Growing Vegetables In A Small Garden Space
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.
Growing vegetables in a small space is not only possible, but very rewarding as well. You can grow tomatoes in pots on the edge of your patio, watermelons alongside your driveway or beans on a trellis on your apartment's balcony.
A space no larger than a card table can supply you with vegetables year-round. The trick is to create a garden that has the right growing conditions and to buy seeds that are well suited to smaller areas.
Luckily a number of seed companies have responded to the newly recognized demand for miniature or compact plants, and more new strains are being offered to the public every year, often grouped together under such headings as "space savers," "space misers" or "midgets."
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.
A proper soil mix is also important, along with the right fertilizer. It can be too much for some dwarf plants, however and can make them grow beyond the space they're given. Plus, you need to turn the soil in your vegetable garden annually. This kind of tilling can't be done in some small spaces.
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.