Spring Garden Plans: Wide Row Gardening

The garden has grown to monstrous proportions this year.  I have nine rows that are 65 ft long.  I am using a wide row method in the garden.  I have plenty of space to do traditional, single rows, but it seems to leave way too much space for weeds to grow.  And did I mention that the garden is large?  The less space for weeds, the better!

I used string and flags to mark the beds.  I have been in the process of digging and smoothing out the paths and building up the beds.  The rows are three feet wide with paths also three feet wide.  The beds are not very high, but in future years I will continue to build them up with more compost.

So what to plant in all this space?  Well, this is my current plan:

I couldn't get the image of my spreadsheet large enough to be readable, so here's a list:

Row 1: Corn, sunflowers, and amaranth
Row 2: Tomatoes, marigolds, basil
Row 3: Cucumbers, sweet potatoes, pumpkin
Row 4: Melons, carrots, chard, beets, onions, spinach
Row 5: Summer and winter squash
Row 6: Potatoes, eggplant, peppers, herbs
Row 7: Pole beans, bush beans, peas, peanuts
Row 8: Broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, turnip, kale, radish, Asian greens
Row 9: Cut flowers!

I am trying to keep veggies in the same plant families in the same row, such as Solanaceae in row 6, Fagaceae in row 7, and Brassicaceae in row 8.  This will allow me to rotate crops in future years to keep plant family specific diseases and pests under control.

I am devoting a whole row to growing cut flowers, which is something I'm excited about.  I usually don't cut flowers because they are so pretty outside.  I'm hoping with so many flowers I won't have this problem anymore.  Hopefully the bees and butterflies will also enjoy them.

I have a feeling it is going to be a busy gardening season.  I just hope I can keep up with it all!