LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One of the things I hear the most from people who dream about having a garden is, “I don’t have enough space.”
Do not let that stop you!
You don’t need a ton of space to grow enough food to keep you and those you care about eating the fruits (or veggies) of your labor. Even if it’s just an added taste to your diet, now is the time to try growing something at home.
Next week we'll talk about planting beans, but first, let’s flatten some of your preconceived thoughts and get you growing.
Square Foot Gardening
First, there’s an entire franchise built on helping you grow a lot in a little space. A decent place to start is the "Square Foot Gardening" method. Mel Bartholomew developed this theory in the mid-1970s and it grew from there.
Here’s a link to the updated book - you’ll find it interesting if you really want to pack a bunch into a very small place. My wife and I experimented with this technique last season and did see quite a bit more than one might expect in a small space, but it didn’t yield quite what we were lead to believe.
The point in this is that a lot of what you might want to grow doesn’t require acres and acres of space and organizing. Prioritizing what you like to eat will winnow down your wish list to a very doable road map.
Bartholomew’s theory was that you only needed 1 square foot of gardening space for most vegetables. For instance, a guided tomato plant will grow up several feet high, but you can keep it trained with a cage. Peppers can be staked to grow straight up in one square foot. Squash, zucchini, melons and pumpkins and cucumbers grow on vines (just to name a few), so you’ll need a bit more room unless you trellis or cage them so they grow up, not out.
He also felt that you could plant higher quantities of smaller items like carrots, radishes and onions in a single square foot than you would think.
If you have a garden bed, consider creating a grid (Bartholomew’s advice) of 1’x1’ squares and planting one crop in each of those squares, unless you're growing something that grows on vines or gets really large.
Create a salsa garden
Here’s something to consider. Love salsa? How about creating a “salsa garden?" You can do it with four 1-foot squares (although you might want to plant more than one tomato plant).
Tomato? There’s one square foot. Jalapeno? Another 1 square foot. Onions? Place 4 to 8 onion sets in another 1-foot square. Cilantro? Keep it trained and you’ll easily keep it in a 1-foot square. Here’s another look at how you could grow more than enough to make your own salsa.
The down and dirt(y) is this: Keep it simple. You can grow a little of a lot or a lot of a little in very little space. When we lived in Arizona we became pretty good at dealing with not only limited space but a very watchful homeowners' association.
I look forward to hearing from you about your successes and ideas for growing in limited space. If you're getting worried that you can't do this, don't let that stop you - you can! Connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.
MORE TIPS FROM CHRIS:
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About the author:
When Chris Williams is not holding the powerful accountable as WHAS 11’s Political Editor, he and his wife Amy spend time raising their family on their small slice of heaven known as Chestnut Hill Homestead. They’ve been blogging about their experiences for the past few years and their “Learning By Living” lifestyle of raising plants and animals for food and self-reliance.
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