Do you want to give gardening a try but have limited space at home? No worries! You can start with these small garden ideas for starters.
Small Garden Ideas for Beginner Gardeners
Most Americans vastly underestimate their ability to grow lots of food on their small plot of land. This could be a suburban yard or a small spot of sun they have in a tree-lined backyard. Of course, without a little know-how it’s impossible for them to understand how to take full advantage of their land.
Small space gardening is something that can be extremely rewarding and very productive. However, you need to be a little unorthodox and feed, feed, feed those plants!
We are going to discuss several tips and ideas for small space gardening. After reading this article, you will be surprised at what you can grow in your little yard.
1. Trellising
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Whether you trellis over or up or outside of your garden location, you can use trellises to expand your growing area. Trellises also add some visual stimulation to your small garden space. They give you the ability to raise vining plants, like beans, that are serious food producers.
Trellises can be made of natural materials or cheap ones like PVC.
2. Fertilization
One of the biggest keys to success in the small garden is to feed your plants often. I know many people bristle at the word FERTILIZER because of the way we use it in large scale agriculture. However, fertilizer is just a mixture of important vitamins and minerals that feed your plants.
Fertilizer can be something as simple as composted chicken manure. You can also use fish-based fertilizer. This is one of my favorite kinds of fertilizers because it can be diluted in water and added to plants every single day!
3. High Yield Plants
Another key to having success with your small garden is growing high yield plants that put off lots of food. You do not want to invest your small space in plants like cabbage that put off one head per plant. Unless, of course, you have an affinity for cabbage.
Here is a list of some great plants that produce lots of food in one growing season.
- English Peas
- Pole Beans
- Bush Beans
- Tomatoes
- Peppers
- Potatoes
- Lettuce
- Spinach
- Leafy Greens
- Eggplant
4. Grow Up!
Even when you aren’t dealing with plants that vine you can influence them to grow upward. There are plants that must grow upward and then there are things like cucumbers, zucchini, and melons that can be influenced to grow upward.
By staking certain plants or giving them fencing to climb, you can teach them to grow up rather than out. Something like a pumpkin plant can sprawl all over a limited growing area but if you stake that plant and give it structure to grow upward, you can save a lot of space in your small garden.
5. Grow Everywhere
Most home gardeners look to the backyard as their only growing area. They might not be happy with the amount of sun or the space the backyard offers. As Americans, we are hung up on this idea that we should be mowing a lawn every weekend and creating a pristine front yard for our neighbors to admire.
Sometimes your only viable option for space and sun exists in the front yard. Are you prepared to take your front yard back and use it to grow real food?
From pots on the porch to growers hanging in windows, sometimes those small growing areas can be increased by using alternate growing areas. Of course, that means you will become the crazy neighbor with the garden in their front yard.
What matters most to you? Is it having the lawn or providing your family with safe and wholesome food grown on your property? That’s one small garden idea to ponder on.
6. Succession Planting
Empty garden space is the enemy of the small garden. Unfortunately, if you don’t practice succession planting, there is a good chance you have lettuces that have gone to seed and plants that are no longer producing in your garden.
Succession planting is a matter of removing plants that have stopped producing and seeding new plants. You can also do this with seasonal beds. In the spring, you might plant English peas and then reseed for a summer plant-like pole beans or collard green.
Succession planting is also great for growing lettuce and assuring you have crisp lettuce all year long. Simply plant in the spaces between or around lettuces as they reach maturity. This is crucial to managing a small space garden
Small Gardens Create Food, Too
The year 2020 has more people considering where their food comes. More people are looking out on their meager spaces and wondering what type of food they can produce in those spaces. If you take nothing away from this article about small space gardening, take this next sentence to the bank.
No matter how small your yard, you can produce food. Every calorie that comes from your backyard is one step closer to self-reliance and independence.
Do you have other small garden ideas you can share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section!
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