Row spacing refers to the distance between the rows in your garden, assuming that you plant in rows. Most gardeners do plant in rows, because that's the way farmers do it. But remember that farmers have 100+ times the land that home gardeners do, and they use tractors, harvesters, and combines to plant and harvest. Books have been written on planting in square units, rather than rows, and they claim, rightly so, to be able to produce more vegetables per square foot than row planting. Never-the-less, most gardeners still plant in rows, at least that has been our experience.