Small-space food gardens

[SaraCate]

Hi! 

I have always been interested in (mostly vegetable) gardening, but with major changes in my life over the years since I found frugality.ca it's become more important to me both as a teaching tool and a frugal source of high-quality food for my family.

So my questions revolve around - what veggies (fruits, too) provide the most bang for your buck and the highest yiled for a small space?  I have looked forward for years to an asparagus patch, but I'm not sure it's an economical use of space for the return in actual food.

I realize answers to this question will vary regionally, too, depending on what's most expensive at your local supermarkets/farmer's markets.  For example, I look forward to putting in rhubarb next year; rhubarb rarely, if ever, falls below $3.99/lb. here, and I won't spend that much (except, *perhaps*, as a treat for a holiday meal) when other produce will provide as good or better nutrition for my family for half the price or less.  However, a fairly small patch of rhubarb will provide a fairly good yield and some variety in our diet with a vegetable that we **love**.

We're moving for the end of the month, and this growing season will mostly be spent getting acquainted with our new space, prepping the ground for next spring, and possibly putting in a fall crop or two.  (Even though it'd be early-to-mid June before I could do anything, some carrots and parsnips might find their way into the gorund! :) )

My plans right now include window boxes - if the windows are designed so that would work - with herbs and perhaps salad greens, to take advantage of every possible bit of usable space.  I also intend to grow some herbs and greens inside in sunny windows (or bring them in when it gets too cold, anyway).

My remaining questions for the garden experts are what food plants do best in partial sun/shade (there's a large tree in our small yard) and tricks to make the most of a small garden space/indoor space - like planting parsnips between the carrots because they mature at different times.  I'll explore any possibilities! 

TIA,

~Sara

(FWIW, we're in the GTA, Ontario.)

[GoBecGo]

Potato tyres?  I'm trialling this this year, so far we're going great guns.  Put a tyre down (preferably on dirt, if not put a bit of wire net in the bottom and a layer of gravel for drainage).  Fill with soil.  Plant potatoes (about 4 to a tyre we do - try to get big tyres with a shallow rim, we use the 18" ones off our own car but you can generally get them for free from places that change tryes.  When potato plants are about 8 inches tall stack another tyre on and fill round with more soil so just a little of each plant is showing.  Keep doing that, up to 4 tyres high (bear in mind that it would be heavy if it fell so stick it somewhere safe, like in a corner, or keep kids away from it).  Each time you fill around the potato will being to put more potatoes out, so you end up with a really long plant and loads of potatoes but still only use the space of one tyre.

[mumkimum]

If you haven't checked out the book grow great grub - I'd suggest doing so.  Lots of creative planting ideas with litte/no space and good advice on varieties to choose.

Personally, some things we've found do well with partial sun/shade have been eggplants (usually smaller varieties) and we also found celery did very well (planted among our tomatoes) - planted 3 and never had to buy any all summer.  Peppers have never come out well.  Arugula did okay, swiss chard has done well.  

We have a really nice gooseberry bush in a pot since we don't have much good space for anything like that, and I know others who've done blueberry bushes in pots too that have done well.   I right now have seed potatoes I'm planning on doing in a garbage bin (similar to the tire-method) so I don't have BTDT experience, but have heard good things about it.  We have a CSA with a city farmer here, and there are a few crops he plants in grow bags (basically that landscape fabric sewn into a bag, and filled with dirt - they're laid ontop of concrete and planted with strawberries), so that's a solution that might be helpful for some areas too.

[rhianna813]

Here are some thoughts… First grow veggies your family loves so you know they will get eatin. Also, I grow veg that is expensive to buy in the store like leeks and beets. One packet of seeds cost the same as one leek or beet LOL And grow veg that grows well in our climate. In my area red bell peppers are spendy and we love them, but they do not grow well here so I don’t usually grow them.

Some veggies to consider: peas and beans that are grown on a trellis will save space and as you pick them they grow more. Beans are particularly prolific. Leaf lettuce, spinach, chard and kale can be picked by the leaf and will the plant will just keep growing until it bolts. Spinach, chard and kale can be frozen. Zucchini, summer squash and cucumbers tend to produce tons. Winter squash usually only 2- 4 fruits per plant. Cherry tomatoes would be better than regular size. Cabbage, broccoli and other larger plants are probably cheaper just to buy – they take up a lot of space.

I really love this garden planner to see how many of each variety you can plant in a square foot area. You pick the plot size, then drag and drop your plants. http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html

Rhianna

[limette]

Originally Posted by GoBecGo 

Potato tyres?  I'm trialling this this year, so far we're going great guns.  Put a tyre down (preferably on dirt, if not put a bit of wire net in the bottom and a layer of gravel for drainage).  Fill with soil.  Plant potatoes (about 4 to a tyre we do - try to get big tyres with a shallow rim, we use the 18" ones off our own car but you can generally get them for free from places that change tryes.  When potato plants are about 8 inches tall stack another tyre on and fill round with more soil so just a little of each plant is showing.  Keep doing that, up to 4 tyres high (bear in mind that it would be heavy if it fell so stick it somewhere safe, like in a corner, or keep kids away from it).  Each time you fill around the potato will being to put more potatoes out, so you end up with a really long plant and loads of potatoes but still only use the space of one tyre.

Potatoes don't actually grow that way. This theory has been tested (you can google it). The tires may provide more heat to the plant, but the plant will only grow potatoes to a certain height which won't be any higher than your second tire, if that.

[GoBecGo]

When i was a kid a friend had a "tattie heap" - a giant mound of earth which she would chuck any old chitted potato (usually cut into bits so each bit had one "eye" on it) and then periodically a whole lot of extra dirt.  Her plants were sometimes as much as 3 feet long under the surface, with potatoes all the way down and another 12-18" of green growth above the surface.  So i don't know about google, but i have seen with my own eyes how long a potato plant can grow if you keep adding dirt during the early part of growth.  Who knows though, i guess i can report back on tyres (as opposed to tattie heaps) in the early winter! :)

ETA i googled out of interest and found about a million articles on "hilling" potatoes and how to grow them in garbage bags, adding dirt every time they get to be 4 inches high.  Where did you read that this doesn't work again?

[Owen'nZoe]

Do you know the book "How to Grow More Vegetables"? It is all about getting maximum production about of a small space. Now, I live in a much colder climate than the authors, and find that I do better if I space my plants out a tad more than they recommend, but it was a great starting point for me!

As far as saving money goes, I find I save the most on tomatoes, red bell peppers, snap peas, and herbs. These are all things that we eat a lot of, and which get expensive to buy in the store - especially the herbs, since one bunch at the grocery store generally costs as much as a plant, and many of the plants (oregano, thyme, mint, lemon balm, etc.) are perennial, and others reseed freely (parsley, cilantro, dill), so you often only have to buy them once.