How To Grow Vegetables In A Limited 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.

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.

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 biggest challenge with a small vegetable garden is practicality. Some vegetables such as lettuce will grow fine with only 4 hours of sunlight a day, but anything that produces a fruit (tomatoes, corn, beans, etc.) needs a solid 8 hours of direct sunlight or they aren't going to be very productive. That sunlight isn't necessary for dwarf azaleas, however.

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.

This said, there is no doubting the fact that the smaller vegetables are worth trying, especially if space for the larger kind is at a premium. It is important to choose, however, the kind of smallness desired, whether it is the fruit or produce itself that will be miniature, or the plant that yields it. Miniature vegetables as such are amusing and eye-catching, a novelty that many restaurants and imaginative cooks offer with great success. Some miniatures, for example, cherry tomatoes, are accepted for their own sake, while a number of vegetables are of course just naturally small - radishes, for example.

About the Author

Are you planting vegetables this year? Plan your vegetable garden layout before you plant any seeds. Learn more about planning your garden and get my free reports on pest control, mulching and composting at http://www.vegetablegardeners.com