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| Using pots on the patio, growing up in the flower garden bed |
Monday, December 5, 2022
If you only have a small space or little time to garden, maximize your harvest by picking the crops that give you the most per plant. You can also utilize hanging baskets, pots, supports to grow up, and use succession planting to get the most possible food.
To pick the highest yielders, you need to plant what you eat the most in the right season. Simplistically, veggies and herbs fall into two categories for growing; those that like the cool temperatures to thrive and those that love it warm. I like to plant the veggies that you can harvest from over and over again.
If you don't have a spot to till up to make a garden, this is not a barrier to growing food! You can use your current flower beds and pots to grow veggies and herbs to feed your family. That's how I started. I found that between my flower beds and pots on the patio and driveway, I could grow all the produce we could eat from spring to fall and put away lots for winter eating.
Herbs are a very high value crop and the easiest to grow. Most herbs are perennials that you only have to plant once and they just keep coming back year after year. Most thrive in poor soil with low water needs. Spices are very pricey so growing the herbs that you use the most in cooking will save you a lot of money.
For the cool season crops that thrive in spring and fall, the top producers in my garden are snow peas, lettuce, sprouting broccoli, perennial onions, chives, and cilantro. You can eat the whole pod of snow peas along with the leaves and flowers which gives you much more for the table than shelled peas. Peas can be sown as early as February or as soon as your soil can be worked. In our zone, I plant in pots in February. I plant a variety that stays bushy with vines only 2-3' long. If growing the longer vines, use a trellis to make it easier to see and harvest the pods.
Lettuce, sprouting broccoli and other greens can be harvested continuously while cool by picking the outer leaves while leaving the inner leaves to continue to grow. When sprouting broccoli shoots up, the leaves stay sweet and taste just like broccoli all through summer and fall. You can choose heat tolerant lettuce to plant towards the end of spring to extend the lettuce season into summer.
Cilantro will bolt (grow a stem and flower) as soon as the temperatures hit 80. There are more heat tolerant varieties available today that will prolong the harvest. When they bolt and you leave them to flower, you can harvest the seeds called coriander for adding to your spices. Chives start early in the spring and will send up new leaves into winter.
I grow the perennial onion called Egyptian walking onion. It can be harvested year round. The onion itself has a flavor like a white onion, the size of the bulb is about that of a leek. I use the bulb for cooking and the green leaves left like fresh chives. The bulbs multiply by dividing underground and producing bulbets on the tops of their leaves in June that can be separated and planted to grow more onions.
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| Egyptian walking onion with bulbets and petunias blooming on patio |
The most productive warm season crops in my garden are tomatoes, peppers, okra, cucumbers, snap beans and zucchini. Small cherry type tomatoes are extremely prolific. One plant is all you need for all the cherry tomatoes you likely will be able to eat fresh. I usually grow one cherry type, one slicer and a couple of paste tomatoes. That gives us all we can eat fresh, freeze for winter cooking/salsa and can for our family of 2.
We only need one hot pepper plant to supply us all the hot peppers we can use fresh in salsa, for cooking and to freeze for winter and spring use. One Ancho pepper plant is all we need to dry and make all the chili powder we use in a year. For fresh snacking of sweet peppers, I grow the smaller varieties as they are much more prolific in my garden than the larger sweet pepper like Bell. 2 plants is all we need for fresh eating and freezing for year round use. I grow all my peppers in pots as they seem to do better there than in the garden bed.
One okra plant is all we need for eating fresh and freezing for year round use. I tried this year to grow in a pot, but the production was terrible. I'll go back to growing in the garden bed unless I grow a variety bred for pots.
One cucumber plant is all we need for fresh eating, making pickles and relish for year round eating. Cucumbers grow great in a pot or garden bed.
I grow my snap beans either in a pot or in the garden bed using a trellis for both approaches. I plant 6 vines around the trellis for all we need for year round eating.
Zucchini is another highly productive warm season crop. If growing it, have a plan for how to preserve it because it quickly outpaces our ability to eat them fresh off the vine. I make what we can't eat into "zoodles" to use as a substitute for pasta year round. Bush type zucchini does well in a pot. If growing the vine type, they need the room of a garden bed. The drawback in our garden with traditional zucchini is it usually dies back in July due to pest issues. A variety that I have grown over the last few years that has made it through all the way to winter with no disease or pest issues is Trombetto. You need a great deal of space for this type as the vines will grow out in all directions 10-15'. These fruits can either be eaten fresh, made into "zoodles" or the whole fruits can be stored on the counter, basement or cellar for months just like winter squash.
If you are new to gardening and are wondering how to get started, here is a roadmap to get your plan ready for spring growing.
Step 1. 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 available. See where you can place your edibles to get the most sun and the best growth.
Step 2. Look at what produce or herbs you are buying. You'll get the most for your money by growing what you will eat. Make a list.
Step 3. See what season the crops you enjoy grow best in. There are basically 2 types of veggies and herbs, those that love cool weather and those that love warm weather. Now you can sort what you like to eat into whether they are cool season crops or warm season crops.
Step 4. Now you can pick what you want to grow based on the time of year. If you are starting in early spring, you can get the cool season crops going. As they come into maturity, it is time for the warm season crops. As the warm season crops hit their peak, you can plant cool season crops again. This keeps your space producing through 3 seasons.
Step 5. Pick the varieties that are best suited for your garden. If you live up north, you will need to choose varieties that are more cold hardy and quicker to reach maturity. If you live in the south, you will need to choose varieties that are more heat tolerant and disease resistant. If you have a small space or are growing in pots, you should look for "bush" types, those with the description of "compact" or bred for the patio or pot. Smaller plants will have smaller harvests from each plant but also give you the flexibility to grow more varieties. Seed packets and transplant plant tags will have descriptions on the plant, how many days from planting to the plant is ready to pick, and spacing between plants so you can decide what best meets your garden needs and to fine tune your planting lay out.
Don't forget that you can grow up. 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.
Step 6. Plant! You either go the seed route or purchase plants in the spring. You can start seeds indoors and transplant outdoors or just sow the seeds in their permanent spot outdoors. For pots, I usually direct sow seeds. For the garden bed, I direct sow large seeds like beans. Smaller seeds I start in a pot indoors or outdoors then transplant when they sprout and get sturdy. I can keep a close eye on them to make sure they are getting the water they need to sprout. After transplanting into the garden when they have their second set of leaves, start fertilizing.
Once your plants are close to being done, plant more crops to keep your space productive from spring through fall.
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.
Step 7. Harvest regularly, water and fertilize as needed. Plants have a built in need to produce seeds so harvesting the fruits and leaves cause the plant to make more. In the spring, little to no watering will likely be needed. As the rains slack off and the heat sets in, veggies will need watering and fertilizing. Biweekly fertilizing for potted plants and monthly for garden bed plants.
The biggest watch for beginning is to make sure you start small so it is not overwhelming. Do just a couple of pots of peppers or greens, a few herbs and a tomato plant or two in your flower garden for your first edible garden. Build out from there next year.
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