Growing up we lived in a 3 bedroom row home in the city and although we did have a backyard, it wasn’t large enough to have the garden my dad had always wanted. What he did do though was take advantage of the space he did have using a few techniques that I am about to share with you. None of them were off the wall, crazy ideas, but all of them were practical easy to follow solutions.One of the easiest things you can do right now without changing a thing is picking plants that have higher yields. If you can grow plants that grow more produce per plant then you will need to plant less of them. For instance, cherry tomato plants, peas, beans, zucchini, all have higher yields per plant. Therefore simply planting just one or two could produce all that you may need.
Do you companion plant? What you might ask? Companion planting is the process of planting vegetables next to one another that compliment each other as opposed to fighting for the same nutrients. For example you can plant royal burgundy beans in between your corn and then have the beans use the corn as their means of a trellis. Meaning that they, the beans, will use the corn plants as their pole to latch onto. Every vegetable plant has a companion vegetable plant that is suitable for optimal growth and maximizing space. You can check out that information on our website.
You should be rotating crops already from season to season for a variety of benefits, but you can also do an in season crop rotation. What this means is you plant your vegetables based on their temperature requirements, planting the cold tolerant plants when the weather is cooler and then replacing them (after they have been harvested of course) with warmer weather tolerant plants.
Learn how to grow vertically. You might be limited on the amount of space that you have, but the sky is literally the limit when you grow your plants vertically. Vegetable and fruit plants such as pumpkins and watermelons are called indeterminates because you do not know exactly how long the vine will grow. If you let them grow out horizontally they will take up a tremendous amount of space. Instead have them grow up a structure (strong enough to support them of course) and use all that vertical space to your advantage. This will allow you to grow more of them.
As you can see these are basic, common sense solutions to a real problem that many people face, and that is limited spacing. Following these suggestions and you will be well on your way to harvesting more fruits and vegetables from your garden in no time.
About the Author
Mike is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC where you can sign up for their Seeds of the Month Club and receive 4 packs of vegetable, fruit and herb seeds every month.
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