Posts Tagged ‘Small Space Gardening’
Growing Vegetables in Containers
Growing vegetables in containers is an option for almost anyone — even those who have the space for a tradtional garden. What are the upsides and downsides of container vegetable gardens?
What Kinds of Vegetables?
While you can grow just about any veggie in a container, some are better-adapted than others. For example, a determinate tomato plant is an excellent candidate; sweet corn is not.
While you could grow sweet corn in containers, you’d need an awful lot of them, because corn is a wind-pollinated vegetable. Normally the minimum number of corn plants you’d want is 4 rows of 4 plants (16 total). So in general, corn isn’t a good option (but certainly possible if you have the room and the containers).
The only other plants I wouldn’t suggest for a container vegetable garden are pumpkins and watermelons. Both of them get huge and for the most part, you can’t trellis them (unlike most other curcubits).
So aside from these three, you have a lot of options, most of which depends on your space and the size of your containers.
What Size Containers?
I’ve done my share of container gardening, in spite of having lots of room for a traditional garden; right now I have both. The most often used containers in my garden is 5-gallon size, followed by 3-gallon. I also have a few 10-gallon and 15-gallon containers, where I grow the bigger plants.
What about the little containers? While I have successfully grown vegetables in 1 gallon pots, it was a bit more trouble than it was worth. Unless you are growing the veggies inside under lights, I don’t recommend them.
I’ve grown the following very nicely in a 5-gallon container:
I’m about to experiment with some cantaloupe in a container as well.
When it comes to 3-gallon containers, my best luck has been with the shorter determinate tomatoes and peppers (sweet and hot). Bell peppers seem to do better in 5-gallon pots, though (at least for me).
I personally haven’t tried veggies such as eggplant, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, cabbage, etc. mainly because they aren’t vegetables that I choose to grow -or – my climate isn’t suitable. But certainly they can be grown in containers!
Choosing Your Garden Location
It’s very little different from choosing a location for a traditional garden. You want at least 6 hours of direct sun per day (8 is better) and easy access to water — container-grown veggies drink quite a bit! It’s best if you can avoid a very windy location, but if you can set up a windbreak of sorts, that would work. A windy location dries out the plants fast.
How much space do you have available? Whether you have a large patio or a small balcony, your vegetable plants will still need room between them for air circulation. They also need to be spaced so that a tall plant doesn’t shade out a shorter one.
Plus, you need to be able to move around easily to water the plants and harvest your crop!
One final thought; you are potentially going to be hauling (heavy) bags of potting soil and compost to fill these containers; consider how you’re going to get the soil/compost to the location you’ve chosen. I’ve discovered that 40 pounds of compost + 40 pounds of organic potting mix fills roughly four 5-gallon containers. Not necessarily a problem if you are on a ground floor; might be a problem if you have to climb stairs.
Growing Vegetables in Containers – Final Notes
Growing vegetables in containers can be very, very rewarding. But there are two things that you will need to consider, to make your plants happy and producing.
In containers, plants need more water and fertilizer than if they were in the garden. More water because the soil in the containers dries out faster. More fertilizer because more watering dilutes the fertilizer faster. And especially with 3 and 5 gallon containers, there isn’t a whole lot of space in which to find extra nutrients.
You’ll also need to consider which plants are “greedy”. Squash in particular likes to be well-watered and well-fed. Cukes and other such plants aren’t far behind.
The general rule of thumb is to feed your vegetable plants twice as often, with half as much. For example, I use a fish emulsion/kelp liquid fertilizer, and I dilute it to half strength — but feed twice as often.
So grow your vegetables in containers and with just a little extra care, enjoy a nice harvest!
Vegetable Seeds for a Small Garden
What kind of vegetable seeds should you plant for a small garden? If you’re tight on space, you’ll want to carefully consider what seeds you plant. Some vegetables grow into large plants that can take over a small space!
Vegetable Seeds and Variety
This topic actually has a double meaning. Most people want a bit of variety to the vegetables they grow. And it also refers to the variety of a particular vegetable. For example, some tomato plants can go wild and grow 6 or more feet tall. Other varieties are shorter and more compact (thus conserving growing space). There are quite a few vegetable varieties that can be used successfully in a small space vegetable garden.
Here are some ideas that I have used for a small vegetable garden, in two sizes — 4′ x 4′ and 4′ x 6′. Naturally, you won’t be able to grow a ton of different vegetables in these small space vegetable gardens, but you can certainly grow plenty. You just need to know the varieties of vegetables that will work well for you.
If you indeed can only use a 4′ x 4′ space, please consider a raised bed vegetable garden. Your veggies will grow better because of the deeper loamy soil. Better growing translates to a larger harvest.
Vegetable Seeds for a 4′ x 4′ Garden
If you have just a 4′ x 4′ space, you won’t have a lot of room to spare. One small garden type I recommend is a salad garden, which is wonderful for those hot Summer nights.
My favorite salad garden consists of the following:
- Tomatoes
- Lettuce and/or spinach
- Radishes
Where you need to be careful is with the varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers you grow; they are the two plants that grow largest. That being said, here are the varieties of vegetable seeds I recommend for a 4′ x 4′ raised bed garden.
Tomatoes: Celebrity, Sweet Baby Girl
, Better Bush Improved Hybrid.
All three are great choices, but my top pick of these three is Celebrity. Since you can grow 2 tomato plants in a 4′ x4′ garden, why not add a second variety for, well, variety!
Lettuce: I recommend leaf lettuces over head lettuces, because you can pluck leaves as needed instead of waiting for a whole plant to get big enough. As long as you don’t pluck too many leaves at one time from a given plant, it will just grow more leaves to use later. Some of the lettuces I like are Red Sails, Simpson Elite
. If you’re feeling adventurous, try Salad Bowl Mix
.
Spinach: I love baby spinach leaves for a salad, and they are quite nutritous. Pick what you need from several plants, then let them keep developing new leaves for you! My favorite small-space spinach is Renegade.
Radishes: It’s so very amazing how fast these vegetables can grow! Plant them a week or two after the lettuce and/or spinach. As you harvest them, you can plant more seeds, for a continuing harvest. I love color in my salads, so my choice is Easter Egg Blend II.
In general, plant 2 tomatoes (diagonally from each other) and keep other plants 18″ away from them. The fill in with radishes, lettuce and/or spinach, planted just a smidgen closer than specified on the seed pack. After all, in a raised bed garden, you have the wonderful soil that enables you to place the vegetables a little closer than normal.
Vegetable Seeds for a 4′ x 6” Garden
In addition to the veggies specified above, I like to add cucumbers or summer squash to a 4′ x 6′ raised bed small space vegetable garden. Pick only one of the two, because you want at least 2 plants so that you have enough flowers for the veggies to produce well.
You can choose to grow your cucumbers or squash sprawling or up a cage. There are different kinds of each.
Cucumbers: For sprawling over the side, I like Salad Bush Hybrid. (You can also train this up a cage if you like). But if I am going the cage route, I prefer Sweet Success
.
Summer Squash: These I just grow up a cage! My top picks are Park’s Straightneck for yellow squash and Spineless Beauty
for zucchini.
Note: You can let any of these sprawl if you like; make a hill on one of the 4′ ends of the raised bed and you can have three plants, spilling over the sides.
Final Notes on Vegetable Seeds
If you don’t like something on these lists, you can choose other veggies. In particular, pole beans make great additions to your small space garden because you can train them up a trellis or tower!
If you’re longing for some sweet peppers instead, try the sweet pepper Carmen. Not a bell, but it’s space saving and delicious served all kinds of ways.
Vegetable seeds for small gardens aren’t hard to grow, but the smaller your garden, the more carefully you need to choose your varieties.
Enjoy your harvest!
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