Q&A: My plants seem crowded. What should I do?
If your garden is looking like a mini-jungle this month, don’t worry — that’s by design. At Tennessee Kitchen Gardens, we plant intensively, knowing we’ll thin, harvest, and make decisions as the season unfolds. Fully planted beds mean your soil is working to its potential, weeds are shaded out, and you’ve got plenty to eat.
But as plants grow, they eventually start competing for light and nutrients. This is your cue to harvest generously — the most delicious form of garden maintenance.
I love this quote from Eliot Coleman, in Four-Season Harvest:
“Since you will plant many crops in succession, there will be plenty of thinnings. But since you are gardening for the table, there is no chore called ‘thinning the seedlings.’ There is only a sequence whereby you thin enough to add to a salad today, thin more for a stir-fry tomorrow, and thin yet again for soup the next day. The act of thinning not only feeds you but also enables future bounty by providing more room for the remaining plants.”
In other words, thinning is not wasteful — it’s abundance in motion.
How to Thin and What to Leave
Harvest the biggest leaves or outer leaves — especially on crops like lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, and collards — to give their neighbors more space.
Pull or snip entire plants that are shading out others or showing stress. This time of year, you may see blight on tomatoes, or you’ve simply had your fill of jalapeños — those plants can go to make room for the next season’s crops.
Prioritize productivity. If one tomato branch or kale cluster is outcompeting another, choose the one that looks healthiest and most fruitful to stay.
Think ahead. Many plants, especially root crops, have a recommended “final spacing” — the amount of room they need to reach their full potential. You can gradually snip out seedlings (and eat them!) over the course of a few weeks until you reach the desired space between plants. (Watch a short video of Abi explaining how to thin and harvest lettuce at the same time.)
How to Enjoy the Process
Think of thinning as a way to add that extra something to your meals — those spontaneous, garden-fresh touches that make every dish more vibrant. Those baby greens, roots, and herbs are tender and flavorful — perfect for salads, sautés, and soups.
Get creative and experimental — add radish thinnings to a salad, toss a few greens into scrambled eggs, or chop and sprinkle them over a bowl of ramen for a fresh garden touch.
Keep scissors or pruners handy whenever you’re in the garden. A five-minute tidy-up harvest will keep things from getting too wild.
Win-Win
Your garden is happy: each round of thinning opens space, light, and airflow — helping the remaining plants thrive. And your belly is happy: your harvest will stay steady all season long.
