Small Space Gardening 2012 - Page 2

[FarmerBeth]

I have a huge country garden now, but when we lived in cycling distance to Halifax, I used to drive past this amazing urban farmer who used pantyhose to make planters on all the big trees that were in front of his flat along the sidewalk.  They were lined with some sort of moss and brimming with lettuces and tomatoes and made this really nifty vertical garden.  I'd try this where I live now if I could get the plants higher than the ducks and chickens!

[PennyRoo]

To answer your question, Jes h, I'm thinking more of a tidy vegetable garden patch on the sidewalk strip.  Perhaps some non-edibles spilling over the edges to pretty it up.  We live in a funny area - it's a lower income area nestled up to an affluent neighborhood.  Our neighborhood is kind of a tipping point place - the chain links are coming down and some people get anxious that the upward trend continue.  Some of our neighbors might get pissy if we did something like plant in tires on the side walk strip.  I am considering what a cinder block raised bed would look like, if we planted cool sedums in the cinder block holes, and had something like an acid green or blackie sweet potato vine spilling over the edges to soften the look.  I wouldn't want a bare, concrete raised bed sitting there in the winter, though, so I'd have to think of some attractive options for overwintering it.  (I suppose I could treat it like a huge container and decorate it with greens and winterberry for winter!  But honestly, I'd rather see if I could grow kale in it year-round.)  If the sidewalk strip plan (which I would implement next spring, or 2013, because this year is the year of converting perennial bed to raised bed of veggies, and starting the window box plan) works, I want to enlarge the bed by 3 - 4 feet each year.  I'm just jonesing for more gardening space.  I had a dream last night that I had a huge, fenced in garden.

[jes h]

cool! 

We have a strip of garden in the front yard right up against the side walk that we do edibles in, also trying to use up all the sunlight.   The front 2 feet is a super long strawberry patch;  that keeps the neighbors happy since they can pick away. 

We also grow our beets, carrots and onions in that section, partly because they will stay in the ground so long;  that way it is green in front up till around November when I dig them out.  Then we cover with leaf mulch, which isn't green and pretty, but does cover the bare dirt and helps it look decent in the fall/winter.   I have overwintered kale there as well (we're zone 5).  A book of mine on winter gardening says kale survives winter but doesn't put out new leaves, but we have always gotten new growth during the warmer phases of winter.

Our garden is a mash of plants all vying for space and sun, but I do love the look of a tidy, quaint veggie patch with little signs!

[PennyRoo]

It would be cool if people would consider posting some pictures, once gardens are up and running.  I'm always so inspired by people who strive to pack in as much as possible into small urban spaces!  There's something so hopeful about it.

[MrsSwan]

I actually just purchased the items today that we will need to make a raised bed garden.  I am going for the cinder/cement block type.  I am in Central Florida and our dirt sucks!  This is my first year ever actually getting this far in my want to garden though so I am excited!  Tomorrow I will get everything in place and start playing with dirt (OK, OK my hubby will move the blocks LMAO)

MrsSwan

[superbeans]

Awesome!

Edited by superbeans - 5/10/12 at 6:41am

[cameragirl]

Here are some pictures of the progression of the yard from February through July. We extended the rose bed by three feet to add room for veggies. I tried to companion plant as much as possible, and made use of trailing plants as ground cover. (It gets REALLY hot here most summers, and we don't get rain after March or so.) Egyptian onions went between roses, tomatoes filled in where we pulled failing rose bushes, winter squash and watermelons covered the ground near roses, corn and pumpkins grew together, beans and sunflowers grew in front of the crepe myrtles, etc. We got a HUGE tomato harvest despite having really cold, wet weather through May when we normally have tomatoes in the ground in early March. We didn't get as much corn because of space restrictions, but it was enough for several meals. TONS of spaghetti squash grew - so much that I still need to give some away because we can't eat it fast enough.

Anyways - here are some pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillianjordan/sets/72157626940387474/

[PennyRoo]

Erin 121, what a great smile your son has.  Love the exuberant garden nestled up to sidewalk.  Cameragirl, wow, thanks for posting those.  It was cool to see your corn next to the chickens!  You've really packed a lot of productivity into that space! (I guess this is for another thread, but do you move the coop around at all?) Is that your only corn patch?  How much does that yield?  I've thought of packing my sidewalk strip with corn.  You have cool examples of ornamentals and veggies co-existing - thanks for the inspiration.

[cameragirl]

Originally Posted by PennyRoo 

Erin 121, what a great smile your son has.  Love the exuberant garden nestled up to sidewalk.  Cameragirl, wow, thanks for posting those.  It was cool to see your corn next to the chickens!  You've really packed a lot of productivity into that space! (I guess this is for another thread, but do you move the coop around at all?) Is that your only corn patch?  How much does that yield?  I've thought of packing my sidewalk strip with corn.  You have cool examples of ornamentals and veggies co-existing - thanks for the inspiration.

Thank you. I'm brainstorming what to do for this year. We'll have a newborn, so I think we might fence off the side of the house for the chickens. We were moving around the coop once or twice a day, but that style coop is very heavy. We also have chickens in that old playhouse, as well. Since the side of the house is too dark for most veggies, that'll probably be a good spot. I'd like to keep compost over there, and let them pick through the compost for bugs and what not.

We planted one corn stalk per square foot after fertilizing and working the soil well. Most of the plants yielded an ear of corn. It was plenty to eat over the course of a couple weeks. The pumpkins below yielded a LOT of little sugar pie pumpkins. I think we got 15 -20 or so. It was enough to cook down to puree for pumpkin bread cravings this winter. The brick planters had potatoes in the spring, and then peppers and tomatoes once it warmed up. Those did pretty well, also.

[MonarchMom]

I have some ancient decorative cinder blocks left from when the house was built (100 years ago!)  I use them to create a border for the slightly raised bed I've built with compost over the years to improve our native sand and rocks. 

The blocks are great for planting herbs.  You can water or not as needed for each type (some like it dry) and the roots of spreaders like mint and oregano are contained by the blocks. l

I also plant them with edible flowers like nasturtiam to attract bees and beautify the space. The poles in the photo are for the tomatillos and tomatoes later in the season. Peas and beans are growing against the fence in the back.

[cameragirl]

Originally Posted by MonarchMom 

I have some ancient decorative cinder blocks left from when the house was built (100 years ago!)  I use them to create a border for the slightly raised bed I've built with compost over the years to improve our native sand and rocks. 
The blocks are great for planting herbs.  You can water or not as needed for each type (some like it dry) and the roots of spreaders like mint and oregano are contained by the blocks. l
I also plant them with edible flowers like nasturtiam to attract bees and beautify the space. The poles in the photo are for the tomatillos and tomatoes later in the season. Peas and beans are growing against the fence in the back.

That looks great! I love the hand made look of the cinder blocks, too! So much more handsome than your typical cement cinder blocks.

[MonarchMom]

The big challenge with a smaller garden is crop rotation.  There is really only a small area that gets good sun so its hard to move things around.  This year I plan to put my peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos into large pots in the garden, to give the ground soil a respite from the nightshade plants (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant.)  The beans will move to the front - I'll do bush beans instead of pole.

I like the idea of dividing the garden into quarters, and rotating the plant families clockwise to give each sector a 3 year rest.  But I need to wait a year or two to start that plan since most of the garden has had tomatoes and nightshades in the last 2 years.

[jes h]

Originally Posted by MonarchMom 

The big challenge with a smaller garden is crop rotation.  There is really only a small area that gets good sun so its hard to move things around.  This year I plan to put my peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos into large pots in the garden, to give the ground soil a respite from the nightshade plants (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant.)  The beans will move to the front - I'll do bush beans instead of pole.

I like the idea of dividing the garden into quarters, and rotating the plant families clockwise to give each sector a 3 year rest.  But I need to wait a year or two to start that plan since most of the garden has had tomatoes and nightshades in the last 2 years.

Amen.  As far as small garden's go, ours is pretty big;  4 beds 10X5 each and then a front bed about 5X20 in the front yard.  Access to sunlight messes with our options to rotate;  one bed and the front are VERY shady, so the greens/beets/carrots/peas have to go there.  I've tried other things there for 2 years now, with no real production.  The other beds are mostly nightshades or squash, so there isn't much rotation options.  We grow  A LOT of tomatoes and potatoes (one full 5X10 box of each) so DH wants to build a more permanent structure for them.  I am going to try to convince him to make something we can move, so we can eventually at least rotate the squash with the nightshades.  Till then, we amend heavily with compost.  I think I am going to learn more about green manures for next year.

 

[kitchensqueen]

I got my seed starting set up done yesterday. I bought an under cabinet light and mounted it in the kitchen yesterday with aluminum foil on the underside of the cabinet to help reflect more light downward (you can't see the foil at all so it doesn't look too junky). What does look kind of junky is the fact that I have my mini greenhouses elevated under the light on my stackable cooling racks for baking. I don't want my seedlings to get leggy, so as they grow taller I can just remove a rack to provide more height. So it'll work in the limited space I have. Someday I'll have a dedicated shelf in my kitchen or even a potting shed for such things, but until then this will be fine. 

Last night my husband planted some herbs with our five month old son. He did all the work of course, but the baby was pretty fascinated watching and listening to Daddy explain the process, so hopefully we have another little gardener in the house! 

For the rest of the seeds, I need to get our two varieties of hot peppers, dichondra and snapdragons planted soon since they take the longest to germinate. I've decided to buy tomato starts from our favorite farmer at the farmers market in a few months when they have them ready - they're growing a variety I suggested to them and their herbs starts last year were awesome. 

Anyone else getting things going yet?

[basilico]

So much information in this thread!  I'm new here and just wanted to say hello!  We live on .64 acres in the suburbs in zone 5.  We have a main garden (24 ft x 36 ft) a smaller long garden (3 ft wide by 12 ft long) and we use pots around the yard.  We also have a few fruit trees and fruit bushes. 

So far this year I've started (inside): onions, bell peppers, cayenne peppers and melrose peppers.  I'll be starting mama leone tomatoes and a grape tomato type this weekend.  We also grow 3 types of squash, green beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, 2 types of carrots, pie pumpkin, a few types of lettuce, melons, and some others depending on what we want to try.  Dandelion and violet grow in our yard so thats always free!  I'm trying more vertical growing this year (trellis/lattice).  Even though we have a big yard, we have to work around the septic tank and field...eww. 

I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone!

[jes h]

216 little seedlings are taking up a good chunk of my dining room table on the heat mat!

A million varieties of tomatoes, Yellow squash, zucchini, cucumber, poblano, bell pepper, jalepeno, lettuce, acorn squash, pumpkin, 'funky' squash (saved cross pollinated seeds), cale, chard, broccoli, basil, chives, cilantro, tomatillos, sunflowers... 

Corn, beets, potatoes, onions, snap peas, snow peas and g. beans will go into the ground.  planting more blackberries and blue berries, along with 2 more espeliared apple trees and a pear tree this year!

[OrangeMoon]

Now this is where I belong. Hey everyone! I live in brooklyn, we have a small yard, and this is our first year doing any kind of gardening at all. It all feels sooo overwhelming right now! I bought some strawberry plants, and I'm wracking my brain trying to think where will get enough sun, hhmmm. 

[treegardner]

So glad I found this thread!

 

[kitchensqueen]

I bought ten new plant pots today to expand the deck veggies. :-) Going to start some more seeds this weekend too. My stuff is slow to germinate though (despite the freak great weather recently), so it's a lot of hurry up and wait over here. 

How's everyone else doing?

[OrangeMoon]

Awwww, what an adorable picture!! I would love to hear more about your container garden, I think this is what we will be doing mostly. The sunniest place we have is our roof, lol.
 

Originally Posted by Erin121 

PennyRoo, here is our old spot. All container gardens! We had tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, and squash. (Its my sons first day of school, thats why he's in the picture). Also because its fall some of the plants don't look so great anymore.... but just wanted to share. I'll definitely post some more pictures when this years garden (with our new small yard!) is up and running.