Interplanting Crops

Planting vegetables densely isn't a useful tactic in the humid southern states. When plants are too close together where there is high humidity it encourages mildew and rot to set in, and then there's the proliferation of garden pests hiding under the overgrown foliage. The first couple of years here I tried interplanting vegetables in large beds but low yields and high incidences of tomato fruit rotting on the vine has taught me the value of giving plants room to breath which gives cooling breezes a chance dry up some of that humidity.

In dry regions of the country interplanting vegetables is a useful tactic to conserve moisture as long as there's plenty of sunlight to go around. In the desert country of the high mountains from whence I was raised, nary a drop of rain flowed in the summer months of June through August. With most of the moisture falling as snow in the long brutally cold winter months.