pull the 4 of 9 that make a diamond-shape as young veggies--for example, baby beets can be stirfried, greens and all. That leaves the corner and center roots with extra space to develop (and you could seed green onions or radishes in the empty spaces).

For 16/1, you can pull every other root young, and let the others grow out. You only harvest as you need them, of course, pulling in that pattern.

Another way to extend young crops is to plant a square every week or two through your planting window. You can also mix like items in a square: 8 carrots, 4 radishes and 4 onions, for example. Many people overplant radishes and carrots in the same square (both 16/1), because the radishes *break ground* for the carrots, and you can pull the radishes long before the carrots are finished.

If you are planting beets (or radishes) for greens, plant in the recommended spacings and use cut-and-come-again tactics: Snip a young leaf or two from each plant when it is big enough to eat, then come back in a few days or a week to repeat the process.

Winter gardens (where folks get a real winter) are often plantings of hardy stuff like spinach (protected as needed) that provide through the dark winter months from their Fall growth, then perk up and grow some more in the early spring while the rest of a garden is just starting. For that, you need quite a few plants, of course--you'd figure on harvesting a leaf or 2 from each plant weekly. Winter roots can be left in ground, especially where the ground does not freeze solid. Raised beds probably drain well enough to prevent rotting. In all these cases, you can still use ordinary squarefoot spacing.