Growing Vegetables In A Small Area

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."

Growing vegetables in a smaller space is different from growing other things in the same space. Plants like rhododendrons, heathers or miniature bulbs are grown mainly for their appearance. They're merely decorative.

Vegetables, however, are grown more for the taste buds than to please the eye. You might find corn stalks and bean bushes in the average vegetable garden, but they're not so common in landscape design.

The greatest difficulties are practical ones. Although the leafy greens, like lettuce, can do fairly well on only four hours of direct sunlight a day, any vegetable that produces a fruit (tomatoes, beans, corn and so on) must have a solid eight hours of warming sun or its yields will be disappointing or virtually nonexistent; but that bright light does not benefit dwarf azaleas.

A good mix of soil, with the proper fertilizer, is necessary for growing vegetables but may be too much for some dwarf plants that are supposed to stay small. The main problem however is the need to turn over the soil in a vegetable garden every year. This kind of heavy tilling just can't be done in some small garden areas, which is why a small scale vegetable garden usually needs to be separate from the average 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.

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Are you planning on growing vegetables this year? Make sure you plan your vegetable garden layout before you start planting. Learn more about planning your garden and get my free reports on composting, pest control and mulching at www.vegetablegardeners.com

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