Growing Vegetables In A Small Garden Space
by Dave Truman
Most people tend to picture vegetable gardens as sprawling plots of land with rows stretching 15 feet or more. Growing vegetables in a container or limited space seems foreign to many.
Yet growing vegetables in cramped spaces is not only possible but highly rewarding. One can grow tomatoes in tubs at the edge of a patio, strawberries in empty milk cartons on a windowsill, lettuce in a modest window box, watermelons along a strip beside a driveway or beans on a trellis on a small apartment balcony.
A year-long harvest of several kinds of vegetables can be gained from a single area no wider than a card table. To achieve this kind of bounty in lap-sized spaces it is necessary merely to provide the right growing conditions and to purchase seed varieties that are appropriate for small-scale circumstances.
A lot of seed suppliers have started to offer miniature plants to meet the needs of people with limited space. They’re often in categories like midgets or space savers in their catalogs.
Producing vegetables on a reduced scale, however, is basically a different proposition from other kinds of gardening. Small gardens devoted to woody ornamentals like dwarf conifers, rhododendrons or heathers or to miniature bulbs or alpines are arranged and managed largely for appearance: they exist to be decorative, to please the eye.
Vegetables are most often grown to reward not the eye but the palate. So while corn stalks and bean bushes can make the mouth water they rarely make the eye pop, and they are not likely to be found gracing a well designed border, although creative horticulturists have combined a few of the handsomest vegetables with flowering plants to good effect.
One of the challenges with a small vegetable garden is practicality. While some vegetables, such as lettuce, will be fine with only 4 hours of sunlight a day, most others require a full 8 hours.
Similarly, a friable soil mix, amply fertilized, is desirable in vegetable growing but too heady for many dwarf plants that are expected to stay small. The major problem, however, is presented by the need to turn over the vegetable garden’s soil every year, in effect reconstituting it; such heavy tilling cannot be done in a bed of rock garden plants and perennials. In most cases, a vegetable patch must be sited differently and separated from the conventional small-scale garden.
In spite of the challenges, growing vegetables in a small space is worth the effort. You’ll need to decide whether you want miniature fruit or just miniature plants. Small vegetables are cute, but often not so practical. There are some that are widely used though – cherry tomatoes and radishes are two perfect examples.
Are you planting vegetables this year? Make sure you plan your vegetable garden layout before you plant any seeds. Learn how to plan your garden and get my free reports on mulching, composting and pest control at http://www.vegetablegardeners.com
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