You Don’t Need Acres to Grow Veggies
Short on space or sun but longing for your own fresh vegetables? You can garden with as little as a square foot of space. Dwarf varieties of vegetables grow successfully in limited space, including planter boxes. You can find them in the seed catalogs arriving by mail this time of year.
Small or not, all vegetables need full sun. For that, no amount of fertilizer can substitute. So watch where the sun falls now, remembering that in full summer it will take a more northerly path. When you find your sweet spot, let its space dictate your garden size.
When planning, double-cropping will maximize your growing space. For instance, Bibb lettuce and green onions can grow together. In one square foot of space, you can grow four Bibb lettuce plants and eight green onions planted between the lettuces. As soon as you harvest the lettuce, be ready to plant more. As the season will have advanced, this time choose Summer Time lettuce. This variety is heat tolerant, but because it grows larger than Bibb lettuce, only two plants can be grown in one square foot of space.
You can grow one miniature cabbage plant and eight radishes in a single square foot. The radishes will be ready for harvest in 24 to 30 days, leaving plenty of room for the cabbage to grow.
Also available in miniature form are bush-type cucumbers and summer squashes. Hot pepper plants by nature tend to be small and highly productive.
A small-space garden can also have tomatoes. Cluster varieties produce an abundance of fruit in a limited amount of space. The Tiny Tim variety takes up little room in a garden and produces excellent fruit.
If you yearn for snap beans, consider growing pole beans. Grow them on a trellis, but make sure bean leaves don’t shade the rest of your vegetables. To ensure they don’t block sunlight to other foliage, plant beans on the north side of your garden or make use of a nearby wall using coarse string for them to climb.
Little Marvel is a delicious shelling pea that grows only 18 inches tall and produces well. I have even seen it grown in flower boxes with the vines hanging down, loaded with pods.
Whatever you choose to grow, gardens in a limited space need well-prepared soil. A blend of equal parts compost and gardening soil will provide approximately 50 percent of the nutrient requirements. To maintain the soil, supplement with fertilizers at two- to three-week intervals. For container gardens, add about 25 percent sand by volume to the soil mixture for proper drainage.
Keep your small garden properly irrigated. Water well and deep, avoiding daily watering except in wilting sun.
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