One thing I hear a lot from friends who want to garden is, “I don’t have the space.” Today I’m going to share some ideas that have worked for us. I hope this will inspire you to find the space to garden.
Container Gardening
I started my passion for gardening, when I still lived in an apartment. And honestly I too thought where do I find the space to garden. Luckily, I had a small balcony. This is where container gardening came in handy. It is also a great place for the beginner gardener to start.
There are many options for container gardening. All different sizes and materials of pots, stackable pots, planting towers, hanging baskets, and window boxes. Some of my favorite options for pots are terracotta and ceramic. I also love having baskets hanging from my railings. I still use them for flowers today on the railings of my front porch.
You might be surprised what you can grow in containers. Some of my favorites are herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers. However, you could also grow cucumbers, onions, eggplant, and even dwarf fruit trees. A good friend of mine decided to try gardening this year and she actually grew green beans in pots on her balcony among other things.
There are other benefits to container gardening even if you have a large garden. We have a lot of things in pots on our homestead, such as pots of herbs alongside our gazebo. I especially like use pots to grow mints, which can be invasive. I also have several pots going up different sets of steps in our yard. Some are just flowers but I also have things like Ghost Peppers growing. I also have blueberries in pots along side our house so I can control the soil acidity.
Container gardening is also a great thing to do with kids. It gives them a specific place to garden and a feeling of satisfaction when things grow. Also, we have to mention the convenience in container gardening. It is very convenient and satisfying to pick herbs right outside your door or even from your kitchen windowsill.
Small Garden Beds
If you live in a house with a small yard, you would be surprised how much you can grow in a small garden bed. We have a small garden along side our shed. In that bed I have grown rhubarb, onions, dill, cilantro, kale, lettuce, peas, and tomatoes so far this year. The way I am able to do that is with succession planting. I will touch on this a little later.
Planting a small bed garden alongside the house or a shed has other benefits too. They are really great for a new gardener as it shouldn’t overwhelm. When you plant on the side of a building, it makes it easy to use trellis to let plants grow up. On the other side of our shed we also planted a tomato jungle and a trellis where we are letting melons grow up.
I also have some herbs planted among the flowers in the front of our house. Which is another great point. Plant among your flowers. There are other things you could easily plant among a flower garden. Things such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant would look nice among the flowers.
Raised Beds
If you don’t have any pre-established garden beds, another way to go is raised beds. When we lived in Los Angeles, we built 3 long raised beds out of cement blocks. The benefit of raised beds is that you can put them anywhere you want. Even in the middle of the lawn.
There are many options for materials in building raised beds. Some of my recommendations would be cedar, redwood, untreated lumber, and cement blocks. You could also use rocks or bricks if you had enough. However, we do want to stay away from railroad ties, pallets, tires, and especially treated lumber if we are looking to grow organically. Those items will leach chemicals into your soil, and ultimately into your body.
I guess you could say we are still growing in raised beds. We have built retaining walls going up our hillside to create our garden beds. This has really worked nicely. We used space that would otherwise be hard to mow or use for gardening. Also, as you see in the picture, we can stand on one level and work on the next level.
However, I will tell you that the terraced garden can dry out a little easier. On days we don’t get rain, we do need to make sure we water extra on the terraced gardens. We are already talking about what we can do to improve this for next year.
Growing Vertical
I guess our terraced garden can be considered the first way we are growing vertically. However, I am referring to using trellis. I use Trellises a lot in my garden. I have them along the top row of our terraced gardens and along the edges of two of our small garden beds.
You might be surprised at what vegetables you can actually trellis. Currently, we have peas, beans, cucumbers, winter squash, and melons on trellis. Additionally, you can also use trellis to support tomatoes and peppers. One note on this would be in growing melons and winter squash. If you grow a heaver fruit, it may need some extra support so it doesn’t break off.
One of my favorite trellises to use is cattle panels. They are sturdy and last a long time. However, the materials we can use for trellis are endless. I remember watching Martha Stewart make trellises out of branches and string. And I’ve even seen people use old fences, gates, and bedframes as trellis. Use your imagination on this. I would love to hear some of the things you have used for trellis.
Succession Planting
I can’t do a post on finding space to garden, without talking about succession planting. One of the reasons I am able to grow so much is using succession planting. I plan to do another post of this later but here are some basics.
I mentioned growing rhubarb, onions, dill, cilantro, kale, lettuce, peas, and tomatoes so far in the small bed next to my shed. Here is how I was able to do that. First of all, the rhubarb was there from last year. It resides in a corner of that bed and will come up every year. Also, the dill and cilantro were volunteers from seeds that fell last year.
Secondly, I started onion seeds indoors and then planted them mid-spring. At the same time I planted the kale, lettuce, and peas from seed. The onions were planted towards the front with kale and lettuce planted in between different types of onions. The peas were planted towards the back so they could grow up the trellis on the wall of the shed.
The tomatoes were also started indoors and as the peas were coming to an end we transplanted them into the garden. I planted them among the peas where they wouldn’t bother each other, and within a week or two the peas were done and pulled. Now the tomatoes are thriving. and the only other thing left is the kale. I’m actually surprised that the kale is still going strong.
My plan for the fall is to plant my garlic there. It is something I can plant while the tomatoes are still growing. We succession garden in many parts of our garden. In other areas as things like beets and carrots have come to an end, I have been replacing it with beans and zucchini. Where our three sisters garden is right now will soon become our winter garden.
I hope this has given you some encouragement to plant where you are. Please stop by Small Steps Homestead again. Also, check out my Pinterest where I am building a board on Homesteading in Small Spaces.