Square Foot Gardening Spacing for Chives

Types

• Common or garden chives develop pink flowers in early to midsummer. The flowers and leaves are edible and may be used to flavor a wide array of culinary dishes. The flavor is a mild hint of onion with crisp, delicate juicy tissues. Another chives plant potentially grown in the garden is Chinese chives (Allium tuberosum). It may be used in the same manner. However, the Chinese chives plant bears white flowers in mid to late summer, and is a smaller-sized plant at maturity, only 4 to 6 inches wide and 10 to 20 inches tall.

Density

• The Square Foot Gardening model partitions the garden plot into 12-inch by 12-inch areas. You choose which crops you want to grow, and the spacing of plants in each area is determined by the mature size of the plant. Garden chives, if allowed to grow to the maximum size possible as a perennial that returns year after year, should be planted one plant per square. Chinese chives, a smaller maturing plant, may be planted three or four per square, spaced equally within the square-foot zone.

Determining Spacing

• Within the square-foot plots, chives plants are planted equidistant from each other, and take into account the square-foot area's borders, where plants from adjacent squares grow. Always plant the chives based on the exact center of the square-foot area. One plant needs to be placed in the dead center. Two plants are set equally apart in the square, equidistant from each other and the edge of the square. This prevents plants from other areas from encroaching on the chives, causing shading or excessive root competition.

Considerations

• If you cook a lot with chives, the growth of the plants in the Square Foot Garden system will be limited, as you will repeatedly cut leaves to eat. Trimming back the plant results in rejuvenating growth, limiting the overall size growth of each plant. Therefore, if you plan on using a lot of fresh chives, the repeated harvesting keeps plants smaller. In order to have a continual source of fresh foliage on the smaller plants, you may increase the number of plants per square foot area. For example, instead of one garden chive plant that is allowed to mature to 12-inches wide after many years, four or six plants that remain smaller from lots of trimming may be planted instead.