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| Using pots on the patio, growing up in the garden bed |
Sunday, February 7, 2021
If you have a horizontally challenged space for gardening, there are several ways to maximize the varieties you can grow. You can utilize hanging baskets, pots, use supports to grow up, and be choiceful in the type of vegetable you choose.
Most vegetables do best in full sun. Look for your sunniest spot and see how you can lay out, and stack, your vegetable garden to take advantage of every horizontal and vertical space provided.
There are so many varieties of individual veggies and fruit available today. For instance, peas, beans, melons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers all come in either bush or vine. They come in different sizes as well. There are varieties that grow wide and short or tall and skinny or wide and tall. Seed packets will usually give you the width a plant will grow to if place in the ground, but not the height. If you grow in a pot, the plant typically will not grow as large as in the ground.
Here is a link to average plant heights and root depths at maturity: Veggie plant height and root depth
If you are space constrained, I would start with what you love to eat. Make a list of what you are buying in the produce section. This is a good starting point. How to decide what to plant for small spaces?
Also think about how much a particular type of vegetable you can get from each plant and space it is taking up in your garden. Some vegetables take months to come to maturity, take up a lot of space, and only give a limited harvest. Think creatively about what you like. For instance, conventional broccoli takes 3 months to get a head. You can grow and harvest sprouting broccoli with leaves that taste like broccoli and produce little broccoli sprouts over months.
There are many varieties that I grow in pots because they seem to do as well if not better than in the ground and it makes it easy to bring in the tender perennials to the unheated garage for the winter. Peppers, eggplant, Egyptian walking onions, beets, snow peas, chard, lettuce and other greens, Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, mint, Dragon's tail radish, stevia, fig tree, olive tree, bay tree, rosemary, citrus trees, aloe, basil.
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| Pepper plant and petunias in pot on the patio |
There are several veggies, fruits and herbs that you can grow in hanging baskets. Creeping thyme, mint, peas, beans, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers are just a few examples. When selecting a vining plant to put in a hanging basket, check the vine height to see how long it will get. You can always pinch off the ends when they get the length you want them to be.
For the most part, you want to chose dwarf or compact varieties for growing in pots. A couple of tips on growing in containers: consider using self watering pots to significantly reduce watering required and use a soluble fertilizer every 2 weeks. Pots require more of both than the garden bed. For more information on what size pot and varieties to select for growing in pots, see these blogs.
You can also grow up in the garden bed or in a pot. You can use a simple wooden stake, a pretty colored corkscrew stake, a decorative arbor, a trellis or tomato cages to keep the plant contained and headed skyward. For vertical gardening, look for the vining types. Again check for the length the vine will grow or pinch off the tip when it reaches the height you desire.
When you are thinking of what you want to grow, be sure to do a layout. You want to maximize the sun each plant gets. To do this you want to put the tallest in the back and work your way down in height. Watch to see how the sun travels through the day. Ideally, your garden will face the south as this is the most sun exposure. Don't forget patio and porch space that you can put pretty pots with flowers and veggies. How to develop an edible garden plan
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| Egyptian walking onion and petunias on patio |
Don't despair if you don't get 12 hours of sun a day, there are plants that produce even in shaded spots. Edible shade gardens shine in summer
Also think about the conditions that crops prefer. Planning for a four season garden Most greens do enjoy cooler temperatures. You can plant your lettuces, spinach, and Asian greens in between crops that will grow up to shade them as the temperatures rise, extending the harvest. When a crop is done producing, have a plan for what you are going to plant in its place so every spot is taken year round. Want continuous harvests? Succession planting!
I grow most of my lettuce and greens in pots. This way, I can give them full sun in the spring and then move them to a shadier spot as the temperatures rise. Growing fabulous lettuce and greens
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| Potted lettuce and greens |
Some crops are quick growers. Radishes are ready to harvest in 25 days. Greens can be harvested from the outside of the plant in about the same time for baby greens, letting the center continue producing leaves for harvests over months from the same plant.
I look for heavy or prolific producers on descriptions to get the most from each plant. Small tomatoes and peppers typically produce many more per plant than large fruiting varieties. What crops give you the biggest bang for your time?
Before you get started planting, make sure your potting soil and garden bed is in the best condition to grow healthy, strong plants. You do need to renew your potting soil each year and should get a soil test for your garden bed to know what the soil is missing. If you don't have the time, just an organic balanced fertilizer as it is slow release and not too strong that it gets nutrients out of balance as quickly as chemical fertilizers do.
Get more from your garden space this year by creating a detailed plan with creative strategies for your little space.
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