Post by Beth Astle, Barracks Lane Community Garden on behalf of Replenish
Wouldn’t it be great to have a huge beautiful garden where we could grow all ourown veg. Not many of us are blessed with such a space and the amount of work an allotment takes can be overwhelming. Fear not, we can still grow food in a small garden or for those of us without gardens even in a container on our window ledge.
There are three key points that will help us on our way:
- Plant Variety
- Growing in layers
- Successional Sowing
Plant variety
If you only have a small space then you do not want large vigorous plants that will take over. These days most vegetables have particular varieties that are ideal for smaller gardens. Cucumber ‘Bush Champion’ is specifically bred so the plant grows in a compact shape, great if you have less space or you want to grow in a container.
Broad beans are great for a small space as many varieties don’t need individual supports. You can also start them in winter to get an early crop before other beans are ready.
There are different types of French Beans, climbing or dwarf. Dwarf french beans are ideal because they are much more compact than climbing varieties.
Image from Barracks Lane Community Garden
Tomatoes come in either cordon (indeterminate) or bush (determinate) form. Cordons grow tall and need structures to support them unlike their bush form. Tumbling Tom is an ideal variety of tomato that can be grown in hanging baskets or containers and hang over the side, reducing the soil space that they take up.
At Barracks Lane Community Garden we have a raised vegetable bed with a hedge of dwarf french beans on one side and tumbling toms growing down over the other side.
Image from Barracks Lane Community Garden
Many seed companies have specific categories in their menu for small gardens or container gardens giving you great ideas of what vegetables and plant varieties would work in your sized garden.
Growing in layers and vertically
A good way you utilise a small space is to grow in different layers by underplanting and make use of vertical space.
Squash can ramble across the vegetable bed taking more than its fair share of room so growing it vertically up a wigwam like structure is a great space saving tip for smaller gardens.
Image from Barracks Lane Community Garden
The three sisters is a technique of growing from the stories of the Iroquis peoples and other tribes of Native North Americans. Sweetcorn, runner beans and squash were all grown together, The runner beans grow up the sweetcorn, and the squash uses the spare space on the ground to grow.
There are other benefits to this companion planting, the runner beans fix nitrogen into the soil for the benefit of the other two plants and the big leaves of the squash suppress weeds and stop moisture evaporating from the soil.
In practice this method is not always quite that simple, you must make sure that the sweetcorn is established before planting the runner beans so that they are strong enough to take them. If it is a wet season then plants that are too crowded are prone to diseases like downy mildew. The best thing to do with any gardening is give it a go, experiment, observe and find what is right for your garden conditions.
Lettuce or radish are good quick veggies to grow under or in the shade of a taller crop. Lettuces don’t mind a bit of shade and will stay small if the cut and come again method is used. This is where instead of waiting for the lettuce to grow big and heart up before harvesting you plant it closer together and continually pick the outer leaves, allowing the plant to carry on growing. This uses up less space and the lettuces are less likely to bolt (go to seed) in dry weather too. Although for any lettuces or brassicas that do bolt remember you can use the flowers in salads. We will soon be harvesting mouthwatering salads for our free Tuesday lunches.
Successional sowing
If you have a separate space to start seeds off, like a window sill or a greenhouse then you can do successional sowing. For example, plant out your lettuce in your garden then 2 or 3 weeks later start off some more lettuce seed. Then when your first lot of lettuce plants come to the end of their life (start going to seed) you have plants ready to replace them with.
Planning your planting rota can ensure you get more crops into a small space so that once a crop is harvested you have another crop ready to go rather than an empty garden space.
For example, if you grow new potatoes you could harvest them as early as June or July and then follow with carrots that you have started outside in a half drainpipe, This allows the carrots to start off earlier and been easily transplanted into growing area. Or fill the space with kale that you had started off in pots; this will give you green leaves to harvest right through until February. Swiss chard, spinach and winter lettuces can also be planted in late summer after a crop has finished to give you leaf through the winter too.
Just remember to feed the soil with a compost, manure or green manure if you are expecting the soil to give you continuous crops it will want some goodness back.
Container Growing
Even if you only have a container on a balcony you can still enjoy growing your own food. You could grow herbs like coriander or dill to liven up your meals. Cut and come lettuce can be grown in pots and tomato varieties like Tumbling Tom look great in a hanging basket. Potatoes can even be grown in a deep container (pictured in an old waterbutt) where compost is just added to the top as the leaves grow up giving the ‘earthing up’ effect.
Images by Jo Milton
Other ideas
Vegetables can look beautiful, so why not grow them amongst your ornamental garden? Ruby swiss chard is truly specatacular or add a dwarf french bean hedge at the front of a flower bed.
When space is limited, decide what is important to you. Do you want to grow expensive vegetables to save yourself some money, (I can’t believe the price of good salad bags, or cherry tomatoes) or plants that you know will be heavy croppers like runner beans or courgettes. Before you know it, you’ll be looking for ways to preserve your gluts.
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Whatever you decide and no matter how small the space you have to grow there is nothing more rewarding than adding a little something to your meal that you have grown and harvested yourself. The most important things to remember are just to give it a go, observe, learn and enjoy.
Want more tips? Check out our other grow-your-own guides
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